Glenn Branca plays Yo Eskerrik Asko, NYC! tonight.

The rite of the music festival usually involves conglomerate domination and sponsorship whoring—but this weekend's genre-encompassing Yo Eskerrik Asko, NYC! is a refreshing break from that norm. Organizer Don Mclean of the DIY-minded Fortissimo Records and improv noise ensemble Action Beat candidly admits to shelling out a shit-ton of his money to put together this weekend's mindblowing lineups.

In addition to composer, symphonist and no wave visionary Glenn Branca and his ensemble (who will perform The Ascension: The Sequel), electronics-destroying noise miscreants White Suns and sound collage artists Oneohtrix Point Never and Tim Hecker, tomorrow night marks the much-welcomed return of guitarist Tom Carter, who fell ill on tour in Germany. Carter will be playing alongside ex-wife Christina Carter in spiritual guitar duo Charalambides.

Sound of the City got to chat via email with Mclean about putting out Branca's 1981 no wave landmark The Ascension (on vinyl), Action Beat and the festival's lineup.

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​Sound of the City's search for the quintessential New York City musician enters Round Two this week, with battles in the Round of 32 daily. Keep up with all the action here.

Give or take Downbeat polls or a sometimes-imagined rivalry with fellow downtown composer Rhys Chatham, neither John Coltrane nor Glenn Branca ever left much room for competition. During his lifetime, Coltrane cut a giant figure, an acknowledged giant of jazz whose ever-present curiosity helped the music blossom from bebop to the spiritual free improvisation he championed later in his life. Since his death in 1967, his reputation has only grown larger, one of the last unifying figures in jazz history. Branca, meanwhile, created symphonies of alternate tuned guitars, massive harmonies, vibrating holes in the universal fabric and, in part, inspiring Sonic Youth. Without either, we'd be a lot less free.

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The Round of 64 for Sound of the City's own version of March Madness—in which you, the Sound of the City voting public, help determine the quintessential New York musician—continues, and you get to vote on who makes it to Round Two. This face-off pits two evenly matched heavyweights: leading light Glenn Branca (seeded eighth in the Uptown division) against eternal teenager Frankie Lymon (in at nine). Entertain the arguments below, then cast your ballot at the bottom of the page.

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Stephanie Berger

Glenn Branca

Bang On A Can Marathon: Philip Glass, Sun Ra Arkestra, Glenn Branca, Asphalt Orchestra, Talea Ensemble, BOAC All-Stars, JACK Quartet (and many more)
Winter Garden, World Financial Center
Sunday, June 19

Better than: Any 13-hour stretch of the Northside Festival.

It's not uncommon for a composer to introduce some colleague or another as one of history's greats. And so it was on Sunday night at the finale of 2011's 13-hour-long Bang On A Can Marathon, an annual festival celebrating music that "falls between the cracks" (as one is often told) of classical, rock, world, jazz and other genre definitions.

Just before 11 p.m., festival co-founder Michael Gordon testified to the crowd at the World Financial Center's indoor Winter Garden how Glenn Branca—the pioneering guitar symphonist who taught Lee Ranaldo and Thurston Moore how to de-tune and rock out in his bands dating from the late '70s—was one of his "favorite composers of all time." A few people whistled in agreement. But it was also late for many marathoners; even the most die-hard fans of "new music" get tired after half a day of sitting still and concentrating on sound while situated in the middle of a spacious, echoing mall expanse.

Branca decided the room needed a hype man.

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Tony Cenicola

Branca's wife and musician counterpart, Reg and Glenn (far left)

Call Glenn Branca the "guitar guy" and see how fast the spiky-haired composer swears, sneers, or stalks out of the room. Though his retuned axes gave conceptual inspiration (and sidemen gigs) to Sonic Youth, and have often been the bedrocks of his pieces for 30 years, Branca's 15 symphonies have included microtonal harpsichords, homebuilt mallet guitars, overturned trash cans, and traditional European orchestras.

His latest, Running Through the World Like An Open Razor, premieres Saturday at Le Poisson Rouge, and--palette-wise--is easily his most ambitious yet. It features over 100 different instruments including shrutis, a swangsarum, and (possibly) his good ol' steel wire harmonics guitars. "I want to hear something that sounds like it came from another planet, which is something I've wanted to hear since I was a kid," says Branca. He recently recounted the history of his symphonies.

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He's back (second from left) to rattle you anew. Pic by Tony Cenicola.

"I'm not out there to build an audience," no-wave guitar-symphony deity Glenn Branca told us earlier this year. "I'm 61 years old, for fuck's sake. But still . . . to the day I die . . . I am gonna be writing music." He wasn't kidding. Can we interest you in the world premiere of his next symphony?

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