Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth let us relax in their Massachusetts living room

Skateboard GORDON: “This is from Belgian artist Dennis Tyfus. [Thurston’s record label] Ecstatic Peace put this out. We’re not skaters, but we know a lot of people who are.”

Text paintings GORDON: “These are part of a series I’m doing with names of noise artists. It’s kind of like the idea of people wearing T-shirts from places they’ve never been—the idea that a collector would buy something he didn’t know but thought maybe was cool.”

Dogs GORDON: “Syd Barrett is three months. I liked the name Syd for a little dog, but we wanted to di erentiate between Sid Vicious and Syd Barrett. Hopefully, this Syd won’t turn out to be a crazy genius. Merzbow [the Australian Shepherd] is named for the Japanese noise artist, who did a lot of records of animal noises.” MOORE: “I wanted to start recording Merzbow barking and send it to Merzbow, so then it would be like Merzbow meets Merzbow. I think it might be good as a seven-inch.”

Art book GORDON: “Yves Klein is an artist I really like who referred to himself as a sacred trickster, which is where the song [‘Sacred Trickster’ on the new SY album] comes from. A couple of years ago, I saw a show of his in Paris that totally knocked me out.”

Painting MOORE: “[Our daughter] Coco made that for me for Christmas. She’ll usually give us art for gifts, which is what I like. I’d prefer she’d do that than buy me a tie.”

Black metal records MOORE: “I only listen to superunderground black metal because I don’t have to worry about being in uenced by it; it’s so antimusical. That album is Urgehal’s The Eternal Eclipse. I’ve made 14 volumes of black metal compilations. I gave them as a gift to Ryan Adams, and he sent me a turkey from Stop & Shop.”

Tapes MOORE: “I archive underground noise cassettes. This is like one one-thousandth of what I have. I’ve been collecting them since the mid-’80s. I play noise with people, so it’s kind of my milieu.”

Diorama GORDON: “This is Coco’s ‘me box’—it’s whatever you think re ects you. She made it in third or fourth grade. She’s got a picture of the Beatles in here, the Beastie Boys, even Gilmore Girls.”

Print MOORE: “This is from a series of collages called Street Mouth that I showed in New York last year. They’re mostly images from rock magazines that I’ve held on to since my teenage years. It’s basically the same frame of mind I had as a teenager when I used to cut out pictures and put them in scrapbooks.”

Neon chair GORDON: “This was made by the painter Mary Heilmann. Thurston bought it for my birthday a couple weeks ago.” MOORE: “I saw it at 303 Gallery. Our niece Katie—who is the little girl on the back of the Sister album—is all grown up now and is an artist’s assistant there. So they gave me kind of a deal.”

BY ELLEN CARPENTER PHOTOGRAPH BY TINA TYRELL

34 JULY 2009 READ LIVE CONCERT REVIEWS AT SPIN.COM

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About Our Hosts If indie rock has a power couple, it’s Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon. Co-leaders of Sonic Youth since 1981, the pair have also mentored countless musicians, launched a record label (Moore’s Ecstatic Peace), run a clothing line (Gordon’s Mirror/Dash), shown their art in galleries, and served as ambassadors of cool in their current home of Northampton. Sonic Youth recently released The Eternal (Matador), the rst album they’ve done outside of a major label since 1988. “It’s exciting,” says Moore. “There’s a certain sort of liberation going on.”