JAN DUKES DE GREY Mice And Rats In The Loft (Breathless) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
After Comus' genius First Utterance record was re-released (soon, supposedly, to be re-re-released, with bonus tracks), this left Jan Dukes De Grey as THE missing seventies psych / prog / folk holy grail. And rightfully so. Originally released in 1971 (the year Allan has determined that almost every great seventies record was released, even though he was only two years old then), this record manages to be totally brilliant and absolutely absurd at the same time. It has much in common with the Comus record, super dramatic trilling vocals, frenzied acoustic guitars and manic bongos. But there the similarities end. Where Comus took those elements and created a harrowing pagan ritual, Jan Dukes De Grey take those same elements and embark on a freaked out prog journey into utter madness. Sweetly melodic flutes, acoustic guitars, and weirdly bombastic drumming are woven into a weird and wonderful lilting British folk, peppered with an ultra-memorable little arpeggiated guitar lick that you won't be able to get out of your head, pausing once for a fierce heavily strummed riff that sounds almost Sabbathy before resuming it's sweet folky journey. Then suddenly the whole thing is thrown into chaos by a brief splattery drum break, which the band emerges from in entirely different garb. An epic journey through angular, almost eighties sounding nowave skronk, damaged seventies prog, ultra twee psychfolk and avant jazz krautrock. Weaving wildly from sound to sound, muted duck like saxophone, super distorted acoustic guitar, warbling trumpets, manic bongos, soaring strings, fluttering flamenco sputter, employing a massive arsenal of instruments: violin, cello, zeldaphone (!), clarinet, recorder, chanter, harmonica, hunting horn, glockenspiel, as well as a 'clothes horse' contraption with a hanging flat drum, tabla, cymbal, chimes and Indian bells. And that's all in the first song! Twenty plus minutes of freaked out psych-prog-folk brilliance.
The second track sounds much more traditionally seventies British folk, but only compared to the first track. Jaunty and folky, occasionally dark and menacing, with bursts of maniacal strumming, and sweet vocal harmonies, before the band switches gears and belts out a wild klezmer folk-prog shuffle that sounds quite a bit like Uz Jsme Doma. The final track is a dense and relentless, heavy psychedelic swirl, with jagged wah guitars, throaty theatrical vocals and wild octopoidal Krupa-ish drumming, thumping tribal tom toms and sizzling cymbals. Phew.
Take a dash of Comus, a pinch of the Incredible String Band, a hint of Jethro Tull, a splash of Captain Beefheart, a drop of Uz Jsme Doma and a whole lot of LSD and shake vigorously! Liner notes by Current 93's David Tibet.
MPEG Stream: "Sun Symphonica (excerpt 1)"
MPEG Stream: "Sun Symphonica (excerpt 2)"

JAN DUKES DE GREY Sorcerers (Wounded Nurse) cd 17.98

JANDEK A Kingdom He Likes (Corwood) cd 8.98

JANDEK Austin Sunday (Corwood Industries) 2cd 12.98
There's two things that even people who haven't heard Jandek's music, but have heard of him, know: the mysterious Texas-based "singer/songwriter" is (or, was) even more reclusive than J.D. Salinger, and is VERY prolific, issuing recordings every few months on this own Corwood Industries label, going way back to the late '70s! But now that he's come out of his shell just a bit and taken to actually playing live shows, the former quality of reclusiveness has been shaken (just a little bit), yet on the other hand he's easily able to add even MORE to his already vast discography, by issuing live albums of course. This is his fourth live album, and 48th release overall! Austin Sunday is a double disc documenting his performance at the Scottish Rite Theater in Austin, TX on August 28th, 2005. "The representative from Corwood" (as Jandek likes to be billed) played electric guitar and sang, in his usual unique style, and was accompanied by a pick-up band of local musicians from the indie/improv scene: Juan Garcia on bass and two drummers -- Nick Hennies (of Weird Weeds) and Chris Cogburn. Jandek brought new lyrics along, and then (we assume) he and the band improvised. It gets into some fairly "rockin'" territory, by Jandek standards, if we can even say that about something this haunting and abstract sounding... creepy and weird. "Run away, run away, and don't like me."
MPEG Stream: "Throw Me Away"
MPEG Stream: "Ugly Man"

