I won’t pretend that the death of Jay Reatard rattles me to my core, but wow, this was a rare “new” musician whose work I found interesting and full of life.
A couple of years ago Townsman kpdexter directed me toward his music, thinking it may appeal to the Buzzcocks and tuneful Guided By Voices side of my tastes. Sure enough the collection of singles I bought sounded like the Buzzcocks through the tuneful side of GBV! At times the “in your faceness” of his delivery wore me out, but whenever those songs pop up on my iPod I feel like there’s still hope for raw nerves to energize rock ‘n roll music.
I checked out Reatard’s latest album and didn’t find it as exciting, but I meant to take some time to read up on the guy and see what made him tick. Now it won’t be the same. My condolences to his friends and family.
What a shame. I’ve got that first Matador Singles collection and it’s pretty good. Good enough that I’ve been interested in hearing more from the guy.
I really enjoyed Blood Visions, the singles collection and last year’s Watch Me Fall. The Pollard comparison is apt in how he seemed capable of consistently putting out a ton of songs that got in, hit their mark and got out before losing any steam.