After debuting many songs here in Calgary at last year’s Sled Island festival Thurston Moore’s newest band Chelsea Light Moving has just released its debut LP on Matador Records. As many have already pointed out this self-titled collection is the most jagged and abrasive set of songs Moore has penned in years. Some come across like Dirty -era B-sides. Forget lapsing into dad-rock like Lee Ranaldo’s disappointing album from last year — Chelsea Light Moving finds Moore re-energized and poised in poem-rock musings.
While not quite Frank O’Hara’s “I do this I do that” Moore’s lyrics do often add a punkish immediacy to observational narrative. This isn’t new territory for Moore and the delivery is a bit hit-or-miss — tracks like “Pin” and “Alighted” (the latter a chugging vaguely metal-inflected track) are either rousing or knuckle-draggingly tired depending on your disposition but move past the somewhat lacklustre first half and you’ll get the towering noise outbursts of “Burroughs” Samara Lubelski’s violin droning underneath Moore’s spoken-word in “Mohawk” (key line: “It is the enthusiast’s conceit that rock and roll leaves the stage / it now trades books at the front of the room / the words are useless and demure”) and layered sheets of distinctive guitar tones throughout. The recent Caught on Tape LP from Moore and CLM drummer John Moloney is also worth scoping out at least for noise-rock heads who need more improvisation and less grunge. At this point post-Sonic Youth I’m convinced that Kim Gordon is the only SY member pursuing some sort of new artistic ground (the Body/Head records with Bill Nace) but this isn’t to suggest skipping Chelsea Light Moving — think of it as an overly excitable followup to Psychic Hearts .
Reeling back to something a bit more traditional The Men ’s New Moon will also be released this week and once again the Brooklyn-based group has tried something new spending much of the first half of New Moon in full-on cowpunk mode — harmonicas and country-rock inflections in tow. It’s more or less like a whole side of “Candy” from Open Your Heart until the fuzz pedals come out for “Brass” onwards culminating in the eight-minute closer “Supermoon” which shows the band is still more than capable of kicking up a feedback storm. If Open Your Heart didn’t shake off all the punks New Moon will probably be the one to do it opening with a tepid whimper on “Open the Door.” Thankfully however several of these songs are still packed with hooks and ebullience that play out over several listens so if there just isn’t enough punk in here you’ll probably still be able to gift this one to your parents as lost Crazy Horse demos or something.
