time out is london’s weekly goings-on magazine … every week one musician is interviewed for a small column called, “ask a silly question…â€? + this week it’s the turn of thurston moore …

ask a silly question – thurston moore …

favourite city in the world ?
tokyo. it’s such an alien landscape. i feel like i’m on another planet. and they’ve cornered the market on rare and obscure jazz records. it’s like a candy store for me. a very expensive candy store !

what’s the best thing you can cook?
i make a steamed broccoli for my ten-year-old daughter. and i do minor preparations. but kim [gordon, sonic youth bassist + thurston’s wife] is an amazing cook, real gourmet stuff.

what does your daughter think of your music ?
she thinks it’s kind of out there. she sees the intensity, she’s seen our gigs. she likes tweeny pop, stuff like hillary duff, but also some poppier rock by the pretenders and blondie. i also play her a lot of arcane british folk music – tudor lodge, bert jansch – and she digs that. and no, she hasn’t seen us in that ‘simpsons’ episode. it’s not on dvd yet !

what was the first gig you saw ?
rick wakeman ! it was SO boring. i grew up in rural connecticut and fantasised about these exotic rock concerts that went on in the nearest city, new haven. i missed alice cooper, queen and mott the hoople and saw rick wakeman !

what’s the best ever single?
‘hey joe’ by patti smith. 1976. i read her journalism in creem magazine and i liked the voice she wrote in. and the pictures of her were great. so i sent off for this single – it was on her own imprint, MER, for $2. it was her doing classic rock and adding her own recitation to it. and it completely delivered. ‘piss factory’ was on the other side. i’d never heard anything like that before, that kind of impassioned music. it was perfect. and catalytic.

george w bush. discuss.
it’s interesting how his administration thinks it’s a good idea to have this submental idiot as a poster boy for their strict agenda based on religious zealotry and obvious right wing imperialist concepts. it even feels like the republican party has been hijacked by this administration. they’re something else entirely … we despise gw bush so much that we’d replace him with hitler at this point!

favourite website?
it’s called ‘amish heat’. it’s really amazing. you have to google it. it’s been set up as a generic porn site, but when you click on ‘chicks with sticks’ you get a fully clothed amish woman with a broom !

last time you used public transport ?
all the time, in every city i’m in. i was in philadelphia recently. i got a bus to a bookstore and took the subway back to the hotel. how ‘bout that ?

what was the last sporting occasion you went to ?
massachusetts, where we live, is big on non-competitive sports – knitcap-wearing neo-hippy parents playing hackeysack with their kids. i’m not a sports fan, but i do watch certain sports on tv. i watched nba for a while. i’m drawn to some of the characters. i like american football, b/c the rest of the world thinks it’s the worst sport ever ! and i like some of those specific english sports, like cricket and snooker. extreme snooker !

what makes you laugh
don rickles. he’s still funny. and the early benny hill, you know. not the later stuff, when he started repeating himself, ha ha, before the pathos set in. he’s so hapless and insane, and the fact that he surrounds himself with these wonderful, beautiful amazonian women…it’s the weirdest fantasy. it’s hilarious.

interview : john lewis