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Lee Ranaldo

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Lee Ranaldo

Lee Ranaldo. Photo by Piy Piy. Licensed under Creative Commons, courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Lee Ranaldo
Birth name Lee M. Ranaldo
Born February 3, 1956 (1956-02-03) (age 69)
Glen Cove, Long Island, New York, U.S.
Genres alternative rock, experimental rock, noise rock, no wave
Occupations Musician, singer-songwriter, visual artist, poet, producer
Instruments Vocals, guitar, bass, drums
Years active 1980–present
Labels Neutral Records, Ecstatic Peace!, Homestead Records, SST Records, Enigma Records, DGC Records, Sonic Youth Recordings, Interscope Records, Matador Records
Associated acts Sonic Youth, The Cribs, Text of Light
Website http://www.sonicyouth.com/symu/lee/
Notable instruments
Fender Jazzmaster, Fender Telecaster Deluxe, Gibson Les Paul

Lee M. Ranaldo (born February 3, 1956) is an American poet, musician, singer-songwriter, guitarist, writer, visual artist and record producer

Life[]

Overview[]

Ranaldo is best known as a co-founder of alternative rock band Sonic Youth. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked Ranaldo at number 33 on its "Greatest Guitarists of All Time" list.[1] In May 2012, Spin published a staff selected top 100 list, ranking Ranaldo and his Sonic Youth bandmate Thurston Moore together at number 1.[2]

Besides working as a guitarist, Renaldo has frequently produced sound, performance and visual art independently of Sonic Youth. He has released over 50 solo, band and collaborative recordings, and a dozen books, including travel journals, poetry, and artists’ books. His work has been exhibited at numerous galleries and museums, including the Hayward Gallery in London, the Sydney Museum of Contemporary Art, NSCAD in Halifax, the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Mercer Union in Toronto, and Printed Matter, Artspace and White Columns in New York.

Youth and education[]

Ranaldo was born in Glen Cove, Long Island, New York. He studied art and graduated from Binghamton University.

Private life[]

He has 3 sons – Cody, Sage and Frey – and is married to experimental artist Leah Singer.

Career[]

Ranaldo started his career in New York City in several bands and in the electric guitar orchestra of Glenn Branca. Among Ranaldo's solo records are Dirty Windows, a collection of spoken texts with music, Amarillo Ramp (For Robert Smithson), pieces for the guitar, and Scriptures of the Golden Eternity.

His books include several with art or photography by Leah Singer, including Drift, Bookstore, Road Movies, and Moroccan Journal: Jajouka excerpt (from a full-length book of writings on Moroccan travels and music). Ranaldo has also published Jrnls80s (published by Soft Skull Press), as well as a book of poems, Lengths & Breaths, with photography by Cynthia Connolly. Another book of poetry, Against Refusing, was published by Water Row Press in April 2010 with cover artwork by Singer.

His visual and sound works have been shown at galleries and museums in Paris, Toronto, New York, London, Sydney, Los Angeles, Vienna, and elsewhere.

Ranaldo has produced albums for artists including Babes in Toyland, You Am I, Magik Markers, Deity Guns, and Dutch art rock-ensemble Kleg. He has edited a volume of tour journals from the 1995 Lollapalooza Tour written by himself, Thurston Moore, Beck, Stephen Malkmus, Courtney Love, and others.

Ranaldo has worked with jazz drummer William Hooker on improvised music, and reading and improvising poetry; they have released several records together.

Ranalso's main side projects are Drift and Text of Light.[3] Drift is a duo with his wife Leah Singer, with whom he has performed many live installation pieces with improvised music. This collaboration, utilizing live manipulated 16mm film projections, electric guitar and recited texts, occupied the duo from the early 1990s until late 2005, when they re-created the performance as an art installation at Gigantic Art Space, a gallery in New York City. Since then the pair have been performing a new piece entitled "iloveyouihateyou", a combination installation and performance work that has been presented in the US and Europe. In 2005 Drift released a box set with a DVD and a book.[4]

Text of Light was founded in 2001 by Ranaldo, Alan Licht, Ulrich Krieger, Christian Marclay and William Hooker. The core group is Ranaldo, Licht and Krieger, with changing DJs (Marclay, DJ Olive, Marina Rosenfeld) and drummers (Hooker, Tim Barnes, Steve Shelley). The music is free improvised and mostly played along with, but not really referencing, films by Stan Brakhage. The name for the band comes from Brakhage's film The Text of Light.[5]

In 2007 Ranaldo collaborated with British rock band The Cribs on their 3rd album, Men's Needs, Women's Needs, Whatever. Ranaldo performs a spoken word piece against the track "Be Safe". Ranaldo made an appearance in the 2008 feature documentary by Nik Sheehan about Brion Gysin and the Dreamachine entitled FLicKer.[6]

Preceded by a 2012 event at Nuit Blanche,[7] on October 21, 2011, the Music Gallery, InterAccess and the Images Festival presented the North American premiere of Ranaldo’s Contre Jour, a performance piece for swinging guitar, with visuals by longtime partner and collaborator Leah Singer. This performance was also done in Paris, Rotterdam, during IFFR, and Madrid afterwards.

