Lee Ranaldo & Thurston Moore playing shows; Kim Gordon preps new Body/Head & solo LP

Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth back in the day (photo by Pat Blashil)

Lee Ranaldo released his latest solo album, the great Electric Trim, last year, and he’s got what appears to be a Brooklyn one-off happening June 23 at Saint Vitus. There’s direct support from super talented drummer Greg Fox (Liturgy, Ex Eye, Guardian Alien, Uniform), and the bill also includes Bentley Anderson + Mystic Ruler and DJ Zoe B. Tickets are on sale.

Lee’s former Sonic Youth bandmate Thurston Moore, who also released a great solo album last year (Rock n Roll Consciousness), has a unique one-off happening in the UK on Saturday (4/14). The event is at London’s Babican Hall and it’s called “GALAXIES 12×12 – Music for Twelve 12-String guitars,” and it features Thurston along with guitarists Rachel Aggs (Shopping, Trash Kit, Sacred Paws), Jen Chochinov (Schande), Joseph Coward (Camp X-Ray), Eugene Coyne, Jonah Falco (Fucked Up, Career Suicide), Deb Googe (My Bloody Valentine, Thurston Moore Group), James McCartney, James Sedwards (Thurston Moore Group), Susan Stenger (Band of Susans), David Toop (The Flying Lizards), and Alex Ward (N.E.W.). The description reads:

Arch-experimentalist Thurston Moore premieres his new work GALAXIES, leading a symphony of 12-string guitars in this two-part programme – the first half acoustic, the second electric.

This isn’t a rock band – it’s an orchestra, with Moore as conductor and composer. Twelve guitarists are arranged as if one instrument, exploring the vast emotional depths present in 12 strings. Taking inspiration from a poem by Sun Ra and featuring cosmos projections by Radio Radieux, GALAXIES ponders our place in the universe over two parts – ‘Earth’, an acoustic meditation on nature and animal wildlife; and ‘Sky’, which translates space’s great expanse into an electric guitar onslaught.

More info here. Thurston will also be in residency at The Stone’s new location in December.

In other Sonic Youth news, Steve Shelley is on the new Mark Kozelek album that’s due out next month. And last but definitely not least, Kim Gordon revealed in a Consequence of Sound/WFPK-FM podcast that Body/Head, her duo with Bill Nace, will follow their 2013 debut Coming Apart and their 2016 live album No Waves with a new studio album on July 13. “It’s really heavy,” Kim said. “I don’t really know what to think of the Body/Head record. It’s quite different than the first one.” She also revealed that she’s still working on a solo album, but it probably won’t be out until 2019. She released the great solo single “Murdered Out” in 2016. She’s also duets on the new Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks album.

Watch Lee’s recent KEXP session and Thurston’s “Smoke of Dreams” video, and stream “Murdered Out,” below.