JANDEK Blue Corpse (Corwood) cd 8.98
If there's a single Jandek record to own, I would strongly recommend this one. "The Blue Corpse" has long been my favorite album from this Texan recluse, and stands as a rare moment of clarity within his typically willful obliteration of blues and folk standards. While there has been no support to such claims from the tightly lipped Corwood Industries, I have to agree with the theory postulated by Seth Tisue (who runs a fantastic Jandek website at http://tisue.net/jandek/) that this album is the aftermath of the breakup between Jandek and the woman known as Nancy who was featured prominently on previous records. While the obvious fact that she never appears on later album lends itself to this theory, the lyrical content -- which is the least obtuse of all of the Jandek records -- is the strongest evidence to Tisue's claim. From 'Your Other Man,' Jandek morosely resigns himself to his fate as a jilted lover: "Well, I guess your mind's made up / Well, I guess there's not much left to do / Go on, see your other man / Walk up the stairs / That's where the stars are / Go on, see your other man." The recurring themes of religion, travelogues, and numbers found on other records have been put on hold for "The Blue Corpse" which constantly returns to citations of killing time, falling into the river, and pining for lost love. Jandek's naturally melacholic wisp of a voice mopes through each of these songs, presenting itself as an embodiment of his internal gloom. Of course, these could be allegorical fictions and metaphoric dramas. Musically, there is also a considerable change in the Jandek approach on "The Blue Corpse" as his solo guitar work is principally acoustic and actually follows recognizably folkish chord progressions. All in all, "The Blue Corpse" makes for a fantastic album.
RealAudio clip: "I Passed By The Building"
RealAudio clip: "Your Other Man"
RealAudio clip: "House Of The Rising Sun"

JANDEK Brooklyn Wednesday (Corwood Industries) 3cd 17.98

JANDEK Chair Beside A Window (Corwood) cd 8.98
While Jandek's immense catalog is filled with anomalies, this cd reissue of his fourth album, "Chair Beside A Window" (1982), offers more than a few cracks in the facade of Jandek's hermetic behaviour.
For the first time in his career, two tracks on this album are actually not sung by Jandek, rather by two sisters named Nancy and Pat - whose voices sound more like the classic Nashville country sound of Tammy Wynette, than the wispily erratic vocalisations from Mr. Jandek. Musically, Jandek maintains his oblique folk experimentations that include a revision of "European Jewel" (from the first album) which tumbles down the stairs -- Jandek, drum kit, and guitars for about 5 minutes.
RealAudio clip: "European Jewel"

JANDEK Door Behind (Corwood Industries) cd 8.98

JANDEK Follow Your Footsteps (Corwood) cd 8.98
While there have been a number of theories floating around about Jandek, his identity, the unwavering continuity from album to album, the input from his collaborators, and the personal histories that seep through his recordings, the reclusive nature of the Texan known as Jandek (and possibly Sterling Smith) will always keep the truth relatively hidden. Nevertheless, a few facts about "Follow Your Footsteps" are certain: this is the 13th Jandek album, it was recorded in 1986, and the woman who has been referred to as "Nancy" makes another very brief vocal appearance and may have been Jandek's girlfriend.
While the last couple of recordings demonstrated a celebratory silliness (especially the odd vocal duet 'Governor Rhodes' on "Telegraph Melts"), Jandek's "Follow Your Footsteps" exhibits greater tendencies towards introspection and musical isolation. In the aforementioned "Telegraph Melts," Jandek punctuated his avant-folk strum and cracked vocal strain with the heavy plod of arrhythmic percussive stabs. Here on "Follow Your Footsteps," Jandek utilizes such drum signatures on only a few tracks; yet what is most striking about this album is the genuine blues stucturalism of the guitar chords. Melody, even if it's just two chords rhythmically strummed on an acoustic guitar, has become an important element in Jandek's oeuvre. Of course, the songs utter the mythologically oblique imagery of preachers, time, reality, and nature - all typical of Jandek's epistomological inquiries. It's a cold world where Jandek lives.
RealAudio clip: "Didn't Ask Why"
RealAudio clip: "Jaws Of Murmur"

JANDEK Foreign Keys (Corwood Industries) cd 8.98
"Foreign Keys" is the eleventh album from Jandek, recorded back in 1985 and just re-issued on CD. Here, Jandek has figured out a couple of standard blues progressions, but it's rare to find him actually following any of them. His guitar playing remains an angular proposition, manically stabbing at notes then plaintively bending them. The percussion likewise is an erratic skitter across his drum kit, occasionally keeping time, but usually complementing the guitar splutter and his emotionally cracked voice. "Nancy" -- or perhaps better stated, the woman who sang on "Nancy Sings" on Jandek's "Chair Beside A Window" and cited by some Jandek commentators as his girlfriend -- takes up vocal duties on a couple tracks, with her comparatively commanding Patsy Cline / Tammy Wynette voice over Jandek's instrumentation.
RealAudio clip: "Caper"
RealAudio clip: "Oh No"

JANDEK Glad To Get Away (Corwood) cd 8.98

JANDEK Glasgow Friday (Corwood Industries) cd 8.98
Holy geeze. 'Nother day, 'nother Jandek. We reviewed the representative from Corwood's fine new studio album The Myth Of Blue Icicles just last list, now here's another in his series of live recordings. It's Jandek album number 53 overall!! As the title indicates, 'twas recorded in Glasgow, Scotland, on a Friday. Specifically, Friday 10/14/05.
His usual Glasgow crew of Richard Youngs (bass) and Alex Neilson (drums) backs him up. The all new tracks include "This Wasted Life", "Slave Of The River", "If I Could Be With You", "My Plan", and eight more, all ditties in the Jandekian stylee of extreme outsider rock improv, the music atonally skronky and stompy, or hauntingly spare and strummy, the man's vocals a dismal and disturbed presence.
This is THE perfect purchase for anyone looking to add a 53rd item to their Jandek collection. And even if you don't have that many Jandek discs, we'd recommended it merely for the presence of AQ fave Youngs. How 'bout a full-on Jandek/Youngs collaboration next time, guys?
MPEG Stream: "Walking Blues"
MPEG Stream: "These Kokomos"

