THURSTON MOORE & KIM GORDON

hey may have been the Led Zeppelin of noise-rock, but Sonic Youth chucked The Big Book Of on 1983’s – Moore, Gordon and co-founder Lee Ranaldo used strange tunings, dissonant chords, feedback squalls and grungy drones to make their point. They’d gouge the innards out of their guitars; like John Cage with his pianos they’d ‘prepare’ them, with screwdrivers, with drumsticks. They could purvey ragged, minimalist nuance, and later fashioned college rock hits while members of My Bloody Valentine, Pavement, Dinosaur Jr and Nirvana furiously made mental notes.