Just me and my guitar - Lee Ranaldo out in front

The shock implosion of Sonic Youth gave Lee Ranaldo the chance to go out on his own, writes Ed Power

IN LATE 2011, Sonic Youth guitarist Lee Ranaldo received a call from bandmate Kim Gordon. She needed to discuss something, urgently. What Ranaldo didn’t know — couldn’t even suspect — was that Gordon’s husband Thurston Moore (he also happened to be Sonic Youth’s frontman) had confessed to an affair. Their marriage was crumbling and, with it, Sonic Youth, one of the most revered ensembles in American alternative music.

“Kim broke the news that things weren’t going well [for her and Moore], that they thought they were going to split up — and that it would put the band on ice for a while.”