Ubie : What does X-girl stand for? (Thurston was sporting a
white T with this emblem on it and he was also giving a few
die hard fans free shirts with the same logo)
Thurston: X-Girl is a clothing line that Kim designed
Ubie: Are you planning on releasing any solo material?
Thurston: We'll probably record the stuff we played tonight,
I'll do it myself, this is like a down time for Sonic Youth
Kim's pregnant and we're not going on tour or anything
Ubie: Are you planning on releasing any new Sonic Youth
material?
Thurston: No (Laughter) we have a new record out in a
couple of weeks (It should be out by the time you read this)
I guess that's new but it doesn't feel new anymore, we
recorded it last year - last fall - theres some fresh shit
on there, there's some fresh jams on the new one
Ubie: Has your sound changed at all on the new record?
Thurston: Ya, it's just newer, it is a little different, it
sounds different from the last couple of records, it's just
noticeably different, its a little less worked on maybe, its
not produced (laughter) we just did like a thousand
interviews a couple of weeks ago, and talking about the
album, that's all the questions we're about, let's talk
about something else
Ubie: What do you think about space?
Thurston: I think its the final frontier
Ubie: I heard you are from Connecticut, is that true?
Thurston: Ya, kind of, I went to high school there, junior
high, I moved there in fourth grade so I guess I'm from
there, I stayed there until I was 18, 1 was one of those
kids who couldn't relate to anybody, I was way too fucking
brilliant (laughter)
Ubie: Did you consider yourself a punk in high school?
Thurston: No, (laughter) a poser, ya I used to go to punk
shows
Ubie: You used to follow Sid Vicious around?
Thurston: Ya when he was in New York there was a couple times I saw him on the street, I used to follow him around a little bit, I mean I didn't stalk him or anything, I just used to walk on the street behind him, he wasn't the only one I did that to.
Ubie: Did you ever go to the club Anthrax in Connecticut?
Thurston: Oh yea, we played there when we were a hardcore band. We used to go there and do matinees. What's the name of your fan zine, huh, youth, View, there used to be a magazine called View, it was a famous kind of art and literature magazine, View that's kind of like surrealist, View 2, View again, just call it View again, another View, reView, who's Viewing who
Ubie: Do you enjoy playing larger auditoriums or small clubs like the Black Cat?
Thurston: I don't care, you know as long as the amp. works I don't have a preference, they both have their own aspects of insanity, that's for sure
Ubie: What's the biggest show you've ever played? Thurston: Possibly last summer when we played these big festivals in Europe and it was with Mettalica, Neil Young, Lenny Kravitz, Faith No More and us, Sugar, The Levelers, Belly you name it man, Black Crows, our dressing room was across from the Black Crows, we partied with them, they converted their dressing room into an entire kind of whole
nother world, they put Indian rugs down and they like had a huge P.A. inside their dressing room and they cranked tapes of like Grand Funk and Rod Stewart and shit and the singer lies on a rug and does a worm dance and snorts big lines of coke.
Ubie: What do you think about kids who stay away from major label bands?
Thurston: They can take that stance but they'll never hear our new record, it's kind of like there limiting themselves, I mean that's a sort of a political gesture that there welcome to take, it's good to see people do that in a way.
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Ubie: What do you think about the whole idea of "sell out"?
Thurston: That's such a nebulous term in a way, sell out is when you do something strictly for the money, you do something that makes money, we don't really do anything that makes money (laughter) we're not top 10 you know and bands don't really make a lot of money unless they do that kind of business on a major label, we make money because we have such a big catalog, we make money but not tons of money (laughter)
Ubie: Why do you hate SST records?
Thurston: I don't hate SST records
Ubie: In the fan club thing you crossed out SST and wrote .... pooh
Thurston: We don't want to hurt their feelings, it was supposed to be an anonymous letter, we were just fucking with them, they fuck with people, we fuck with them, eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, singing " I - E - double speak the truth" toprazukie
Ubie: What was the first record that you made? Thurston: I made a thing, this little kind of 42nd thing called " Just Another Ass Hole", Lee was on there, Kim had a cut, it was a collection of New York people, artists and everything, it came out in '78,'79, you'll never find that fucking record, I'll see it every once in a while but the record stores don't know what the fuck it is so you'll get it for really cheap if you find it.
Ubie: How do you feel about being called a role model for our generation?
Thurston: For your generation, That's almost impossible for me to answer, it's not a profession
Ubie: What do you think about other bands listing Thurston Moore and Sonic Youth as their favorite band and inspiration?
Thurston: It pisses me off, it's getting out of hand
Ubie: What do you think about MTV?
Thurston: I think it's really conservative and uptight and kind of impossible to deal with in a way, but its unstoppable, we like making videos, we don't make them specifically for MTV but that is the only reason they give you money to make your videos because it will be shown on MTV, so that's like part of the equation in a way, we make videos the way we like them, most videos suck of course
Ubie: What do you think about the riot girls?
Thurston: I think that any girl who discovers the riot girl and sort of gets into it, gets into part of that network I think its a real cool option to have, I think it is really good there's, a lot of information going on its become mediaized so its kind of corny the whole idea of calling yourself that and most of the people who were there from the beginning who sort of started it with fan zines and stuff I know some of those people and they've pretty much moved beyond ever using that tag because its been so hyped and mediaized that they just sort of disposed of it, its made its presence known
Ubie: What is it that made you start playing guitar in a rock band?
Thurston: I saw it on T.V. there was a show when I was a little kid called "Where The Action Is" I was really young, it was always done in amusement parks and stuff and The D Clark 5 Played, it was a very hectic show, I was young and thought that looked like that was the shit
Ubie: How would you explain your music?
Thurston: Art core, ya we're an artcore band we're heavily into the art side of music, in fact - sound sculptures (laughter) its really not that exotic, it's no different than any other band, it's just the way we do it
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