Now Jazz Now: 100 Essential Free Jazz Recordings, 1960-80

Looking for the right gift for the tough-to-shop-for free jazz fan on your list, Now Jazz Now is probably the way to go.

NOW JAZZ NOW 

100 Essential Free Jazz & Improvisation Recordings 1960-80 

by Byron Coley, Mats Gustafsson, and Thurston Moore

Published by Ecstatic Peace Library. 270 pages. Soft-cover, fully illustrated. 196 x 268mm. Edited by Eva Prinz. Preface by Neneh Cherry. Afterword by Joe McPhee. 

New York, NY, USA – Musicians Mats Gustafsson, Neneh Cherry, Joe McPhee, and Thurston Moore, along with music writer Byron Coley, have contributed to an illustrated collector's guide to records -- replete with 270 pages of beatific album art, labels, sleeve notes and collector musings on their life-long obsessions of record collecting, with a distinct focus on the recorded history of free jazz and free improvisation. Compiling personal archives of their selections of recordings which could be contenders within a list defined by a parameter of 100 of the most essential releases presented in chronological order, acknowledging the music to be preternaturally noncompetitive, non-hierarchical, and of equal value, Now Jazz Now is a book for all adventurous music lovers, whether ravenous record collectors, avant-garde jazz enthusiasts, students of radical culture, or simply curiosity seekers in wonder to this music's illustrious history and lineage. The gleanings of Cherry, Coley, Gustafsson, McPhee and Moore will enlighten, delight, amuse, and bemuse all who follow their streams of consciousness, knowledge, perception, and, most importantly, unbridled respect and regard for a genre of music dedicated to the dignity of practicing freedom. All copies of first printing distributed by Forced Exposure in the USA will have an exclusive bookplate signed by Thurston Moore, Byron Coley and Mats Gustafsson; edition of 999.

First 999 orders will receive a signed book plate! Get a copy from Forced Exposure mailorder while they last right here. Check out Thurston Moore's listening suggestions in The Quietus feature "The Strange World of... Free Jazz and Improvised Music" right here. 

R.I.P. cartoonist/illustrator and musician J.D. King

Sadly, J.D, King, cartoonist, illustrator and founder of the Coachmen has passed away. He'll be greatly missed. 

Writes J.D. King's friend Thurston Moore...

J.D. King, comics illustrator, and founder of 1979 NYC art rock band The Coachmen has passed away. 

J.D. (or simply, John, as I knew him) and I met in ‘78 at Cutlers Record store in New Haven CT as we both hovered over the Velvet Underground section (it was empty) and began talking about all things Punk. 

He graduated RISD that year and moved with a bunch of art rock lads to downtown NYC cohabitating in the infamous South Street building housing Cindy Sherman, Robert Longo, Kathryn Bigelow a.o. He invited me, my guitar, and my sleeping bag to move in and we started a band named The Coachmen. We broke up in ‘80 and I started what would soon morph into Sonic Youth. 

New Alliance/SST records posthumously released our one recording “Failure to Thrive” (J Mascis told me “it’s your best record”) J.D. is the tall guy in the pix with glasses (the first one is live at A’s)— We stayed in touch through email but I hadn’t seen him since the 80s. He was super important to my life’s journey and I send him, his family and friends all my best, all my love - T 

Here are a few of J.D. King's many brilliant zine covers and record sleeves. Check his blog below for more of J.D. King's comics and magazine illustrations and his piece for Sensitive Skin Magazine on how some 45s sound better played at 33 rpms.

LINKS
J.D. King Illustration, etc

Sensitive Skin Magazine Like a 45 on 33 by J.D. King
Kitchen Sink Twist

Thurston Moore and Sonic Youth pals host a Walls Have Ears listening party, Thursday

Members of Sonic Youth are having a free online listening party for their 1986 live recording Walls Have Ears. RSVP below. 

Here's the scoop...

Join hosts Thurston Moore, Lee Ranaldo and Steve Shelley for a free listening party on Thursday, February 8th at 2:30pm Eastern to celebrate Walls Have Ears. Including an advance listen to the full album and chat with the artists about Sonic Youth and this legendary live release. RSVP right here. 

• WALLS HAVE EARS •

Sonic Youth presents Walls Have Ears – the legendary 2xLP bootleg compilation of their ripping 1985 UK performances, held up passionately as a fan favorite since its original unsanctioned release in 1986, ‘Walls Have Ears’ is finally reclaimed, remastered and officially released by the band for the first time in 38 years. 

Considered by the band at the time as a transgression of trust and control and an ensuing thorn in their side that continued to forge a life of its own decade after decade on the bootleg market, ‘Walls Have Ears’ has finally been embraced and presented by the band as the fascinating and exhilarating document that it is: Sonic Youth in a state of incendiary mania, violently yet artfully shedding the skins of their first incarnation and developing vision and solidifying the band lineup and sound that would be central to the rest of their 3 decade career. 

