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WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?! Ray's Review Blog
JANDEK - Cleveland Sunday, Beachland Ballroom, 8/21/2011.
JANDEK – CLEVELAND SUNDAY
Acoustic performance at the Beachland Ballroom August 21, 2011.
I have been a Jandek fan since about 1988 when I heard the song Lavender (played at the wrong speed, no less) on WCSB, the college station of Cleveland State University. I would pick up his albums here and there whenever I hit college town record stores, usually in Cleveland, Columbus or Pittsburgh. But I never in a million years ever thought the guy would ever even make a public appearance, let alone perform live. And yet, since October of 2004, that’s what he’s been doing. So I was pretty excited to find out he was going to play in Cleveland. The show was originally scheduled to take place in a church (something he’s done in the past), but was moved to the Beachland Ballroom. I have seen several great shows at the Beachland, including Guided By Voices, Tobin Sprout, The Legendary Stardust Cowboy (with Dead Kennedys’ bassist Klaus Flouride on bass), and Robyn Hitchcock (with REM’s Peter Buck on bass). The Beachland Ballroom is probably the coolest club in NE Ohio to see live music.
I arrived at the venue early and went downstairs to the vintage clothing and record store in the basement. The last time I was down there I found myself standing not five feet from Robyn Hitchcock and Peter Buck (I also went to the music store adjacent to the ballroom and saw Bill Rieflin, former Ministry/current REM and Robyn Hitchcock drummer on the same night). I hung out down there for awhile, looking through the old vinyl, pulp paperbacks, some pretty cool old men’s magazines, and what looked like a mid-60s gossip magazine from Paris, which I almost bought on impulse. When the doors opened at 8:30 I promptly went upstairs, got my hand stamped and went into the ballroom.
As anyone who has seen Jandek knows, no one knows what to expect. Usually he plays with a band, often playing extended free form discordant blues jams. Music critic Douglas Wolk once accurately described Jandek’s music as sounding like “dark, half-decomposed blues”. But tonight, he’s playing solo acoustic guitar. There were about 100 chairs set up on the left side of the ballroom, and myself and my older sister (who attended the show with me) took our seats on the edge of the third row, which meant I would have a dead center look at the Representative from Corwood Industries. Slowly, the chairs began filling up over the next half hour, and were nearly full by show time. At precisely 9:00 PM the house lights dimmed and out walked the man officially known as Jandek--real name Sterling Smith--to enthusiastic applause. Without saying a word he put down the black satchel he carried with him, grabbed an acoustic guitar, began plucking at the strings and started singing a song about…Cleveland. His guitar seemed to be tuned to a normal open tuning (often his guitar is tuned—or detuned—to some bizarre key). He sang about walking along Lake Erie early on a Sunday morning, and walking through a children’s fair benefitting victims of autism. He even sung a rather humorous line about a snake exhibit, where one child yelled “get it off! Get it off!” after an attendant wrapped a snake around the kid’s neck.
The next song was a little more melodic, using odd chords in the guitar’s upper register, although some of the songs Jandek performed that night featured him strumming or plucking the strings without actually playing any chords. After each song he would sit and wait while everyone applauded and then turn the page in a black notebook he propped up in front of him on a music stand.
One of the evening’s highlights was another song about Cleveland—this time about walking along Euclid Avenue and saying to himself “This is cool as hell/Lighten up!” and then remarking “Where’s the governor?” On another song Jandek picked up a harmonica and began playing it while plucking at his guitar, which he laid on his lap. He would alternate between playing harmonica and singing. But the most startling one (for me) was a short tune where he sang “I’m not here” while playing slide guitar, making sounds which resembled an old blues 78 speeded up and slowed down. Several people in the audience (including me) thought it was funny, and even the man himself sort of looked like he was having a good time.
Jandek played a total of an hour and 40 minutes, and at the end of the evening he did what is his custom: he got up and walked off stage, not talking to or acknowledging the audience. By the end of the performance the chairs were full and people were standing or sitting along the back wall, and everyone applauded enthusiastically. He was very well received, and in fact I found out later on he happily stuck around afterwards backstage and chatted with whoever wanted to talk to him. I wish I had known—I would have loved to have chatted with him about a couple of his albums.
