Sunday, May 2, 2010

Glenn Branca Tortures Guitar

The only way that I can sufficiently redeem myself from posting a Glass Tiger video is to prove my mettle by posting a Glenn Branca video.
Branca is the man responsible for steering Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore and Lee Renaldo down the path of alternate tunings. Look closely at the solo, and you’ll notice how the two picked up on his guitar gestations too.
Watching this black and white video of a solo from 1978 makes me smile.
I don’t expect you to smile with me. Hell, I don’t expect you to “get” it. This is primordial noise that would take years to harness before a wider audience could understand it.
That is, if you consider Sonic Youth’s fan base a “wider audience.”
In fact, the best way to better understand Glenn Branca’s guitar noise is to quote directly from one of the YouTube comments. It’s one that isn’t very flattering to Branca, but it and a response to it fit perfectly.
• max300988 Whats the point of this? Anyone can play like that, even a person, who never held a guitar in his hands. This is just noise, and nothing more.
• maneatingorchids @max300988 Exactly... beautifully worded.

3 comments:

Baby Indie said...

Great post - thanks!

Kiko Jones said...

http://kikojones5.blogspot.com/2009/03/milestones-pat-methenys-zero-tolerance.html

Cousin J said...

Awesome. Almost everyone I know would hate this...which makes me like it even more.