The 10 obscure albums Thurston Moore thinks deserve to be remembered
When David Byrne was talking about the bands that influenced Talking Heads, he was quick to throw praise at the New York powerhouse The Velvet Underground, noting that he loved the fact the band weren’t bothered about fitting into a specific scene, and were content on trying to push themselves creativity, dabbling in various styles and sounds in the process.
No longer did people need to label themselves as one form of music, and instead could have albums that jumped from style to style without having listeners batting an eye.
“The Velvet Underground were a big revelation. I realised, ‘Oh, look at the subject of their songs: There’s a tune and a melody, but the sound is either completely abrasive or really pretty’,” explained Byrne, “They swing from one extreme to the other. ‘White Light/White Heat’ is just this noise, and then ‘Candy Says’ is incredibly pretty but really kind of dark. As a young person, you go, ‘What is this about?’”
This kind of music paved the way for a number of bands; granted, you have some bands that are desperate to stick to one genre of music and want to be recognised with a very specific sound, but then you have others who despise the idea of labels, and these are creative minds that don’t like to be put in a box, rather desiring complete free reign when it comes to putting together new music.
Talking Heads are definitely a band who champion this style of thinking, hence why the frontman brought it up; however, there are plenty of other bands who act like this, and one of them is Sonic Youth. No record of theirs is remotely the same, and when you listen to different eras of the outfit, they were always advocating different sounds, jumping from rock, noise, punk to grunge, all within the space of a few albums, with Thurston Moore one of the driving forces behind their strong versatility.
One of the first times that he fell in love with the electric guitar was when he heard the track ‘Louie Louie’ by the Kingsmen, such that, recalling his initial love for the song, he said, “The sound of the electric guitar was the most magnificent thing. Also, the idea of a band was so exciting. I immediately decided I’d start a band called the Shorthairs.”
His taste expanded well beyond the likes of the Kingsmen from that moment on, as Moore was constantly looking for new music that he loved, regardless of the genre that it occupied, and in his search, he found plenty of obscure albums that he thinks deserve a lot more credit.
Far too often albums have fallen off listeners’ radars because of problems with marketing, the timing they were released or just generally because the audience wasn’t there at the time. It’s sad to think about how many great records will have slipped under the carpet because of these factors, but Moore has ten from his library that he would advise listeners to try out.
Thurston Moore’s 10 albums that shouldn’t be forgotten
- Jeanne Lee – Conspiracy (1974)
- John Tchicai & Cadentia Nova Danica – Afrodisiaca (1969)
- Bill Dixon Orchestra – Intents and Purposes (1967)
- New York Art Quartet – New York Art Quartet (1964)
- The Peace – Black Power (1975)
- Areski et Brigitte Fontaine – Je ne connais pas cet homme (1973)
- Vibracathedral Orchestra – Vibracathedral Orchestra 2xLP
- Abruptum – Obscuritatem advoco amplectère me (1993)
- Sonny & Linda Sharrock – Black Woman (1970)
- Tovah Olson & Tony Conrad – Let There Be Music (2009)
