Thurston Moore has forgotten more about obscure artists that clanged, buzzed, and made a general clatter in their respective fields than most people will ever know. “Burroughs,” the first song dropped by the Sonic Youth founder’s new band, Chelsea Light Moving, is a casual reference to the guy who wrote one of the densest poems ever, Naked Lunch. Even the name of the band itself sounds like a Thomas Pynchon character. Is it? I have no idea. I’ve only read one book by Pynchon and that was his shortest one.
But, Moore and posse aren’t looking down their noses at you; quite the opposite. They’re the musical equivalent of an older sibling loaning you records they bought after their freshman year in college. They want you to dig it, and you know you’ll be better for it.
The songs Chelsea Light Moving churn up still have the fuzz, the muscle, and the general grime that your favorite SY songs had, but tracks like “Empires of Time” (dedicated to psych-rock pioneer Roky Erickson) open up revealing gorgeous melodic passages, letting sun and air and cool breezes filter through before the eye of the storm passes and everything gets swallowed back up by Moore’s earthy guitar-grunge hurricane once again.
Thurston’s been able to, better than almost every one of his be-flanneled peers, keep making songs that sound fresh and new while at the same time harkening back to the heaviness of early ’90s alt-rock. Listen to “Alighted” and tell me massive chunks of it could pass for long-lost Butthole Surfers B-sides. Based on the live clips I’ve come across, the most viewed of which are from a basement show a month ago, Chelsea Light Moving found its deeply worn groove and found it fast.
I dunno ’bout you, but I’m pumped to see these guys when they roll through the High Noon Saloon on Thursday. With the odds of ever seeing Sonic Youth live again getting slimmer and slimmer, why in the hell would you skip out on an opportunity to catch any band that Thurston’s got a hand in?