A fortnight ago, Chelsea Light Moving played a ridiculous number of Austin shows before and during SXSW in all manner of settings, none of ‘em more hospitable than the warehouse district’s Mellow Johnny’s bicycle emporium. Proprietor Lance Armstrong failed to make an appearance, but we’re told he was contacted mid-set for consultation on the shop’s “you break it, you bought it policy” (on the advice of our lawyers, we’re not showing the footage of Thurston breaking what was apparently a very expensive bike, but we’ll stress it was AN ACCIDENT). Thanks to KEXP for the footage.

“Burroughs”

“Alighted”

“Sleeping Where I Fall”

Chelsea Light Moving’s debut LP/CD/digital full length is out now and available from The Matador Store

Thurston Moore responded to the comments section of Brooklyn Vegan to confirm that his NEW ROCK BAND would indeed (as promised in their bio) “detonate any birthday party, wedding or hullabaloo in any country, planet or stratosphere that doesn’t support right wing extremist NRA sucking bozo-ology.”

Last weekend in Haydenville, MA, the Chelseas did just that, playing a a handsome left-winger named Trevor’s birthday party. This is the evidence:

“Empires Of Time”:

“Alighted”:

“Lip”:

Chelsea Light Moving’s debut album is out this Tuesday. Stream it over at NPR, and buy it HERE.

152 Stoke(d) Newington Church Street
London N16 0JU

www.burslemandco.com

Somebody walked off with Thurston Moore’s circa ’66 Jazzmaster (above) last night around midnight at the Best Western Inn (501 N 22nd St).  If you have any info about this guitar, please let us know.

Thurston Moore and Fucked Up will be playing the Hostess Club Weekender at Zepp DiverCity Tokyo next month..

The CHELSEA LIGHT MOVING song that was posted July 25 for free entitled Frank O’Hara Hit is actually some other song, by the same band, called Empires Of Time. For your edification and further free-fall into the vortex of confusion we now present you the song Frank O’Hara Hit. The previous message from Thurston Moore pertaining to the intention of this tune is still active. If there’s anything to be known about Empires of Time, know that it is a call of honor, and a kiss on the hallowed forehead, to Roky Erickson of Austin, Texas, a maestro of American psychedelic rock n roll of the highest order.

Go for it,

Thurston Moore

———–

[ed: to hopefully relieve further confusion, here are links to all the songs shared by Chelsea Light Moving to date:

"Burroughs"
"Groovy & Linda"
"Frank O'Hara Hit"
"Empires of Time"

]

[edit: Due to an unfortunate mix up, the track posted here originally on July 25 was the Chelsea Light Moving track "Empires Of Time", this post has now been amended to the correct audio for "Frank O'Hara Hit".]

from on-tour in Europe, Thurston Moore writes:

“Frank O’Hara Hit”

Free Song #3 by

CHELSEA LIGHT MOVING

Today is July 25 and it’s my birthday. I’m 54. This song is called Frank O’Hara Hit. And it’s by this band I started called Chelsea Light Moving. Right now we’re whipping around Europe playing some summer love-cry gigs. I wanted to release this song by the end of July because it’s a meditation on that month through history in events that define a lot of what mytho-romanticizes my heart, both broken and blessed at the moment. On July 25, 1965 Bob Dylan with the Paul Butterfield Blues Band delivered to rock n’ roll the dissident soul of folk music and poetry. For many it was already a viable meeting but Dylan set it on fire for the world to see. And he was famously cursed and booed by the gatekeepers of old ways wariness.  The song he sang was Phantom Engineer (later titled It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry). On July 24, 1966 the NYC poet Frank O’Hara was struck by a dune buggy while hanging out on Fire Island, and died the next day. O’Hara knew poetry in all it’s formalist glory and like John Cage’s ear to music liberated it for writers for an unending time. In his essay Personism: A Manifesto (published in Leroi Jones’ Yugen magazine in 1961) he writes, “I don’t … like rhythm, assonance, all that stuff. You just go on your nerve. If someone’s chasing you down the street with a knife you just run, you don’t turn around and shout, ‘Give it up! I was a track star for Mineola Prep’…As for measure and other technical apparatus, that’s just common sense: if you’re going to buy a pair of pants you want them to be tight enough so everyone will want to go to bed with you. There’s nothing metaphysical about it.” On July 26, 1943 Mick Jagger was born in Dartford, Kent, England and would become the 20^th century’s erotic pinup for the unsafety of teeny bop girls everywhere preaching the gospel soaked blues of African-American music that their parents were most likely frightened to death of. His skill in getting it and keeping it together and continuing to honor the magic that rocks the fuck out when Howlin’ Wolf hit the mic is what inspires every tantalizing facet of real rock n’ roll. On July 29, 1966 our hero Bobby Dylan crashed his motorbike while taking it for a spin in Woodstock He had just recorded three lightning rod LPs (Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited, Blonde on Blonde), a book of writing (Tarantula) and was taking a breather between a just finished nine month world tour (where he was facing audiences half pissed at his “Judas!” betrayal of folk purity) and readying for sixty-four American gigs booked by money hog Albert Grossman. He was amphetamine skinny and breathing high-octane annunciation. He returned to us a man in control of his image and he provocatively crushed celebrity underfoot like a shitty Marlboro. Let us kiss our lovers gently in July as the lathered sunrays of August take us into contemplation and a sweet trust to a future we will always fight for. In rock n roll, soul, tenderness and piety.

