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jrnls80s
Sonic Youth spent most of the 80s sleeping on floors, driving used vans, touring across a neurotic America and the globe beyond. Before they became part of the national bloodstream, they created an underground swell, encouraging adventurous listeners to jack into their matrix of pantonality, feedback, and chiming scree. All the while, Lee Ranaldo was drinking in the landscape, the clubs, the people; recording a journal of this wild ride.
195 pages, Paperback
First published December 3, 2000
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About the author
Lee Ranaldo
30Ìýbooks17ÌýfollowersLee M. Ranaldo (born February 3, 1956) is an American singer, guitarist, writer and record producer, best known as a co-founder of the rock band Sonic Youth. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked Ranaldo and Thurston Moore, of Sonic Youth, the 33rd and 34th Greatest Guitarists of All Time.
Ranaldo was born in Glen Cove, Long Island, New York, and graduated from Binghamton University. He has three sons, Cody Linn Ranaldo, Sage Ranaldo and Frey Ranaldo and is married to the experimental artist Leah Singer, with whom he has performed many live installation pieces with improvised music under the name Drifting.
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. His most recent book of poetry, Hello From the American Desert, was published by The Silver Wonder Press in November 2007 with artwork by Curt Kirkwood. Recent visual work has been included in exhibitions at the Hayward Gallery in London, the Sydney Museum of Contemporary Art and Mercer Union in Toronto.
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 Thurston Moore, Beck, Stephen Malkmus, Courtney Love, and others. Ranaldo has also worked with jazz drummer William Hooker on improvised music, and reading and improvising poetry.
In 2007 Ranaldo collaborated with British rock band The Cribs on their third album Men's Needs, Women's Needs, Whatever. The track "Be Safe" is a Ranaldo spoken word piece performed by the artist, and backed with The Cribs music.
Lee makes an appearance in the 2008 feature documentary by Nik Sheehan about Brion Gysin and the Dreamachine entitled 'FLicKeR'.
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Ranaldo was born in Glen Cove, Long Island, New York, and graduated from Binghamton University. He has three sons, Cody Linn Ranaldo, Sage Ranaldo and Frey Ranaldo and is married to the experimental artist Leah Singer, with whom he has performed many live installation pieces with improvised music under the name Drifting.
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. His most recent book of poetry, Hello From the American Desert, was published by The Silver Wonder Press in November 2007 with artwork by Curt Kirkwood. Recent visual work has been included in exhibitions at the Hayward Gallery in London, the Sydney Museum of Contemporary Art and Mercer Union in Toronto.
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 Thurston Moore, Beck, Stephen Malkmus, Courtney Love, and others. Ranaldo has also worked with jazz drummer William Hooker on improvised music, and reading and improvising poetry.
In 2007 Ranaldo collaborated with British rock band The Cribs on their third album Men's Needs, Women's Needs, Whatever. The track "Be Safe" is a Ranaldo spoken word piece performed by the artist, and backed with The Cribs music.
Lee makes an appearance in the 2008 feature documentary by Nik Sheehan about Brion Gysin and the Dreamachine entitled 'FLicKeR'.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
May 19, 2020
O tÃtulo já diz exatamente o que o livro é: journals. É bem interessante conhecer as turnês e shows do Sonic Youth pelos olhos de Lee Ranaldo, mas além disso é possÃvel se identificar a nÃvel pessoal com vários pensamentos e várias passagens que ele descreve ao longo do livro.
February 11, 2021
This is a book I read many many years ago but still remember fondly. Journals, poems, lyrics and more from 10 years on the road with Sonic Youth. How can you go wrong?
February 10, 2019
"[...] without saying a word to each other or touching or being in a very close proximity we had quite a full relationship just through the eyes. so satisfying. it was very beautiful and delicate and complete in itself, a blown kiss from her and it was over. no names, no games, just a tunnel of desires flowing between us that said it all, what was and what could have been. it didn't have to be. it was already complete."
Lee Ranaldo (I will use capital letters in the review in spite of the author's lower-case mannerism) was a guitarist for Sonic Youth, probably the most influential band in the entire history of the so-called alternative (experimental, "indie", avant-garde) rock music. Sonic Youth were my favorite band and I believe I have listened to every single piece of music they released in their 30-year history (1981 - 2011). Mr. Ranaldo is universally acknowledged as one of the most talented and influential rock guitarists of all time. I haven't known him as a writer but his JNRLS80s (1998) - whose subtitle "poems, lyrics, letters, observations, wordplay, and postcards from the early days of Sonic Youth" aptly describes the contents - is quite a worthwhile, interesting, and readable medley of literary pieces.
I would distinguish three intertwined literary modes in the book. Many long fragments read like diaries of Sonic Youth early tours - several tours in Europe and in the USA. The reader will find some mesmerizing passages, like the one about the Broken Circle/Spiral Hill land art project, near Emmen in the Netherlands, or general observations about how different Europe is from this country.