There were some interesting comments made afterwards on the Jandek mailing list. One person on the list who attended the show said that after the show someone made a comment along the lines of wondering why Jandek hadn’t learned a G chord in forty years. My sister—who is slightly familiar with Jandek and thought the Jandek On Corwood documentary was interesting—jokingly said “I bet when he dies, they’ll find bodies in the refrigerator”.
But the most revealing thing for me about the evening’s performance was that it suddenly dawned on me why I find his music so fascinating. Critics have often made the comment that his music sounds like what a teenager would play when picking up a guitar for the first time. When I was a kid I often played my brother’s acoustic guitar and sang lyrics off the top of my head while plucking and strumming away at it (when I told my sister about that after the show she joked, “yeah, but you grew out of that”). On one song he even strummed and pounded on the body of the guitar, something I often did (and sometimes still do…).
It’s possible that the whole point of what Jandek does is that you don’t have to be a professional musician—hell, you don’t have to be a musician at all—to make compelling music.
Seth Tisue runs a comprehensive (though woefully out of date, as he himself states)
Jandek web site at: http://tisue.net/jandek/.
He also has a great picture from the Cleveland show at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tisue/6072975747/.
You can order copies of Jandek’s cds and dvds (cheap) directly from his self-run label Corwood Industries’ mail order post office box (no online ordering; no email contact) at: http://www.corwoodindustries.com/.
NPR’s All Things Considered has a fascinating segment about Jandek from December 10, 2007 at:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16778590.
Acoustic performance at the Beachland Ballroom August 21, 2011.
I have been a Jandek fan since about 1988 when I heard the song Lavender (played at the wrong speed, no less) on WCSB, the college station of Cleveland State University. I would pick up his albums here and there whenever I hit college town record stores, usually in Cleveland, Columbus or Pittsburgh. But I never in a million years ever thought the guy would ever even make a public appearance, let alone perform live. And yet, since October of 2004, that’s what he’s been doing. So I was pretty excited to find out he was going to play in Cleveland. The show was originally scheduled to take place in a church (something he’s done in the past), but was moved to the Beachland Ballroom. I have seen several great shows at the Beachland, including Guided By Voices, Tobin Sprout, The Legendary Stardust Cowboy (with Dead Kennedys’ bassist Klaus Flouride on bass), and Robyn Hitchcock (with REM’s Peter Buck on bass). The Beachland Ballroom is probably the coolest club in NE Ohio to see live music.
I arrived at the venue early and went downstairs to the vintage clothing and record store in the basement. The last time I was down there I found myself standing not five feet from Robyn Hitchcock and Peter Buck (I also went to the music store adjacent to the ballroom and saw Bill Rieflin, former Ministry/current REM and Robyn Hitchcock drummer on the same night). I hung out down there for awhile, looking through the old vinyl, pulp paperbacks, some pretty cool old men’s magazines, and what looked like a mid-60s gossip magazine from Paris, which I almost bought on impulse. When the doors opened at 8:30 I promptly went upstairs, got my hand stamped and went into the ballroom.
As anyone who has seen Jandek knows, no one knows what to expect. Usually he plays with a band, often playing extended free form discordant blues jams. Music critic Douglas Wolk once accurately described Jandek’s music as sounding like “dark, half-decomposed blues”. But tonight, he’s playing solo acoustic guitar. There were about 100 chairs set up on the left side of the ballroom, and myself and my older sister (who attended the show with me) took our seats on the edge of the third row, which meant I would have a dead center look at the Representative from Corwood Industries. Slowly, the chairs began filling up over the next half hour, and were nearly full by show time. At precisely 9:00 PM the house lights dimmed and out walked the man officially known as Jandek--real name Sterling Smith--to enthusiastic applause. Without saying a word he put down the black satchel he carried with him, grabbed an acoustic guitar, began plucking at the strings and started singing a song about…Cleveland. His guitar seemed to be tuned to a normal open tuning (often his guitar is tuned—or detuned—to some bizarre key). He sang about walking along Lake Erie early on a Sunday morning, and walking through a children’s fair benefitting victims of autism. He even sung a rather humorous line about a snake exhibit, where one child yelled “get it off! Get it off!” after an attendant wrapped a snake around the kid’s neck.
