Chelsea Light Moving is the only studio album by the American noise rock band Chelsea Light Moving, released on March 5, 2013 on Matador Records. Recorded across two short sessions in Easthampton, Massachusetts with producer Justin Pizzoferrato in mid-2012, the album features a form of alternative and experimental rock that the band dubbed "Burroughs rock" and includes references to writers, avant garde artists, the 1960s counterculture movement and New York.
Upon its release, Chelsea Light Moving and its three singles—"Burroughs", "Groovy & Linda" and "Frank O'Hara Hit"—received positive critical acclaim. The album charted in Belgium and the United States, peaking at number 12 on Billboards Heatseekers Album Chart. In support of its release, the band embarked on an international tour.
Recording
Chelsea Light Moving was recorded "across two quick fire sessions" at Sonelab in Easthampton, Massachusetts in the middle of 2012. The sessions were produced and engineered by Justin Pizzoferrato, who later mixed the album. According to vocalist and guitarist Thurston Moore, a number of additional songs, including a song titled "No Go", were considered for recording along with the album's ten tracks but "the hard part was choosing an album's worth of tracks" to record during a process he referred to as "short [and] efficient". The rehearsal sessions, according to Moore, "paid off in a polished sound with a strong sense of ensemble" and with the exception of a short number of guitar and vocal overdubs, the album was recorded live, as opposed to the conventional multitrack recording process. The album was recorded entirely on analog equipment.
Composition
Chelsea Light Moving contains nine original songs written and composed by vocalist and guitarist Thurston Moore and a cover of the GermsCommunist Eyes", written by Darby Crash and Pat Smear. The band has described the music on the album as "Burroughs rock", a reference to the Beat Generation writer William S. Burroughs, after whom one of the album's songs is named. The song, "Burroughs", is based on the writer's reported last words: "Love? What is it? Most natural painkiller what there is." According to Moore, Burroughs "was ruminating on the emotion of love. And for William S. Burroughs to talk about love is a fascinating thing to begin with, and those were his last words."
The album is laden with other references to avant garde artists, the 1960s counterculture movement and New York. The title of both the album and the band is a reference to the Chelsea Light Moving Company, a moving company run by cash-strapped composers Philip Glass and Steve Reich. Moore noted that "Frank O'Hara Hit" alludes to the death of the poet Frank O'Hara, who was killed after being struck by a dune buggy on July 24, 1966 on Fire Island, New York. Moore praised O'Hara as knowing "poetry in all formalist glory and like John Cages ear to music liberated it for writers for an unending time." "Empires of Time" is a tribute to Roky Erickson, vocalist and guitarist of The 13th Floor Elevators. According to Moore, "if there's anything to be known about 'Empires of Time', know that it is a call of honor, and a kiss on the hallowed forehead, to Roky Erickson of Austin, Texas, a maestro of American psychedelic rock n roll of the highest order." "Groovy & Linda" refers to Linda Fitzpatrick and James "Groovy" Hutchinson, an East Village hippie couple who were murdered in the late 1960s, and who "were seen as a mortal wound to the carefree image of the hippie movement."
Release
Chelsea Light Moving was released on March 5, 2013 on Matador Records. It was made available as on CD, LP and digital download. The LP pressing of the album omitted two tracks featured on both the CD and download versions of the album; "heavenmetal" and "Communist Eyes", which were included as a separate bonus 7" with retail copies of the album. Prior to its official release, NPR made Chelsea Light Moving available for online stream on February 25, 2013. Three singles were released from Chelsea Light Moving: "Burroughs", released on June 22, 2012, "Groovy & Linda", released on July 10, 2012, and "Frank O'Hara Hit", released on July 25, 2012. All of the album's singles were made available as free MP3 downloads from Matador Records official blog.