Thurston Moore All Over L.A. This Wknd

Influencing detuned guitar bands from My Bloody Valentine to Pavement for upwards of 20 years, Sonic Youth, the group, of late is only the pulpit from which the four Sonics have launched their various solo endeavours. Steve still runs Smells Like Records and Kim has acted and does live film score. Apparently Lee Ranaldo is huge in Japan. As a poet. Thurston, though, has emerged as an elderstatesman of the NYCartpunkrock scene, probably up there with David Byrne in terms of credibility. He has only been too happy to spread his gospel in a variety of forums and media. When you need liner notes to anything from a Swell Maps anthology to the Nirvana boxset, Thurston’s the go-to-guy. A crazy noiserock DJ set? Get me Thurston on the horn, STAT. So it’s only natural his expert testimony on the underground should extend to books. He has put together Mix Tape: The Art of the Cassette Culture, a tasty little flipbook on the subject of tape making. You can read it at Urban Outfitters. He’ll be talking it up at Book Soup on Sunset this Saturday. Later that night, he’s DJing at MOCA as part of their Saturday night NightVision series. Finally, the the Sonic Youth Voltron recombines to headline Sunday night of the overpriced, uneven Arthurfest in Little Armenia. They go on at 9, so you should be able to sneak into the park under cover of dusk by then. If not, you’ll be able hear them loud and clear from the 101.