Jandek

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.

this thread is helpful

anyone out there familiar w/ jandek?

eh?

i meant the mariah comment on the article page, not yours.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2384/2447563431_0548976d42.jpg?v=0

miniature family anecdotes

hoos how is that applicable here

twas a mere lol mam

lol

ready for the butt

Butts For Jandek

http://tisue.net/jandek/images/covers/0790.jpg

http://tisue.net/jandek/images/covers/0790.jpg
http://tisue.net/jandek/images/covers/0790.jpg
http://tisue.net/jandek/images/covers/0790.jpg

how is that btw

if i ever see jandek in person, i will likely beat him with a 2x4.

I saw him in a pub wearing his Jandek hat. I didn't beat him.

xposts. pretty good, although I find it hard to rate Jandek albums because I'm thrown when trying to find a criteria to judge them by. Except that I prefer the ones like this that are just him on acoustic guitar and vocals. also because i never listen to any of his albums extensively because i need to be in the right mood or it just jars.

that cover is really something tho.

He's an absolute genius with album covers-- such a singular, evocative aesthetic. He's never made a bad one in 40 or however the hell many releases.

yes. i particularly like the one that shows the side of his house. oh yeah, and the one with dingy old furniture.

Agreed.

Jandek = Boo Radley

did Jandek go to prison recently? because the covers to "Raining Down Diamonds" and "Khartoum" suggest that he has converted to Islam.

those albums came out in '05 but the pictures are a lot older, from the 80s or early 90s.

his recent photos kind of make him look like a cancer patient or something.

yes and there was speculation that he may have been suffering from sort of illness and that that may have been the catalyst by him playing his first live show in 2004.

Hmm, maybe he would have been a good death pool pick, it would have been another idol to condemn.

That is another classic cover for sure.

Saw him in Portland a couple years back with my nurse girlfriend who said he sure looked like a cancer survivor. To me he looked almost like a ghost, appropriately.

Seems as if Mandy Moore has become taken with Jandek. From her Twitter:

"jandek?? who are you?? i'm utterly fascinated. this grey sunday am is
fitting for a bit of his dissonance. off to find out more....7:59 AM
Aug 16th from web "

Guide to Jandek swami Seth Tisue found this possible connection:

"In addition to countless projects on his own Slang Sanctuary label,
[Brian Jones] played drums on Mandy Moore’s latest album and sat in with
obscure outsider musician Jandek for a show back in March."

also Ryan Adams, prolly.

Jandek getting love from Hollywood Disney (probably confusing her here with some other Herbie babe) chicks. this is going too far.

i bet Mandy didn't make it trough the end of the Ruins of Adventure (one of his recent outings, i hardly didn't and i heard his fkn entire oeuvre)

was liking Manhattan Tuesday and Brooklyn Wednesday on a Jandek marathon last weekend.

from up thread
He's an absolute genius with album covers-- such a singular, evocative aesthetic. He's never made a bad one in 40 or however the hell many releases.

actually hating the cover of Ruins of Adventure as WELL (it's just a zoom in, how uninspirational is that)

also, i can't be the only Jandek fan who thinks he should not have played Glasgow on Friday again, since he then had to put out a Glasgow Friday 2005 cd, which is stupid, should've just played on thursday.

So I've heard this guy's name mentioned over the years, yeah okay, dude releases a ton of albums, I never really investigated. I've been playing a ton of Keiji Haino and Loren Connors and Christina Carter and such lately, and I've heard the guy's name in the same circles enough now that I finally decided, what the hell, and picked up two albums -- Ready for the House, and Chair Beside a Window. Please tell me about these. How does the rest of his catalog compare? Do all the records sound like this? Or does his sound vary a bunch more than I am anticipating? I've heard talk of an electric Jandek, an acapella Jandek, etc. -- what's worth looking into if these first two stick (and so far, I'm not really sure)?

Thanks all.

It does vary and if you get into him hardcore you will never come back. (Says the guy who has close to fifty CDs...)

xpost Late-eighties/early-nineties are possibly the best. Yes, the sound varies, but Chair Beside a Window comes close to the blueprint for what people have thought of as a Jandek album. Faves:

On the Way
One Foot in the North
Lost Cause

I haven't heard most latter period Jandek (mid-nineties and on, which encompasses a capella and I think piano instrumentals), although I've heard enough to know that his voice deepens noticeably.

I don't know if he's still doing the $80 for 20 CDs thing (which included shipping). Has anyone seen the catalog lately? Seth Tisue's site probably says something. Used to be the only resource for news on him.