Sonic Life- A Memoir

 Sonic Life: Memoir by Thurston Moore

Sonic Life book cover

I really wanted to love this book, and I should love this book. Sonic Youth are one of my all-time favorite bands. I remember seeing the video for Kool Thing when I was in 8^th grade and wondering who the band playing with Chuck D was. They were a massive part of my college experience, and one of the bands I would see on a regular basis every time they came through Philly. I not only regularly bought and listened to their albums, but also regularly listened to Thurston Moore’s solo and collaborative projects. I read Kim Gordon’s excellent book Girl in a Band a few years ago and loved it. It was heartfelt, engaging, and thoughtful, providing insight into the early years of Sonic Youth, as well as a glimpse at Gordon’s creative process and thinking. Comparison’s with Gordon’s book are inevitable since she and Moore are the original members of Sonic Youth. There are some good moments in Moore’s memoir—he’s at his best when he’s talking about music, whether it is his many influences or the process of creating music. I especially enjoyed reading about how exciting punk rock and the no wave scenes were in 1970s NYC. It was fun and entertaining to read about Moore’s early experiences going into the city with his friend Harrold, and how seeing bands and shows shaped his desire and ideas about making art and music. While there are many influences and other musicians Moore cites as both his influences and interests, he sometimes goes more into listing rather than getting descriptive and detailed about the music. Although I feel a little conflicted criticizing his memoirs, I felt like there are other points where he gets too descriptive and detailed about aspects of his experiences that are not as relevant. For example, he spends some time describing the food he would eat or meals at cheap restaurants that seemed to have no real bearing on the story. There are other events, like a shocking murder at a downtown restaurant, that was mentioned as having a negative influence on the no wave scene, but it’s not really delved into with that much depth or exploring the way it really fractured the scene. Other celebrity mentions (Madonna comes up a few times, not really meeting the Grateful Dead) are mentioned, but don’t really add anything to the narrative. I found myself growing a little bored and restless with some of these stories. What was probably most disappointing was how little he discussed the end of Sonic Youth. The book kind of ends quickly, but that might also be because he spent over 400 pages in the previous phases of his life and band. I enjoyed reading a lot of this book, and Thurston Moore is a fun guy. His love of music, noise, and especially punk rock really comes through in his writing. However, I wish this book was like 100 pages shorter and that there were some stories and events that were left out of the book.