Thurston Moore's acclaimed new memoir Sonic Life may detail his life before, during, and after Sonic Youth, but the vocalist/guitarist also devotes a significant chunk of the book to the rise of Nirvana, and his friendship with Kurt Cobain's band, who signed with the same management company and record label as the New York quartet such was their respect for Moore and his (then) wife, and Sonic Youth bassist/vocalist Kim Gordon.
In his book, Moore recalls seeing Nirvana for the first time at a New Jersey club in 1989, when the Sub Pop act were touring as a quartet with second guitarist Jason Everman, and remembers standing "agape and transfixed" by Cobain's band.
"It took all of an electric flash of a second to see how incredibly beautiful they were and how soul-shredding the music was," Moore writes. "It would soon be clear that Nirvana was articulating something that connected not just with the punks but with the nerds, the freaks, the geeks, the losers, and the weirdos... It was going to be more than just cheap thrills, offering instead a radical reconsideration of musical expression at large."
