Since the dissolution of Sonic Youth, Thurston Moore has kept plenty busy. This week alone, he released The Best Day, an album that features Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley and members of My Bloody Valentine. He made you a mixtape soundtracking his own perfect day. And now, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, he’s commented on Sonic Youth’s end in 2011, and the divorce from Kim Gordon that started it all.
Asked about his feelings regarding that break-up, Moore admits that he misses playing in Sonic Youth. He also goes on to claim that part of the reason the band stopped was not just because of his relationship with Gordon deteriorating, but that it had reached a point where the audience “had decoded us. They’d figured us out as a band.” And at a certain point, no one could really tell all those songs apart anyway.
“Distinguishing one song from another, one record from another, after so many years of activity—I know that’s asking a lot,” Moore said, openly identifying with parents the world over who’ve banged on the doors of their disaffected children yelling for them to “Turn that noise down!” before pondering how they could even listen to such racket. “There’s a bit of Sonic Youth exhaustion factor for a lot of people,” Moore added. Still, he maintains that “I always thought that we were really good and really unique,” even if “Kool Thing” and “Teen Age Riot” might sound exactly the same to the worried parent pushing their ear up to the door, hoping their kid isn’t in there smoking pot.