Thurston - Trees Outsidethe Academy

Tue 25th Sep, 2007 in Music Reviews

You can hear dark roots squirming in this one. Trees Outside the Academy reeks of New York City circa 1993. From the first note you can hear the big dark sounds of Sonic Youth painted everywhere but… there’s a shit load more to this one. Bands as far flung as The Modern Lovers, Husker Du, Built to Spill and Beasts of Bourbon echo in this cracker.

As Musicians go Thurston’s one of the grand poo-bahs of the rock Masonic lodge – riding that stinky goat for years! There is – œdone his time’ written all over this album. Sure it’s splattered with that hard New York post punk indie sound but it shines with much more. To me, Trees Outside the Academy is as melodic and intelligent as Sonic Youth can be grindingly brutal.

In bits it slows a little too much for me, maybe but hell… you’ve got to cut him a little slack. Like I said – he’s done his time. This is an album that is packed with pounds of rich diversity. From piano and string stuff to melancholy thunder – it heaves and stomps across the spectrum. And there’s one little extra bonus – intelligent and original bloody lyrics and sounds – for a frigging change!

It is definitely not shallow pulp from some pimply new comer – Thurston seems to have brains mixed in with balls – not frightened to get outside the box that he probably helped create and so many of the retro re-hashers love to hide in. Mind you that hair cut looks a bit like a nasty Ramones / Edie Munster fusion…

All in all, for mine, Trees Outside the Academy is a dark, beautifully big fat bastard. If you’ve never been into Sonic Youth or Husker Du then it’ll be something new. If you like Black Pony Express and that – œMelbourne’ sound or Ed Kueper for that matter then you’ll love this one. It’s got depth, dirt, credibility and croutons!!