JANDEK Glasgow Monday (Corwood) 2cd 12.98
Just when you think you have Jandek figured out. Nearly fifty releases, several this year, you sort of figure he has his 'thing' and does it when the inspiration strikes him. But then along comes Glasgow Monday and we are totally thrown for a loop. Where to begin. First off it's a single track, spread out over TWO discs, a track called "The Cell" nine parts, near ninety minutes. Recorded live in Scotland, May 23, 2005, this is the 47th Jandek release, and FOURTH of 2006. BUT, gone is the strangled blues guitar that pretty much defined Jandek's sound, and its place, piano. Just piano. And vocals. Some strange scraping buzz and subtle percussion, some rumbling cello way in the background, but this is almost entirely piano and vocals, and you know what? It's absolutely gorgeous. This just might be the disc to win over all you Jandek haters out there. The piano is lilting and lovely, strange melodies hover and dissipate, notes and chords trail and drift, hands wandering along the keyboard, slightly melancholy, the sound just glistens and shimmers, while Jandek sings over the top, a sort of spoken croon, tentative, hushed, almost whispered, very dreamy and delicate. This is really nothing like any of the other Jandek records you have ever heard. A dark and mysterious, lovely and dreamlike record. Intimate and inspired, gentle and delicate, without a doubt the loveliest Jandek yet...
MPEG Stream: "The Cell: Part One"
MPEG Stream: "The Cell: Part Two"

JANDEK Glasgow Monday (Corwood) dvd 14.98

JANDEK Glasgow Sunday (Corwood Industries) cd 8.98
After 26 years of cultivating an identity of secrecy, Jandek emerged on October 17, 2004 to perform live for the first time at a festival held at The Arches in Glasgow, Scotland. Many have expressed disappointment at the fact that the famously reclusive Jandek has "thrown away" his cultural cache by making a public appearance; but if you consider that Jandek declined to speak to anyone before or after the show and only spoke in undisclosed communications with the promoter and his collaborators, Jandek continues to take considerable efforts to maintain his distance from the public. So don't fret. Even though he has made this public appearance, do we really know more about Jandek than we did prior to this event? No, not really. The only thing that we can know for sure is that he's more clued into the avant-garde that had been previously thought since his collaborators were Richard Youngs and Alex Neilsen, though that could have been the doing of the festival's promoter. Plus Jandek's whole career makes it clear that he should, can and does do what he wants.
Glasgow Sunday is the recording of that historic Jandek performance; and no matter what your opinion is of Jandek's decision to make a public appearance, this recording is fantastic. Youngs and Neilsen keep their input strictly as a rhythm section never to upstage Jandek himself. Throughout the entire set, Richard Youngs keeps his bass within a controlled variation of an elliptical throb and Neilsen does the quiet tumble down the stairs thing on the drum kit. But it's Jandek who really shines. His strangulated blues chords have the same jangling atonality of his earliest records (i.e. Ready For The House), and his deepened baritone voice snakes through his signature revelatory darkness: "I'm floating in a sea of red / Drowning down, can't get no air / And you done told me / I've got no life / I'm rolling my eyes / The last gasp is coming on." If Jandek's going to come out of his shell to make records this good, who are we to complain!?
MPEG Stream: "Sea of Red"
MPEG Stream: "Blue Blue World"

JANDEK Glasgow Sunday (Corwood) dvd 14.98
Even though we know the mystery man known as Jandek has lately been playing shows here and there, a new pick up band in each city, a who's who of underground musicians acting as his sidemen, it was still an absolute thrill to see the man up on stage on this DVD, documenting his first ever public performance. It's hard to explain. We literally had knots in our stomachs, hairs raised on end. Watching a shadow, in the dark, strap on a guitar and then step into the light. This was Jandek for fucks sake!! Live and in the flesh. After years of supposition, did he actually exist, was it a hoax perpetrated by some way too clever hipster musician, was he insane, was that really even him on those record covers. None of it mattered. Because there he was. Tall and skeletal. Dressed all in black. A black hat pulled low. And while he was much older and much more gaunt, he was immediately recognizable from those iconic album cover images.
This, like maybe most Jandek releases, is for diehards only. His atonal deconstructed blues, off key and mournfully moaning, is definitely an acquired taste. And this live performance finds him at his most atonal for sure. Backed up for this performance in Glasgow back in 2004 by Richard Youngs on bass and Alex Nielson on drums, they add a certain stumbling free jazz vibe to Jandek's tortured blues dirge stagger. But hell he sounds great, and looks great too. Part of us was a bit disappointed that he finally decided to play live, but another part of us watched in awe as a mystery came to life, while somehow remaining as mysterious as ever.
Absolutely essential for every Jandek fan.
NTSC, all region, aspect ratio 4:3, three possible viewing choices: "Camera 1", "Camera 2" or the "2 camera mix edit."

