Thurston Moore: Last summer, we were standing in line at a bookstore. Okay, that's not a promising start to a rock feature. We're aware of this. It's always best to begin these things with a bold declaration. Something like: "Mr. Big is back!" Though the problem with such pithy beginnings is that they're often false. Because Mr. Big is never coming back. Not to the pop charts, at least. But we really were in line at a bookstore. And Thurston Moore was standing right behind us.
Thurston Moore. You know him. He's a founder, singer, and guitarist for Sonic Youth; the enchanted link between the old New York avant-garde and indie rock; a ubiquitous presence on MTV in the 1990s; an occasional essayist; and a very tall man. Moore is as accomplished as art-rockers come. Yet what gave him away in that bookstore wasn't his aura of past Buzz Bin glory. It was his shoes. He was the first 50-year-old man we'd ever seen wearing Chuck Taylors, which struck us as just the sort of thing Thurston Moore would do, and was thus reassuring in a way we hadn't known since before the Florida recount ... [continue reading]
Chelsea Wolfe: Chelsea Wolfe's newest album, Apokalypsis, begins with a bang. But it's not so much a literal bang as an otherworldly howl. It's like she's exorcising demons before the record can begin. That first scream is the 25-second "Primal/Carnal." As the album continues, the sound softens, if only slightly from the roughness of that initial burst, and unfolds into fully formed songs. Soon, Wolfe treads into P.J. Harvey territory -- more like a moody songstress than a demon.
Apokalypsis comes out Aug. 23 via Pendu, a year after her last album, The Grime and the Glow. The Sacramento-born, downtown Los Angeles-based guitarist, singer, and electronics sampler says that world news is the biggest inspiration for her lyrics. Well, news of the world along with nature, the contrast between lightness and darkness, and, basically, all of life on Earth and elsewhere ... [continue reading]
Sizzle and Fizzle: Highs and lows from the week in S.F. music.
Also, we recommend shows from Earth, Iceage, The Lift, and Wallpaper.
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