Thurston Moore has shared a new cover of New Order’s ‘Leave Me Alone’. You can hear it above.
The track was recorded by Moore in Salford alongside a cast of Manchester musicians and will be released as the B-side to three new 7" records that he is putting out via Daydream Library Series on November 8. The A-sides for the records all feature different excerpted moments from live sets of Thurston Moore Group recorded across this year.
These 7" records will come in the wake of Moore’s new album, Spirit Counsel, which is due out on September 20, also via Daydream Library Series, the record label founded last year by Moore and Eva Prinz.
You can pre-order the 7"s here, here and here. Thurston Moore Group will tour the UK through October. You can find the list of dates here.
Ahead of the release of the records and new album, we spoke to Thurston Moore about how the New Order cover came together.
What were you doing up in Salford when you recorded the New Order cover and who were you working with?
Thurston Moore: We were involved in a Residency with the artist Radieux Radio in Salford. We were recording at Islington Mill and Radieux was especially curious about exploring the area because of these musicians we both really admire, (Joy Division and New Order being especially important to Radieux). There are so many bands – a long list when you’re ready for it – from that area that have been and remain truly important to me.
Anyway, Radieux, who is even more of an analogue snooty pants than I am, had an original cassette of Power, Corruption and Lies and played this tape, and particularly played the one song ‘Leave Me Alone.’ Radieux kept almost ritually rewinding the cassette and playing this song over and over until it was lodged in our brains.
We listened to it in the space where we were recording with some local musicians, including drummer Andrew Neil Richardson and bassist Ana Marlene Ribeiro and Radieux’s friend Ecka Mordecai who is also a cellist and who was living there in Salford at that time. We eventually asked all of them if they wanted to record it one afternoon. Radieux printed out the lyrics for me and I thought it all seemed like a pretty organically realised project, but probably not something I would’ve ever thought to do unless we were all right there in Salford.
"Salford is the only place I would dare cover a New Order song, with local musicians and local pints. It was just one of those rare occasions, where something I wouldn’t normally do was done just for fun, and in homage and respect to the place. Anyway, it was a sweet time and recorded without any fuss, and maybe it worked out at least for this B-side. Since these 7"s are artist limited editions, we decided to make it the B-side for all three singles, so people can actually get hold of a copy. We will make sure the release is in Salford too.
Why did you settle on ‘Leave Me Alone’?
TM: I had a ticket to see Joy Division in New York when their tour had been announced, obviously before Ian Curtis died. It broke my heart that I never saw them all together. New Order and Joy Division are just amazing, this song is such a life-affirming song. To consider New Order releasing that beautiful song after everything they had been through at that point is what I was thinking about when I read the lyrics. We don’t often hear this song played these days. I’m not sure if New Order play it live or not, but I’ve never heard them do so.
Did Sonic Youth and New Order share festival bills in the past?
TM: Yes, and Steve Shelley and I would run across festival fields to catch them on their stage at festivals. We are not exactly the disco dance floor types, but just thoroughly enjoyed standing at the side of the stage watching these brilliant musicians.
Can you explain Jon Leidecker’s involvement with the Thurston Moore Group and process in helping sculpt ‘Spring Swells’, ‘Three Graces’ and ‘Pollination’ [the three tracks which will feature on the upcoming 7" records]? Is he Teo Macero to your Miles Davis, if you’ll accept such a lofty example?
TM: Wobbly is more like Brian Eno in Roxy Music when Eno, initially, would channel the signals from the rest of the band through a mixing desk and synths. And/or more akin to a dub mixer like Dennis Bovell mixing the Slits for various released ‘dub versions’. Jon is working in both those aspects but his aesthetic is totally his own Wobbly Style.
You mentioned the idea of three inspirational graces on stage at EartH recently. Can you explain who these figures are?
TM: Yes, my muses, the Three Graces: Alice (Coltrane), Moki (Cherry) and Jayne (Cortez). Also the women responsible for bringing spirituality into the lives of their partners: John Coltrane, Don Cherry and Ornette Coleman. The single entitled ‘Three Graces’ is Wobbly’s remix of ‘Alice, Moki, Jayne’ [from new album Spirit Counsel].