JANDEK Graven Image (Corwood) cd 8.98

JANDEK Humility of Pain (Corwood Industries) cd 8.98
What more to say about Jandek? Well, obviously he's got more to say as he's reached album number 33 with the "Humility of Pain." There's still the detuned open chord guitar strum with all of the notes clashing in a completely atonal fashion; and his voice which previously hovered in the upper registers no longer defies gravity on lithium and depression, as Jandek's voice has dropped an octave as was also indicated on his last album "I Threw You Away." While the clarity of Jandek's vocals has never been his strong suit, his voice takes on a drunken slur, possibly an emotional affectation or maybe he really is just drunk, which never the less makes his words even harder to decipher than before. What's curious about these recent recordings (and this one in particular) is that the quality of the production has drastically improved from the 'stick-the-mic-in-the-middle-of-the-room' technique which dominated so many of the early recordings. "Humility Of Pain" is tough record to take even for Jandek fans like me, but it raises some interesting questions as to why he's taken such care to record such damaged music.
RealAudio clip: "You Know You Need"

JANDEK I Threw You Away (Corwood Industries) cd 8.98
Jandek preceded "I Threw You Away" with three a capella / spoken word albums that were ultimately forgettable detours from his signature sound of damaged folk music. Here, the Texan mystery man has returned to the open chord guitar strum and meandering finger picking techniques while he unleashes that desolate moan of a voice revealing staggering visions of any number of inescapable existential truths. Musically, Jandek's "I Threw You Away" is a very obtuse (even for Jandek!) maze of untuned acoustic dissonance and emotional caterwauling. As with most Jandek records, the differences are the key to discerning meaing. The Jandek cover art -- which had been as uniformly uncompromising as the music -- displays a noticeable change. It's a recent photograph (badly taken of course) of a street in Europe, rumored to be from Cork City in Ireland with St. Mary's Cathedral emerging in the background of the desolate street scene. Has our Texan moved?
RealAudio clip: "Blues Turned Black"
RealAudio clip: "The World Stops"

JANDEK I Woke Up (Corwood) cd 8.98

JANDEK Interstellar Discussion (Corwood Industries) cd 8.98
Released originally on LP in 1984, "Interstellar Discussion" is a mild detour from his first few records which transformed an agitated guitar jangle into damaged blues chords. Here, Jandek and the drummer "John" (which of course could just be Jandek) are making a huge freeform mess of spastically hammered percussion, overblown harmonica solos, and a Jandek who is at the most hyperactive pole of the manic-depressive spectrum. The album is a collection of almost tribal, but mostly undefined freak-outs that are much more on par with The No Neck Blues Band than his signature of pained strum and whine. Pretty weird even for Jandek's standards.
RealAudio clip: "Hey"
RealAudio clip: "Why Did I Change A Word In The Last Song"

JANDEK Khartoum (Corwood Industries) cd 8.98
The 43rd album from the one and only Jandek is here! Doing his very distinct thing on acoustic guitar and vocals, a style that has become known to music nerds far and wide as "Jandekian", Khartoum is yet another dark, downer trip into this hermitic Texan's psyche. Well, maybe he's not so hermitic anymore, but even now that he's actually making public appearances (only 27 years after he released his first LP), his music remains as raw and mysterious as ever. And "Jandekian" hasn't lost its meaning. Khartoum consists of alienated, atonal strum-und-twang, teamed with loosely demented vocals, sometimes quietly spoken, sometimes pitched to a warbling holler, delivered with the stream of conciousness lyrical logic of a homeless poet. These songs, with titles like "You Wanted To Leave", "Fragmentation", "I Shot Myself", "In A Chair I Stare", and "Fork In The Road", seem fixated on past (broken) relationships, forgiveness, regret, and despair. Our attempt to transcribe the lyrics of "I Shot Myself" produced the following: "I shot myself I can't get up I am beyond repair I shot myself I'm over some hill beyond the valley stars in the black night sun filters through forgetting a mountain time slides in my mind and I know what it is its time to die..." Something like that. Or, from "New Dimension", another of Khartoum's eight tracks: "You're married, I presume I'm not looking but if you're not be careful I'm the vulnerable kind I love to hurt myself I hurt myself in love and I don't care and all the spirits in the spirit world don't equal you because you're gone and I took you for granted and I miss you so." It's a soul laid bare, speaking directly but in such an idiosyncratic manner that it will only be heard by those with a will to listen. Seriously, his scrabble of strings and chaotic chording provides almost a respite from his depressed words and sometimes excruciatingly miserable wail, one that at times reminds us of Oxbow's Eugene Robinson. So... another fine addition to any fan's sagging Jandek shelf!
MPEG Stream: "You Wanted To Leave"
MPEG Stream: "I Shot Myself"

JANDEK Khartoum Variations (Corwood Industries) cd 8.98
44th Jandek release...