The next song was a little more melodic, using odd chords in the guitar’s upper register, although some of the songs Jandek performed that night featured him strumming or plucking the strings without actually playing any chords. After each song he would sit and wait while everyone applauded and then turn the page in a black notebook he propped up in front of him on a music stand.
One of the evening’s highlights was another song about Cleveland—this time about walking along Euclid Avenue and saying to himself “This is cool as hell/Lighten up!” and then remarking “Where’s the governor?” On another song Jandek picked up a harmonica and began playing it while plucking at his guitar, which he laid on his lap. He would alternate between playing harmonica and singing. But the most startling one (for me) was a short tune where he sang “I’m not here” while playing slide guitar, making sounds which resembled an old blues 78 speeded up and slowed down. Several people in the audience (including me) thought it was funny, and even the man himself sort of looked like he was having a good time.
Jandek played a total of an hour and 40 minutes, and at the end of the evening he did what is his custom: he got up and walked off stage, not talking to or acknowledging the audience. By the end of the performance the chairs were full and people were standing or sitting along the back wall, and everyone applauded enthusiastically. He was very well received, and in fact I found out later on he happily stuck around afterwards backstage and chatted with whoever wanted to talk to him. I wish I had known—I would have loved to have chatted with him about a couple of his albums.
There were some interesting comments made afterwards on the Jandek mailing list. One person on the list who attended the show said that after the show someone made a comment along the lines of wondering why Jandek hadn’t learned a G chord in forty years. My sister—who is slightly familiar with Jandek and thought the Jandek On Corwood documentary was interesting—jokingly said “I bet when he dies, they’ll find bodies in the refrigerator”.
But the most revealing thing for me about the evening’s performance was that it suddenly dawned on me why I find his music so fascinating. Critics have often made the comment that his music sounds like what a teenager would play when picking up a guitar for the first time. When I was a kid I often played my brother’s acoustic guitar and sang lyrics off the top of my head while plucking and strumming away at it (when I told my sister about that after the show she joked, “yeah, but you grew out of that”). On one song he even strummed and pounded on the body of the guitar, something I often did (and sometimes still do…).
It’s possible that the whole point of what Jandek does is that you don’t have to be a professional musician—hell, you don’t have to be a musician at all—to make compelling music.
Seth Tisue runs a comprehensive (though woefully out of date, as he himself states)
Jandek web site at: http://tisue.net/jandek/.
He also has a great picture from the Cleveland show at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tisue/6072975747/.
You can order copies of Jandek’s cds and dvds (cheap) directly from his self-run label Corwood Industries’ mail order post office box (no online ordering; no email contact) at: http://www.corwoodindustries.com/.
NPR’s All Things Considered has a fascinating segment about Jandek from December 10, 2007 at:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16778590.
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MYKE WEISKOPF - 30: A Retrospective 1976-2006
Myke Weiskopf is a radio producer, sound archivist/historian, and multi-intrumentalist, originally from Chicago, and currently residing in Los Angeles. I came across his work one day a few years ago while doing a google search on shortwave radio recordings. What I found on his site was fascinating. Weiskopf's website is a wonderful archive of shortwave radio broadcasts--past and present--from all over the shortwave dial. I also found out that he is a singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist of the first order, as I discovered from the mp3s that he would post periodically.
Heavily influenced by the electropop of his youth, he issued three albums under the name Science Park, and then left the music industry for awhile. He has since returned to continue his work in recording and archiving shortwave radio broadcasts from around the world, post occasional online eps of his work, and to issue this 31-track compilation of tracks covering his entire career. I bought it off of iTunes last year and it has been in heavy rotation on my mp3 player ever since.
30: A Retrospective is a heady mixture of intelligent dance music, jazzy instrumentals and dreamy soundscapes worthy of Yello, and shortwave radio interludes. Starting off with a brief shortwave interval signal, the album then goes into the incredible atmospheric dance track Ascension Island (one of the best vocal tracks on the album), followed by one of my favorite instrumentals, Arbitrary Music. WWV (Collapsible Jerk Mix) is a cute technopop tribute to Weiskiopf's favorite 24 hour time frequency and time signal station.
