July 25, 2008

"You Just Made My Day"

Tonight is the night my friends. Jandek.

he'll be performing with: Corwood, Andrew Lindstrom, Britttany Gould, Kevin Richards, and Karl Zickrick.

big names people. Biggest of all being Jandek.

Once in a lifetime event.



(p.s. next week is really open for me, so I'll have a chance to sit down and start reviewing albums at a mind bending rate. watch out)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Okay... I follow your blog; reading it at least once a week. I think you're on point with nearly everything you write and I have even been pointed in the right direction a time or two. (Thanks)

So, after hearing some buzz here, reading an article there and then finally taking note of your reverent praise of an artist/entity/whatever known as Jandek: I went to the Friday night show.

Now I'll admit this genre (avant garde folk?) is not my cup of tea but I can be a fan of anything that's good and you have proven a discerning ear capable of locating all things “good”.

Connect the dots: He seems very excited about this Jandek thing so it should be good and that means I will like it.

You are out of your mind because that show was a joke. As I ran out of the Bug Theatre during one of those 20 minute monstrosities they called songs, I couldn't help but feel bad for the rest of you poor suckers sitting through sonic torture because it's "avant garde".

Jandek, is a genius marketer, self-promoter and ballsy son of a bitch who owes me $25 for last night's waste of my time.

I still like you, though.

Luke Hunter James-Erickson said...

Dear charleybrand,

I took a film class not too long ago and in this film class we watched Eraserhead, a David Lynch film. David Lynch is widely accepted as either the most genius film maker ever, or the filmmaker who is the most self righteous asshole ever to exist. While not fully on the side of the world that says "hurrah everything that David Lynch has ever created," I was a fan of Mulholland Drive.

During the few classes that we discussed Eraserhead, I chimed in with a few "well I liked this"'s and what not, while not fully being behind the film as a whole. Finally, at one point, my friend Chris' hand shot into the air and he spoke his peace, which vaguely revolved around the planet "David Lynch is full of crap." He went on to explain that he thought David Lynch was just so full of himself and the whole "avant-garde" film thing that David Lynch thought he was able to do whatever he wanted, and, simply because it was something that people tend not to do too frequently, it was genius. In short, Chris despised Eraserhead.

I thought that Chris' stand against the film was perfect. It was what the class needed to hear, because after that, about half the class jumped on his boat, stating that they had wasted roughly 90 minutes of their lives watching this terrible excuse for a film. These were not all regular joe's either, some of these kids were film snobs to the nth degree.

My point is this: charleybrand, thank you. I think too often people jump on the "mega-super-ultra-avant-garde" boat agreeing that they like something that they don't like just because it's "artsy" and they can "look down" on other people because they are clearly not as sophisticated as the "art lover." I think too often people get roped into things that they don't agree with simply because it makes them look a certain way or gain points with people ... points that are, interestingly enough, pointless.

I could go on about why I like Jandek and his history and all that jazz, but, in the end, the plain fact is that Jandek is one of the most inaccessible artists I know. That's not to say that only cool people "get" Jandek, thats to say that basically only about 50 people in a few state radius enjoy Jandek (as could be seen by the turn-out at the show).

I'm saying that there are people out there that enjoy Jandek, same as there are people who, for reasons unbeknownst to me, honestly enjoy Hannah Montana songs, and I am one of the people that gets some sort of sick enjoyment out of listing to some bizarre Texan moan and seemingly randomly hit guitar strings.

Jandek is not for everyone, in the same sense that Hypocrisy and The Two Brother's Band are not for everyone.

charleybrand ... you are my new favorite person. Thank you so much for reading my blog, and I'm so glad to have steered you toward music that you enjoy, and hope to continue to do so in the future. I've got some album reviews coming up really soon that I hope you check out, because they're some of my favorite albums of the year.

(sorry for being ridiculously long-winded and rambling, I'm a little sleepy, and tend to not edit when I get sleepy. Thank you again. Keep righteous)

-Luke

Anonymous said...

Thank you!