On the other extreme, reading many passages in the book feels like surfing through someone's dreams, where the author's words evoke hazy, foggy, indistinct, phantasmagoric images of places, people, and events. The author's stream of consciousness is often hard to read yet there are brilliant, eloquent fragments, like:
Since I love the Sonic Youth's music so much I was happy to read Mr. Ranaldo's brief remarks about the band's work on their breakthrough album, DayDream Nation (1988), a seminal album in the alternative rock music genre. I only wish he gave much more of that material than just a single page. And I love the page-and-a-half beautiful passage about Lordes, a woman whom the author knew a long time ago. A heartfelt and deeply human portrait of an unconventional person.
A recommended read, not only for Sonic Youth fans.
Three-and-a-quarter stars.
Lee Ranaldo (I will use capital letters in the review in spite of the author's lower-case mannerism) was a guitarist for Sonic Youth, probably the most influential band in the entire history of the so-called alternative (experimental, "indie", avant-garde) rock music. Sonic Youth were my favorite band and I believe I have listened to every single piece of music they released in their 30-year history (1981 - 2011). Mr. Ranaldo is universally acknowledged as one of the most talented and influential rock guitarists of all time. I haven't known him as a writer but his JNRLS80s (1998) - whose subtitle "poems, lyrics, letters, observations, wordplay, and postcards from the early days of Sonic Youth" aptly describes the contents - is quite a worthwhile, interesting, and readable medley of literary pieces.
I would distinguish three intertwined literary modes in the book. Many long fragments read like diaries of Sonic Youth early tours - several tours in Europe and in the USA. The reader will find some mesmerizing passages, like the one about the Broken Circle/Spiral Hill land art project, near Emmen in the Netherlands, or general observations about how different Europe is from this country.
On the other extreme, reading many passages in the book feels like surfing through someone's dreams, where the author's words evoke hazy, foggy, indistinct, phantasmagoric images of places, people, and events. The author's stream of consciousness is often hard to read yet there are brilliant, eloquent fragments, like:
"that wonderful purple that hangs under the eaves at twilight, and washes cool thru evening trees. the color of nighttime sunshine, an indigo flame, bathing dark nights in desire. [...] i am secreted away in dark depths. a dream, in purple shades, with a lover, by an opaque sea."I have some difficulties though with enjoying the author's poetry, which sometimes reads (to me!) pretentious and stilted. But then poetry is my least favorite form of literary expression and I may simply be too ignorant and unqualified to judge. Though the reader will likely agree with me that the lyrics to many Sonic Youth songs that are included in the book are of much higher quality than the usual rock lyrics, even in the most sublime avant-garde genre.
Since I love the Sonic Youth's music so much I was happy to read Mr. Ranaldo's brief remarks about the band's work on their breakthrough album, DayDream Nation (1988), a seminal album in the alternative rock music genre. I only wish he gave much more of that material than just a single page. And I love the page-and-a-half beautiful passage about Lordes, a woman whom the author knew a long time ago. A heartfelt and deeply human portrait of an unconventional person.
A recommended read, not only for Sonic Youth fans.
Three-and-a-quarter stars.
January 21, 2021
Extremely well written and effortlessly idiosyncratic, Ranaldo's reflections from the road are so much more than a tour diary. Less interested in the who, what, where, and when of playing in a traveling band, Ranaldo explores the anxiety that threatens to unravel his faith in the enterprise. Through all the ups and down in these disjointed sketches of life on the road, Ranaldo remains a hopeless romantic who is as likely to draw inspiration from a passing cloud as the twinkle in the eye of a woman working behind the counter in a Copenhagen cafe.
July 4, 2018
Love this book, mix of letters/prose/poetry � crucial snapshots of early sonic times and full of evocative nighttime scenes as well as one of the funniest bits about doing coke in England.
June 23, 2018
An insightful read for a casual Sonic Youth fan (picked it up for about 50 cents in Northern Thailand). Love some of the journal passages, particularly those focused on describing the landscapes and the mindset of being on tour. The attempts at beat poetry are less essential.
November 22, 2009
The "poetry" aspects of this range from 0 stars to 2 stars. The journalistic/diary aspects deserve an average 3 star rating but probably wouldn't if you have no interest in or previous biographical knowledge of Sonic Youth.
There's a great picture in this book (that I cannot find online, unfortunately) of them playing in the mid 80's, in all their intense live show glory, on a stage with a giant banner under it which inexplicably contains nothing but big "JESUS SAVES."
There's a great picture in this book (that I cannot find online, unfortunately) of them playing in the mid 80's, in all their intense live show glory, on a stage with a giant banner under it which inexplicably contains nothing but big "JESUS SAVES."
March 4, 2015
There is something so wonderful about these - not the poetry so much but the writing itself and the journal entries from tours. Really evocative, sense of place and time. I have always thought some of the longer Sonic Youth songs unrolled like landscapes seen through a car window and now I can see why. Also, it's awesome that Renaldo drags his bandmates not once, but twice to see Smithson's Spiral Hill.
November 18, 2023
Sadly overlooked chronicle of SY's salad days. Lee, give us that full-length autobio already.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
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