JANDEK Later On (Corwood Industries) cd 8.98
The isolationist. The neurotic. The one. The only. Jandek. In what may be a response to the queries about the status of his earliest work (which has been out of print for almost two decades), this hermetic Texan has now been re-issuing these records. "Later On" is his second album of lithium-soaked folk; a pseudo-jangle on the guitar barely carrying a tune and daydreaming poetry crooned with a creepier voice-crack than Will Oldham could ever conjur. The mysteries of Jandek, personal and musical, may never be fully revealed, but his peculiar genius is highly recommended none the less.

JANDEK Living In A Moon So Blue (Corwood Industries) cd 8.98
"Living In A Moon So Blue" is the fifth album from Jandek, long out of print on vinyl. Corwood Industries (the megacorporation from the United State of Texas solely responsible for mysterious Jandek recordings - all 26 (???) of em) has been slowly reissuing these lost records on cd. Avant folk noodling that is so delicate it certainly cracks and fragments, as with the questionable mental stability of Jandek. Required outsider listening.

JANDEK Lost Cause (Corwood) cd 8.98

JANDEK Manhattan Tuesday (Corwood Industries) 2cd 12.98

JANDEK Modern Dances (Corwood) cd 8.98
In previously writing about "Follow Your Footstep," I had hinted at a progression of Jandek's music towards an isolationism and an introspection that would lead towards the theatrical bleakness found on "The Blue Corpse" (the album album that follows "Modern Dances"). Yet Jandek has never presented himself for easy interpretations, and "Modern Dances" is certainly not an easy record to listen to. Instead this albums showcase two sides to Jandek -- the comedically emphatic avant-blues from the "Jandek band" (with vocal appearances from the woman known as Nancy and the intrusion of percussive splutter which may be indicative of a third party) and the solitary arrangements for Jandek and his guitar. The former is a deliberate slop of off-kilter blues progressions, the aforementioned arrhythmic drums, and oblique duets between Jandek and Nancy (including an alternate version of 'You Painted Your Teeth' from "Telegraph Melts" called 'Painted My Teeth' -- reflecting the continous reworking of older material found in the numerous versions of 'European Jewel'). If Pussy Galore took themselves seriously instead of jokingly posturing through ill-tempered blues, it might have sounded something like this side of Jandek. The latter is what most people think of Jandek -- open chords aimlessly plucked and strummed while his fragile voice cracks in the construction of a painfully sad mood.
RealAudio clip: "Painted My Teeth"
RealAudio clip: "Nothing Is Better Than God"

JANDEK New Town (Corwood) cd 8.98

JANDEK Newcastle Sunday (Corwood Industries) 2cd 12.98
45th release, 2nd of 2006, double disc, 90 minutes long, an amazing live recording documenting Jandek's live perfromance at The Sage Gateshead England on May 22, 2005.

JANDEK Newcastle Sunday (Corwood) dvd 14.98

JANDEK Nine-Thirty (Corwood Industries) cd 8.98
After the raucous squalor of "Interstellar Discussion," Jandek's "Nine-Thirty" -- his tenth album dating back to 1985 -- is certainly his come-down record. It's always difficult to tell how much of the Jandek oeuvre is the result of a psychological problem and how much is consciously constructed aesthetics. So in saying that this is a come-down record could be the result of either or both. Jandek's voice is hushed, his guitar plucks quieter, and the drums untouched. Supposedly, "Nine-Thirty" is his travelogue album about an extended trip through the deep south.
RealAudio clip: "Faye"
RealAudio clip: "Georgia East"

JANDEK On The Way (Corwood) cd 8.98
"On The Way" is a pretty abrasive album, although it also has the distinction of being one of the more technically proficient albums from Jandek. Working clearly with recognizable blues progressions, Jandek offers a range of expressive (albeit sharply mangled) guitar solos on top of a rhythm section that actually keeps relatively normal time. Yet at the same time, Jandek is really aggro, finding himself on the manic side of the bi-polar equation. I guess I like my Jandek depressed and morose, but if you're looking for a really fucked up alternate to Howling Wolf, and I mean *really* fucked up, "On The Way" is for you.
RealAudio clip: "Sadie"
RealAudio clip: "Bring It Back To Seventy-Five"

