Jay Reatard (RIP 2010)

R.I.P. this magnificent musical genius

still think about this dude from time to time. :(

"It's So Useless" = all-time jam.

always sad when his tunes pop up on the ipod.

like, what a stupid fucking waste.

ive only just got into this dude :( hes awesome, has kind of an nz pop thing happening? reminds me of chris knox

Jay's cover of "Pull Down the Shade" on the Chris Knox tribute compilation would confirm that he was listening to NZ indie.
He also claimed The Verlaines as his favorite band at one point. The Clean were also a big influence on the solo records.

torn between sadness and "fuck you you fucking fuck." still can't handle listening to watch me fall.

http://pitchfork.com/features/articles/7916-jay-reatard-in-memoriam/

Thats a fantastic piece.

Haven't had a chance to read it here at work.
I should wait til I am at home, anyway.

Zac Ives: Jay was always really good about being organized and getting shit done. For recording sessions, everything would be set up before you got there. For tours there would be a tour book printed out with maps to each venue, guarantees, contacts. He knew his business was music-- and he took it all very seriously. For years he was his own manager, booking agent, PR agent, licensing rep, engineer, producer, A&R man, packaging guy-- he did it all. It's part of the reason he did ultimately get to the top, because he managed to do all that for himself. But because he didn't have money growing up, I think it took on a different meaning for him. He had no choice-- he never had a real stable home-- and he's been on his own since he was 15. This sense of self-preservation was necessary, but it would get in the way of things if he let it. He had to fight for himself and his business a lot, and so sometimes he put it above friendships and relationships and common sense. As long as you understood that about him everything would be fine and you'd make up the next day. But I think it was something he constantly struggled with.

damnit, he deserved better. rip.

