Jandek

Alas and alack.

It's turned into something more involved and interesting than I expected, and is definitely no longer trying to be an exact portrait like the earliest chapters try and be. Somewhere between fanfic and psychological study, eventually. Or so I hope.

I'll have to set aside some time to read your stuff, Ned...

1)

Jandek is a box of smoke. Open it and...*poof*.

did you call me a poof?

Twenty years ago I came across Jandek records and was naturally pretty miffed. Then I read some short article in Option, I believe. Seemed like an interesting oddity. Then lost touch with it. Then ran across that Jandek on Corwood film, which I thought managed to express both a sincere appreciation and still keep its wits about the situation. I thought Doug Wolk did a very good job balancing his analysis, as opposed to the Half Japanese movie The Band That Would Be King where Cosloy and Coley came off like pompous assclowns (OK, Byron you don't own any Beatle records, you're really cool) and Half Japanese sounded like a bad joke.

But then I read that Jandek was out performing and it seemed so wrong. As if the concept finally ran its course and was now something else that didn't quite work. I dunno. I'd be curious how others see it.

That's my longwinded way of asking: how do you feel about Jandek in 2007?

I saw a show, it was fair, but ultimately kind of boring (though I am very glad I went). But I have been listening to Manhattan Tuesday though and it sounds pretty nice.

McJandek.

I'm fucking greater than Jandek, and I can't play much either. Here's a whole album on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVfydUa-I78

I don't get Jandek.

But then I read that Jandek was out performing and it seemed so wrong. As if the concept finally ran its course and was now something else that didn't quite work. I dunno. I'd be curious how others see it.

I agree, it would've been much cooler if the man just had quit at some point and enter total obscurity (again) (not even reprinting sold out records)

"cooler"

surely you are also greater than jackson pollock and william carlos williams

don't sell yourself short

xxp

"cooler"

:)

I'm humble by nature.

so much depends
on my
wallowing in
internal
whimsy
I
again

is this ilm jandek street team day or somethuing?

there are jandeks in my area. my favourite jandek lives in a house in the middle of nowhere with all the windows boarded up. there are rusty old instruments everwhere, red lights, the place stinks of chai tea. 100s (maybe 1000s?) of cassettes of stuff he's recorded. lovely guy. listens to a love supreme a lot.

Glasgow Monday is surprisingly good....some nice (dare I say pretty?) piano playing by Jandek, creepy bowed bass and percussion work for that "signature" skeletal Jandek sound

only record of his I find enjoyable to listen to, at least in certain contexts

Choice quotes from a recent Jandek concert review (appearing in full at
http://blogs.denverpost.com/reverb/2008/07/29/jandek-the-bug-theatre/)

"He didn't seem like someone who enjoys humanity buzzing in his ear. When performing, it seemed as though he was unaware that he was standing in a roomful of people."

"The formula, if there was one, reminded me of childhood, when I would make up a tune with friends and we'd sing along in sentences, giggling because we weren't rhyming and weren't trying to. This was adult playtime, and with feeling: the scatterbrain rhythms and breathy backing vocals didn't make much sense, but they held a world-weariness that children can't fake."

"You should have seen the veins bulge and quiver in that skinny man's neck every time he prolonged a note. But the voice was just a voice, neither husky nor high, and the words hung dead in the air, chilly and flat against the fuss in the background. Suddenly, he began to smile and move in the direction of Ms. Gould, who I could see was also smiling. The two smiles became grins; they held for a moment, and dissolved as the slim figure slunk back to his post."

i like the "jandek vs. mariah" comment below the article.

jandek is awful. what is this guy's appeal? you know, beyond the 'mystery'

some of the best depression music i have ever heard!

Well he's not exactly a mystery anymore...

lol that comment should have ended with "you never her."

eh?

In a gray, discordant, and broken sort of way there's a lotta feeling here. If you're into gray, discordant, and broken music. There are times and places where I really enjoy that. Sometimes he reminds me of very early Fall, like some of the murkier bits on Dragnet, taken several steps farther.

only $10 on the website!

what does it mean when Jandek just sounds REALLY right to you? like, the planets are aligned and any album or live recording of his is just...right in your mental wheelhouse. all the chords and notes and riffs sound like the perfect way to play something. the singing and lyrics the perfect way to express life on earth.

it isn't always like this. by a long shot. should i call a doctor? or just roll with it while it lasts?

i mean this glasgow sunday live album right now is just hitting the spot in a big way. but i've been listening all morning and it just sounds righter and righter.

Just roll with it. That aphorism about everything finding an audience eventually is legitimate.

Too bad yr not in Los Angeles, Jandek is playing the Lodge Room tonight and there's still tickets available

sometimes when I’m listening to John Oswald’s Plexure I’m just like “I don’t need to listen to anything else again. can all music be like this?”

yeah in my experience listening to Jandek is this journey from "I'm too upright to not have to be thinking about the whole deal" to "I'm listening to music, but I'm also thinking about Jandek" to "I've internalized all the stuff about Corwood and his anonymity and his emergence and that's all background now and I'm just listening and it feels like music that is very alive, very human, very individual."

Telling my kids this was Primus:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acLwiYpSTFE

that is such a magical clip

Grab yrself a can o' Cor woo-da

I know I heard this late at night on KROQ in 1981

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgAdBibDVwE

call me crazy but jandek and his wife seem annoying af and im glad i didnt pay to see that haha

first of all - i am totally happy for him and them
but wow, given what Jandek represented way-back-when
(i was at that first glasgow gig)
it is hard to wrap my wee brain around the idea that he's in a long-term relationship with (married to?) someone who likes to post snaps of them both on instagram! such an inversion of the earlier anonymity. it's kinda nice.

https://www.instagram.com/veganloca/?hl=en

my brother took my nephews to that rudyards gig. they must have been 10 & 13 or so
apparently the encore started up exactly where the main set emded

wow i had no idea about mrs. jandek! so weird. she is a really big Smiths fan. what a world we live in.

call me crazy but jandek and his wife seem annoying af and im glad i didnt pay to see that haha

all the best Jandek stuff is pretty annoying! but it's for getting annoyed by in the privacy of your home

Don't paint your teeth

too late

It's wild looking back that all the speculation at the time was that Sterling was ill and close to death which was why he started playing shows, when now with hindsight it looks far more likely it was his wife's idea.

he had definitely been ill, at least according to my nurse wife who saw him play in like 2007-2008 and was struck by it

i.e. why not both?

sometimes a good relationship can change someone's life

every time i eat a cantaloupe i hear jandek singing "cantaloupes are SOOOOOO good to eat"