Autopsy results released this morning in the death of Memphis musician Jay Reatard reveal that he died from “cocaine toxicity, and that alcohol was a contributing factor in his death,” according to Shelby County Medical Examiner Dr. Karen E. Chancellor.This doesn't exactly surprise me, but it doesn't really make me feel great either.
"I don't like to hear the audience talking or clapping or anything. I don't feel like that's how music is supposed to be seen -- as like these individualized, compartmentalized little songs where people are supposed to feed your ego by clapping to approve or disapprove of the last thing that you did."
On a tip from one of the commenters, I googled this Jay Reatard documentary. Very cool! As I wrote a few months back, Jay actually had a very sophisticated sense of craft, and for me watching him talk about music is a really strong reminder of what a sophisticated artist he was. And I think that the quote above justifies my post on Jay from two days.
Waiting For Something - a short documentary about Jay Reatard
Jay Reatard | MySpace Music Videos
I've spent a fair amount of time over the course of the last few days reading about Jay Reatard and watching videos of him. There's a lot of great stuff out there of both sorts, but I find the videos especially great largely because performance is the medium of punk music in way that is distinct from even the most performative musical genres, like jazz. A live jazz record is far better than a live punk record for the simple reason that the experience of the musicians themselves, while nice, is not essential to the jazz experience. This is not the case for punk music, which has always been about the relationship between performer and audience. And it's also why when punk goes mainstream it always fails to retain its punk-quality -- in the arena, everything that matters is lost, no matter how good the music itself may be.
I feel pretty lucky to have seen Jay Reatard perform a couple of times, and as recently as six weeks ago. Part of his appeal was his distinctive attitude on stage. He didn't bullshit around talking to the crowd and trying make friends with the audience. He came out and played his set all the way through, only taking breaks to hydrate, or breathe, or take a shot. There wasn't a moment of silence coming from his amp at any point during any of the shows I saw. In that, he employed a kind of Ramones aesthetic that manufactured energy out of the sheer relentlessness of the performance. But this performative style was something more than just a desire to keep things simple or to impress the audience through a show of stamina. There was a kind of hostility toward the audience in the way Jay played, and I think that is actually a very important part of how I understand his music.
As I've read the obituaries over the last couple of days, I've realized that one of the common things that people say about Jay is that he was intense in a way that implies that he was out of control. Many of Jay's fans, oh course, base this on the fact that his shows on occasion featured violence on his part or violence directed at him. Alijca Trout, one of his band mates from The Lost Sounds, told Rolling Stone that he “was very erratic and volatile with his own life. You never knew what was going to happen next.” He was, on these counts, naturally accused of being a jerk or an asshole, and this is certainly a justifiable thing to say of him. But not just because he punched this or that kid at a show; it's justifiable because his stage presence itself, while not openly hostile, was of a take-it-or-leave-it variety. It was a sort of intensity that didn't beg for your adoration. He just didn't care about what we thought nearly as much as we might want to think he did. That's not how it worked with him, and that's not how it works with punk music in general.
Between these two forms stridency (the physical and performative), we have Jay Reatard in a nutshell. And I would not have it that he had been a nicer guy as a performer (whatever he was as a private person). Say whatever you will about whether or not he was likable; if he had been more likable, he wouldn't have been Jay Reatard, and there would be no high-profile obituaries, no inevitable Elvis comparisons, no cause for grief. It's a hard thing to say that you are mourning for an asshole, but there would be no reason to mourn if Jay Reatard hadn't been an asshole. He'd just be some other indie guy.
But I don't think Jay was "indie," whatever you take that to mean. In his unrelenting, strident tone, we see his punk genius. And while this quality may seem relatively simple, it is the least replicable punk rock gesture--and its most essential. What does punk rock really have left? How many artists can we name that approach their music in the same way? To play songs one after the other is one thing; to release records one after the other--around 100 in 14 years--is another. It requires both a sort of abandonment to the creative process and the inability to give a shit about how a particular project is received (or if it is received at all). It's a kind of hostility toward us, but it is one that we crave because it is the signal of artistic integrity in the face of an all-too-worshipful audience. That is what Jay Reatard offered us a musician, and that is why his death is, above all, a terrible loss for punk rock, which finds itself currently devoid of committed artists of Jay's caliber. That is why Jay Reatard mattered.
“I’m just trying to get the idea out before the inspiration is gone,” he said. “Everything I do is motivated by the fear of running out of time.”NYT has a nice, short obit for Jay Reatard up. Consider this: he was 29, and he made 22 records. And almost everyone one of them is great.
News from the Reatardiverse:
After the acrimonious departure of his backing band earlier this month, Jay Reatard has found a new band just two weeks later. The new group features Anders Thode (bass) and Jacob Elving (drums), both from Danish punk outfit, the Cola Freaks. The new lineup comes on the heels of the announcement that Reatard has been tapped to support the legendary Pixies on their Doolittle tour. The Memphis garage punk musician is supporting his recent Matador Records release Watch Me Fall.I guess it doesn't surprise me that Jay's band left him mid-tour. He seems like that kind. Anyways, the Cola Freaks are decent. Here's a link to their Myspace page. I've always thought one of the beauties about punk rock is that you can listen to music in a language you don't know without feeling any loss at all.
Nobody ever accused Jay Reatard of being smart, but in this NY Times article, he sounds like a smart musician, which he is:
“I’m not trying to be low fidelity,” he added. “I’m trying to be handmade. You don’t go into a bakery and say, ‘That apple pie is handmade, that’s a “lo-fi” pie.’ You realize the crust looks a little rough around the edges, it looks like somebody’s grandma made this, and all of a sudden it’s comforting.”I'm still trying to make up my mind about Watch Me Fall, but I'm sure I will come around.
Jay Reatard's got a new album out, and he's got a fun video for one of the songs up at his website. Here it is:
Jay Reatard punches some dude in the head. Apparently the crowd wasn't too happy about it.