Shortly after the hiatus of Sonic Youth in November 2011 Ranaldo released an album with acoustic songs, Between the Times and the Tides, in early 2012 on Matador Records. Contributors to the record include Jim O'Rourke, Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley, former Sonic Youth drummer Bob Bert, Wilco's Nels Cline, Alan Licht, John Medeski, and bassist Irwin Menken.

Glacial is a band consisting of Ranaldo, guitarist David Watson and drummer Tony Buck. In 2010 Ranaldo released a solo album, Maelstrom From Drift, on Three Lobed Recordings, with guest appearances of Tony Buck and David Watson. The band released On Jones Beach In 2012.

Equipment[]

File:Moonlander.jpg

Moonlander guitar.

Ranaldo usually uses Fender Jazzmaster, Telecaster Deluxe electric guitars and sometimes Gibson Les Pauls, with radically alternative tunings, and modifications. One of his Jazzmasters has a single coil pickup installed between the bridge and the tailpiece to exploit the resonating chiming sounds on that area of string at these so-called tailed bridge guitars.

In 2007 Yuri Landman built for Ranaldo the Moonlander, a biheaded electric guitar with 18 strings: 6 normal strings and 12 sympathetic strings.

Since Ranaldo and Moore, together with Elvis Costello and J. Mascis, are known for being key figures in the popularisation and resurrection of the Fender Jazzmaster, Fender introduced in 2009 a special Lee Ranaldo signature edition of a transparent blue version, together with a transparent green one for Thurston.[8]

Publications[]

Poetry[]

  • Road Movies. Soft Skull Press, 1994.
  • JRNLS80s: Poems, lyrics, letters, observations, wordplay & postcards from the early days of Sonic Youth. Soft Skull Press, 1998. ISBN 978-1-887128-31-5[10]
  • Hello from the American Desert[11] (paperback) - Lee Ranaldo, Curt Kirkwood, Silver Wonder Press (November 2007)
  • Lengths & Breaths (with photos by Cynthia Connolly). Water Row Press, 2004. ISBN 978-0-934953-79-5
  • Against Refusing. Water Row Press, 2010. ISBN 978-0-934953-84-9

Other[]

  • Bookstore and Others (with photos by Leah Singer). Hozomeen Press, 1995. ISBN 978-1-885175-06-9
  • Drift (box set with DVD; photos by Leah Singer). Gigantic ArtSpace (2005), ISBN 978-1-933045-34-4
  • Ground Zero: New Yorkers Respond (Paperback) - Lee Ranaldo, David Amram, Frank Messina, Wasteland Press (August 15, 2002), ISBN 978-0-9715811-7-3
  • Moroccan Journal (Hardcover) - Lee Ranaldo, Fringecore (1999), ISBN 978-90-76207-52-0
  • Moroccan Journal: Jajouka excerpt (Unknown Binding) - Lee Ranaldo, Leah Singer, Ring Tarigh for the Literary Renaissance (1997), ASIN: B0006RJF80
  • Online Diaries : the Lollapalooza '95 tour journals (Paperback) - Beck, Courtney Love, Stephen Malkmus, Thurston Moore, Lee Ranaldo, Mike Watt, David Yow, Soft Skull Press (1996), ISBN 978-1-887128-20-9

Audio / video[]

St_Mark's_Poetry_Project_New_Years_2013_Lee_Ranaldo

St Mark's Poetry Project New Years 2013 Lee Ranaldo

Discography[]

Solo albums
  • From Here to Infinity (1987)
  • Scriptures of the Golden Eternity (1993) (Recorded 1988-1989)
  • Dirty Windows (1999) (Recorded 1991-95)
  • Amarillo Ramp (For Robert Smithson) (2000) (Recorded 1990-95)
  • Outside My Window The City Is Never Silent - A Bestiary (2002) (Recorded 1991-95)
  • Music For Stage And Screen (2004)
  • Ambient Loop For Vancouver (2006)
  • Maelstrom From Drift (2008)
  • Between the Times and the Tides (Matador Records, 2012)
Singles & EP's
  • A Perfect Day EP (1992)
  • Broken Circle / Spiral Hill EP (1994)
  • Countless Centuries Fled into the Distance Like So Many Storms (2008)
Compilations
  • East Jesus (1995)
Live Recordings
Lee_Ranaldo_Poetry_Project_New_Years_Day_Marathon_2017

