[Jandek] thoughts on Newcastle Sunday

[stacey graham]

Just my initial thoughts upon receiving the new double disc live set
from Aquarius Records online:

1)  That guitar sound he gets sounds like a digital effects box with a
phasing (or very slow chorus) and digital delay.  Too clean to be
effects pedals.  That swirling sound, after about 3 or 4 songs starts
to numb the mind the very same way as smoking ditchweed does.  I mean
that in the best possible way, by the way...

2)  The crowd noise fades between songs.  I wonder why?  I'm sure
there were reasons, like he wished to alter the running order of the
songs or something.

3)  The cover looks like another photoshop job.  A castle with lush
green lawn against a white sky.  Too white.  The edges of the castle
look trimmed off and set against a pure white background.  I'm going
to tint mine with some watercolors tonight.

4)  Man he's depressed.  At least on side one.

5)  Sound is pretty good.  The drums and bass get lost sometimes in
that never-changing guitar swirl.  I can only compare it to the other
live set I have (his first appearance) where you can hear the bassist
doing his Holger Czukey from Can imitation, up and down and up and
down.

I don't believe how some people say that he is oblivious to his
audience out here in the world, at least not any more.  He has to know
how rabid a following he has by the reactions at his gigs, at the
respect and obvious love his audiences are showing towards him and his
music.  I think his body of work stands up against almost anything
else out there, on the level of a John Coltrane or Sun Ra or Miles
Davis!

--
Stacey Graham
Minneapolis  MN  USA
http://aflowercallednowhere.blogspot.com