The Be Good Tanyas are entertaining me mightily this afternoon. me like.

The Be Good Tanyas are entertaining me mightily this afternoon. me like.

They're playing Bumbershoot this year. I would love to go, but it's so much tougher to do the mega-music festival with a baby.

OTOH, they are playing Labor Day at 2:45... and the Decemberists have a stadium show at 12:30... so I could leave at naptime and be back in time for dinner... hmm.

Jandek live tonight. Two drummers, one of whom was avant-jazz guy Chris Cogburn, and the other of whom looked 17. A young-looking bassist, too. And the man, the legend, the weirdo from all those album covers: Jandek.

Some of you may wonder: does Jandek tune his guitar? After tonight, I can say definitively that the answer is yes.

He played for an hour and a half on the nose. After the last song, he held his guitar briefly, as if considering playing another song, then abruptly took the guitar off, put it in a case, and walked off stage.

Some of you may wonder: is Jandek a tech geek? After tonight, I can say definitively no. At one point, he accidentally hit the pickup configuration switch, changing his tone drastically, which confused him for several seconds before he decided that the new tone was a-ok with him.

This was easily the geekiest rock crowd I've ever seen. Outside, we looked like we were waiting in line for free 20-sided dice. The show was in the Scottish Rite Theatre, and we wondered through several ornate rooms, full of portraits of grumpy old men before reaching the theater. I half-suspected that we were being inducted into some strange club.

Some of you may wonder: does Jandek play guitar solos? After tonight, I can say definitively maybe, given a loose definition of "solo." Several times, Jandek played little picked leads that seemed as random as his chords. He seemed pleased with himself, and once even broke out into a Jandek-sized smile (i.e. tiny and secret).

What else? With two drummers, Jandek rocked the joint occasionally, stirring up music as loud and aggressive as any free jazz I've witnessed. He mostly watched the 17-yr-old drummer and the bassist, who looked to be in his early 20s, maybe. I suspect that they might be in the youth group in Jandek's apocalyptic cult. Or, as my friend suggested, perhaps they're his wards, like Robin. Jandek does have a rather Batmanish persona.

Chris Cogburn was doing the most interesting things on stage - sometimes getting high squawky noises by turning a cymbal sideways and running it up and down his drums, sometimes doing the avant-jazz standby of the superfast run through all the cymbals, changing drumsticks along the way - but it was hard to take your eyes off of Jandek. He exuded a strange blank menace, never looking at the audience at all, but somehow giving off a vibe somewhere between cult leader and serial killer. His lyrics were surprisingly trite at times, although quite a few of them had the creepy-but-beautiful old Jandek charm.

He occasionally fretted with his thumb. I mean, not just the low E, but all the way across, like Thurston Moore with a drumstick. Oh, I heard someone say that Thurston Moore was there, but I didn't see him. One of the guys two rows up from me was in Jandek On Corwood, but it wasn't Douglas Wolk or Gary Pig Gold, so I don't know this guy's name.

There was a Jandek VIP section in front of us. In a more perfect world, it would have been filled with people no one had ever seen or heard of before. In this world, it was mostly filled with SXSW honchos.

Whew. An hour and a half of live Jandek is rather exhausting.

tina f!

Winfield! So here's the deal

kate!

Noted. I have printed your post and put in the envelope with my ticket. I am camping in EXACTLY the same spot I was last year (way way back by the river next to the train tracks) w/exactly the same folks. (Sun gods willing. As of right this moment most of Walnut Valley including the Pecan Grove is flooded). I will for sure look for you at both your camp site and the library. I am not leaving Chicago until the 13th and I probably won't be at the campground until the night of the 14th at the earliest - but we shall meet up somehow!

I am so excited that it is so close but I can already feel the dread of knowing it's over and we have another year to wait...

C.I. - excellent Jandek review - I've never heard him but it sounds like it was quite an experience.

Michele - based on your post from a week or so ago I bought Bitter Melon Farm this weekend. I so heart John D.

And going back to that Frankenmix question I posted a while back. I finally settled on "Country Honk" for my song I'd play at every birthday party I'd throw for myself, but it's not quite right. I have to have this thing done by Labor Day and the birthday song is the first track - it's killing me!

In other music news, after telling myself I would never pay to see them again after they played (pretty poorly) for only 45 minutes the first time I saw them, I bought New Pornographers tickets this weekend. Me = Sucker.

Bitter Melon Farm! It has that cover of "The Sign" too, which he credits as "channeled through Ace of Base by God." Definite [heart]age.

Corwood, I am in awe of your Jandekosity. I like the idea of him as the indie Batman, too -- it seems to fit.

I just downloaded the Decemberists's "Five Songs" EP from eMusic, and in classic Decemberist form it is a six-song CD. I'm enjoying it, and it's a nice change of pace from Twin Cinema, which I have listened to like three times in the last two days, straight through.

I've never heard him but it sounds like it was quite an experience.

It was extraordinarily, thrillingly, wonderfully odd.

Corwood, I am in awe of your Jandekosity. I like the idea of him as the indie Batman, too -- it seems to fit.

Thanks! I just wish I'd thought of it. But no, it was my friend Joe (his review is here: [link]

I can't stop listening to "The Last of the Famous International Playboys" by Morrissey today. I'm not sure if this is a bad thing, but I am very thankful that my officemate is not in today, because the fervent lip-synching at my desk might be a little embarrassing. Not much, but a little.

My earworm of the day: "Can't Hardly Wait" by the Replacements. Good stuff.

I'm listening to Queen's Greatest Hits, Vol 1, 2 AND 3. I'm doomed for earworming, I tell you.

I can't stop listening to "The Last of the Famous International Playboys" by Morrissey today.

Coincidentally, "The Boy With The Thorn In His Side" is stuck in MY head today.