Six Feet Under The Radar

I saw Jandek tonight -- er, Sunday night. I am trying to get some thoughts down for a few minutes here... so, OK:

• Jandek is not a lot of things you might hear about him. Jandek is not the mentally handicapped son of a record plant owner who gets his records released by his dad for free. Jandek is not some crazed nut whose music is a release from whatever afflictions he supposedly struggles with. One clue -- Jandek keeps releasing records, 42 to date, and they are progressing, changing, and showing clear (sometimes radical) shifts in aims/means, something not usually associated with art strictly for therapy's sake. Jandek is also apparently a nice, pleasant guy to talk to -- and that's second-hand information, yo, mined straight from the source. Two sources now, I guess. So no, I didn't get to chat with Jandek.

• Anyway, Jandek is a "capital a" artist, not deadly serious all the time, but an artist nonetheless. He's got pretty, ah, unique vision, but he's executing it with technical ability, proficiency of expression, and passion. And it seems like Jandek isn't unaware of how his art always was/is "captial a" art within the larger scheme of things.

• Brief show review from this point, since I wasn't taking notes and there were a million things to take in.

  No doubt, Jandek is an important avant musician at this point in his career. His guitar playing is anything but traditional "outside musicianship" where "can't tune = "outside" = "unintentional avant garde". Maybe he chooses to express some ideas (most notably in the past) in a more straight-up "outside" style, but not right now I don't think. Jandek is, for lack of a non-moronic expression, an axeman. His playing features a wide vocaulary of avant rock/jazz expression, performed live sans a single pedal, I might add, including echoes of Derek Bailey, Nels Cline, Glenn Branca, Jim O'Rourke, etc. I can't call these complicated, diverse musical touchstones a coincidence -- a million monkeys and all that couldn't come up the unique, techincally incredible (though maybe not for everyone) guitar style Jandek has developed -- on his own, as well as member of a distinguished avant-guitar community.

  Not that you can't tell from the last several of electric records how good/focused he's gotten, but seeing Jandek with his band was phenomenal. It's almost like... like everything you've heard on record was sort of dated afterwards. Of the two drummers, the unnamed drummer on the right was un-fucking-believeable. He had drums as rhythm and as lead down tight -- but how to adequately describe? I will say that he was, at points throughout the set, taking symbols off their stands and using them with his drum heads to create additional mind-blowing percussive sounds. The drummer on the left was excellent too, but he seemed to focus on more strictly rhythmic aims. So they worked well together.

• Jandek raged. Jandek grooved. Jandek even smiled -- more than once, and genuine smiles, too. I couldn't help kinda smiling back**. He definitely got into the gig, visibly, taking center stage(ish) for extended pieces and working with his musicians the way that, well, good leaders in jazz/improv groups do. To me, the songs themselves (meaning the lyrics, etc.) were almost secondary to the improvisional uses Jandek made of them last night. More and more I was thinking the personal themes with Jandek's songs are being at least equalled in significance by this whole incredible range of musical ideas/thoughts/emotions. The more fevered the pitch of the extended improv pieces, the more amazing Jandek was. It wasn't "hate jazz" nor unlistenable, but Jandek live is more overwhelming and powerful than you would have any reason to expect, squarejohn or not.

**Oh yeah, Helen Back and I were in the front row, the first two right aisle seats. It would have been a perfect spot for heckling, but you know... sometimes there's funny, and sometimes there's just going too far.

Comments

[MathJames]

If i had any doubts before about Janek and his musical abilities they are fading fast in the light of that sincere and ardent review. I love seeing someone practice their craft and your craft is music appreciation, and Jandek, perhaps, your signature piece.

[The Tartan Horde]

Does this mean you didn't get a t-shirt?

[billy bonka]

Where's my CD!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[very metal]

"Don't expect to find all the answers. Perhaps it's better that way."

[ocular spectra]

here's my own post about the AFA new york city show, if anyone's interested:

http://echoplex.blogspot.com/2005/09/humility-of-pain.html

[Johnny Meatworth]

that show was the baddest motherfucker ever

[very metal]

indeed.