News from the darkest corners...

On Thursday, April 29th 2010, in what could be one of the few possible upgrades in both rarity and uniqueness to a live Jandek performance, Thurston Moore will join the legendary Texas recluse for a one-time, on stage collaboration.

Hollywood Theatre in Portland, Oregon will house this extraordinary event, as they did for one of Jandek’s earliest live shows nearly four years ago. That show, also produced by Jackpot Records, sold out and was released on cd to widespread acclaim as the album ‘Portland Thursday’. The subsequent years have only enhanced clamor and interest in this true outsider musician.

Thurston Moore, front man for Sonic Youth and aficionado of all things reasonably unique, is a dream collaborator, ramping up the possibilities for what this night could bring. This show, like the musicians themselves, is here only once and then gone forever.

The performance begins at 7PM and is open to all ages. $20 gets you in the door.

Tickets available at both Jackpot Records locations:

Jackpot Records Hawthorne
3574 SE Hawthorne Blvd, Portland, OR 97214 P: 503-239-7561
Jackpot Records Downtown
203 SW 9th Ave, Portland, OR 97205 / P: 503-222-0990
www.jackpotrecords.com

and online here.

Kraftwerk have confirmed that they are recording a new album. The iconic group insisted that they are not worried about getting older and have no plans to quit making music in the foreseeable future. When asked about the possibility of new material, frontman Ralf Hutter told German magazine Der Spiegel: “Of course. Why should we stop doing what we love to do?

The 63-year-old musician also spoke about the hierarchy within the group, maintaining that the band is “still autonomous and independent”.

Kraftwerk formed in 1970 and are regarded as one of the most influential electronic acts of all time. In November 2008, founder member Florian Schneider shocked fans when he left to embark on a solo career.

Liam Clancy, the man Bob Dylan described as the “greatest ballad singer” he had ever heard has died. He was 74.

Clancy died at Bon Secours Hospital in Cork after a long battle with pulmonary fibrosis – scarring of the lungs. In an interview with The Irish Times in September to promote The Yellow Bittern, a film about his life, he admitted that he was on his “last legs” from the disease.

Liam was the youngest of the four Clancy brothers and Paddy, Bobby and Tom all predeceased him. Tommy Makem died two years ago.

Born in Carrick-on-Suir, Co Tipperary, Liam Clancy emigrated to the United States to join his brothers in 1956. They began their singing careers around the pubs of Greenwich Village where they met a young Bob Dylan who has claimed them as one of his biggest influences.

Together the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem began a transatlantic phenomenon after a break on the coast-to-coast Ed Sullivan Show in 1961 where they filled in for a guest who could not turn up.

They were then offered a record deal with Columbia and were hugely successful on both sides of the Atlantic resurrecting Irish songs such as Roddy McCorley, Brennan on the Moor and The Jug of Punch.

Aaron Schroeder, the songwriter behind the Elvis Presley hit “It’s Now or Never” has died.

A publicist for Aaron Schroeder says the 84-year-old died Tuesday. Schroeder had been suffering from a form of Alzheimer’s disease.

Aaron Schroeder was credited with writing 2,000 songs and wrote several hits for Presley, including “Stuck on You”, “Good Luch Charm” and “A Big Hunk O’ Love.” But the biggest song was “It’s Now or Never.”. Other artists who recorded his songs are Roy Orbison, Perry Como and Pat Boone.

Schroeder was more than just Presley’s songwriter. He was also a producer, he was credited with helping the young careers of acts like Jimi Hendrix, Gene Pitney and Barry White, and he wrote the theme song for “Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!”.

Del-Fi Records founder Bob Keane, who discovered 50’s rocker Ritchie Valens, has died of renal failure in Los Angeles. Keane was living an assisted care facility in Hollywood, CA he was 87.

Keane founded Del-Fi records in the 1950s and discovered Valans in 1958, when Valens was only 17 years old. Valens recorded the smash hits ‘La Bamba’ ‘Come On Lets Go’ and ‘Donna’ and was the inspiration for the film ‘La Bamba’ starring Lou Diamond Phillips. Valens was tragically killed on February 3rd, 1959 in the same plane crash that took the lives of Buddy Holly and the Big Bopper, which inspired the Don MacLean song “The Day The Music Died”.