History Music / GlennBranca

Born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, he first picked up a guitar at the age of 15. Around this time, he also created several tape experiments and sound collages for his own amusement. In 1966, he started the short-lived cover band [[Music/TheDoors The Crystal Ship]]. After studying theater at Emerson College, he formed the experimental theater group Bastard Theater in 1975. They performed two [[TrueArtIsIncomprehensible heavily unconventional and confrontational]] productions, which received interested reviews from a few news publications.

Afterwards he more or less abandoned the album format in favor of becoming a fully-fledged classical composer and composing several symphonies (though the instruments used in them aren't typical of many orchestras, featuring bass guitar, a series of instruments made by Branca himself, and an increasingly large amount of guitars, including '''100''' on his thirteenth and sixteenth symphonies). These symphonies
also included an amazing collection of performers, including Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo of Music/SonicYouth, Page Hamilton of Music/{{Helmet}}, Phil Kline of The Del-Byzanteens, and several members of Music/{{Swans}} including Michael Gira, Dan Braun, and Algis Kizys. With Symphony No. 7, he began composing for more traditional orchestras, though he never abandoned the electric guitar.

also included a DreamTeam of performers, including Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo of Music/SonicYouth, Page Hamilton of Music/{{Helmet}}, Phil Kline of The Del-Byzanteens, and several members of Music/{{Swans}} including Michael Gira, Dan Braun, and Algis Kizys. With Symphony No. 7, he began composing for more traditional orchestras, though he never abandoned the electric guitar.

In 1976, he moved to UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity to continue experimental theater, where he met the N. Dodo Band, and watched them rehearse in hopes of using their rehearsal space as a stage for his productions. He soon became friends with their member Jeffrey Lohn, who introduced him to bands such as Music/{{Suicide|Band}}. The two formed a collaboration that was initially another theater group, before Branca decided he wanted to form a band instead. This band was initially called The Static, before changing their name to Theoretical Girls. Theoretical Girls were one of the first bands to play a specific brand of PunkRock and PostPunk called No Wave, which was intended to go against the poppy and accessible sound of Music/NewWave by making something decidedly inaccessible and avant-garde. While they only played 20 shows, their sole single "You Got Me" wound up being heavily influential to bands such as Music/{{Swans}} and Music/{{Shellac}}. The rest of their studio recordings got compiled on the album Theoretical Record. Around this time, he recorded Y Pants' debut record and played on Rhys Chatham's album Guitar Trio, the latter of which influenced the sound he would take on later.

In 1980, he released his debut solo record Lesson No. 1, which wound up becoming a seminal work in No Wave despite poor sales. It also marked the start of his SerialEscalation in terms of how many guitars he could fit into one record (4 on this one, not counting the extra 2 that perform on the bonus track "Bad Smells"). It combines the repetition of minimal music with the aesthetics of PunkRock, and influenced the likes of Music/SonicYouth and other experimental rock bands.

He followed this up with 1981's EvenBetterSequel, The Ascension. While the no wave influence is still very much there, it adds in elements of ClassicalMusic and Totalism, creating a more symphonic experience than most other noise rock albums. God knows what bands like Music/{{Swans}} would be without tracks such as "Lesson No. 2", "The Spectacular Commodity", and the title track. It's around here he started to explore the harmonic series.

In 1982 he opened up Neutral Records, which is responsible for the release of much of his later material as well as Music/SonicYouth's early albums. He composed his last individual song, "Indeterminate Activity of Resultant Masses", in the same year, though it wouldn't be released until 2008.

He returned to the album format with 2010's ''The Ascension: The Sequel'', which also got a follow-up in the posthumous release ''Ascension Three''. In 2015, he completed his 16th and final symphony, ''Orgasm''. His final composition was ''The Light (for David'' for four guitars, bass, and drums, premiering in October 2016.

On May 14, 2018, Reg Bloor revealed on Facebook that he had died of throat cancer the night before. He was 69.

