Photo via Akashic Books
Unstrung: Rants and Stories of a Noise Guitarist (Akashic), by Marc Ribot
Guitarist Marc Ribot emerged from New York City’s “Downtown scene” where CBGB’s stood and experimental musicians played loft parties before the district was gentrified. A recording artist in his own right, Ribot gained the reputation as the go-to guy for edgy guitar, having played with everyone from Robert Plant to Tom Waits. He’s now the author of a memoir-manifesto, Unstrung.
Ribot describes himself as devoted to the art of distortion, best achieved not by pressing buttons but by cranking the volume until the amps are at risk. “We seem to love broken voices in general,” he adds, “vocal cords eroded by whiskey and screaming, the junked-out weakness of certain horn players.” He doesn’t make the analogy but his aesthetic of damage and erosion calls to mind the sublimity accorded by Romantic artists to ruins.
Ribot played in many bands and makes a witty observation on “those little units which invariably replicate the most dysfunctional elements of their members’ families.” Don’t get him started on how digitalization has ripped off musicians! Despite the perils of a working musician’s life, Ribot stuck to it, leaving thoughtful discord in his wake. As he insists, rock “never belonged to the people who played it right.”
