Zen Guitar for
the 22nd Century
. . . and Beyond
completely out the window, but if you’re into
the exploration, it’s one of the most expedient
ways to get a new flavor out of the guitar.”
Ranaldo is just as willing to enter alien territory as a listener. Early fascinations with the
Beatles’ and Grateful Dead’s manipulation
of tape loops and electronics opened his
mind to the modern minimal composition of
Stockhausen and Steve Reich. And the bubbling cauldron of ’60s rock steered him to the
world music he calls one of the most liberating influences on his guitar playing.
Nick Zinner: The Pop Alchemist
The Yeah Yeah Yeahs busted into the collective pop-music consciousness in 2002 with the
subtlety of party crashers driving a trash truck
through the front door. On the surface, their
music was all punky swagger and sass, served
up via the formidable performing presence of
vocalist Karen O. And upon a casual first listen,
the music could seem primitive and buzzingly
minimal. But the simplicity was deceptive.
“If you’re talking about extending the poten-
tial of the guitar, international music is a really
useful guide. I’ve always been inspired by
Balinese gamelan music and Indian raga. But I
also found a lot of parallels with that stuff and
groups like the Velvet Underground or the
Stooges. The overtones of raga and the way
melodies can stretch out over a single note
really translate on the electric guitar. So do
the metallic, percussive qualities of gamelan
music, which I explore by playing behind the
bridge. Even things like the Master Musicians
of Joujouka in Morocco. Their music is really
related to circular-breathing jazz techniques
on one hand, which is why Ornette Coleman
went there to play with them. But they also
play in these droney styles and with a repeti-
tion, intensity, and volume that equate with a
lot of aspects of rock and roll. And yeah, that
becomes background information when you’re
working on songs in more rock-related idioms.”
At the root of the aural ruse was the exuberant,
inventive, and resourceful playing of guitarist
Nick Zinner. And if a few deeper listens of any
of their first two EPs or full-length LP didn’t hip
the casual listener to that fact that Zinner was
an uncommonly clever guitar player, arranger,
and texturalist, seeing one of the band’s high-
octane shows usually obliterated any doubt.
the band’s only instrumentalists. It’s an arrangement that keeps Zinner on his toes in the live
context. But it also gives him plenty of room to
create the dynamic, driving buzz and howl that
sets the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ sound apart. And in a
single song, Zinner can juxtapose frantic, off-kilter lead lines with hooks and riffs worthy of Zep
or the Buzzcocks, and create moods that move
from melancholy to frenzied—all while displaying a remarkable empathy for the expressive
power of Karen O’s voice. Their sound and success are a testament to the creativity that can
be sparked by limitations. And few guitarists
are doing that as craftily as Nick Zinner.
Though they have occasionally augmented the
band with an additional guitarist or keyboard
player, Zinner and drummer Brian Chase are
“It changed everything,” says Zinner about the
eye-opening experience of working in the con-
text of a smaller band. “When the Yeah Yeah
Yeahs first started, I was playing in a more
traditional five-piece band. When Karen and I
started writing rock songs, I was going against
the full-band approach. I was really trying
to do everything, and cover the entire aural
Ranaldo and Sonic Youth’s openness to cross-
pollination is not new. Many of the same
impulses fueled work by the ’60s innovators
who inspired Ranaldo. But the willingness
to act on ideas without second-guessing or
concern for reproducing the form is what
has kept Sonic Youth vital—even when it
has meant diminished commercial success,
battered guitars, and befuddlement among
musicians unable to decode the band’s music.
“A certain irreverence is essential to getting
yourself out of creative binds,” Ranaldo says.
“You don’t want to get so precious about an
instrument that it puts up a barrier between
what you can or want to do musically. And
a lot of the best art has always come from
people with less-than-perfect technique.
Traditionally speaking, I probably play less
technically than ever before—and my sound
is probably more my own now than ever.”
On tour with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ in 2009, Nick Zinner tweaks one of his three pedalboards stocked with Line 6, Boss, Electro-Harmonix, Foxx,
Digi Tech, and other pedals (as well as a Voodoo Lab Pedal Power) as rhythm guitarist Jessica Dobson looks on. Photo by David Belisle
