ALICE NOT JOHN Episode 3: A Fictional Radio Transmission Guest: Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth)
ALICE NOT JOHN
Episode 3: A Fictional Radio Transmission
Guest: Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth)
Host: Joeri Bruyninckx
A conversation I overheard in a record store:
Customer: “Do you have Coltrane?”
Record shop owner: “In the jazz section.”
Customer: “I mean Alice, not John.”
Record shop owner: “In the jazz section.”
ALICE NOT JOHN is the name of a fictional radio show. The idea is this: for every episode, I ask a musician the same 12 questions. The answers I receive are the “playlist” of my fictional radio show. The questions are these:
1) Which song always brings you back to your childhood?
Thurston Moore: ‘Chick-A-Boom (Don’t Ya Jes’ Love It)’ by Daddy Dewdrop.
2) Which is your favorite shower sing-along song?
‘Death Trip’ by Iggy & The Stooges.
3) What was your favorite song as a teenager?
‘Refrigerator Heaven’ by Alice Cooper.
4) What is your favorite air-guitar song?
The live version of ‘Space Truckin” by Deep Purple from their ‘Made In Japan’ masterpiece.
5) Which song do you associate with your 20s?
‘Skank Bloc Bologna’ by Scritti Politti.
6) From which song do you know the lyrics by heart?
‘Gimme Some Skin’ by Iggy And The Stooges.
7) Which song gives you consolation when you feel sad?
‘Nothing’s Gonna Stop Me Now’ by Samantha Fox.
8) Tell me about a song you think people wouldn’t expect you to like.
‘English Cunts’ by Heart Attack. I recorded a cover of it for a Jesse Malin benefit release but it wasn’t included. I reimagined it as played by Suicide. Slightly polarizing. The title is not very PC these days but it’s a killer tune. As good as anything on their incredible ‘God Is Dead’ single.
9) Which song do you recommend to people if you think they don’t know it?
‘God Speed’ by Patti Smith Group, the flipside of their ‘Because The Night’ single.
10) ‘Wonderful Tonight’ by Eric Clapton is a break-up song (about a couple who decide not to tell their friends they just broke up because they don’t want to spoil a party they’re planning to go to). Strangely enough, this song often gets played as the opening song at weddings. Tell me about a song you misunderstood when you first heard it.
Michael Gira of Swans told me he thought Iggy was singing “I’m stupid deep inside” on the Stooges’ ‘Loose’. I thought Neil Young was singing “He lives his life inside a tree” instead of “…inside a dream” – I like the idea of the protagonist living inside a tree though. I mistook the Black Flag lyric of ‘Society’s Arms Of Control’ from ‘Rise Above’ as “Society is a fucking hole”. When I realized my mishearing I wrote a song for Sonic Youth titled ‘Society Is A Hole’.
11) Which song always makes you do silly dance moves?
‘That Velvet Touch’ by Emil Beaulieau.
12) Which song do you quote most often? Which line?
‘One Less Bell To Answer’ by The 5th Dimension in preparation for when Trump falls down a long, long flight of stairs. Oops. Splat. One less TACO to shit out.
