Ten years ago I was helping out at the Terrastock 5 check-in table when a friendly guy came up and introduced himself as Lee Jackson. I don’t believe we had ever met before, but I knew him as a regular on the DroneOn list and within short order we were gabbing like old friends about which bands we were excited to see, what we had each been listening to lately and after a short but highly engaged conversation I came away with a list of albums to check out and a new friend in Texas I wasn’t aware of until then.
Several years later we met up again in Louisville for Terrastock 7 (“it’s Mr. DroneOn!”) and the conversation picked up right where it left off and somehow he had an uncanny ability to distill down a fearsome encyclopedic knowledge with a welcome enthusiasm (almost all of his comps and mixes for folks were titled “For xxxx IN SPACE!”). Whenever he said “I think you’ll like this” he was unerringly correct.
Back in March I asked what the Roky Erickson shows were like these days and I got a succinct reply back from Lee that sounds just like him. It’s still sitting in my mail.
When I saw Roky 2-3 years ago with The Black Angels backing him, it was pretty incredible. The Elevators material smoked appropriately, and his late 70s/early 80s material took on an eerie depth not really glimpsed on the albums from that period imo. I can’t really speak to the quality of his most recent live gigs though.
Just a few weeks later Lee passed away from a heart attack after a struggle with ALS. He was 38 years old. I never knew he was sick.
Fortunately his writing endures and what couldn’t be contained by The Broken Face, Foxy Digitalis, and the blogs and inboxes of fellow cosmic travelers is still up on his blog. Worth checking out.
Soon after his passing, a tribute compilation was organized. The final comp was released this morning on Bandcamp, and the outpouring is, well, stunning with over ninety bands and something like twelve hours of music – nearly all of it new or previously unreleased. The Roswell Incident is there at track #53 and we’re honored and humbled to be a part of it. All proceeds from the comp go to the Texas Chapter of the ALS Association.
Appropriately, the comp’s name is For Lee Jackson In Space. Go ahead and blow your mind.
The official press release for the comp follows…
Ninety-four bands and musicians contribute to the digital tribute charity album For Lee Jackson in Space
Contributors include Six Organs of Admittance, MV/EE, Hush Arbors, Windy and Carl, Wooden Wand and Marissa Nadler
June 4, 2012 — Today marks the release of For Lee Jackson in Space, a nearly twelve-hour charity collection released via Bandcamp for streaming and downloading at http://forleejacksoninspace.bandcamp.com/ Featuring ninety-four bands and musicians, with approaches ranging from the mystic folk of Stone Breath and Sharron Kraus, the psych-pop of the Green Pajamas and the exploratory art-rock of Volcano the Bear and the Magic Carpathians Project to the avant-garde metal of Locrian and the improvisational inspirations of Helena Espvall, Roy Montgomery and Pelt, it pays tribute to Texan writer and cultural enthusiast Lee Jackson, famed for his co-creation of the noted Broken Face fanzine with Swedish writer Mats Gustafsson.
After Jackson’s tragic passing earlier this year due to the effects of ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly called Lou Gehrig’s disease), friends and associates rapidly conceived of a tribute album to celebrate his life and work, resulting in a nearly twelve hour long collection of songs, nearly all of which are completely new or otherwise unreleased. All profits will go to the ALS Association, Texas Chapter at the request of his family.
“Lee and myself created [The Broken Face] together, that lasted for almost seven years,” says Gustafsson in his introductory liner notes. “I am proud to have published something unique together with a deeply-response, righteously earned friend. I was proud to have him as a friend, and I thought of him as much more than a casual friend. Simply knowing him, in addition to creating with him, somehow made me feel fulfilled.”
“I can’t even remember when I first started communication with Lee Jackson,” remembers Ben Chasny of Six Organs of Admittance. “It seems he was always there, giving encouragement and getting stoked on music. His excitement about art was contagious, which made him the perfect person to write about music. Lee seemed to be lacking that sort of cynical view that seems to infest a lot of the music world. Whenever I would see an email from him in my inbox I knew it was going to be a happy letter, one of inspiration and a positive view. I’m going to miss those chats about music and Lee’s encouragement, which he was never shy about handing out.”
Matt Valentine of MV/EE recalls: “Lee was a presence who seemed to grasp what we were all about without having to rely on anything but spirit and ears. It was his appreciation of the music that made me totally realize he is an oasis for musicians of all sorts and sounds. What i remember most is something he proposed after a particularly wild gig down in Dallas. The venue didn’t seem to be a “usual” gathering place for psychedelic music fans, but somewhere between the podium of where Lee was at and my amp we located some sorta sound that went beyond. I’ll never forget coming off the stage, or selling merch right from the stage at that one, hearing Lee blast outward with some verbiage like, “Whoah brother you went all PSF on my ass!” It was a prominent riff of wide open speech as sonic appreciation and “getting it” as I have ever witnessed in response to being grateful for the music.”
Cover art for For Lee Jackson in Space is courtesy of Nevada Hill, artist and member of Zanzibar Snails, yet another of the bands giving a little back in Jackson’s memory. The liner notes for the collection include pieces by Gustafsson and the other two album compilers, Travis Johnson and Ned Raggett, Jackson’s sister Layne, ALS Texas representative Elizabeth Macasadia and a complete listing of all bands and tracks, with liner notes from Jackson himself, taken from his descriptions of participating acts from earlier appearances or releases.