i feel sorry for this guy dying, really: but isn't a 4-page pfork article a bit much for a drug OD casualty?

~~~controversial~~~

trolling for bans today?

yes, because no one writes articles about Jimi Hendrix anymore either

thanks for giving me an excuse to use my SB button though

not trolling, sorry-- maybe i should be more clear?

i realize jay reatard put out some great music, sure, but in the case of most musicians passing away in their earlier years, esp. if related to drug OD, i find in retrospect their work gets blown a bit out of proportion. hendrix, kurt cobain, gram parsons, johnny thunders, sid vicious, the guy from sublime-- a lot of them made great music, but most are overrated as well, and their too-soon deaths bring a bit more attention to their music than may otherwise have been merited.

again... not trolling

Don't think it's unreasonable for a magazine that had regularly reported on and acclaimed a musician while he was alive to have a big report on him on the 1 year anniversary of his death.

If you read the article and see just how goddamn prolific the guy was and how many musicians loved the shit out of nearly everything he wrote, you might understand why he is very worthy of such an article.

actually i am reading the article-- it's interesting!

first time i've ever read anything on pitchfork.com

that's a lie

with the possible exception of the last one, all of those people you listed have had so much written/dramatised/otherwise discussed about them since dying that by comparison a four-page feature on a popular indie website might as well be a quarter-page column in a newsprint zine

I think that's why people are jumping to the, clearly absurd, conclusion that you're just saying stuff to get a reaction

if you've read some of his other posts before, it isn't "clearly absurd" to think he might be trolling for a reaction

god stfu ilxor

that was the best article i've read in pitchfork in like forever

like reatard but didn't know a ton about him, and didn't know he had huge oblivions connections.

why don't you go post "i told you so" on some ted williams story

lol 'clearly absurd' was sarcasm ftr

okay okay sorry nevermind. i've made it through the first page of the pfork piece, agree it's good stuff. i will stfu now.

everyone otm

article was great + again makes me sad that i only got into him once he died

I got into him with Blood Visions but I'm really kicking myself for not seeing him live when I had the chance.

yeah for some reason i just thought he was some sort of standard indie hype guy, then one of my friends told me to check him out. like i said upthread, he reminds me of some nz stuff that i love

isn't a 4-page pfork article a bit much for a drug OD casualty?

there aren't words for how much this pisses me off

The only thing that really sucks about going from my old 160GB iPod classic to a 32GB Touch? Constantly having to shuffle stuff on and off and discovering this morning that I don't have any Jay on here right now.

good morning ILX

i actually feel really bad for posting in this thread re: jay, "too much hype post-death" etc., and then clicking over a few threads to find out broadcast's trish keenan has passed away. because now all i wanna do is put her music on a pedestal and lift it to the high heavens. and i know how everyone who ~really~ loved jay must feel about this 1 year onward (i had only a passing familiarity w/ his stuff).

anyway-- sorry, i wasnt trolling but see how i came across like a jerk.

r.i.p.

ah, i don't hate you for it, but it was a crummy thing to do.

thing is, i have the feeling that jay never quite received his due in life (though he was clearly on the verge of it), and still hasn't even in death. there was a bubble of shock and chatter in the wake of his passing, but i hardly feel he's been so absurdly venerated over the past year. if anything, his life and music were trivialized by the circumstances of his death, reduced, as you suggest, to yet another po-faced cautionary tale. he played in tons of bands that i've liked and loved. i've met and bonded with lasting friends over nothing more than our mutual love of jay and his music. i never saw the reatards, a regret, but between the lost sounds and jay as a bandleader, he put on a string of the most amazing, annihilatory and life-affirming rock & roll shows i've seen in my life. it's sad to me that he'll never be any more than an indie celeb "OD casualty" to many of the many people who discovered him on the cusp, just before and in the wake of his death, during the weird bubble of hype that i so wished to see him break out of. i'm sad that you'll never get to see him play, see him bash the world to a thousand bits and come home sweaty, drunk and ringing, with a massive three-day grin plastered all across your face.

Motherfuck

ilxor i'm surprised at you! you have always been such an impotent troll!

ilxor has a heart after all, huh?

no, like i said-- wasn't trolling here, i just find that listeners tend to overrate music by musicians who die young. it's just that hearing the news re: trish/broadcast made me realize i have a tendency to do ~exactly~ the same thing when someone dies that i have a bit more invested in. totally humbling!

I got into him with Blood Visions but I'm really kicking myself for not seeing him live when I had the chance.

o hi, are u me? because that is exactly how i feel too.

ilxor has a heart after all, huh?

― ilxor, Friday, 14 January 2011 17:41 (2 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

when is the brain due to arrive?

Yesterday I listened to my playlist of Jay Reatard youtube rips that I made last year. It was really great and there were a bunch of glitches and stuff and reminded me of how I used to feel listening to some tape I borrowed from a friend as a kid and then dubbed over my little sister's copy of the Grease soundtrack on hi-speed dubbing. I couldn't really get into Watch Me Fall, but maybe I'll have to look around for some of his older stuff.

when is the brain due to arrive?

see, it is subtle zings like this i can appreciate

much better than whiney/deej/some dude trash that usually comes after my posts

why don't we turn this thread into something productive - what other jay stuff is worth checking out besides blood visions and watch me fall? my friend gave me the 'in the dark' ep which is really good, has this stripped down version of 'searching for you' that is just so heartbreaking.

the EP yr talking about is collected (along with a bunch of other stuff) on in the red's singles 06-07 comp, and along with blood visions, watch me fall, and matador's singles 08, that's about all the solo jay there is, sadly.

i loved the reatards, the lost sounds, the angry angles and nervous patterns. maybe not as consistently full-on pop as jay's solo stuff, but all pretty damn great.

nervous patterns:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P304mBh4woQ

angry angles (inc a wire cover):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfhEkCXGFH8&feature=related
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4h7bMrERUpU

lost sounds:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzZ1H5XTuTs&feature=related

I was surprised to see that Rhapsody had the S/T Lost Sounds album. I like Clones Don't Love a lot, and will probably check out more...

this guy was sort of a genius

“for me to poop on”

Man someone STOLE* my completely rad Rats Brains & Microchips tshirt and I've been pissed ever since.

*i could've lost it or something