Glenn Branca: RIP

[scabpicker]

Yes, I know he wasn’t incredibly popular, and most will say “Who?”

But he was very important to me. Aside from his own records, he introduced several guitar techniques and concepts that other artists used in more accessible ways to create some of my favorite records. He’s pretty integral to rock guitar after about 1988 or so.

So, he wasn’t a front page artist pretty much ever, but even Billboard noticed that he passed: 6 Classic Albums That Wouldn’t Exist Without Him.

@Glenn Branca

They knew I’d come up with all these incredibly cool sounds that could be used in the context of a rock song. At the time I wasn’t going to do that.” And their second album for DGC Records, Dirty, was the most sugarcoated of them all – hey, insert your own joke about “Sugar Kane” or “Crème Brûlée.

So, see ya, Sir! If there’s an afterlife, make it noisy. I’m gonna go listen to Symphony No. 1 again.

[WordMan]

A guy I always knew I was supposed to listen to. I read the news and was like, damn.

[Snowboarder_Bo]

Oh no.

ETA: Good choice, scabpicker.

[I-VI-ii-V]

I’m not that familiar with most of his work, but I did play in his Symphony for 100 Guitars when it was performed in Los Angeles. Pretty powerful stuff!

[Snowboarder_Bo]

@I-VI-ii-V

I’m not that familiar with most of his work, but I did play in his Symphony for 100 Guitars when it was performed in Los Angeles. Pretty powerful stuff!

I hate you only because I’m jealous. Another one of my dreams, since I can’t play with Frank Zappa, is to play with Rhys Chatham in some performance of Guitar Trio; have you been fortunate enough to get that gig? If so I may have to hatefully ask for details and then jealously read them.

[Snowboarder_Bo]

Glenn Branca is such an amazingly integral part of the late 20th century popular music scene it’s sick. I was not aware until just recently that Page Hamilton of Helmet had studied with him. I knew about Sonic Youth

@Lee Renaldo

The beginning of my time in New York, 1979-1980, would have been nothing without the genius work that Glenn Branca was doing at that time. The most radical, intelligent response to punk and the avant garde I’d ever seen. Sad to hear of his passing today.

and SWANS, of course, but I didn’t know that David Bowie listened to him!

@David Bowie writing about The Ascension

What at first sounds like dissonance is soon assimilated as a play on the possibilities of overtones from massed guitars… Branca uses the overtones produced by the vibrations of a guitar string. Amplified and reproduced by many guitars simultaneously, you have an effect akin to the drone of Tibetan Buddhist monks but much, much, much louder.

I listened to that just this morning and it still sounds incredible. This is my favorite quote from Mr. Branca:

@Glenn Branca

I consider volume to be one of the compositional elements in my work.

Glenn Branca totally fucking rocked!

[scabpicker]

@I-VI-ii-V

I’m not that familiar with most of his work, but I did play in his Symphony for 100 Guitars when it was performed in Los Angeles. Pretty powerful stuff!

:eek: Wow, I’ve opened for and met a bunch of my heroes, but I’ve never played in their [DEL]band[/DEL] [DEL]ensemble[/DEL] orchestra. You did so in service of one of the great ones. I am respectfully jealous. <tips hat>
Heheh, I never knew Bowie counted The Ascension among his favorite records, Bo. Considering his more experimental work, it seems obvious he’d like it, in retrospect. Supercool. Plus, I never replied in the SDMBMAPS thread, but I’m also envious of your copy of that record. I’ve never even seen a copy in real life.

I also wasn’t sure that John Cage had ever known of him. Now I know.
He Was Not A Fan.
He compares his work to Wagner, which might be fair…sonically. Tying it to fascism? Ehhh, not so much. That’s an obvious case of two adventurous, passionate folks thinking of the same thing in different ways, perhaps facilitated by the limitations of language, but an entertaining argument in its own right. That Branca released that interview as a bonus track of one of his own releases makes me love them both all the more.
Hmm, WordMan, even though I’m pretty sure you’re aware of Sonic Youth, Branca is a different level of challenging wrt to tonality and composition. The easiest route in would probably be Theoretical Girls. Computer Dating kind of comes across as a mix of Sonic Youth, Lou Reed, Joy Division and King Missile (Dog Fly Religion) - before most of them existed. Probably the most accessible pure Branca composition to start with is probably Light Field (In Consonance) from the aforementioned Ascension. It’s almost pop/dance music, but it’s also kind of a condensed version of Symphony No 1 (Tonal Plexus), sort of. Themes from other early releases of his come up in that one eventually. The fourth movement of that symphony is kind of a meld of Theoretical Girls’ You Got Me and Light Field, arranged for a guitar orchestra. They all sound incredibly different, but he had the balls to repeat himself when he wanted to.

Thanks, folks!

[MrDibble]

I’m a huge early Swans fan, and a bit of a SY fan, but not a pure guitar/soundscapes fan per se, so not really a fan of Branca’s own stuff - nevertheless, this is a loss.