Dave Smalley is the most Advanced man to come out of the '80s hardcore scene.

A beacon of Boston straight edge with DYS, he was later singer for D.C.'s Dag Nasty, then All, then...I kinda drifted away from his career after that(God, I'm a moron; how could I forget Down by Law?). Until 2004, when Smalley emerged as a leading voice (OK, one of the only voices) of "conservative punk," which was really just libertarianism I'm fairly certain. ANYWAY, Smalley is now a newspaper editor in Fredericksburg, Va., and occasionally still does music, such as the single by Pocket that hit YouTube this week.

In it, you can see Smalley wearing sunglasses indoors as well as a cowboy hat. There is an American flag on the wall. Plus flames. All these things point to Advancement, but none so much as the fact that this is electronic music. For Smalley to go the Propellerheads route in 2009 is not only Advanced, it's museum-worthy. For the song to be good—well, that's just lagniappe!

I got in touch with Smalley about this; he can't do an interview till next week. But I am not gonna let this story die!

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?

As of late, Jandek has been showing behavior suggestive of advancement. In 2004 he performed live for the first time ever, at a festival in Glasgow, Scotland. This was actually kind of overt, meaning that it's the exact opposite of his expected behavior and thus not advanced. Yet overt behavior is, confusingly, a precursor to advancement.

In 2005 he released Raining Down Diamonds, an album of songs performed solo on fretless electric bass. Fretless bass is an extremely advanced instrument.

And now this:

I would say this is a pretty solid example of not doing what is expected, yet not doing the opposite of what is expected.
As Washington City Paper editor Andrew Beaujon observed: "How reclusive can you be if you know someone who plays slap bass?"

I'm a still a little skeptical, but a case is definitely building.

Jandek
Sat., 9/26 @ Velvet Lounge
$20 (includes an entire day's worth of experimental music performances by local and international artists)
915 U St. NW
Washington DC