Jay Reatard, 1980-2010
» Let it be known, that those of you who longed for a return to the way rock n' roll "used to be," Jay Reatard was more than a beacon of light, he was a comet in the dark sky.
Jay Reatard photo by Jackie Roman
I miss things. I miss old friends, certain times, and specific places, but mainly, I miss the way things used to be.
I miss getting zines and
mixtapes in the mail; finding out about bands like The Reatards from a
penpal who sent me a cassette titled Guitar Wolf and Friends, Vol.
1. Volume 2 never came, but the first was all I needed. Jay Reatard,
of The Reatards, The Lost Sounds, Bad Times, Final Solutions, Angry
Angles, and countless other projects is dead, and now I find myself in the
position of admitting that I'm going to miss Jay Reatard.
I've
listened to the music of Jay Reatard for almost a decade, and for what
it's worth, I shared many mutual friends, and spent a few hours of my
life around the guy--but not enough to consider him a friend. He was
however, somebody I always thought put out an astonishingly impressive
body of work, most of which I loved, some of it I didn't, but as a
musician, he was somebody I had a great deal of respect for.
Last July, on this very same website, I wrote a review of Reatard's latest full length, Watch Me Fall.
I wrote it from the point of view of somebody who knew the artists body
of work well, and was very critical of the the album. When all was
said and done, I finished off by making the point that I believed "Jay
Reatard has much more to offer us," and I truly believed that. Now,
less than 24 hours after his death, the vultures are descending, and
the naysayers are naysaying; that's just the way it goes in this
cynical world of ours. But it should be noted by those of you who
longed for a return to the way rock n' roll "used to be", Jay Reatard
was more than a beacon of light, he was a comet in the dark sky. He was great, and could have been greater. He was driven by the same hot fire of Jerry Lee Lewis, mixed it with the nervousness of The
Buzzcocks, and when he was on, he could craft a song of pure static energy
like no other.
It's said about many, but Jay Reatard was truly one of a kind. Sadly, a force larger than us has bigger plans, and the world has lost a true rock n' roll man.
Posted on January 15, 2010. More on: jay reatard
thank you -- i'm glad i stumbled upon this. in the beginning, people were all abuzz about jay, and then things quieted down, and it seemed like he sort of fell into the background a bit. not the next best thing, nothing wildly original, diverging from album to album only enough for mediocre criticism. i felt the same way, that he had more to offer us, and that he would deliver it. in a time where the industry doesn't have to determine what is/isn't heard, where anybody and everybody, if they want to be, has the opportunity to be heard... and practically anybody, even those living with their parents in their mid-twenties, with barely a dollar to their name, can access more music than they'd ever know what to do with... it still remains difficult to find those rare things that are different somehow, those things that really move us. i know i'm in the minority here (i mean, i'm the only one i know who doesn't own an ipod. sometimes, when i take out my discman, i feel as if people are looking at me like i came from another planet. paranoia, clearly). but, i think i'd trade it all in for waiting for those mix tapes to arrive in the mail, for discovering a new band and feeling sort of like i'm falling in love, for choosing the city i live in (no longer, but for 2 years) based on my affinity for live shows and the local music scene, for going to the record store late on monday nights to wait for tuesday's new releases, to physically unwrap the plastic from a new cd and know that i'm holding not just a disc... but an entire experience. these are all the things a death like this reminds me of. this is why the anger i felt seemed inexplicable to me. "I miss things. I miss old friends, certain times, and specific places, but mainly, I miss the way things used to be." -- couldn't have said it better.
— christina on January 16, 2010