Raw, jagged and going for it full out; experience ‘Walls Have Ears’ on 2xLP, including a deluxe edition and colored vinyl, CD, Cassette and Digital February 9th on Goofin.’ 

Pre-order a copy of Sonic Youth's Walls Have Ears via Bandcamp right here. Have a listen below. 

Thurston Moore's Sonic Life memoir due October 24

Thurston Moore tells the Sonic Youth origin story of how he got from Connecticut to Manhattan's East Village in Sonic Life. 

Here's the scoop...

From the founding member of Sonic Youth, a passionate memoir tracing the author’s life and art—from his teen years as a music obsessive in small-town Connecticut, to the formation of his legendary rock group, to thirty years of creation, experimentation, and wonder

Thurston Moore moved to Manhattan’s East Village in 1978 with a yearning for music.  He wanted to be immersed in downtown New York’s sights and sounds—the feral energy of its nightclubs, the angular roar of its bands, the magnetic personalities within its orbit.  But more than anything, he wanted to make music—to create indelible sounds that would move, provoke, and inspire.

His dream came to life in 1981 with the formation of Sonic Youth, a band Moore cofounded with Kim Gordon and Lee Ranaldo.  Sonic Youth became a fixture in New York’s burgeoning No Wave scene—an avant-garde collision of art and sound, poetry and punk.  The band would evolve from critical darlings to commercial heavyweights, headlining festivals around the globe while helping introduce listeners to such artists as Nirvana, Hole, and Pavement, and playing alongside such icons as Neil Young and Iggy Pop.  Through it all, Moore maintained an unwavering love of music: the new, the unheralded, the challenging, the irresistible.

In the spirit of Just Kids, Sonic Life offers a window into the trajectory of a celebrated artist and a tribute to an era of explosive creativity.  It presents a firsthand account of New York in a defining cultural moment, a history of alternative rock as it was birthed and came to dominate airwaves, and a love letter to music, whatever the form.  This is a story for anyone who has ever felt touched by sound—who knows the way the right song at the right moment can change the course of a life.

Get a copy of Thurston Moore's Sonic Life from Penguin Random House right here. Read Thurston's instagram announcement for Sonic Life followed by a recent interview with Daniel Belo on a sunny beach in Portugal below. 

Happy Birthday Lydia Lunch!

Celebrating the birthday of the influential Lydia Lunch with a recent Teenage Jesus performance. 

Byron Coley issues rare Jack Ruby no wave recordings on vinyl

"Back when Thurston and I were working on our book No Wave: Post-Punk. Underground. New York 1976-1980 (see book launch clip below) about the New York No Wave scene, a key mystery we hoped to unravel was the one surrounding the band Jack Ruby. I knew George Scott had been in the band, along with Chris Gray, but we were never able to nail down any hard info. Lydia Lunch and Rudolph Grey both had blazing memories of their weirdness, originality and power, but no one could turn up anything solid. 

"Time passed, the book came out and – chuffed by the fact we'd name-checked the band in the book – some of the participants began to emerge. Weasel Walter got his hands on a great tape of material which he released on CD (most of which is reprised on the limited run Jack Ruby - JACK RUBY vinyl edition), and bits and pieces of the band's story continued to roll out. 

"They'd actually formed in 1973 with Boris Policeband on electric viola and Randy Cohen on Serge synthesizer. The two pretty much constant members were guitarist Gray and singer Robin Hall. They'd done a demo for Epic. The original band never played live, etc., kind of crazy. Then a batch of old tapes was found in Pennsylvania. We sent them to Don Fleming who transferred and catalogued them for us, and we were totally blown away by what he was uncovering. 

"The songs 'Hit and Run' and 'Mayonnaise' are the original line-up recorded in a small Times Square Studio. Boris left after that and they recorded the Epic session as a trio. That's 'Bored Stiff,' 'Bad Teeth,' and 'Sleep Cure.' The other songs were recorded by the later, performing version of the band with Chris and George and another (all but anonymous) person or two. They played five live shows, featuring crawling dolls, buzzing dildos and the cracked Rocket From The Tombs sort of sound they'd evolved. The last one was in November '77 at Max's with Vivienne Dick's then-boyfriend, Stephen Barth on vocals. And the shit may be lo-fi at times, but it is genuinely fucked and a real pleasure to hear nonetheless. Volume 2 coming soon." – Byron Coley

Hit and Run


Bored Stiff


No Wave book launch 26/09/2008

Nels Cline @ The Horseshoe, tonight

Guitarist Nels Cline is very nearly as popular as his '59 Fender Jazzmaster purchased from Mike Watt. 

Chelsea Light Moving play the Horseshoe Sunday

Dim Stars guitarist Thurston Moore (left) and pals are on their way from Hamilton.