For more than a quarter of a century, Jandek was the ultimate reclusive artist. He released 40 albums of desolately dissonant abstract blues, but never performed live, rarely gave interviews, and for most of his fans, the only clues to his identity where the out-of-focus snapshots on his album covers…
Then, in October last year, Jandek actually did a gig at the Instal.04 festival in Glasgow. At the time, it was naturally assumed that this would be a one-off, and that Jandek would quickly retire to the shadows – never to return… But now, news has surfaced that there will be a follow-up performance at The Music Lover’s Field Companion festival in Gateshead, England on May 22… Can fully fledged tours supporting Radiohead or Sonic Youth be far behind? Or maybe a What Is Music headline? We await expectantly…
In the meantime, if you are unfamiliar with his work, here’s a track from the live bootleg of the Glasgow show. (You should be able to download the rest of the bootleg from a P2P site somewhere. Try Soulseek.)