JANDEK One Foot In The North (Corwood) cd 8.98
Jandek seems to be an unlikely source for nostalgia; however, "One Foot In The North" and the opening track 'Yellow Pages' in particular dot the soundtrack of my college days. While attending an unnamed midwestern college in the early '90s (I'll give you a hint, it was consistently voted America's Sassiest College by the now defunct Sassy magazine), I spent a number of hours at the college radio station, broadcasting a powerful 440 watts of raw radio fury to the cornfields and the few freshmen who hadn't figured out that my radio show was an unlistenable mess of post-punk obscurities, industrial noise, and grim dronings (no, not much has changed). True to our civic minded mission of being a community radio station, we produced a number of public service announcements on mind-bogglingly daft subjects. The ones that got the most airplay were of course, the incredibly bizarre ones, such as Rene Enriquez recounting the dangers of huffing glue, or the Clark Webber spots on leprosy. Also in heavy PSA rotation was a particularly haunting one on schizophrenia. Making the 30 second saga of this misunderstood teenager even creepier was the backing music which some smartass at the radio station had grafted onto the announcement. It was 'Yellow Pages' by Jandek. With its lazy electric guitar meandering through a series of painfully sad notes and the lyrics "You've got to help me dear / Because there's no release / From this tangled beast" which chimed in perfectly to the scripted dialogue, the pathos of abject failure and mental anguish was so perfectly realized, it was comical.
Thus, for me the reissue of "One Foot In The North" is like listening to Joy Division, The Pixies, or Big Black. It's so familiar that a critique is difficult because the music seems so self-evident. I really doubt that many other people would have the same reaction to Jandek's incredibly difficult signature sound of deconstructed blues and folk into an often pained expression. Nevertheless, I can attempt to step away from my memories for a brief moment and place "One Foot In The North" (the 20th Jandek album produced in 1991) alongside his previous albums "The Living End" and "Somebody In The Snow," with more restrained, potentially resigned arrangements for electric guitar and Jandek's strained falsetto warble. As with those two albums, "One Foot In The North" is quintessential downer listening.
MPEG Stream: "Yellow Pages"
MPEG Stream: "Dreaming Man"

JANDEK Put My Dream On This Planet (Corwood) cd 8.98
Three acapella tracks by the Texas mystery man (totalling in at over 50 minutes). Yes, a capella, no guitar, no piano, no nothing but Mr Jandek's voice. Very disturbing, and not in a good way.

JANDEK Raining Down Diamonds (Corwood Industries) cd 8.98
Raining Down Diamonds is the 41st (42nd if you count the live one) album for Jandek, who in recent years has stepped out of his hermitic existance and has performed several times in England with an upcoming show in the US. One of those performances found Jandek and Keiji Haino on the same bill; while it's never very clear when Jandek recorded any of his recordings, it seems that Jandek had been quite impressed by the oblique screams, howls, and ululations of Mr. Haino. As wholly self-contained as the Jandek ethos has been, it is quite unusual when other voices emerge within Jandek's primarily solitary artform (the notable exception being the guest vocal appearances by a woman referred to as "Nancy"). Obviously, it's impossible to confirm or deny if he has or has not been influenced by Keiji Haino (or anyone else for that matter), but Raining Down Diamonds sure does sound like a Keiji Haino record. Here, Jandek is only playing the bass and singing, although back to his more recognizably lithium saturatured wavering as opposed to his recent ventures into a baritone style. Oh so sad, and oh so bleak, it can only be Jandek.
MPEG Stream: "What Things Are"
MPEG Stream: "It's Forever"

JANDEK Ready For The House (Corwood) cd 8.98
The album that started it all was actually not released as Jandek but quite curiously as The Units back in 1978, although there is no denying that Ready For This House is the work of our beloved Texan mystery man Jandek. With Corwood Industry's CD reissue campaign which began several years back, Jandek claimed his rightful authorship over this record. From this album and onward past 34+ records, Jandek has crafted one of the most unique, incredibly personal bodies of music of all time. Within this huge catalog, Jandek (whose real name might be Sterling Smith, then again it might not) is painfully alone, even on those few records with enigmatic duets with female singers or possible collaborations with "John" the drummer. Where the archetypes of blues can accurately describe the sobering truths about hard drinkin' and hard livin', Jandek delves way deeper into the emotional pit of raw abjection and existential torment. His deformed post-blues of incredulously shrill notes, meandering monochords, and lithium saturated vocalizations are unbearable to the average listener. Yet, when given half a chance by the adventurous among you, the enigma that is Jandek will inevitably become revelatory.
The mere fact that this was the first record does not in any way indicate that Jandek (or The Units, if you must) was fishing around for a sound. In retrospect, the Jandek signature was fully developed from day one, and Ready For This House still stands as one of the greatest in the catalogue.
For the majority of Ready For The House, Jandek meanders through a single, slightly offkey, acoustic guitar chord with a half-strum / half-plucked style that emphasizes loud / quiet dynamics and a rhythmic laziness as the perfect accompaniment for his obtuse lyrics and delivery (i.e. 'Inside myself there is no question / Just the jangle of our brain / Three times four is twenty-seven / Only fragments still remain' from "First You Think Your Fortune's Lovely"). This musical signature dominated his first seven or eight records up through the mid-'80s. It should also be noted that Jandek also debuted one of the few actual tunes that he repeated on a number of later records in "European Jewel." This track broke from that single monochord with a comparitively musical descending set of notes heralding Jandek's warped vision of the blues.
If you are new to Jandek or are looking to get a hold of one of the better albums, Ready For This House is marvelous place to start. Very highly recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Naked In The Afternoon"
MPEG Stream: "European Jewel (Incomplete)"

