Lee Ranaldo >> You are in my headlight, in my present tense

Lee Ranaldo - "Deva, Spain (Fragments)"

(Stomach Ache Records, ca. 1988; later released by Musical Tragedies, 1992, & Atavistic Records, 1995)

In honor of Lee's birthday, here's a short piece that I've put on many a mix CD over the years.  Apparently a lot of record label owners have liked it too, because it originally came out on a Mexican compilation 7" in 1988 (Bullets Wrapped In Sugar), on a U.S. compilation cassette in the early '90s(?) (Spill Your Guts, Friend), on a German split CD EP with a band called Something To Burn in 1992, and on Lee's career retrospective CD East Jesus in 1995.  It was more recently used by Lee himself as a component of his self-remix album Outside My Window The City Is Never Silent: A Bestiary in 2002.

The fact that Stomach Ache Records was based on Mexico says something about how far Sonic Youth's notoriety had spread by the late '80s.  I don't know if he also made a longer version, but hopefully one will see the light of day.  I like the line "You are in my headlight," which seems to specify the headlight of a motorcycle or train, rather than the headlightS of a car.  But it can also mean the light or energy inside one's head / mind.  Deep.  I mentioned three months ago that I had just gotten an LP pressing of Lee's baffling debut album From → Here Infinity, but I have to report that I still haven't played it.  I guess I'm afraid that the brief (a few seconds long) lock grooves on it won't live up to the enhanced / extended loops on the CD and cassette issues, both of which I've owned for about 10 & 15 years, respectively.

Note: This song has been variously titled "Deva, Spain Fragments," "Deva, Spain (Fragments)" and "Deva, Spain: Fragments," depending on the release it's on, but I have to assume they are all the same song.

I have a few more pics and videos from Prospect.2 to unload, so bear with me.  A painting (er, actually, it's credited as "insect screening") by Kathleen Loe, on an upstairs wall of a new facility called the New Orleans Healing Center on St. Claude Avenue:

Peter Pan's Shadow (84 x 132"; $3200)

She had lots of other helicopter-themed works on display, a few of which you can see here.  There's also a little grocery store co-op, gym, herb store, book store, and other cool stuff in this nondescript building.  For those not from New Orleans, Rampart Street is the north border of the French Quarter; it extends to the east through the Ninth Ward / Faubourg Marigny neighborhood under the name St. Claude Avenue, with lots of upstart DIY art galleries, bike shops, vegan cafés, and the like.  Not all of the residents of this gentrifying neighborhood are happy about these developments, as you can tell by this flyer I saw on an abandoned building a block away on the same day:

To the right of it was a poster paying tribute to the two African-American victims of the notorious Danziger Bridge shootings.

In honor of Spain, here are some Ricky Rubio highlights, since Pau Gasol is having an off year.  This was his first-ever NBA start, just a few weeks ago.  He effortlessly picked apart my Hornets as I tried to explain to my dad why Rubio is such a big deal:

I saw Gasol a year ago this week from front-row seats at a Hornets-Lakers game.  Our chairs were literally on the court.  Gasol humiliated us for something like 30 points in the first half alone.  At one point I wondered loudly "Why isn't Chris Paul in?," after which coach Monty Williams looked to his right at me from about 10 feet away, then hollered at CP3 to get in the game.  The Lakers won by only a few points, despite outshooting us 24 to 4 in free throw attempts, if I remember correctly.  And people wonder why the same teams get back to the playoffs every year... Gotta love that referee bias towards big-market teams.  I've read entire long, footnoted articles about how NBA refs have more control over the outcome of games than do the refs of any other major sport, and this game was a crystal-clear example of it for me.

Yellow Magic Orchestra - "Tighten Up" + awkward interview on Soul Train, 1980

4 ways to enjoy nature according to insane old magazines
Sample cover:

Planets with similar climates: Sonic Youth - "Satan Is Boring" (1984), Poem Rocket - "Saint Sebastian's Halo" (1995), Windy & Carl - "Kate" (1997).

