Imagine hanging out on the top floor of Dinosaur Jr. guitar virtuoso J. Mascis’ house (a.k.a. Bisquiteen Studio) and recording a solo record at your own pace. It’s about noon, and you’re in need of a shredding guitar solo. You holler, “Jayyyyyy!” and quite suddenly, the indie legend appears and does his business. Well, that was Sonic Youth frontman Thurston Moore’s experience while prepping Trees Outside the Academy, his first solo record in 12 years.

Recorded mostly with acoustic guitar and bass, the album features guests like Christina Carter (Charalambides), noise genius Leslie Keffer, and Sunburned Hand of the Man’s John Moloney, as well as stripped-down, lyric-driven tracks with a few noisy quirks here and there (find a track of Moore at age 13, making some sort of sound theater).

The album will be released by the Moore’s own Ecstatic Peace imprint, and represents another landmark for the king of avant-indie. Just hope that a solo tour eventually materializes.

Trees Outside the Academy is out in September on Ecstatic Peace.

Tracklisting
1. Frozen Gtr
2. The Shape Is In A Trance
3. Honest James
4. Silver>blue
5. Fri/End
6. American Coffin
7. Wonderful Witches
8. Off Work
9. Never Light
10. Free Noise Among Friends
11. Trees Outside the Academy
12. Thurston@13