Sonic Youth’s pivotal role in the alternative rock explosion to be detailed in new Thurston Moore memoir

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Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore is to have his autobiography published by Faber & Faber in 2023.

A synopsis of the book, titled Sonic Life, reads: “From his infatuation and engagement with the 1970s punk and ‘no wave’ scenes in New York City, to the 1981 formation of his legendary rock group, to 30 years of relentless recording, touring, and musical experimentation, birthing the Nirvana-era of alternative rock, and beyond, it is all told via the personal prism of the author’s intensive archives and research.”

Faber published Girl in A Band, a well-received memoir by Kim Gordon, Moore’s ex-wife and co-founder of Sonic Youth, in 2015.

Now resident in London, Moore flagged up his own memoir in an interview with Vulture last year.

“I’ve always wanted to get involved with a writing project I had in mind for many, many years,” he revealed. “It’s] essaying about music and talking about my own personal experience of being a teenager coming to New York in the ’70s, what the city was at that time, the underground music scene downtown, and the records coming out of this 1976, ’77 and ’78 cavalcade of punk rock, No Wave, New Wave, and post-punk. This downtime period allowed me to do this, so I have this manuscript called Sonic Life that I probably will publish at some point in 2021.”

Forthcoming music books from Faber & Faber in 2021 include You Are Beautiful And You Are Alone, a biography of Nico by Jennifer Otter Bickerdike (due on July 15), Nina Simone’s Gum, by Bad Seeds/Grinderman multi-instrumentalist Warren Ellis (due on September 2) , and Eruption: The Eddie Van Halen Story by Classic Rock/Metal Hammer contributor Paul Brannigan (due on September 23).

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