Lee Ranaldo w/ Steve Shelley >> If I met you on the street now walking slow with the radio on I could look right through you

Lee Ranaldo w/ Steve Shelley - "Live ∞ #1"

∞ (Live, 1987; Atavistic Records, 1995) ∞

1987 SST press photo

Lee was a co-founder of Sonic Youth in 1981, and Steve joined as their drummer in '86.  They are both still in the band today.  This is a live song found on Lee's excellent East Jesus: Some Recordings 1981-1991 compilation CD.  It was recorded on 5/31/87 in Amsterdam at the famous Paradiso club (The Chameleons wrote a song about it), though it was in an upstairs room, not the main concert hall; fIREHOSE & several other bands were playing live in the main hall that night.  An excerpt from Lee's book jrnls80s:

"the final show for us the next day was in paradiso, amsterdam. rather than the giant room where there were already four bands to go on, we had a smaller room upstairs all to ourselves. we were able to do a nice long check and position the three TV's nicely on top of the pa speakers and one onstage which made for a nice three-dimensional synapse-snap view of the feedback-video scans, davo told me later. the show was the best yet and the room was jammed with all manner of folk including daniel miller and rob collins and the three Ut girls whom i hung with afterwards but while it was happening i was oblivious to all of them, really inside the sounds and the reflected glare if the vid-screens. for the second reading, while steve wailed beat-rain over me i was crouched in front of the screen onstage, trying to enter it, silhouetted in the electron glow. it felt really good and the crowd seemed really to like it."

The name of the song is presumably a reference to Lee's baffling debut solo album, 1987's From Here → ∞ (a.k.a. From Here To Infinity).  His publishing company is also called Lazy Eight, which... well, just look at the infinity symbol and get back to me.  So the concept of infinity is obviously a pretty big deal to Lee.  Ways of dealing with the passing of time are addressed in the video for his superb 1991 song "Notebook":

In contrast to "Notebook"'s existential musings, "Live ∞ #1" is edgy and rabid, with a palpable feeling of unhinged desperation.  The bowl-cutted one lays down a devastatingly sick foundation on the trap set, while Lee unfurls some of his best and edgiest beat-noir couplets and screeching abysses of guitar lava.  It's amazing to me that this drumming was done live by only one person.  It culminates in a pretty intense climax with nice feedback and an unsettling sample of church bells.  (Lee had a thing for recording church bells during S.Y.'s tours of Europe in the '80s.)  If anyone knows where the looped intro sample that goes "Jealous... jealous..." comes from, please let me know, because it's been driving me crazy forever.  Sounds like Iggy Pop or some lame bubbleglam band.  I believe Lee played these kinds of random samples directly from a boombox when playing live.  For a duo performance, the sound is huge and fierce, and the recording quality is very clear and in-your-face.  After hearing this song, or any the songs that Lee wrote & sang lead on with S.Y. ("Hey Joni," "In The Kingdom #19, "Pipeline," "Wish Fulfillment," "Rain King," "Eric's Trip," "NYC Ghosts & Flowers," "Karen Koltrane," "Mote," etc.), you should know how amazing of a writer he is.  I have one of his books, and you should check out pretty much anything he has ever done.  I was born on his 21st birthday and he's one of my few idols.  Sonic Youth is my favorite band overall, but I never got to see them live.  Oh well.

John Stezaker - Pair IV (photo collage, 2007)

I heard on the news that the average high temperature in New Orleans last month was 94.1º, making it the hottest June in the recorded history of the city.

Planets with similar climates: Unwound - "Side Effects Of Being Tired" (1997), Sonic Youth - "In The Kingdom #19" (1986), Poem Rocket - "Levy 9 R.S.V.P." (~1997), The Sound - "Glass And Smoke" (1982), Juno - "Leave A Clean Camp And A Dead Fire" (1998), Long Fin Killie - "Cupid" (1996).


Currently listening to: The Samples, whose used CDs I've always seen in the bargain bins at various record stores.  I don't think I'd ever actually heard them until this week, and it turns out they're eerily similar to The Police, with some hints of The Sea And Cake and Toad The Wet Sprocket.  Sort of a reggae feel in the basslines and a jazz feel in the drums... just good stuff overall, often with sociologically and/or ecologically conscious lyrics.  For starters, check out "Everytime", "Another Disaster" and "Summertime."