Thurston Moore

Thurston Moore is an American musician best known for playing guitar and singing with the alternative rock band Sonic Youth. Born in Coral Gables, Florida, and raised in Bethel, Connecticut, he left Western Connecticut State University after a short stay and moved to New York City, where he played in the hardcore group Even Worse and explored extended guitar methods in Glenn Branca's guitar orchestras. He helped form Sonic Youth in the early 1980s, and the band became known for unusual tunings and modified instruments; Rolling Stone ranked him 34th on its 2004 list of the greatest guitarists. Beyond the group he has run the Ecstatic Peace! label, released solo records such as Trees Outside the Academy (2007), composed music for Heavy (1995), Bully (2001) and Manic (2001), scored the 2022 miniseries Irma Vep, and published the memoir Sonic Life in 2023.