John B

Up for some air. The free show in Vermont is this Friday night at 8:00. I will now be able to go, so I'm really looking forward to seeing this group!

from Pitchfork: Jandek Revealed!: Reclusive Songwriter Makes First-Ever Live Appearance at Scottish Festival Jason Henn reports: Faced with Jandek's obtuse sound and label Corwood Industries' intentionally aloof approach to PR, many folks are quick to put up defenses, declare, "Oh, I get it," and write-off Jandek as a PoMo prankster or a boring hack. Others, meanwhile (usually college radio music directors or basement record shop employees), sense something else going on inside the music's sour shell and take time to acquire the taste. The latter comprise the devoted cult for whom word of a Jandek personal appearance is news on the order of a manned Neptune landing. With a single public performance last weekend at Glasgow's Instal Festival, the man we call Jandek forever put a new spin on the most interesting bio in recent music history. An incredible 26 years and 37 albums in the making, Jandek's reputation in the very lowest reaches of the underground was-- until Sunday, October 17th at 5:00 p.m. Glasgow time-- characterized by a complete unwillingness to perform, or to even show his face in public. David Tibet of Current 93 also performed at the festival and confirmed via blog that it was "absolutely" Jandek who performed at Instal, though the performer never used the moniker to refer to himself and was, in fact, attending as "a representative from Corwood Industries." From his posts, it's obvious that Tibet has inside information, as he elaborated that the appearance was the result of seven months of secret negotiations resulting in an agreement to perform based on the condition that the name Jandek not be used in any of the festival's publicity materials. He also revealed that Jandek stayed in a separate hotel from all the other bands at the festival-- none of whom were aware he would be playing-- and that, apart from a brief appearance to see Six Organs of Admittance, he didn't attend any of the other performances. The performance reportedly lasted an hour, with a dapper-dressed, hollow-cheeked version of the same man who appears on many of the Jandek album covers accompanied by Jagjaguwar artist Richard Youngs on bass and Alex Neilsen of Glasgow ensemble Scatter on drums. The set was reportedly frantic, featuring simple, repeated rhythmic patterns punctuated by a degree of improvisation, the arrangements shaped by cues from the frontman. There was no between song banter, though Jandek reportedly responded with a smile to the audience's warm reception. Since Jandek's name was omitted from any promotional material, and in fact, was not even mentioned before or during any part of the performance, many crowd members were reportedly unaware of just what the fuck was going on. One attendee asserts that Jandek vanished the moment the performance had finished. While this just about exhausts the verifiable facts about the appearance, some Jandek cult members are exploring what would, under any other circumstances and regarding any other artist, be the most excruciatingly minor details. Many discussion groups-- including the Outsider Music community of Livejournal.com, to which Tibet posted-- have exploded with chatter, much of which appears to be credible firsthand info from festival attendees. One blogger reports that Jandek played "a surprisingly expensive looking Fender semi-acoustic with no soundhole." Others counter that it was a Godin. Seth Tisue, a Northwestern University employee who hosts the web's pre-eminent Jandek fansite, posted news of the appearance along with links to the resulting message board/file-sharing boom. Several pictures of the performance are easily located (one of which we've reprinted here), and a bootleg MP3 has already made its way onto Soulseek. For those who can stand the wait, Corwood reportedly plans a legit release of the performance on both audio CD and DVD. As Tibet assessed the performance, "It was absolutely amazing. Jandek was happy and relaxed and looked great." To borrow the words of another Livejournal member, "It's nothing short of miraculous that this has happened."

These tracks might be too experimental for most here, but some of you might be interested in checking this out: "Antiopic's Allegorical Power Series was a series of online MP3 releases issued monthly from June through December 2003. This series was meant to address the possibilities and roles of abstract or experimental music as social and political response; it attempted to provide a forum and space for artists to present new work as protest and as an exploration of the meaning and potential of sound art in the context of and as response to global injustice. The series was completed with the seventh release in December. All sixty audio tracks will remain online and available indefinitely." Allegorical Power Series There are a few names I am familiar with here but, for the most part, these artists are new to me. If anyone is interested I'll post my thoughts on which tracks are winners and which are worth passing by.

I own two of these, the Karl Denson and the Reggie Workman, and didn't guess either correctly. Time to go back and give each a listen. Thanks again for a great BFT!

Thank you for posting that! I won't bother with the cdr now...

I've posted requests on a couple of mp3 sites. I'll let you know if I receive a response. (Looks like folks on the Jandek List will most likely find a host for the mp3s.) I have someone willing to send it to me on cdr , so, if you aren't able to track the show own on mp3 let me know, and I'll pass along a copy of the disc when it arrives.

I've never really paid much attention to the Dead, but recently started giving some of their live shows a shot. I've been more impressed than I expected. Moreso by the Cornell 1977 show than the show from 1983. I didn't so a search through all 13 pages of this thread, so I don't know if this has already been posted or not, but over 2,000 Dead shows are available for download for free from here No P2P software required. If anyone wants to know how to decode / listen to shn or flac let me know.

Is there a price guide for how much is a reasonable cost for original Saturn / El Saturn vinyl? I know that the price must vary greatly due to condition and relative scarcity. I've been thinking about starting to buy some of these and have no clue what that would entail financially or if there are still deals to be had out there. Also, is there a guide listing which albums have been reissued on vinyl?

if you want to see a really obscure album with Sun Ra... (not my auction)

I just took out African Magic from the library, and am really enjoying it. This is a live trio set, with Belden Bullock on bass and Sipho Kunene on drums. It was recorded in Berlin on 7/13/2001 and sounds great. I need some more time to really pay attention to this disc but, after two listens, I would highly recommend it.