Another one of my favorite tracks on this compilation is Wonderful, a dreamy, floating semi-psychedelic instrumental with clips of a religious shortwave broadcaster floating over top, like a long lost radio transmission still bouncing around in space. I have probably listened to this track about a hundred times. On the other end of the spectrum is a thumping almost trance-like piece called Attack Warning, containing 1950s era radio instructions on what to do during a nuclear attack.
Wesikopf's love of electropop is reflected in a great vocal track called Keep Laughing, which--in a just world--would be a huge hit. Cower uses static as a rhythm track, this time featuring a duet with a female vocalist. Between The Wars is a sleepy 2-AM last-call-for-alcohol lounge tune. An Optimist On Election Day features another religious broadcaster ranting about the emergence of a global culture over what sounds like a newspaper teletype machine. Sprinkled throughout the album are several untitled short interludes which provide fascinating breaks, and by the time you've reached the last piece--a recording of a small child asking if you can hear him--it sounds like you've taken a trip around the world (and half way out into space) via dance music and shortwave radio.
This is one of my favorite underground pop records of all time, and if any major label (or indie, for that matter) had any balls, this would be exposed to a much wider audience.
Check out Weiskopf's web site at: www.myke.me. You can buy 30: A Retrospective 1976-2006 from iTunes at:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/myke-weiskopf/id219767123?ign-mpt=uo%3D4.
Heavily influenced by the electropop of his youth, he issued three albums under the name Science Park, and then left the music industry for awhile. He has since returned to continue his work in recording and archiving shortwave radio broadcasts from around the world, post occasional online eps of his work, and to issue this 31-track compilation of tracks covering his entire career. I bought it off of iTunes last year and it has been in heavy rotation on my mp3 player ever since.
30: A Retrospective is a heady mixture of intelligent dance music, jazzy instrumentals and dreamy soundscapes worthy of Yello, and shortwave radio interludes. Starting off with a brief shortwave interval signal, the album then goes into the incredible atmospheric dance track Ascension Island (one of the best vocal tracks on the album), followed by one of my favorite instrumentals, Arbitrary Music. WWV (Collapsible Jerk Mix) is a cute technopop tribute to Weiskiopf's favorite 24 hour time frequency and time signal station.
Another one of my favorite tracks on this compilation is Wonderful, a dreamy, floating semi-psychedelic instrumental with clips of a religious shortwave broadcaster floating over top, like a long lost radio transmission still bouncing around in space. I have probably listened to this track about a hundred times. On the other end of the spectrum is a thumping almost trance-like piece called Attack Warning, containing 1950s era radio instructions on what to do during a nuclear attack.
Wesikopf's love of electropop is reflected in a great vocal track called Keep Laughing, which--in a just world--would be a huge hit. Cower uses static as a rhythm track, this time featuring a duet with a female vocalist. Between The Wars is a sleepy 2-AM last-call-for-alcohol lounge tune. An Optimist On Election Day features another religious broadcaster ranting about the emergence of a global culture over what sounds like a newspaper teletype machine. Sprinkled throughout the album are several untitled short interludes which provide fascinating breaks, and by the time you've reached the last piece--a recording of a small child asking if you can hear him--it sounds like you've taken a trip around the world (and half way out into space) via dance music and shortwave radio.
This is one of my favorite underground pop records of all time, and if any major label (or indie, for that matter) had any balls, this would be exposed to a much wider audience.
Check out Weiskopf's web site at: www.myke.me. You can buy 30: A Retrospective 1976-2006 from iTunes at:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/myke-weiskopf/id219767123?ign-mpt=uo%3D4.
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THE INAY - Old Sea
The Inay is one Pasha Isachenko, from Belarus. I still remember the day his self-titled debut (released in 2006), arrived in the mail. It was packaged in a wonderful cardboard slip-case designed and painted by Pasha, and included not only the cd but a page from an old desk calendar. The whole package evoked distant memories, like it was something found in an attic, or an old antique shop. The music on the disc was something I had never heard before. Although it can be described as lo-fi ambient electronic music, to me it was much more than that. Here was music from another country that didn't sound even remotely contemporary, in any fashion. Pasha uses, amongst other things, an old Russian synthesizer (an Faemi 1m), piano, drums and acoustic guitar, to create music that is best listened to during those times when you feel the need to be quiet and introspective. I played that disc constantly, and in fact, reviewed it here: http://cutandpaste.mindsay.com/the_inay_self_released_cdr.mws.
