The tenets of the Advanced Theory are clear. The genius of Advanced artists has evolved past the point of ordinary people’s understanding. Advanced artists wear sunglasses indoors. They favor leather jackets. They insist on putting their pictures on the covers of their albums. And when they make ostensibly baffling decisions or pronouncements (often involving musical theater), it is not a joke. Except when it is an Advanced joke, and we don’t have room to get into that here.

Dave Smalley is the most Advanced man to come out of the ’80s hardcore scene.
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Advanced Theory posits that when a genius creates a piece of art that is largely perceived as bad, it does not necessarily mean he’s lost his touch. Rather, it might mean that he’s doing something that you cannot understand, because he has Advanced beyond you.

Jandek–who performs Saturday at Velvet Lounge as part of the Sonic Circuits Festival–has been making inscrutable, some would even say bad, art for over two decades. Still, I’ve never considered him capable of advancement. His behavior–hiding his true identity, declining interviews, never appearing in public, releasing scores droney and unlistenable psych-folk records via mail order–is weird, yeah, but it’s consistent. And truly advanced behavior, at least as it is defined by founder Jason Hartley, is anything but consistent.

As Chuck Klosterman put it in this Esquire article:

The key to Advancement is that Advanced artists a) do not do what is expected of them but also b) do not do the opposite of what is expected of them.

Jandek–unlike Sting, Lou Reed, or any other truly advanced artist–pretty much always does what you expect.

Or does he?

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