I can't believe you have already started to post the answers...either I am really lagging behind or this BFT raced by. Disc 1 1) No clue who this is. My knowledge of vibists is sorely lacking. This sounds like a very modern / recent recording to me. Very clean sound on the vibes, very well recorded. At times this almost sounded "TV themeish" to me. I'm enjoying this one a lot more tha I expected to at first. 2) I was prepared to like this one due to the greasy organ and bass but the vocalist killed this one for me quickly. I'm not a huge fan of scatting in general and this performance sounds fairly uninspired to my ears. 4 stars for the grease, take away 3 stars for the vocals. 3) Again, a very cleanly recorded track, with the drums WAY out front. I'm not sure if I consider this to be a problem or not. At times it is really irritating and, I fear, headache inducing. At other times I really like the fact that teh drums are not buried way back in the mix. The drums have a very "rock" sound to my ears. No clue who this is. 4) 4 for 4, no clue who this is. Nice latin vibe, but nothing too fiery or exciting. The band is a little too restrained for my liking I wish they had cut loose just a bit more. 5)This tune sounds really familiar, but I'm just not placing it. This one is going t drive me crazy. Nice track, I'm looking forward to reading who this is. 6) Nice break in the program! This is a nice track, almost too "precious" of a reading of this tune. I enjoyed listening to it, but wouldn't track this disc down. 7) Not my cup of tea at all. No clue who this is. The bass is ok, but the vocalist doesn't do anything for me. 8) Kenny Burrell w/ Jimmy Smith? I don't recall any sessions with the two of them off the top of my head, so I'll assume I'm wrong. nice mid-60's BN/Verve feel to this track. 9) This keeps bordering on being way too smooth for my liking. There are hints of something interesting here, but the track never really clicks, imo. I feel like I've heard the tune somewhere before but I'm not placing where. No clue who this is. This track isn't really doing it for me but I am interested enough to be hopeful that future projects will be better. 10) KRS-One starting things off here....then, the Sidewinder. The vocals aren't my thing and I have no clue who this is. Don't care to find out, either. 11) Very interesting track. Not sure what to make of this one at first, but I really enjoy it. Very atmospheric, almost ECM-ish. Someone is plucking away inside the piano. No clue who this is, but I am really looking forward to finding out. 12) No clue who this is. I'll guess the vocalist is Bobby McFerrin. Nothing heer that really sticks with me. I kind of like what the bass player is doing, but not enough to track down this album. I'll try to post my thoughts on disc #2 tomorrow night.

2 out of the 4 discs for St. Paul and aftershow have been added.

I lied in my last post. Up for the real last time. Updated and with some of the remaining prices again reduced.

some new info, just posted on IHM: "he will issue the performance as an album on corwood apparently and also a dvd of the gig."

apologies for the huge picture, that is Jandek on the far right. as the picture I posted is no longer working, I added the URL to my above post instead.

copy and paste this into your browser: http://www.ihateaol.co.uk/misc/pics/10.18....:42P1010025.JPG

I'm sort of hoping this is a hoax, but apparently Jandek just performed live, for the first time ever: Jandek live?

I had a chance to hear this disc on Saturday and the sound clips really don't do it justice. It is a very enjoyable album, very much in the afrobeat meets downtown NYC vein mentioned earlier.

better, thanks! No, unfortunately my wife prescribed less doses of Jandek as we drove to Boston and back this weekend. I will start back in on the Jan man tomorrow on the way to work. Jandek - for Lovers is still mia, unfortunately. I'm going to order my box o' 20 this month, so I'm not so sad about it never appearing.

I was able to stop off at a really nice library while visiting my parents this weekend and grabbed some Funny Rat-ish cds along the way. The first one I listened to wasMy Name is Albert Ayler, for the first time today. Prior to this, I thought I had heard tracks where the rest of the band is unable to cope with what Ayler is doing. This takes it to a whole other level. On the tracks where you can start to really hear Ayler being Ayler it sounds like the rest of the band was recorded seperately and had no idea what Albert was going to play. I've still got Ayler live in Greenwich Village along with some discs by Jean-Michel Pilch, Ran Blake, William Parker, Abdullah Ibrahim, Gianluigi Trovesi, and Tord Gustavson to listen to. I'll post my thoughts as I make my way through them.

I just heard My Name is Albert Ayler for the first time today. Prior to this, I thought I had heard tracks where the rest of the band is unable to cope with what Ayler is doing. This takes it to a whole other level. On the tracks where you can start to really hear Ayler being Ayler it sounds like the rest of the band was recorded seperately and had no idea what Albert was going to play.

IMO, there is nothing SINOW about Open Systems. That disc is amazing, from start to finish. Tsahar, on the other hand, I am hot and cold on. Sometimes I really enjoy his work (Open Syetems, Come Sunday) other times I am really underwhelmed by him. (Shekina is very SINOW, the duo with Hamid on Ayler is ok, but not great.)

I'll have to check this disc out. It sounds like you are describing something by Earth, Sunn )))) or the Melvins at their sludgiest.

This is teh same lineup as on Live at Nefertiti, on Ayler, which I really enjoy. I'm glad to hear it is worth listening to. Have you heard the disc on Ayler and are you able to compare the two?

I just listened to that Antibalas album on the drive back from Boston...great stuff!