I first met Thurston Moore through Questlove. Ok, so we didn’t really meet, and I don’t really know Questlove either. But it was because of a tweet by The Roots band member, saying “thurston moore is wearing the riskiest tshirt ive ever seen on broadcast tv…gangsta move son,” that I first heard of the low-key guitar great. The t-shirt ended up being pretty tame – tame meaning a humorous, hand-drawn pornographic image ” but I was glad for the introduction, as Moore is one of my more positively anticipated artists performing at this weekend’s Pitchfork Music Festival.

Further investigation shows he was a member of Sonic Youth, a band whose work spans a decade before and after the millennium, ending with The Eternal in 2009. He’s also married to the band’s bassist Kim Gordon. (If you’ve never listened to Sonic Youth, give a listen to my personal favorite album, Goo, before the show Friday. It could be a good contrast to Thurston’s solo work.) In addition to three solo albums (including Demolished Thoughts, out this year), Moore has produced many collaboration works and even several free albums of his improvisation.

Although Moore was born in 1958 (How else would he have had the time to construct hat many records and side projects?), according to the festival’s website, he maintains that “bee pollen and obscure Midwest hardcore” are the key to his seemingly limitless youth. The outdoor stages at Chicago’s Union Park seem like the perfect location to acquire a healthy dose of both.

Thurston Moore will be playing on the Red stage at Pitchfork at 5:30 p.m. on Friday. If you can’t make it out to Union Park, Moore will be headlining a show at the High Noon Saloon in Madison Saturday, July 16.