In October Sonic Youth co-founder Lee Ranaldo released Last Night on Earth, his excellent second solo LP for Matador Records and first with his new band The Dust (comprised of fellow SY alum Steve Shelley on drums, bassist Tim Lüntzel and Downtown NYC guitar hero Alan Licht). A few weeks earlier the guitarist shared the perspective of a Grateful Dead fan via an illuminating and insightful online review of the 1972 GD concert documentary Sunshine Daydream. In the following conversation, Ranaldo discusses his new band, his Deadhead roots and the possibilities of additional Sonic Youth reissues as well.
How did you come to form The Dust?
When I made the last record, I’d put the songs together and tracked them pretty much on my own with Steve playing drums, and bass. Then I started inviting various friends to come along and play on the tracks. I wasn’t thinking beyond getting an album done—it didn’t occur to me until later that I might be asked to go out and play the songs live.
At that point I enlisted Steve and Alan Licht to help me get a band off the ground. So, really, there wasn’t a ‘band’ to speak of at the time that [2012’s] Between the Time and the Tides was made. But after a year of touring we came together, with Tim Lüntzel on bass, and started to think seriously about finding a name for this new ensemble. Many were thrown out before “The Dust” stuck.
I’ve read that Last Night on Earth is influenced by the Grateful Dead. In what aspects does this influence permeate through the songs on this album and within the interplay of your new band The Dust?
Well, I’ve been debating how much (or little) to make of the Dead’s influence on this record. Some people have such an aversion to the band—as much as some others love them—that it’s a bit of a volatile issue. I make no secret about my own love of The Dead, especially in my youth, mostly thru the 70s when they were in ‘high’ form. And I’ve often drawn parallels between The Dead and SY over the years—in terms of both being bands with three singers/three points of view who were as comfortable playing songs as deep improvisation/exploration.
With all the touring my band did behind Between The Times And The Tides, we really grew together in our playing. I wasn’t used to playing in any rock combo besides SY, in spite of playing lots of ‘abstract music’ with many different improvisers over the years. A band has to achieve a certain balance and shared language to really take off, and it takes some time to get comfortable in a new situation. Especially when treading the delicate line between putting songs across on the one hand, and getting deeply wigged out on the other.
By the time we came together around the songs I’d written for Last Night On Earth, we were growing pretty tight musically, willing to challenge ourselves with some more open-ended playing. I knew I wanted some of the new songs to have some less structured sections, that could shift and change night by night depending on where the music took us. We spent a lot of time on these songs in the studio— I’m thinking of “The Rising Tide”, “By The Window” and “Blackt Out“—waiting for the right moments to happen, pushing and pulling them in different ways over the course of the recording sessions. Some were further edited into the most ‘ideal’ versions. The flexible nature of these tracks is also why we decided to release the double CD of demos and rehearsals ( _The Rising Tide: Last Night On Earth Demos & Rehearsals+ ). It highlights alternate recordings of some of these songs that went to different places than the album versions did, which were, to us, equally interesting to
listen to.
When did you first get into the Dead and when and where was your first Dead show?
I started listening to The Dead in the late 60s or really early 70s, first with Workingman’s Dead and American Beauty, and shortly thereafter everything I could get my hands on. Europe 72 was a big record for me—it still is—and I started seeing them live just around that time, which was shortly after Pig Pen stopped touring with them, sadly. I suppose the first show I saw was at the Nassau Coliseum, and I was at the Watkins Glen show they did with The Band and The Allman Bros in upstate New York. I did get to see one or two shows where they had the Wall of Sound PA. I didn’t realize what a feat that system was at the time, but I’m glad I got to experience it.
Did you ever attend a Dead concert after you joined Sonic Youth?
I think I only saw them once after SY got going, it was at the Garden in NYC and if I remember correctly. Either Wynton or Branford Marsalis came out and joined them for part of the set [it was Branford]. I wasn’t particularly in their headspace anymore by then and just kinda took it in. When SY was recording Washing Machine down in Memphis in 1995 we had the invitation to see them play at that weird pyramid-shaped arena there, with the implication that we might also get to meet the band, but we were so wrapped up in our recording sessions that we didn’t make it. In light of Jerry’s death not long after, I’m sorry we didn’t get out to see them that night. I guess I can’t really imagine anyone else in SY was too interested, though…
What is your favorite live period of the Dead?
Well I cut my teeth on the music from Europe ’72 and the Skullfuck album, I love that period. The earlier stuff— Live Dead especially—is untouchably great. And I loved their live versions of much of the Mars Hotel and Wake of the Flood records—“Eyes of the World,” “Weather Report Suite,” “Stella Blue,” “Scarlet Begonias,” “U.S. Blues”...
What do you feel is the most underrated Dead studio album?
Hmm, well I guess there are some late ones that are underrated for good reason. Some times people find the early ones a little opaque, but I love AoxomoxoA and Anthem of the Sun. All the collage experiments on the latter are, to me, really great exploratory usage of the studio situation to try and craft something new and exciting. They may not have fully made it to the finish line, but they are totally interesting records to listen to. I was recently obsessed by the song “Mountains of the Moon” which led directly to the harpsichord playing on “Late Descent #2” of Last Night On Earth.
What is your favorite unissued or bootlegged Dead set?
Oh man, there are so many. I went to Harpur College in Binghamton NY and there is a legendary show they did at Harpur shortly before I arrived—playing both acoustic and electric sets—that I wish I had attended. My band these days is proving pretty versatile as well, we’ve been doing all-acoustic sets that have been really refreshing and great fun.
Did anyone else in Sonic Youth share your affinity for the Dead?
Not really, although Thurston has always had an appreciation for all types of music, and was certainly moved when Jerry died. Just lately Steve has been seen with a copy of Dennis McNally’s Long Strange Trip book under his arm.
Are there any plans to continue the reissue campaign of your Geffen catalog? I’m looking forward to the deluxe editions of Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star and Washing Machine. Is there a lot of stuff in the vaults from that period?
There is lots of stuff from every period, and we’ve spent a lot of time over the last 4-5 years preserving and digitizing our back catalog. Currently I don’t think there are hard copies in print of most of the pre-Geffen albums, and we’re working on that. Also, the recently released Smart Bar/Live 1985 album is the first in what we hope will be an extended series of live releases from every period of our career. I’ve always thought it would be great to present the material from each of our albums in their ideal live versions—for instance a live album of the Washing Machine material or The Eternal material or Daydream Nation songs.
For us as players, it’s the live versions of most of our songs that we have in our mind, rather than the ‘snapshots’ that are the album versions. We have an immense archive of stuff—30 years of photos, videos, recordings, ephemera etc—and we’d like to see some further releases come of it. We’ve been working on plans (just to name one) for an extended multi-disc set of Sister era material, as well as the idea of compiling all the film music that SY has recorded over the years. All in progress in between our current busy schedules.