For Lee Jackson in Space is available for downloading with contributions of $30 or higher. Discussion and further updates can be found at the appropriate Facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/groups/323110634410498/ — on Twitter, look for the #forleejackson tag.
For further information please contact Ned Raggett at ned@kuci.org
Final tracklisting follows:
- Abunai! — Time of the Funk-Lords (Flash Forward)
- Primordial Undermind — I Am Afraid of You (live)
- Tadpoles — Jaded Jean (LJ Mix)
- Stone Breath — Dark Veils Part
- Photon Band — Unfinished Sky: Electricity, Heat, and Rain
- Melodien — Untitled
- SubArachnoid Space — Sounds and Memories Remain
- Øyvind Holm — When She’s Sleeping
- Nick Bensen and Too Many Guitars — Stone Circle
- Linus Pauling Quartet — Elven Queen
- Anvil Salute — Technosis Externality Clusterfuck
- Locrian — Galleria Malaise
- Theo Angell — Take Your Hand Off The Tree
- Arborea — Stardust
- Marianne Nowottny — Where You Are
- Kitchen Cynics — Me, Jack & Lee & the ghost of Skip James
- Six Organs of Admittance — Which Way To Townes?
- Tandem Bridges — Some Mornings
- Three Minute Tease — These Alien Angels (Extended in Space)
- Volcano The Bear — Tremondo
- Marissa Nadler — The Breaking
- Ade Shaw & Rustic Rod Goodway — Chakra Blue
- The Magic Carpathians Project — In the Air We’ll Be Reborn
- Sharron Kraus — Night Clouds
- Matthew de Gennaro — Lee’s Dream
- Electroscope — The Aye-Aye
- Julia Vorontsova — Love
- Matt McDowell — Rays in the Dust (For Lee)
- Alchemysts — Glass Cars
- Xenis Emputae Travelling Band — Night’s Black Bird (after John Dowland)
- Mike Tamburo — lunar suite (for lee jackson) a. tantric sky memorial b. all but forgotten c. ver a calm bed of prepared drone
- Tara Burke, Helena Espvall, Alec Redfearn and Sharron Kraus — Seal Woman’s Lament
- The Weird Weeds — Untitled
- Nmperign & Jason Lescalleet — Noble One(s)
- Ray Off — Go Up, Pup
- Axemen — No, Not Him (Jackson mix)
- Valerio Cosi — One For Lee
- Doleful Lions — Combat Shock (It’s Only A Matter Of Time)
- Kable — Be Next
- The Dire Wolves Absolutely Perfect Brothers Band — Creator Dub
- Kohoutek — Slugger
- Insect Factory — Reversed in Your Mind
- Raising Holy Sparks with the Sacred Harp Singers of Cork — Sacred Harp 282 (I’m Going Home)
- Remora — An Unwelcome Room
- Peter Wright — All The Sky In Flames
- Roy Montgomery — Christchurch in the time of Tony Peake
- Evening Fires — Nailing Smoke to the Wall
- Gate — Whetu
- Windy & Carl — the little voice that echoes in my head
- Superbugger — Dream
- Helena Espvall — Passage (For Lee)
- Tom Greenwood — Willow Spring (Live in LA)
- The Roswell Incident — Ventricular
- Exterminating Angels — Opening
- ST 37 — German Verman
- Pete Fosco — Zilpo Forest Blues
- Norman Neubauer — I’m done sharing things I guess
- Quixod — The Sounds of Trains at Night
- The Lost Domain — Restless Blues
- Charlatan — Gateway
- Emperor Ringworm — Lee
- Brendan Quinn and Mark Bennett — Concerning The Isle Of Ptyx
- when the word was (((sound))) — Sungazer
- Seht — For the dead ones in space (Lee Jackson’s half-life of chromium dioxide edit)
- Zelienople — Laundry
- Charalambides — Joy Shapes for Lee
- Raglani — Outer Rim Territories
- Feature Films — Blue Tomorrows
- The Green Pajamas — In The Sky
- Thunderbolt Pagoda — The Reclamation
- Lunar Discotheque — Secret Kraft
- Kemialliset Ystävät — Muistan
- Jouurney — Commit Your Way
- Head of Wantastiquet — Anemones in a Blue Vase
- Zanzibar Snails — A More Celestial Perception of the Absolute
- Wooden Wand — Levees
- The Renderers — Out of the Forest (live)
- Derek Rogers — New Languages (For Lee Jackson)
- Winslow — Purcell
- Mass Ornament — You Eat in Greed
- The Watchers — Live at the Phoenix Project
- Hush Arbors — Berryman in the field
- Akiyama / Corcoran / Kiefer / Leftridge — The Infinite Tides
- Sun Circle — Awaken
- Dora Bleu — Tracing the Corner
- The Spiral Joy Band — 13 moons of doom part 3 – red lunar serpent
- MV & EE with the Golden Road — Hammer > Jam
- Tanakh — The Gardener
- Jefre Cantu-Ledesma — The Placeless Place
- Pelt — On the Divide
- Plastic Crimewave — Butterfly and Moth
- Vanessa Rossetto — Untitled (For Lee Jackson)
- R. Keenan Lawler — Peacefully
- The Azusa Plane — Armonia Aphanes Phaneros Kreisson
