ODDFELLOWS: R. Stevie Moore (front) with Brooklyn’s Tropical Ooze (from left), Wilson Novitski, Sam Levin and JR Thomason.
Where did you record the new album, and with whom? When is it coming out?
It’s titled Advanced, created at the Nashville home studio of my long-longtime best friend and musical collaborator Roger Ferguson on super Pro Tools. As usual, I’m playing almost all of the instruments and singing all parts. It’s been rather glorious, the biggest and fullest sound I have ever gotten, frankly. Almost mainstream. LOL. And we’re trying to focus on straight-ahead pop and rock results, minimizing my usual wreaking total havoc of the undisciplined variety and lo-fi home quirkiness. It’s kind of geared toward the uninformed listener, spotlighting the songwriting and arrangement qualities over the weirdness elements. I’ve also gone back deep into my back catalog and selected old songs to remake in a mega-produced manner.
Teenage Spectacular [New Rose, 1987]
One of Moore’s rare studio records for the late, lamented French indie label New Rose—they also released albums by Alex Chilton, the Real Kids and the Replacements in Europe—Teenage Spectacular is about as close to mainstream pop as Moore gets. Well, if you consider the Feelies and the dBs mainstream, which you totally could, comparatively speaking.
How has Nashville changed since you left? How have crowds been reacting to your return?
Well, extremely lots, since it’s been 33 1/3 years passed. Yet it still retains a nice laidback, more relaxed vibe for me. The young music fans are far more open-minded and imaginative than they ever were in the ’70s. I’m hoping to be able to tap into that big time. So far, it’s working nicely. (I hope.) I’m somewhat surprised to discover I do have a semilegendary reputation down here
What are your plans for the summer?
For the first time in my life, I am concentrating full-on on assembling and rehearsing several band ensembles for live gigs and probable touring. Currently visiting NYC,
Youtube.com/user/rsmko Moore may have 40 years of audio recordings under his belt, but that’s only half the story—he’s had the video camera rolling almost the entire time, and it’s all up on YouTube. There are Internet wormholes that suck you in for hours, and then there’s Internet wormholes that shoot you into another dimension entirely; Moore’s channel is like being transported into an alternate dimension where Santo Gold sells his chains on the Tonight Show and Jack Kerouac teaches kindergarten.
practicing with my brand new crew Tropical Ooze, guys living in Brooklyn originally from Texas. So, there are daily developments in regards to securing confirmed engagements from coast to coast, Europe and beyond. Very grassroots level in its DIY approach; we are hoping to burst out with enthusiastically wild abandon, yet fully contained purpose and delivery. Next week I am not only playing [and] headlining but actually “hosting”/ MCing the big two-day Culture Shock festival at SUNY Purchase. Advanced will be available this summer. To download massive amounts of early recordings, watch hours of video, donate to the world tour and immerse yourself in the R. Stevie oeuvre, hit rsteviemoore.com.
FairMoore [Old Gold, 2002]
Look, we’re not gonna lie: We’ll take any opportunity to talk about Half Japanese’s HWIC (High Weirdo in Charge) Jad Fair. The man has created some of the world’s most off-kilter audio art over the last 30-plus years, and this collaboration with Moore doesn’t disappoint. Improvisational and experimental, FairMoore deconstructs the very concept of songs to create way-out tone poems for oddball punks.
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