Feeding Back:conversations with alternative guitarists from proto-punk to post-rock

Résumé : Feeding Back: Conversations with Alternative Guitarists from Proto-Punk to Post-Rock is a collection of interviews with 26 of the most innovative musicians of the last few generations, including Tom Verlaine, Rowland S. Howard, James Williamson, Zoot Horn Rollo, Lenny Kaye, Richard Thompson, Lee Ranaldo, and Lydia Lunch. Although the discussions are intended to stand alone, taken together they capture a guitar tradition that runs counter to the mainstream pantheon, from sources like the Seeds and Captain Beefheart, to the MC5 and the Voidoids, to the Birthday Party and Dinosaur Jr., and beyond. This underground lineage ultimately becomes an informal movement, with its members—additional subjects include Keith Levene, Johnny Marr, J Mascis, Bob Mould, and John Frusciante—engaging in a musical conversation. From the proto-punk of the Stooges to the post-punk of Sonic Youth, from the Krautrock of Neu! to the post-rock of Tortoise, Feeding Back charts this alternative thread as it makes its way through rock guitar from the late ’60s to the present.