JANDEK Ready For The House (Corwood / Jackpot) lp 22.00
AVAILABLE ON LP!!! Well, it was an lp once before, long long ago, but Jandek's been cd only for years now...
Here's our review of the cd version when we listed it way back when...
The album that started it all was actually not released as Jandek but quite curiously as The Units back in 1978, although there is no denying that Ready For This House is the work of our beloved Texan mystery man Jandek. With Corwood Industry's CD reissue campaign which began several years back, Jandek claimed his rightful authorship over this record. From this album and onward past 34+ records, Jandek has crafted one of the most unique, incredibly personal bodies of music of all time. Within this huge catalog, Jandek (whose real name might be Sterling Smith, then again it might not) is painfully alone, even on those few records with enigmatic duets with female singers or possible collaborations with "John" the drummer. Where the archetypes of blues can accurately describe the sobering truths about hard drinkin' and hard livin', Jandek delves way deeper into the emotional pit of raw abjection and existential torment. His deformed post-blues of incredulously shrill notes, meandering monochords, and lithium saturated vocalizations are unbearable to the average listener. Yet, when given half a chance by the adventurous among you, the enigma that is Jandek will inevitably become revelatory.
The mere fact that this was the first record does not in any way indicate that Jandek (or The Units, if you must) was fishing around for a sound. In retrospect, the Jandek signature was fully developed from day one, and Ready For This House still stands as one of the greatest in the catalogue.
For the majority of Ready For The House, Jandek meanders through a single, slightly offkey, acoustic guitar chord with a half-strum / half-plucked style that emphasizes loud / quiet dynamics and a rhythmic laziness as the perfect accompaniment for his obtuse lyrics and delivery (i.e. 'Inside myself there is no question / Just the jangle of our brain / Three times four is twenty-seven / Only fragments still remain' from "First You Think Your Fortune's Lovely"). This musical signature dominated his first seven or eight records up through the mid-'80s. It should also be noted that Jandek also debuted one of the few actual tunes that he repeated on a number of later records in "European Jewel." This track broke from that single monochord with a comparatively musical descending set of notes heralding Jandek's warped vision of the blues.
If you are new to Jandek or are looking to get a hold of one of the better albums, Ready For This House is marvelous place to start. Very highly recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Naked In The Afternoon"
MPEG Stream: "European Jewel (Incomplete)"

JANDEK Rocks Crumble, The (Corwood) cd 8.98
"The Rocks Crumble" - Jandek's eighth album which was originally released back in 1983 - find the Houston hermit 'rockin out' more than usual. There had been a number of theories that Jandek employed a drummer named John on some of his albums. While Jandek's correspondences have in fact stated that his drummer is named John, I'm not entirely convinced he's telling the truth. Rather, I'll postulate that Jandek (real name Sterling Smith) has projected the anonymous moniker of John upon his own percussive talents. Regardless of the factuality of who John the drummer is, he is prominently featured on "The Rocks Crumble" with a plodding arrhythmic stumble across the drum kit. Jandek's guitar strum is an agitated jangle that meanders near blues based chords, but he breaks up all the note patterns to keep them from achieving big blues melodies. Thus Jandek's guitar with all of its quick tempo and deconstructed melodies create an anxious haze of half-remembered songs and phrases.
Also of note is Jandek's continued revision of "European Jewel" - a tune first performed on his debut "Ready For The House." Three very different versions of that song appear on "The Rocks Crumble."
RealAudio clip: "European Jewel 613"
RealAudio clip: "Message To The Clerk (Part 2)"

JANDEK Shadow of Leaves (Corwood) cd 8.98

JANDEK Six And Six (Corwood Industries) cd 8.98
A while back we made a mistake in claiming that "Later On" was Jandek's second album, when in fact that title was his third album. "Six And Six" is really his second album. While this probably doesn't matter all that much in the grand scheme of things, we'd like to at least get our facts straight. Anyway, "Six And Six" is a raw glimpse into the hermetic soul of Jandek through his ultra-minimal, angular trance-blues soaked with lots of spring reverb and sprinkled with his waivering vocal neuroses.

