[Jandek] Loren Connors, Brooklyn Wednesday, and Manhattan Tuesday

[Danen Jobe]

Thanks for all this info! Just got a set of Connors last year and I find it
is wonderful for those nights when the moon vanishes and the only thing you
have is the dark and the images your mind provides. Sorry if that sounds
austere, but it's dreamy stuff, with just the right mix of blues to nail it
home. So I'm gonna have to order this ltd lp. Read a review (on Pitchfork of
all places - when, oh WHEN are they going to review a Jandek CD?) that
intrigued and now I'm going to have to get it.

Man, I'm getting behind in responses. I'll throw this out, though: "Brooklyn
Wednesday" is a MUST for any Corwood collector. Much has been said of the
incendiary first set (and much SHOULD be said - it's Corwood at his
sarcastic best with an airtight unit (no pun intended) behind him. But this
is the SAME BAND (Matt Heyner - playing a bass he made himself in set one,
and Chris Corsano, percussion-man extraordinaire) that plays throughout all
three sets. The first, of course, was released as the
gets-better-all-the-time "Manhattan Tuesday," and it sounds (as I said at
the time) like a psychedelic breakthrough, with Loren Connors providing
terrific sound layering while Corsano and Heyner keep the groove going. Set
One of Brooklyn lets them let it all hang out, "Newcastle Sunday" style. The
particular interplay between the Rep's guitar and the rhythm section is
infectuous, and ought to impress your friends who think Jandek plays toy
instruments.

The second set, by contrast, sounds like some toy instruments found their
way onto the stage. It is the single most chaotic live set I've yet heard,
and reminds me greatly of somebody hearing "Somebody in the Snow" and
deciding to model a band after it. Corsano crashes about, keeping the time
but also staying out of it, in the manner that Sunny Murray did for Albert
Ayler back in the day. Matt Heyner's bass (upright this time) sounds like
two or three oddly tuned stringed instruments hitting at once, and it is
often the melody instrument. And the Rep's guitar moves from the assured
jarring art-punk strokes of the first set into the amorphous tones of the
Godin fretless guitar. I saw him use this at Indianapolis, and it's a
curious instrument. There are many times I can't tell if he's playing on the
lower end of this guitar or if Heyner's sliding around the upper end of the
bass. No matter. I can see how, following that inferno-fueled first set, a
listener could pop in set 2 and decide it didn't quite add up. Admittedly,
the band was on its THIRD SET IN TWO DAYS, all improvised over pre-written
lyrics. Still, if you give it time set 2 will give back to you. And again,
fans who worry that too much "weird" has left the Jandek sets (though I
still find that hard to comprehend) will dig this. The first song on the
last disc may be my favorite of this set - it sounds like a group of
musicians tuning up, slowly turning the cacophony into music, though it
never stays TOO far from the chaos.

Point is: you need these sets. The gorgeous layout of the box set (and cd's
inside) is a wonder to behold - the thing beckons me from my shelf,
announcing itself so much louder than all other Jandek discs. I've yet to
tire of it. And hey - send $32 to Corwood and you get SIX DISCS of New York
madness. Best bargain of the year.


I'll give a more timely take on the Glasgow Monday DVD as soon as I get time
to view it!


On 9/28/07, Marc Masters <marc at crankautomotive.com> wrote:
>
> Some other great Connors stuff on the horizon: "As Roses Bow: Collected
> Airs
> 1992-2002" 2CD on Family Vineyard featuring stuff from 10 different
> releases
> due out in Nov., a DVD compilation that will include footage with Jandek
> due
> sometime next year, and a feature article about Connors (by me, sorry for
> the self-promo) in the next issue of the Wire in which he talks briefly
> about playing with Jandek.
>
> Marc M.
>
> >
> > I'm sure someone has beaten me to promoting it, though, if so, I missed
> it,
> > but Loren Connors has a new LP out in a run of 499 (well, in any
> practical
> > terms, 474, since the first 25 were individualized and, I'm sure,
> already gone
> > to friends, long-time supporters, etc.) called HYMN TO THE NORTH STAR
> (just
> > vinyl, far as I can see, though that's not much of a deterrent to
> me...).  It
> > has a nicely blurred cover picture and, well, the same sort of very
> minimal
> > spacey guitar/bass interplay inside that one may associate with his work
> with
> > the Rep (and Alan Licht is also on one track here as well).
> >
> > Tim
> >
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