How many Lee Ranaldo records is too many?

"I had two CD's that came out in the last couple of months. One was this trio with William Hooker and Roger Miller on Atavistic, and another one that's just a duo of me and this young electronics kid from Toronto: we did a duo set up there. Stuff like that comes out when you have a live recording that sounds really good. And there's more stuff like that about to hit. I've got this other group that I play with called Text Of Light, an improvising quintet that we
play with old experimental avant-garde films. And it's Alan Licht, another guitar player from New York, and DJ Olive, or this other DJ, Christian, and either Hooker, or this other drummer Jim Bond. It's like a five piece, and the saxophone. We're having a CD that's coming out in May, and a couple of vinyl releases about to come out."

Chuck Eddy was OTM 'way back when he opined that you'll never listen to it, but it's fun to look at. (Only reason I still have mine!)

This is exactly why I no longer enjoy noise-the waves of condecension are so thick 'tis not even funny.

kekekeke.

least usefull post ever. I'll look them up when I'm home, I've always been a big fan of Lee's and have enjoyed his solo stuff and am suprised to see no mention of Scriptures of the something or other.

totally agree on "Genetic," btw.

A solo record of songs was completed this summer and slated for realease early in 2012, with band contributions from Steve Shelley, Nels Cline, John Medeski, Alan Licht and Bob Bert.

Awww, Bob Bert. Where did this come from? Cool news, regardless.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lee-Ranaldo-Official/158711314207687

so fucking pumped for that

Man, why wait? Would listen to that right now. Really excited, though not sure what to expect. It does say "solo record of songs", but don't want to get my hopes up too much.

i think in general the word on this record has been that it's going to be much more of a singer/songwriter deal than his previous solo joints. if people want to take a few months to set up a record they put a lot of work into i have no problem with that.

i'm seeing this thread title as a topic on maury

xpost: I get it, was kinda kidding cause I feel like this kind of record has been talked about (and anticipated) for a long time. Am cool with Lee making it as great as possible, if that is indeed what he is doing. Will actually buy it no matter what at this point, just to support Lee for all the joy he has brought me over the years.

Nels Cline being on it is some serious icing on the cake for me

Seriously.

Could have thought of a better word than seriously, but shit yeah, fuckin A

summery

keep lee away from that faggot beat poetry shit.
― Ian Johnson (orion), Thursday, April 29, 2004 2:33 PM (7 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

:(

i bet i'd like this lee record? i always liked his sy songs. sy were my fave band in high school.

would def like to see lee play in hoboken with Rhyton, cuz rhyton are a good band.

hey, if it makes you feel any better, i don't think i've ever heard a lee ranaldo solo album.

i got a LOT of stuff to listen to...

i'm kind of in a record rut right now. not excited by stuff as much. enjoyed listening to 45s for a while tonight tho.

i'll hear the new lee record because [CONTROVERSIAL MODERATOR EDIT] but i'm not expecting it to become a favorite record of mine or anything. idk. maybe i'll be surprised. liked but did not love thurston's latest lp.

i have heard east jesus whatever-the-fuck

because i was a big sonic youth fan at the time that album was released.

think of me then, though.

teenager in the mid-90s.

dont it make you crY?

this first mp3 http://www.matadorrecords.com/mpeg/lee_ranaldo/lee_ranaldo_off_the_wall.mp3 sounds pretty middle of the road! but i like it, it's got nice guitars.

really loving the album. it *is a little more middle of the road than SY, but Ranaldo's a strong enough songwriter to pull it off.

that mp3 sounds better than most of demolished thoughts. sy have devolved into making 3rd rate malkmus-like jams.

amarillo ramp is a great overview of Lee stuff.

heavy "mote" tracers from the "off the wall" verse. nice song, not blown away, but as soon as it was over, i wanted to hear it again. catchier than most of from here to infinity.

i would hope that his first album of song songs is at the very least "catchier" than all the drones'n'poems records of the past.

ha, yeah -- seems like this is basically going to sound like a latter-day SY record with lee on lead vocals throughout. which is cool with me. looks like he's adding a bunch of tour dates, too. would definitely go see him if he comes my way.

god if nels is in the band for the tour too...

opening for m. ward ... wah wah wah
[and i even like one of m ward's records...just seems like a lame fit]

Like The Who opening for Enuff-Z-Nuff

whole album streaming here: http://www1.rollingstone.com/hearitnow/player/leeranaldo.html

this is great so far!

but the record is out now, so maybe Matador has it listed?

