Last year, we hipped you to the impending arrival of Thurston Moore’s Chelsea Light Moving, a new quartet that expands upon the heavier and more discordant tendancies of the singer/guitar hero‘s recently AWOL band, Sonic Youth. The estimable Matador Records sneaked out three hugely promising songs from the group — anchored by Keith Wood (guitar), Samara Lubelski (bass) and John Moloney (drums) — last summer, but finally there’s a formal announcement: CLM will release their debut LP, Chelsea Light Moving, on March 5. What’s more, the crew will hit the road for their first official U.S. tour on March 2.
Here’s everything we know so far. First, from the bio: “Moore…is the songwriter and plays over-amped hyper electric guitar and sings with raw-glam-destructo vocals.” Lubelski played violin on his last two solo albums, Demolished Thoughts and Trees Outside The Academy. And: “The first CD self-titled was recorded in two spurious sessions with engineer Justin Pizzoferrato in Sone Lab, a killer studio in Easthampton MASSACHUSETTS. The band is ready to detonate any birthday party, wedding or hullaboo in any country, planet or stratosphere that doesn’t support right wing extremist NRA sucking bozo-ology.”
And here’s what we’ve heard: “Burroughs,” a howling six-minute ride through the interzone inspired by the last words of the poet of the same name; “Groovy & Linda,” a bleakly seething art-squall burner that shares its name with a murdered late-’60s East Village hippie couple; “Frank O’Hara Hit,” a slinking, bass-powered tribute to the month of July (via Mick Jagger’s birth, Bob Dylan going electric, and the titular poet’s demise); and “Empires of Time,” a loose bit of angular, rock ‘n’ roll clangor described by the band as “a kiss on the hallowed forehead to Roky Erickson of Austin, Texas.” Download ’em all here:
“Burroughs”
“Groovy & Linda”
“Frank O’Hara Hit”
“Empires of Time”
Also Read
Compact Discs: Sound of the Future
Chelsea Light Moving tour dates:
March 2 – Hoboken, NJ @ Maxwells
March 4 – Charlottesville, VA @ The Southern
March 5 – Asheville, NC @ Grey Eagle
March 6 – Raleigh, NC @ Kings Barcade
March 7 – Savannah, GA @ Savannah Stopover
March 8 – Atlanta, GA @ The Earl
March 10 – Denton, TX @ 35 Denton
March 19 – Los Angeles, CA @ Echoplex
March 20 – San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall
March 22 – Portland, OR @ Doug Fir
March 23 – Seattle, WA @ Neumo’s
March 27 – Minneapolis, MN @ Triple Rock
March 29 – Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle
March 30 – Detroit, MI @ Magic Stick
March 31 – Toronto, ONT @ Lee’s Palace
April 2 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Mr. Smalls
April 3 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer
April 4 – Washington, DC @ Black Cat
April 5 – New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
April 7 – Boston, MA @ The Sinclair
Talk Normal supports 3/2-3/8; Merchandise also supports 3/8; Grass Widow supports 3/19-3/23; and CAVE supports 3/27-3/30
