Rane
Rane.
Probably one of my favorite bands. Their music? Incredible.
They're from my hometown of South Windsor, CT (3/5 of them), but hometown
loyalty alone isn't the reason I like them so much. With awesome
drumming and spacey, textured guitar, their sound is one of a
kind, particularly for a jam band, yet its something so familiar,
you feel like you're at home when you listen to it. Their music is hard to define, yet their lengthy jams would put them somewhere in the jam category, alongside bands such as The String Cheese Incident, Phish, or moe.
Their
first, self-titled, album was released in 1997. Great CD. Track
listing included, "The Long Road," "Coming
Home," "Words," "Tides,"
"Niagara," "Rain," "7," "Coming Home (Reprise),"
"Clouds," "Broca's Aphasia," and "Trip." The band
though, considers this a demo-esque album and tends to disregard
it as part of the official rane discography. However they, as
well as I, acknowledge it's where they got their beginning and
definitely was the start of something great.
In
1998, they released their second CD, At War With the Moon,
this time under the Splonedog Studios label. This studio recorded
CD is known as the "first" album in the rane catalog.
Also a good CD. Track listing included, "Helium,"
"For Them," "Apple," "Niagara,"
"Castles," "Where We Come From," "Sun
Lays Down," "At War with the Moon," and
"Mirage" (which is excellent live, particularly with
the improv cello solos).
In
June of 2000, rane released their third (although they call it
their second) album, Camelopardalis (after a star registered in
that constellation under their names) on their own label, Tides Records. Probably one of the best
and tightest CDs I own. Track listing is, "Feeding the
Machine," "Circus Ride," "Bowinicity,"
"When We Ride," "Gemini,"
"Transportation," "Flutter,"
"Minutes," "Fullness and Decay," and
"Somewhere in Between Sadness and Peace." Its an
excellent album and a must have, particularly if you're into pink
floyd, phish, and dave matthews (there's actually an mp3 out
there of the lead singer, Alan Veniscofsky, doing a solo cover of
phish's "Dirt"). Not featured on the album is a 10:24
track called kyte, which is all instrumental. It can be
downloaded from their website.
Through the end of
2000 and into 2001, rane has been working on a plethora of new songs, possibly
for another CD (possibly sometime in 2002?). In my opinion, the newer
songs show a wider variety of rane's skills and a comandeering of the ability to
work both solo and collectively. The newer songs are "Sound of
Sleep," "New England Song," "Charging Forward's
Blindness," "The Single Color," "Center of Ourselves,"
"The Gauge," "The Words (You and I)," "Cat Stevens, "Somber
Retreat," "From the Vine," and "The Mysterious Disappearance of Secanendo Maldanado." Also heard in recent shows was a cover of the 1985 Tears
for Fears song, "Everybody Wants to Rule the World."
As of late, the guys in rane have picked up new instruments, such as drum machines, samplers and two new keyboards, all to enrich the sound that is rane. Recent shows have included several warmup jams or improv jams during the sets, featuring the new equipment. As the songwriting of rane is entering a new phase with more texture and more improv, the sounds and the live shows are progressing along with it. Side projects of rane have included TAK (featuring Alan and Travis), The Triptofan Cartel (featuring Alan, Dan, and Travis), and Bad Jazz Manual (featuring Alan).
The official rane web
site is at http://www.thesoundofrane.com . They've got a lot of great stuff with frequently updated news . It features official band bios, online merchandising, a message board, and more. Occasionally they post shows on mp3 format however, there
are lots of other fans (such as myself) who carry current and entire shows on
disc or computer. E-mail me for info.
Over the next year, I hope to collaborate with ranefan Nate "Lars" Ingraham to
write out chord progressions and tunings for their songs as a basic framework
for other fans to use to jam to. These rane tabs should be finished and posted here on smalrus.com by the end of this summer...
Currently, I've created a Rane Lyrics Compendium for all of their songs (released and yet to be released). They can be found at
my rane lyrics site.
For AOL Instant Messenger users, I've also created a baller icon
for people to use and that can be found at raneaim. In the past, I had been rotating various live mp3s on my mp3s site, where listeners can download live mp3s of songs from recent shows. If there are specific songs you would like to hear on that page, please email me at smalrus@hotmail.com and I will try and find a good live mp3 of that song. In the meantime, go to a show, pick up a cd, or sign the mailing list. This site has some pictures from the 28 December 2001 Equator Show.
As the school year ends, I'm hoping to do a lot of layout work on this rane site and eventually get it as an official unofficial rane site- a rane version of phish.net. Between what I've got, the lyrics compendium, and the upcoming tab section, it will be a good start. Any and all suggestions, pictures, anecdotes, setlists, etc, etc, would be greatly appreciated. Email me at smalrus@hotmail.com with your ideas.
Rane
is: Ryan Bowman, Travis LaMothe, Dan Prindle, Kurt Rinaldi, Alan
Veniscofsky
The
rane sun logo you see in the background is by Justin Novick
created for a ranetides.com splash page, ©2000. Pictures on this page taken by S. Ross, Jan 2002.
e-mail the band:
ranemail@ranetides.com
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