Glasgow Sunday

The demystification of Jandek, which began with his decision to start playing live in 2004, continues with the release of this approximately hour-long DVD, which put one of those performances on video for all the world to see. Filmed at a gig in Glasgow on October 17, 2004, with support from a bassist and drummer, this appearance had already supplied material for a live CD (also called Glasgow Sunday). Like his records, the DVD's minimally packaged in the manner of those generic supermarket food cans in Repo Man, with stark black-and-white graphics and no information other than the song titles, times, and date and location of recording (as well as a note that its aspect ratio is 4:3). The music will be no surprise to those familiar with Jandek's noisier electric side, the tumult of his weirdly chorded atonal guitar backing his moaned free-associative lyrics, the improvising bass and drums adding to the clamor. For those who find this sort of stuff hard to endure, there's yet more torture in store than you anticipate, for the disc offers no less than three versions of the show: one (emphasizing shots of Jandek) taken from "Camera 1," another (emphasizing shots of the entire band) from "Camera 2," a third (titled "2 Camera Mix Edit") mixing shots from different cameras. While professionally it's just a step above competent home video filming, the image quality is good, though the camera work is simple, using some limited panning, editing, and zooming. Jandek himself is expectedly enigmatic in his wide-brimmed hat, saying nothing to the audience, and -- whether as an intentional irony, or for genuine purpose -- occasionally flipping pages on a music stand, though it seems his improvised-sounding music would be nearly impossible to transcribe or read off a sheet. Like his records, the DVD's a document of his torment that's tough to sit through, but its very existence gives listeners a bigger window into his real-life persona than anyone would have anticipated prior to 2004. ~ Richie Unterberger|