Jandek Played Live In Glasgow, And I Fucking Missed It

The title of the post says it all really - thanks to my usual lazi­ness, and some impres­sive secret-​keeping by the organ­is­ers of the won­der­ful Instal fes­ti­val, I man­aged to miss the first ever live per­for­mance by Jandek.

If you don’t know him, Jandek is a deeply reclu­sive Texan who, since 1978, has been steadily releas­ing albums of beau­ti­ful and upset­ting music, mostly a sort of grim ama­teur blues that res­olutely ignores the con­ven­tions of song­writ­ing. As to his moti­va­tion, his think­ing, that’s anyone’s guess: the only thing anyone knows about Jandek is his name, and the fact that his records are released by Cor­wood Indus­tries, a label that releases noth­ing else. You can read more at Seth Tisue’s defin­i­tive Guide To Jandek, and order CDs from Cor­wood Indus­tries, P.O. Box 15375, Hous­ton TX 77220 (at just $4 each, if you buy 20 or more albums).

Here’s the last song, title unknown, from the hour-​long Instal show, with Jandek backed by Richard Youngs on bass and the amaz­ing Alex Neilsen on drums:

• Jandek Live - Song 8

And here’s one of my favourite Jandek songs, from the 1986 album Tele­graph Melts:

• You Painted Your Teeth

Posted at 1pm on 21/10/04 by Jack Mottram to the music category.
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Tags: fix, glasgow, music, outsider