Glenn Branca

The Oral History of Rat At Rat R: The NYC-via-Philly Noise-Rock Heroes Celebrate the Re-issue of Their 1985 Debut, Amer$ide

"In my way of thinking, first there is Sonic Youth then comes Rat At Rat R then after that comes Swans -- that order was kind of their appearance in the New York scene. But Rat At Rat R just stumbled -- there was just a lot of bad luck. They'd get going and something would happen." Ron Anderson, pun ... More >>

Q&A: Don Mclean of Fortissimo Records And Action Beat On This Weekend's Yo Eskerrik Asko, NYC! Festival And Meeting Glenn Branca

The rite of the music festival usually involves conglomerate domination and sponsorship whoring—but this weekend's genre-encompassing Yo Eskerrik Asko, NYC! is a refreshing break from that norm. Organizer Don Mclean of the DIY-minded Fortissimo Records and improv noise ensemble Action Beat can ... More >>

SONIC BOOM

Glenn Branca leads the 
pack at public assembly

Q&A: Janel And Anthony On D.C.'s Experimental Music Scene And Their New Record, Where is Home

Down in the nation's capital, a vibrant and thriving experimental music scene is currently emerging thanks in large part to the Maryland-based, genre-encompassing label Cuneiform Records. That label recently released the beautiful second album by Janel and Anthony, who have helped spark their hometo ... More >>

VOTE NOW: Will John Coltrane Or Blondie Make It To The Finals In Our Quintessential New York Musician Search?

As March comes to a close, so does our month-ish-long battle royale between 64 New York musicians, all of whom were put in the mix to decide which one best embodied the spirit of the city. Each of the divisions—Uptown, Queens, Downtown, and Brooklyn—has now crowned a winner, and for our ... More >>

SOTC's March Madness: The Quintessential New York Musician Tournament

Sound of the City's monthlong tournament to determine the quintessential New York City musician (since 1955, the year of the Village Voice's founding) is taking over our site all March. The full schedule and results (as of March 23) below; you can also follow along with our bracket.

John Coltrane (1) Meets Glenn Branca (8) In SOTC's March Madness

Give or take Downbeat polls or a sometimes-imagined rivalry with fellow downtown composer Rhys Chatham, neither John Coltrane nor Glenn Branca ever left much room for competition. During his lifetime, Coltrane cut a giant figure, an acknowledged giant of jazz whose ever-present curiosity helped the ... More >>

Glenn Branca (8) and Frankie Lymon (9) Face Off As Our Search For The Quintessential New York Musician Continues

The Round of 64 for Sound of the City's own version of March Madness—in which you, the Sound of the City voting public, help determine the quintessential New York musician—continues, and you get to vote on who makes it to Round Two. This face-off pits two evenly matched heavyweights: lea ... More >>

Q&A: NARC's Nicky Smith On Working Alone, Writer's Block, And Korn's Badass Guitar Tone

Mister Hands, the debut album from NARC, is the sound of Balimore's Nicky Smith bisecting and pinning to cork several the electric guitar's sonic flavors: the panning-stereo patty-cake blare of "Gangrene/Snickers"; the drowsy, Drunken Master splay of "Sweater"; "Don't Touch," which bear-hugs a meat ... More >>

Download: The Churning "The Mite," By Jenny Scheinman's Mischief And Mayhem

Michael Wilson​ Already renowned as arranger to the stars and New York's go-to violinist, Jenny Scheinman is building a new reputation as a formidable bandleader as well; her emotive scrapes and dramatic whines now dance around the propulsive jazz-rock of a newish quartet. The band—bassi ... More >>

Q & A: Noveller's Sarah Lipstate On Working Alone, Opening For The Jesus Lizard, Panic Attacks And Getting Kicked Out of Cold Cave

Louis Caldarola​Noveller is the nom de musique of Sarah Lipstate, whose precise compositions build on a cathartic repetition of righteous riff aktion colored with gorgeous loopingfuckdoodlery and noise gush. Live, it's just Lipstate, all by her lonesome, just the way she likes it, slinging her ... More >>

Live: Glenn Branca And Philip Glass Reward The Patient At The Bang On A Can Marathon

Stephanie BergerGlenn Branca​ Bang On A Can Marathon: Philip Glass, Sun Ra Arkestra, Glenn Branca, Asphalt Orchestra, Talea Ensemble, BOAC All-Stars, JACK Quartet (and many more) Winter Garden, World Financial Center Sunday, June 19 Better than: Any 13-hour stretch of the Northside Festival. ... More >>