Thurston Moore,

Commune di Santo Stefano di Sessanio, ITALY
July 25, 2012

CHELSEA LIGHT MOVING

Thurston Moore (gtr/vocals/songwriter)
Keith Wood (gtr)
Samara Lubelski (bass)
John Moloney (drums)

july

26 – Castelbasso, Italy – Soundlabs Festival
28 – Hyeres, France  - Midi Festival
29 – Dijon, France – Le Consortium
30 – Dudingen, Switzerland – Bad Bonn
31 – Luxembourg City, Luxembourg – Den Atelier

august

1 – Antwerp, Belgium – Rivierenhof
2 – Schorndorf, Germany – Manufaktur
3 – Vienna, Austria – Stadtsaal
4 – Katowice, Poland – OFF Festival
5 – Dresden, Germany – Alter Schlachthof
6 – Copenhagen, Demnark – VEGA
8 – Oslo, Norway – OYA Festival
9 – Goteburg, Sweden – Way Out West Festival

Next week sees the arrival of Thurston Moore on European soil. Having recently dropped the unnerving, jarring “Groovy and Linda” recorded with his new outfit Chelsea Light Moving, Thurston will hit the continent for a tour that will have him playing fifteen shows in fifteen days across twelve different countries.

Forgotten just how many strings there are to Thurston’s bow? Never.

26 – Jul – 12 / Castelbasso, Italy, Soundlabs Festival

28 – Jul – 12 / Hyères, France, Midi Festival

29 – Jul – 12 / Dijon, France, Le Consortium

30 – Jul – 12 / Düdingen, Switzerland, Bad Bonn

31 – Jul – 12 /  Luxembourg, Den Atelier

1 – Aug – 12 /  Antwerp, Belgium, Rivierenhof

2 – Aug – 12 / Schorndorf, Germany, Manufaktur

3 – Aug – 12 / Vienna , Austria, Stadsaal

4 – Aug – 12 / Katowice, Poland, OFF Festival

5 – Aug – 12 / Dresden, Germany, Alter Schlachthof

6 – Aug – 12 / Copenhagen, Denmark, Vega

7 – Aug – 12 / Gothenburg, Sweden, -

8 – Aug – 12 / Oslo, Norway, OYA Festival

8 – Aug – 12 / Oslo, Norway, OYA Night

9 – Aug – 12 / Gothenburg, Sweden, Way Out West Fest

A ways back we shared the track “Burroughs” from Thurston Moore’s new group, Chelsea Light Moving, hinting at more tunes to follow.  Here’s the second track from the group, “Groovy & Linda“… take it away, TM….

CHELSEA LIGHT MOVING

Thurston Moore (gtr/vocals/songwriter)
Keith Wood (gtr)
Samara Lubelski (bass)
John Moloney (drums)

Has returned!! From sick 4-date international (Canada-USA) tour!! New song for free for all — ! _–

It is called:  GROOVY & LINDA [192kbps mp3]

Not to be confused with the 1968 coffee house folk song by Tom Parrott (recorded for Smithsonian Folkways), this chug n’ shred burner is a psycho reflection of late 60s NYC East Village hippie idealism slayed and splayed in an Avenue B tenement boiler room. Groovy was the boy born James Leroy Hutchinson from modest American means and Linda was Linda Fitzpatrick, she from a privileged nuclear household, both runaways to the lysergic pulchritude of peace, love and marijuana. When The Fugs went on tour in 1967 ringleader Ed Sanders enlisted Groovy to care take his Peace Eye bookstore at a “secret location on the lower east side” (E. 10^th St., actually). An incredible underground poetry bookstore/art gallery/hip hang out and orgy hook up scene, Groovy turned it into a barefoot mantra crash pad for all the beautiful zonkers and speed freaks of alphabet city. It was hard for even a grouch like Sanders to get too miffed at Groovy who actually believed in the wild animal dreams of hippie. Groovy was in love with Linda, a starry-eyed goddess nymph and they were the power flower couple of Tompkins Square. Tragedy flapped its nightmare wings and the two were found brutally beaten and killed bathed in blood and mystery amidst their tie-dye rags and rolling papers. It signaled the end of the fairytale that the media presented in day-glo color come-hitherness in the pages of Life and Look magazine. The following year Charles Manson and his dune buggy motherfuckers would exact an even farther cry of chaos and killing in the bamboozled hills of Los Angeles. We, Chelsea Light Moving, want to mantra the names of these two angels of beauty, regardless of the cynicism and naïveté of youth, for these are the charms of the soul. “Don’t shoot!!” —– we are your children……

Peace,

Thurston Moore

Chelsea Light Moving

P.S. – in case you missed it we released the song BURROUGHS a coupla weeks ago. Check the officially unofficial video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qmIvFuF8r4&feature=g-upl

Watch this space for info about the forthcoming Chelsea Light Moving release on Matador!