->''"Well, what at first sounds like dissonance is soon assimilated as a play on the possibilities of overtones from massed guitars. Not Minimalism, exactly—unlike La Monte Young and his work within the harmonic system, Branca uses the overtones produced by the vibration of a guitar string. Amplified and reproduced by many guitars simultaneously, you have an effect akin to the drone of Tibetan Buddhist monks but much, much, much louder. Two key players in Branca’s band were future composer David Rosenbloom (the terrific Souls of Chaos, 1984) and Lee Ranaldo, founding figure with Thurston Moore of the great Music/SonicYouth. Over the years, Branca got even louder and more complex than this, but here on the title track his manifesto is already complete."''\\
--'''Music/DavidBowie''', who put ''Music/TheAscension'' on his list of favorite albums, "Confessions of a Vinyl Junkie"

Glenn Branca (October 6, 1948 - May 13, 2018) is the most influential Avant-Garde guitarist out there, but let's not get ahead of ourselves just yet.

In 1976, he moved to UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity to continue experimental theater, where he met the N. Dodo Band, and watched them rehearse in hopes of using their rehearsal space as a stage for his productions. He soon became friends with their member Jeffrey Lohn, who introduced him to bands such as Music/{{Suicide}}. The two formed a collaboration that was initially another theater group, before Branca decided he wanted to form a band instead. This band was initially called The Static, before changing their name to Theoretical Girls. Theoretical Girls were one of the first bands to play a specific brand of PunkRock and PostPunk called No Wave, which was intended to go against the poppy and accessible sound of Music/NewWave by making something decidedly inaccessible and avant-garde. While they only played 20 shows, their sole single "You Got Me" wound up being heavily influential to bands such as Music/{{Swans}} and Music/{{Shellac}}. The rest of their studio recordings got compiled on the album Theoretical Record. Around this time, he recorded Y Pants' debut record and played on Rhys Chatham's album Guitar Trio, the latter of which influenced the sound he would take on later.

* SensoryAbuse: Several of his compositions, but especially the TitleTrack of ''The Ascension'', which eschews any sense of melody the previous compositions had in favor of chaotic walls of guitar noise over seemingly improvised drumming (though, believe it or not, the whole thing is entirely a composed piece).

--'''Music/DavidBowie''', who put ''The Ascension'' on his list of favorite albums, "Confessions of a Vinyl Junkie"

* ''The Ascension'' (1981)

In 1976, he moved to UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity to continue experimental theater, where he met the N. Dodo Band, and watched them rehearse in hopes of using their rehearsal space as a stage for his productions. He soon became friends with their member Jeffrey Lohn, who introduced him to bands such as Music/{{Suicide}}. The two formed a collaboration that was initially another theater group, before Branca decided he wanted to form a band instead. This band was initially called The Static, before changing their name to Theoretical Girls. Theoretical Girls were one of the first bands to play a specific brand of PunkRock and PostPunk called No Wave, which was intended to go against the poppy and accessible sound of Music/NewWave by making something decidedly inaccessible and avant-garde. While they only played 20 shows, their sole single You Got Me wound up being heavily influential to bands such as Music/{{Swans}} and Music/{{Shellac}}. The rest of their studio recordings got compiled on the album Theoretical Record. Around this time, he recorded Y Pants' debut record and played on Rhys Chatham's album Guitar Trio, the latter of which influenced the sound he would take on later.

In 1976, he moved to UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity to continue experimental theater, where he met the N. Dodo Band, and watched them rehearse in hopes of using their rehearsal space as a stage for his productions. He soon became friends with their member Jeffrey Lohn, who introduced him to bands such as Music/Suicide. The two formed a collaboration that was initially another theater group, before Branca decided he wanted to form a band instead. This band was initially called The Static, before changing their name to Theoretical Girls. Theoretical Girls were one of the first bands to play a specific brand of PunkRock and PostPunk called No Wave, which was intended to go against the poppy and accessible sound of Music/NewWave by making something decidedly inaccessible and avant-garde. While they only played 20 shows, their sole single You Got Me wound up being heavily influential to bands such as Music/{{Swans}} and Music/{{Shellac}}. The rest of their studio recordings got compiled on the album Theoretical Record. Around this time, he recorded Y Pants' debut record and played on Rhys Chatham's album Guitar Trio, the latter of which influenced the sound he would take on later.