MAKE SOME NOISE

Bang on a Can's 13-hour musical love-in returns

Avant-Garde Composer Glenn Branca Recounts His Cacophonic Symphonies One-By-One

Tony Cenicola Branca's wife and musician counterpart, Reg and Glenn (far left) Call Glenn Branca the "guitar guy" and see how fast the spiky-haired composer swears, sneers, or stalks out of the room. Though his retuned axes gave conceptual inspiration (and sidemen gigs) to Sonic Youth, and have oft ... More >>

Week In Review: The Love and the Wizardry

We are all Jay-Z's children,. Photo by Jori Klein.​In the week we told you why you can't hate Kanye West and love My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy at the same time, we made similarly bold claims about Girl Talk--ten worst moments on that record, right here--and the Beatles, who along with a c ... More >>

PREMIERE SOUND

Glenn Branca clashes and resolves

Glenn Branca Will Premiere His Next Guitar Symphony At (Le) Poisson Rouge Next Month

He's back (second from left) to rattle you anew. Pic by Tony Cenicola.​"I'm not out there to build an audience," no-wave guitar-symphony deity Glenn Branca told us earlier this year. "I'm 61 years old, for fuck's sake. But still . . . to the day I die . . . I am gonna be writing music." He was ... More >>

Glenn Branca Ascends Anew

A love connection (!) and a sequel (!!) for the downtown guitar-army god

Glenn Branca

Phil Kline, Avant-Garde Boombox Santa

He's good with choirs and 21st-century masses, too

Live: PK-14, Xiao He, and Carsick Cars Bring Chinese Experimental Rock to Brooklyn

Photo of Carsick Cars at Glasslands by Rebecca Smeyne​ PK-14, Xiao He, Carsick Cars Glasslands Friday, November 6 Nearly two years ago, while following Brooklyn's spasmodic noisemakers Ex-Models on a tour through the imperial city of Beijing and Shanghai for a magazine article, I got a taste ... More >>

This Weekend! Saint Vitus, Echo and the Bunnymen, Glenn Branca, and David Bazan

"Basically, I think right now, the world's in shit," Scott "Wino" Weinrich told the Voice's own Phil Freeman recently, by way of explaining the decision to revive the finest iteration of doom-metal giants Saint Vitus for a brief tour. "There's a lot of despair, a lot of economic problems. People h ... More >>

SWEET NOISE

SWEET NOISE The Glenn Branca Ensemble tries out new material

The Glenn Branca Ensemble+Carlos Giffoni & Okkyung Lee+Coati Mundi

Yes In My Backyard: Download the Sensorium Saxophone Orchestra's "Glow White"

Yes In My Backyard is a semiweekly column showcasing new and emerging MP3s from local talent. Recently, we've given you Inoculist's "Provenence", Liturgy's "Ecstatic Rite," and the video premiere of Renminbi's "Set Up." ​ The 15-member Sensorium Saxophone Orchestra makes massive, spectrum-e ... More >>

Yes In My Backyard: Download Liturgy's "Ecstatic Rite"

Yes In My Backyard is a semiweekly column showcasing new and emerging MP3s from local talent. Recently, we've given you the Beets' "Don't Fit In My Head," the video for Motel Motel's "Coffee," and Werewolves' "Dora Gerson." Liturgy's Hunter Hunt-Hendrix​ Liturgy are the first black metal ba ... More >>

ABES IN JOYLAND

Artist Dan Graham approves  Abe Vigoda

RENAISSANCE MAN

Indie artist Dan Graham gets his first U.S. retrospective

St. Vincent

Looking Back at Sonic Youth and Roxy Music

No dirt in these new bios, just work

The Gospel According to Dolly Parton

On the defiantly trashy and tremendously appealing queen of country-pop cheesecake

When the Town Was Down: New York Noise and No Wave

Capturing the city's '70s and '80s underground

Italo Don

DJ Dan Selzer of NYHappenings reveals his dark secrets

Big Clang

Metal from guitarless Norwegians, New Yorker with many

Wanna Buy a Used Bridge?

U.K. and NYC post-punk and no wave revisited, selectively

Your Roots Are Showing

The SEM Orchestra Finds the Old in New Composers

Branca Busting

You’re Soaking in It

Unidentified Fretted Object

David Beardsley Paints Moods Without Moving

Dueling With Symphonies

Failing 2000, Branca Goes for the 100-Guitar Mark

Class of ’33

Rock: Festivals

American Bandshell

Skimmed Cream

Snowplow You Bad Elephant!

Rattling the Stones

Glenn Branca and Friends Shake the Brooklyn Bridge

Music

Rekall Yr Idols

Music

Master of the Slow Surprise

Music Turned Inside Out

Hell Is Other Bands