Feeding Back: Conversations with Alternative Guitarists from Proto-Punk to Post-Rock

Feeding Back: Conversations with Alternative Guitarists from Proto-Punk to Post-Rock offers a counter-history of rock music through the lens of interviews with musicians including Richard Thompson, J Mascis, James Williamson, Bob Mould, Tom Verlaine, Lydia Lunch, Lee Ranaldo, Johnny Marr, & John Frusciante. 

Individually, the book’s in-depth discussions explore these subjects’ ideas & innovations; taken together, they document an alternative-guitar tradition with roots in free jazz, punk, avant-garde, folk, & garage rock styles. Of all the conversations in Feeding Back, the most compelling is the one among the guitarists themselves, the way they both influence & respond to each other while redefining the instrument & the rock genre. 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, the book charts this alternative thread as it makes its way through rock guitar from the late ’60s to the present.