Preview: Thurston Moore – "Trees Outside the Academy"

Photo by TomVu

One of the year’s most pleasant – and welcome – surprises is Thurston Moore’s Trees Outside the Academy, a stark, striking set of acoustic-based songwriter tunes from the Sonic Youth frontman. I like the Youth as much as the next guy, but last year’s Rather Ripped left me pretty cold; this album is doing the opposite. Moore’s made clips from a number of the tracks available on his website, the best of which is “Fri/End,” a track that borrows a guitar line from Yo La Tengo’s “Cherry Chapstick” and adds horns. Shades of Belle & Sebastian – or the prettier Velvet Underground songs that the VU-influenced Youth have long overlooked.

Thurston Moore – “Fri/End” (clip): mp3
Thurston Moore – “The Shape is a Trance” (clip): mp3

(Hear the rest at the Ecstatic Peace! website; Trees Outside the Academy is due in September)

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