Originally published at: "Songs in the Key of Z" is a delightful compilation of outsider music | Boing Boing
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i’ve been listening to jandek since 2000 and i wish i had learned of him earlier. having listened to most of his music multiple times i can attest to the strangely compelling power of what he does. it is my belief, having seen him live, that he is either deadly serious about what he does or he has put on the very best poker face for 44 years. either way i can totally respect it.
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I’ve long loved these compilations too, good to revisit them!
They especially led me down a Daniel Johnston hole for awhile. And another of listening to the oh so sincere covers of the Langley Schools Music Project.
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I had the good fortune to be on tour with Rudely Interrupted to the US, Canada and England with the highlight being the UN in New York. It was very ad hoc and very rock life - sex drugs etc.
The one thing that is gated for people with abilities other than our own is the sexiness and punk lifestyle of rock music. Sexuality and identity is a very slow burn for the parents of a downs syndrome person, if acknowledged at all.
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I’ve met him, and I see no reason to imagine that he doesn’t take his music seriously, but also that he is aware of how is music sits in the wider world and how people not open to it might react,
Irwin Chusid was an early driver of the Exotica Music List that I was on for many years where I met lots of people and learnt so much about music from incredibly well listened, researched, and weird focused people.
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i had a custom wind chime made using the guitar tuning from nancy sings plus the tonic and dominant from nancy’s song. the maker was worried when i came to get it because he was afraid i wouldn’t want it, afraid thatr no one would want it. i totally love it but i understand it’s not for everyone.
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How’s that not for everyone?
The mystique around him (particularly before he played live after decades of recording) reminds me of someone I know who was talking to Scott Walker “I’m not a fucking recluse, I’m just 60 and I don’t go to fucking Stringfellows like Mick Jagger”.
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while you and i might have ears that enjoy and appreciate dissonance, not everyone does. i have one cousin who is also a close friend (that doesn’t generally happen in my part of texas) got so anxious about the dissonances of the chime he asked if he could tie off the striker so as to make “that awful sound stop, please let me make it stop.”
of course, i find listening to merzbow relaxing so i’m aware that tastes vary. at my last school before i retired the parking lot attendant/security guard heard me coming through listening to the album you walk alone and was intrigued so i loaned it to him and he like it a lot. then i told him that jandek has his own way of playing blues and loaned him chair beside a window which he also liked. then i loaned him bristol wednesday and told him that the live shows were somewhat different from his studio work. when he finally gave it back to me he said he had played both discs for some friends of his at a cook-out he did over the weekend. he said most of his friends liked it enough they asked to hear it again. at this point he asked where you get them so i told him about the corwood website. a few days later he asked for any suggestions of what to get. what i found remarkable was that this guy is a middle-aged african-american man. judging from the live shows i’ve been to i would not have guessed jandek would appeal much to that demographic, then again, tastes vary.
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I want to hear your windchimes!
I have nicely tuned (tempered) windchimes that I bought, they’re kind of big so annoying the neighbours wouldn’t be too cool.
I did consider trying to make them with different tunings just for the crack though.
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There’s an additional 2 collections at cosmicspy bandcamp com/album/songs-in-the-key-of-z-vol-3 and cosmicspy bandcamp com/album/songs-in-the-key-of-z-vol-4 . Expanded versions of vols. 1 & 2 can be found at Bandcamp as well
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