Between the Times and the Tides

Did I ever tell you about that time at ATP when Jimmy thought Lee Ranaldo waved at him? It was hilarious.  To cut a long story short, it turned out that the sisters Deal were standing behind us.

ATP is always a really good ground for indie-celeb spotting, because it has a very egalitarian policy towards 'the talent' - the bands stay in chalets like everyone else and, being at Butlins, there is no backstage or VIP area.

Last time, we found ourselves in a chalet next to the afore-mentioned Breeders, which was pretty cool.  Jimmy, who is usually unmoved by celebrity, became thoroughly overexcited at all the bona fide heroes wandering the place, and began enthusiastic games of 'Deal or No Deal' and 'Batwatch'.

We kept seeing Lee Ranaldo around the place, tall and cool-looking in a fur and sunglasses at all times.  As he wasn't officially playing, I had a hard time placing him.  He stood next to us when we watched The Breeders soundcheck (a nice moment) and we kept bumping into him in the arcade and Burger King.  We just called him 'The Man' in the end.  It was only when we arrived home the following day that it occurred to me exactly where I had recognised him from, that he was in one of my favourite bands - Sonic Youth.

The man, or Lee Ranaldo, has always in my opinion been a slightly underrated member of the band - less starry than Kim and Thurston, obviously.  But he is great - proven beyond a shadow of a doubt by his new solo album.

I've been listening to it nonstop since I bought it and am listening to it now.  In many ways, it's more accessible than a lot of SY stuff; very similar in tone to their album 'Sonic Nurse', which is definitely towards the more poppy and chilled-out end of their spectrum.

It's a lovely album and I thoroughly recommend it.  My favourite song on it is 'Angles' but the whole thing is great and I think I'll be listening to it a lot.