Thurston Moore

An ageless ambassador of alt-rock and no-wave distortion, Thurston Moore's dizzying musical prism has refracted feral punk, artsy extrapolation and sociopolitical discontent since the late ‘70s. Moore was born in 1958, in Coral Gables, FL and later raised in Connecticut where he grew up a wholesome Catholic kid. At 18, he set course for New York City, falling in with the gritty punk and performance art scene flourishing at CBGB and other downtown haunts. Moore had more bands than meals in those days, leading him to develop innovative techniques for extracting lush, textured sounds from cheap guitars. He met his future bandmate and wife, Kim Gordon, in 1980, as well as a kindred guitar spirit in Lee Ranaldo the following year, forming Sonic Youth and exploding into noise-rock superstardom through the ‘80s and ‘90s. Beloved albums such as Daydream Nation (1988) and Goo (1990) unspooled themes of Americana and pop culture snark over the band’s signature alternating guitar style. Parallel to Sonic Youth’s ascent, Moore contributed to numerous film soundtracks including Velvet Goldmine and Bully, while also launching a prolific solo career with 1995's visceral Psychic Hearts and embracing acoustic vulnerability on 2011's Demolished Thoughts. Though Sonic Youth disbanded the same year, following his divorce from Gordon, Moore's creativity remains evergreen. He’s since teamed up with Sonic Youth’s Steve Shelley and My Bloody Valentine’s Debbie Goodge for 2017’s Rock N Roll Consciousness and veered into delicate instrumental soundscapes on 2021's Screen Time.