Thurston Moore and Co. write the book on No Wave

Published at 12:36 PM on June 6, 2008

By Henry Freedland

Thurston Moore's work is never done. Co-founding and frontmanning Sonic Youth wasn't enough. Neither was composing for film, curating shows, directing music videos, running a record label, releasing solo work or editing and writing criticism and poetry.

No, the ever-achieving Moore wanted to add another job title to his Myspace page: archivist. This week, Abrams Books releases the fruit of his and co-author Byron Coley's efforts, whose title, No Wave: Post-Punk. Underground. New York. 1976-1980., would make Strunk & White cry for mercy. But the book itself promises a unique blend of visual and textual narration to tell the story of, that's right, the No Wave movement. In New York. In the late '70s.

This is the third published work in a recent rash of cultural interest in that avant-garde arts moment of the '70s and '80s, which yielded bands like Teenage Jesus and the Jerks (who will play a reunion show in honor of the book's release) as well as filmmakers Jim Jarmusch and Jean-Michel Basquial. Pitchfork staffer Marc Masters' No Wave (sadly subtitle-less) and Soul Jazz Records' New York Noise Book both told stories of that period, but this take is a bit more personal. As Moore told Magnet, the No Wave culture was "something that I was living amongst, so I have all the information about it." Now all we have to do is wait for the publication of Youth by Sonic Youth, and we'll be all set.

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