The Inay's new album, Old Sea, is available for free online from his website (http://inay.info/notes/11), and it's even better than the first album. Much like his debut, this release is almost all instrumental, and goes even further out into the ambient, film-music type of sound that he first explored in 2006. Some tracks do feature vocals, but they are treated like another instrument in the mix, and aren't meant to take center stage in the overall sound of the songs.
There are ten tracks on this release, and every one of them is outstanding--there is no filler here. The title track rolls along with Pasha's gently whispered vocals, electric guitar, and a jazzy drum track. 20 Years Ago is an incredibly moving piece involving gently picked guitar and synthesizer--other than that there is no way for me to describe the incredible feeling this song evokes. Ocean Sleep sounds exactly like it's title: moonlight on gently crashing waves.
There are a couple of upbeat numbers on Old Sea. One of my favorites is a light-hearted synthesizer dance track called Radio Night, which features the old Soviet synthesizer bleeping along with a drum machine, and more of Pasha's indecipherable background vocals. Totally mesmerizing. On Roof is very charming, and sounds as if it was played by a small child, hitting notes at random. The Coast is a duet for whale sounds and wild, crashing drums. By the time you get to the last track, the end-of-a-film ballad Goodbye Snow, you feel as if you've just been taken on an incredible journey through Pasha's childhood memories; as if you'd spent the last half hour looking at an album of old family photos.
The Inay is one of the greatest best kept secrets in the world, and one of the reasons why I still love listening to underground music after 25 years. I'm glad I discovered him. I think the guy's a genius, and I only wish I had the talent (not to mention the old Soviet synthesizer
) to make this kind of music.
http://inay.info
The Inay's new album, Old Sea, is available for free online from his website (http://inay.info/notes/11), and it's even better than the first album. Much like his debut, this release is almost all instrumental, and goes even further out into the ambient, film-music type of sound that he first explored in 2006. Some tracks do feature vocals, but they are treated like another instrument in the mix, and aren't meant to take center stage in the overall sound of the songs.
There are ten tracks on this release, and every one of them is outstanding--there is no filler here. The title track rolls along with Pasha's gently whispered vocals, electric guitar, and a jazzy drum track. 20 Years Ago is an incredibly moving piece involving gently picked guitar and synthesizer--other than that there is no way for me to describe the incredible feeling this song evokes. Ocean Sleep sounds exactly like it's title: moonlight on gently crashing waves.
There are a couple of upbeat numbers on Old Sea. One of my favorites is a light-hearted synthesizer dance track called Radio Night, which features the old Soviet synthesizer bleeping along with a drum machine, and more of Pasha's indecipherable background vocals. Totally mesmerizing. On Roof is very charming, and sounds as if it was played by a small child, hitting notes at random. The Coast is a duet for whale sounds and wild, crashing drums. By the time you get to the last track, the end-of-a-film ballad Goodbye Snow, you feel as if you've just been taken on an incredible journey through Pasha's childhood memories; as if you'd spent the last half hour looking at an album of old family photos.
The Inay is one of the greatest best kept secrets in the world, and one of the reasons why I still love listening to underground music after 25 years. I'm glad I discovered him. I think the guy's a genius, and I only wish I had the talent (not to mention the old Soviet synthesizer
) to make this kind of music.http://inay.info
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After a hiatus of several years, German art rock vocalist Dagmar Krause made a special live appearance at this year's Avantgarde-Festival, performing with the amazing Peter Blegvad Trio. Here's a video link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGW7CuBS10I
Glad to have you back, Ms. Krause! You were sorely missed.
Ray
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGW7CuBS10I
Glad to have you back, Ms. Krause! You were sorely missed.
Ray
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Jandek is in the house!!!
Tags: 
jandek
jandekCheck out this Jandek show--his first ever in his hometown of Houston, TX--at Rudyard's!! Far from being the somber intense shows he's played in the past--here he looks like he is having ALOT of fun. People are DANCING!! He's smiling, and he even talks to an audience member after the show!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acLwiYpSTFE
Rock on Jandek---you da man!!
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