Thurston Moore announces new album ‘By the Fire,’ shares “Hashish”

Thuston Moore has recently been putting out previously unreleased songs on his Bandcamp, and he recently put out a new instrumental, and now he announced a proper new album, By the Fire, and released its first single, "Hashish." He made the album with his former Sonic Youth bandmate Steve Shelley on drums, My Bloody Valentine's Deb Googe on bass and backing vocals, and James Sedwards on guitar (all of whom are also in the Thurston Moore Group), and it also features contributions from Wobbly (aka Jon Leidecker of Negativland) on electronics and Jem Doulton on drums. Thurston calls "Hasish" "an ode to the narcotic of love in our shared responsibility to each other during isolation," and it's a relaxed yet hypnotic song that sounds like classic Thurston Moore, and is a very promising first taste of this LP. Listen below.

About the album, Thurston also said:

BY THE FIRE is music in flames. 2020 is our time for radical change and collective awareness and Thurston Moore has written nine songs of enlightenment, released to a world on fire. Taking a cue from Albert Ayler's "music is the healing force of the universe", this recording offers songs as flames of rainbow energy, where the power of love becomes our call.

These are love songs in a time where creativity is our dignity, our demonstration against the forces of oppression. BY THE FIRE is a gathering, a party of peace — songs in the heat of the moment.

Sonic Youth have also been in the process of putting archival material on Bandcamp (their latest, Perspectives Musicales - Live At Cat's Cradle 2000, came out on Friday timed with Bandcamp's Juneteenth fundraiser), as has Lee Ranaldo.

Sonic Youth are also featured in the new Desolation Center documentary about the 1980s punk shows in the California desert that influenced Burning Man, Coachella, and Lollapalooza; and Thurston was interviewed for the upcoming CREEM Magazine documentary.

By the Fire comes out September 25 via Thurston's Daydream Library Series label.

Sonic Youth's latest Bandcamp live album: