Back in stock and perhaps for the final ever time, one of the discoveries of the year - an entirely new and unheard Jim Shepard album of strange provenance. Best to let Siltbreeze's Tom Lax, as informed as one can be on the obscure activities of the man, explain its emergence lest we fudge any of the details...
"Sometime pre-Covid, I began a brief online correspondence w/an a most curious Jim Shepard fan. Long story short, down the line he intimated that he'd purchased the contents of a storage locker, amongst the inventory; a healthy chunk of Onion Records stock. Not only that but he was sure this unmarked CD-r found amongst the debris was a Jim Shepard project. He sent a copy to confirm & almost immediately on playing I'd concur 1000%. From the handwritten titles on a back sticker (reproduced here) to the maniacal opening track, there can be only one. He must have been planning some sort of release after Motorcycle Movie perhaps? But like I said, this was years ago & I had forgotten all about the interaction. So imagine my surprise when a vinyl copy shows up on the stoop door."
So yes, Shepard still blasting souls from beyond the grave, replete with all the fried-n-barely-alive witticisms and unrepentant obstinance that defined the entirety of his oeuvre. Hearing this now, you can't help but think how desperately we need a JS type character at this present moment. Someone prepared to unflinchingly stare down the void, lay waste to the West's bloated mess and conjure up a good few problems all of his own making. The guy was a cactus alright, producing the prickly and appealing in equal measure, here some raging cut-n-shut amalgamation of Reed, Pollard, Burroughs and Jandek. If you've the appropriate kind of sensibilities, this is the vital magic. And if you don't, it's not too late to change. Still, whatever way you choose to spin it, Panties and Perfumes is the revelation we needed but perhaps not what we deserve.
FFO: Jandek, GBV (side-project galore), V-3, Alternative TV, The Saints
Jim Shepard - Panties & Perfume
£26.00
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