Lee Ranaldo Poetry Project New Years Day Marathon 2017

  • Fuck Shit Up (with Thurston Moore & Christian Marclay) (2000) [Live]
  • Text Of Light (a band which included Alan Licht, Christian Marclay, Tim Barnes, Ulrich Krieger, William Hooker) (2004)
As a band member
See discography for Sonic Youth discography
  • Glacial (Lee Ranaldo, David Watson & Tony Buck) - On Jones Beach, LP, (2012) Insound
  • Afternoon Saints
  • Text Of Light
Collaborations with William Hooker
  • Envisioning (1995)
  • The Gift Of Tongues (also with Zeena Parkins) (1995)
  • Clouds (1997)
  • Bouquet [also with Christian Marclay] (2000)
  • Out Trios Volume One: Monsoon (also with Roger Miller) (2003)
  • Oasis Of Whispers (also with Glen Hall) (2005)
  • The Celestial Answer (2005)
Collaborations with others
  • cover of Pink Floyd's "Money" on Martin Bisi's Creole Mass LP (1988)
  • MMMR (also with Loren Mazzacane Connors, Jean-Marc Montera & Thurston Moore) (1997)
  • New York - Ystad (with Thurston Moore, Steve Shelley, Mats Gustafsson) (2000)
  • New Life After Fire (For Tom Thomson) (With Dave Dyment) (2003)
Drift_Lee_Ranaldo_&_Leah_Singer

Drift Lee Ranaldo & Leah Singer

  • Four Guitars Live (Ranaldo / Giffoni / Moore / Cline (2006)
  • Les Anges Du Péché [Jean-Marc Montera / Thurston Moore / Lee Ranaldo] (2011)

See also[]

References[]

Notes[]

  1. ↑ Fricke, David. "100 Greatest Guitarists: David Fricke's Picks: Lee Ranaldo". Rolling Stone. Wenner Media. http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/100-greatest-guitarists-of-all-time-19691231/lee-ranaldo-19691231. Retrieved June 14, 2012. 
  2. ↑ Hopper, Jessica (May 3, 2012). "SPIN's 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time". Spin. Buzzmedia. http://www.spin.com/articles/spins-100-greatest-guitarists-all-time?page=10. Retrieved September 18, 2012. 
  3. ↑ "text of light". sonicyouth.com. Archived from the original on August 8, 2010. http://web.archive.org/web/20100808040201/http://sonicyouth.com/dotsonics/lee/text/index.html. Retrieved June 14, 2012. 
  4. ↑ "Drift (w/ Art Book): Lee Ranaldo, Leah Singer: Movies & TV". Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/Drift-Art-Book-Lee-Ranaldo/dp/B000B7VZGK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1319588284&sr=8-1. Retrieved August 28, 2012. 
  5. ↑ Hall, Glen (2009). "Text of Light". Musicworks (Musicworks Society of Ontario) #103 (Spring 2009): 18–24. http://www.musicworks.ca/backissues-103spring2009.asp. Retrieved October 31, 2012. 
  6. ↑ "FLicKeR :: A Film By Nik Sheehan". flickertheflicker.com. National Film Board of Canada. http://www.flickerflicker.com/flash/TheStory/TheStory.html. Retrieved June 14, 2012. 
  7. ↑ "Scotiabank Nuit Blanche". scotiabanknuitblanche.ca. Scotiabank. http://2010.scotiabanknuitblanche.ca/exhibition.aspx?zone=B&mapID=3. Retrieved August 28, 2012. 
  8. ↑ "Fender® Sonic Jazz Master Jazz Blaster". Fender. Archived from the original on May 27, 2010. http://web.archive.org/web/20100527211417/http://www.fender.com/sonicyouth/. Retrieved June 14, 2009. 
  9. ↑ Road Movies (Deluxe Edition paperback), Amazon.com. Web, Apr. 5, 2013.
  10. ↑ JRNLS80s: Poems, lyrics, letters, observations, wordplay & postcards from the early days of Sonic Youth. Google Books. Web, Apr. 5, 2013.
  11. ↑ "Welcome to Silver Wonder Press". Silver Wonder Press. http://www.silverwonderpress.com/#silver01. Retrieved June 13, 2008. 

External links[]

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