sold official face masks based on the artwork from the album Sonic Nurse, with proceeds going to charities Brooklyn Community Bail Fund, Bed Stuy Strong, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's COVID-19 Relief Fund. The same year, an extensive archive of live recordings from throughout the band's history was released on Bandcamp. In January 2022, a new single "In & Out" was released ahead of the March release of the rarities album In/Out/In. Musical style and influences Sonic Youth is considered a pioneering band in the noise rock and alternative rock genres. Their music has also been labelled experimental rock, indie rock, and post-punk. Alternative tunings Sonic Youth's sound relied heavily on the use of alternative tunings. Scordatura on stringed instruments has been used for centuries and alternative guitar tunings had been used for decades in blues music, and to a limited degree in rock music (such as with Lou Reed's Ostrich guitar on The Velvet Underground & Nico). Michael Azerrad writes that early in their career, [Sonic Youth] could only afford cheap guitars, and cheap guitars sounded like cheap guitars. But with weird tunings or something jammed under a particular fret, those humble instruments could sound rather amazing – bang a drum stick on a cheap Japanese Stratocaster copy in the right tuning, crank the amplifier to within an inch of its life and it will sound like church bells. The tunings were painstakingly developed by Moore and Ranaldo during the band's rehearsals; Moore once reported that the odd tunings were an attempt to introduce new sounds: "When you're playing in standard tuning all the time [...] things sound pretty standard." Rather than re-tune for every song, Sonic Youth generally used a particular guitar for one or two songs, and would take dozens of instruments on tour. This would be the source of much trouble for the band, as live performances of many songs relied on specific guitars that have been uniquely prepared or otherwise altered for those exact songs. Influences Moore said that Sonic Youth was heavily influenced by the Velvet Underground, along with The Stooges, Glenn Branca, Patti Smith, Wire, Public Image Ltd and French avant-gardist Brigitte Fontaine. They were also influenced by 1980s hardcore punk; after seeing Minor Threat perform in May 1982, Moore declared them "the greatest live band I have ever seen". He also saw The Faith performing in 1981 and had a strong admiration towards their