[Jandek] THE JANDEK LISTENING PARTY RULES

[Nate Wilson]

Well, it all started back four years ago.  My best friend and band mate BJ Brown had just recovered from one of his many bouts of Cancer.  He was a huge fan of Jandek just like myself and we decided wouldn't it be a great time if we were to gather our friends together and try to listen to all the albums in a row, non stop.  We put crazy restrictions, in fact the first listening party there was no food, no water, no bathroom breaks, no sleep, no leaving the room.  By the end of that one, BJ and I were the only ones left, of course that was four years ago and a lot of material has been released since.  
 
I have learned that doing this listening and reading the lyrics along and getting rid of such actions as eating and sleeping makes you really enter into the world, the frantic, starving solitude that we all seem to enjoy in Jandek's music.  The delirium that ensues is amazing.  By the time you get to Interstellar Discussion you are already on the verge of hallucination.  It is a birthing process, it is a cleansing of sorts.  I would really recommend it to anyone.  
 
I ended up winning the collection money this time and we didn't even make it through all the albums... everyone quit before me and we had only gotten as far as "The Humility of Pain".  I was the last one standing.  I have had a ton of experience doing this though, so I know how to pace myself.
 
I think that the Corwood catalog is so vast and so colorful that anyone could find comfort in some aspect of it, it is the most human music I have ever come across.  It's like sitting down to dinner with Robert Frost and Antonin Artaud.  I love it.  It has moved me in ways that no other music has.  It is real and it is honest and I feel that most people that create music find that showing yourself as that honest or vulnerable may be too scary of place.  When I create my own music, I adore showing parts of me that I would never show someone in just a conversation.
 
Music is life
Music is death
 
LONG LIVE JANDEK
 
As a side note my friend BJ passed away from his cancer on February 18th, 2006.  He managed to travel with me to New York to see the first show there.  He was in the audience with me during the Manhattan Tuesday album.  It was his last concert, and very soon after it he started his spiral downward.  He was so deeply touched by the Jandek material and I know with all my heart that he appreciated his opportunity in this world to make music for people to hear.
 
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