Tickets Go on Sale This Friday, July 26
Lee Ranaldo (photo Leah Singer)
(HUDSON, N.Y.) – Sonic Youth members Lee Ranaldo and Steve Shelley have chosen to launch the upcoming album by their band Lee Ranaldo and the Dust at Club Helsinki Hudson on Tuesday, October 8, at 8pm. The album will be released that same day on Matador Records. Tickets to the show go on sale on Friday, July 26.
In addition to Ranaldo and Shelley, bandmates include guitarist Alan Licht and bassist Tim Luntzel. Previously, Ranaldo’s group with these musicians was known simply as the Lee Ranaldo Band. Keyboardist John Medeski guests on the upcoming album, as he did on Ranaldo’s first solo album.
Along with singer-guitarist Thurston Moore and singer-bassist Kim Gordon, singer-guitarist Lee Ranaldo was a cofounder of the seminal guitar-noise outfit Sonic Youth, which Steve Shelley joined just a few years after the group’s founding, becoming its permanent drummer. Ranaldo was ranked by Rolling Stone at number 33 on its list of all-time greatest guitarists and by Spin magazine at number one along with Moore. Ranaldo was a member of Glenn Branca’s experimental electric guitar orchestra before forming Sonic Youth with Moore and Gordon.
Formed in 1981, Sonic Youth were avatars of the No Wave art and music scene in New York, known for their experimental approach using alternative tunings and feedback and distortion as tools in their musical arsenal. Like no other band since the Velvet Underground, perhaps, Sonic Youth were incredibly influential beyond their limited popular appeal, inspiring legions of noise-rock and hardcore-punk bands, as well as popular outfits including Nirvana. They toured as an opening act for Neil Young, himself a huge fan of guitar noise, and were famously heckled and abused by Young’s fans.
For reservations in The Restaurant or in the club call 518.828.4800. For the most up-to-date concert information visit Club Helsinki Hudson.