Picked up a physical copy yesterday, but unfortunately there is no track-by-track breakdown which is pretty annoying, imo, for a record with a varied cast like this

And yet there's Lee in the Brian Turner interview portion from his WFMU session Tuesday having rhapsodies about how nice it was back in the old days of the album as this magical unit of music-delivery, when you could sit down and read liner notes and look over personnel info and groove on cover art etc...lol.

haha

Yeah, that's too bad, but I do think you can pick out exactly who is playing what on each song, you just have to listen to them to figure it out. Seems like an odd thing to leave out of the liners though.

yeah as a Nels Cline stan i had a similar frustration with an Eleni Mandell album he played on where the liners were not very specific as to what he played on but there were of course some tracks where it was obviously him

I like this better than the Thurston joint from last year!

^^^ me too.

Really loving this album.

yeah this is better than it has any right to be - pretty much confirms my feeling that I mainly stuck with SY for the Lee songs

I read a couple of the negative reviews while listening to the first couple of tracks, and nearly bailed. I'm glad I didn't. This is a good album!

BBC review by Spencer Grady: http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/6z5c

i Just. Don't. Get. people who can't write about this record without slighting SY's other work, etc, but i guess i'm pretty avowedly an SY fanboy by this point. this new lee album is thoroughly excellent, some of his best works, as was thurston's demolished thoughts, as was murray street, etc etc

i preferred the thurston album. at least it had tunes whereas this is noodling along. thurston did evolve whereas lee just does not change at all. does the world really need this kind of stuff in the 2010s?

what kind of stuff does the world really need? other than love, sweet love.

I liked new Thurston and Lee both, though they're very different albums. Not the BEST by either, though.

i think maybe if Lee had given the Shelley/Cline/Licht ensemble a band name to credit the album under it would've gone down better as a Wild Flag-type supergroup thing

Lee Ranaldo & The Angels of Licht

haha

just saw this: http://pitchfork.com/features/5-10-15-20/8797-lee-ranaldo/

fun article but i wish he'd been a little more personal and idiosyncratic with his selections, obviously Nevermind and Daydream Nation have personal significance for him but i dunno

yeah not terribly surprising stuff in there. liked the anecdote about playing marquee moon in the lecture hall.

Boring list, thought he'd stick a few more interesting albums for the 'guitarist' in there

And Pavement as favourite band of the 90s, jesus

the coda part of 'Fire Island' is lovely, wish it was the whole song

nice piece by Lee on the Dead, mentions a new alb:

http://thetalkhouse.com/features/view/lee-ranaldo-the-grateful-deads-long-lost-concert-documentary-sunshine-daydr#.UkCl8cWAD74.twitter

stream of new rather poppy album:
http://www.clashmusic.com/news/exclusive-stream-lee-ranaldos-last-night-on-earth

Lee finally accepted my FB friend request last month! Thanks, Lee!

really digging Last Night On Earth, only halfway in and am already pretty sure it's an improvement on Between The Tides.

Lee performing on Conan tonight!

i loled at this:

Mike Wolf ‏@thismikewolf 9h
Some might call it Alan Licht's nat'l-TV debut. MT @matadorrecords Lee Ranaldo & The Dust are on tonight's "Conan" (TBS) @leeranaldo

doing a live set on WFMU in about 10 minutes:

http://www.wfmu.org/playlists/BT

Nice! His solo records are so underappreciated

playing sometime soon at the bell house with steve gunn & somebody else? might have a guest spot if you'd wanna go morbz.

Ian, pretty sure that Nathan Bowles is drumming for the Steve Gunn band on this tour, and maybe is opening the shows solo as well? Something like that.

New album on Mute tomorrow: Electric Trim.
Interesting roster: Shelley, Sharon van Etten, Alan Licht, Nels Cline, Tim Luntzel, Kid Millions. Lyrics co-written by Jonathan Lethem on six songs.

two tracks:
Circular (Right As Rain) (love this)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNK7N5L6jCk

New Thing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2HWSUaqPd4

Trailer for a documentary on the making of the album (more info here: http://montclairfilm.org/events/the-thrill-of-the-creative-process-in-hello-hello-hello/)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNK7N5L6jCk

oh crap, here's Circular (Right As Rain):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2XRnzj-YmE

the album is wonderful. his best solo yet.

Listened once on Spotify. Some really surprising moments. I'm not sure what I think of the spoken bits but the melodic songs are hitting the spot, for the most part. Ranaldo, Cline, and Licht all playing on a Beatlesque pop record seems like a good idea!

"last looks"!