Anyway, the show was great. Basically, for those of you who don't know, Jandek is a man who doesn't exist. He's put out, like, 50+ records since the late 70's, and, until 2004, no one had ever even seen his face. People have done a little bit of looking into the financial records of his record company, Corwood Industries (they only put out Jandek records, btw), and have found that his real name is probably Sterling Something-or-other, but it's never been confirmed. He only recently started playing live shows, and they're generally one-offs that, I can tell you from personal experience, no one shows up to.
Generally, his music is recorded solo (although he's done collaborations before), and bears a passing resemblance to country or folk. Really though, it's utterly alien, inaccessible, and possibly unenjoyable. It's a big aesthetic lump, with no entry point and no relation to culture at large. These records are around, but they have no signature, event, nor context. There's no author, and no regard for the audience. One gets the distinct impression, in fact, that these albums would continue to be recorded whether or not any one were listening.
......Going into the show with these expectations, I wasn't prepared for what I saw. My friend and I had just finished making the three and a half hour drive from Sarasota to Gainesville, passing the world's largest Confederate flag on the way there (awesome). We left early, and stopped for pizza in what I believe to be Marion County. Really, I didn't know where I was, and I'm not entirely convinced that Marion County isn't more of a mimetic tendency than a physical place. Everyone in that pizza place looked exactly the same---I'm serious, it was weird.
Anyway, there were maybe, MAYBE, 35 people at this show. There was no pre-show playlist, and Jandek didn't come out until about 45 minutes after we got there, so there was a lot of time to sit in silence and think about how miserable I wanted Jandek to make me. When he finally came out, he never acknowledged the audience, never looked at anyone but the guitar player, and, for the entire two hours that he played, he never said a word that wasn't sung. After his set, however, while he had his back to the crowd, he did allow himself a fleeting half smile. He'd earned it.
But yeah, the music itself was entirely different than what I'd expected. Jandek played bass, while a guitarist and drummer played really clean, compentant psych/kraut rock. It was really beautiful actually, and really accessible on a certain level. He's clearly expanding his Jandek idea, by framing it differently, and smashing the only framework we had to understand his work (inaccessibility). The results were incredibly rewarding, and indicative of a musician that is moving forward. Also, and this is just guess work, but my friend could see the set list, and it looked as if the whole set was meant to be understood as one big, very planned, composition. This would lead me to believe that the more "musical" things being played by the other musicians were probably written, at least partially, by Jandek himself---indicating some very serious traditionally musical talent.
I've declared my intentions to talk more about the dark corners of pop culture on this blog, but I feel that I needed to make an exception here. Sometimes I want to talk about someone who's working outside of a pop framework entirely, although maintaining a certain artifice of identity. I think it mirrors my own dissolution as a person in the face of multiplicity, but for opposite reasons. I won't get into it, just because I don't think it would make for fun reading, but I do want to justify my departure from pop. Also, this concert was totally good.
----This weekend, I'm going to Art Basel---to witness a moment when art is foricibly turned into pop. Should be good, but don't expect any pictures from that either. I'm pretty sure it's not allowed.
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