JANDEK Somebody In The Snow (Corwood Industries) cd 8.98
"Somebody In The Snow" was the 19th album for Jandek who recorded this in 1990, and doesn't deviate from the path set by its predecessor "The Living End" in polishing his avant-folk/blues songs into a small subset of relatively tasteful recordings. Yet, this album is not without its eccentricities and creepy mysteries. While there are a couple of acoustic guitar numbers, Jandek mostly plays electric guitar with a signature laziness, allowing all of the twinkling notes to swim in the spring reverb from his amp. The woman previous referenced as "Nancy" makes another round of appearances, occasionally singing duets with Jandek including the stunning a cappella track of sustained vocalizations "Om."
Yet more interestingly is the arrangement of "Come Through With A Smile" which is also sung by "Nancy" and is eerily similar to "Your Other Man" from "The Blue Corpse." That earlier song, perhaps my favorite individual Jandek song, is a psychologically bleak portrait of a jilted lover resigning himself to post-breakup isolation. The arrangement for "Your Other Man" is about as straight-forward as Jandek ever gets, with an anxiously strummed repetition through a declining chord progression. If it is true that "Nancy" was his former girlfriend and "The Blue Corpse" was an autobiographical tale about their breakup, then the similarities in the arrangement of the two songs is particularly unnerving as it implies a brooding animosity towards "Nancy" that was once sublimated within Jandek's hermetic shell yet now has surfaced with a sly wit referencing one of his previous albums. Yet this curious piece of history in the Jandekian mythos doesn't overwhelm any of the music, which remains cool, distant, and restrained.
"Somebody In The Snow" would be a great place to start for those discovering Jandek for the first time; but at the same time, this album is certainly a highlight from one of the most unique artists from the past three decades.
RealAudio clip: "Om"
RealAudio clip: "Come Through With A Smile"

JANDEK Staring At The Cellophane (Corwood) cd 8.98
The cover of Jandek's sixth album, 1982's "Staring At The Cellophane", is nearly identical to "Living In The Moon So Blue" (the underexposed photo on on that cover features a guitar centered in the composition, as opposed to the guitar positioned on the left of the photograph). Furthermore, the open chord guitar pick & strum barely structuring the vocal wisp and waver from Jandek is nearly indistinguishable on these two albums. It may be a bold question to ask, but is the content from Jandek's faded photographs to be seen as indicative of what can be found inside? Perhaps, another small clue into the enigma of Jandek.

JANDEK Telegraph Melts (Corwood Industries) cd 8.98
The 12th album for the hermetic Jandek is "Telegraph Melts," released originally back in 1986 on vinyl. While firmly entrenched in the 'classic' Jandek sound of open-chord guitar pluckery and vocals that teeter on the brink of losing what little grip of sanity was there, this album stands out for a surprisingly consistent rhythmic attack on the first six tracks. Jandek hammers at his abused drumkit with locomotive rigor and intensity rarely heard in any of the previous recordings; of course, he inevitably loses control of the rhythm and sends it tumbling down the stairs. The rest of the tracks are far more loose in the rhythmic structure. Again, the woman who may be known as Nancy sings on a couple of tracks: one of which finds her sounding more like Jandek with a strained, atonal vibrato. Towards the end of the album, there are a couple of tracks in which a third male voice appears. It's considerably different from Jandek's normal whispy hover. It's been postulated that this voice is the "drummer" who was featured on "John Plays Drums" (a track from the 1983 album "The Rock Crumbles") yet it could simply be Jandek himself affecting a different voice. Similarly, it's entirely possible that Jandek became a 'band' during this period with Sterling Smith (the suspected individual behind all of these recordings) and the enigmatic individuals Nancy and John. As far as the truth about such matters, Corwood Industries remains as silent as ever.
RealAudio clip: "You"
RealAudio clip: "On The Planes"
RealAudio clip: "Governor Rhodes"

JANDEK The Beginning (Corwood) cd 8.98

JANDEK The End Of It All (Corwood Industries) cd 8.98

JANDEK The Gone Wait (Corwood) cd 8.98
The Gone Wait is number 35 in the ongoing Jandek catalogue, and continues along the same path already blazed by the 2002 album The Place, in which Jandek's atonal, avant-folk arrangements for his lonely acoustic guitar drop an octave or so to match his voice which is deepening with age. Jandek's gnarled baritone is a stark contrast to the voice heard on his debut Ready For This House back in 1978. There had been a desperation, an anxiety, and delerious empathy that oozed out of those earlier recordings. With the more mature vocal stylings of this particular Jandekian period, the emotional resonance of his work appears far more morose and resigned to defeat. Jandek puts himself at the center of this grim state of affairs with such song titles as "I Went To Hell" and "I Was A King," mirrored by his lugubrious anti-chords. This is a tough one to take in, even by Jandek standards.
MPEG Stream: "I Went To Hell"

JANDEK The Living End (Corwood Industries) cd 8.98
For a couple of years at the end of the '80s through the beginning of the '90s, the mysterious Texan avant-folk artist Jandek produced his most polished and refined recordings. Yet at the same time, these recordings could never be described as anything but Jandekian. The songs are still led by angular mutations of blues chord progressions that constantly meander out of tune and occasionally return to archetypal melodies; however, the production quality is distinctly balanced. The guitars -- which alternate between electric and acoustic -- sit comfortably within the stereofield, never striving for the nails-on-the-chalkboard abrasion as heard on previous Jandek albums (e.g. the damaged blues of "The Modern Dance" or the celebratory weirdness of "Telegraph Melts"). The drums while typically arrhythmic and clunky also politely stand behind the other instrumentation. Thus, "The Living End" -- the 18th album by Jandek, recorded in 1989 -- is a comparitively 'well-adjusted' and less manic-depressive. Allan even made the passing remark that Jandek sounds almost soulful here. In keeping with previous spectulation about the small company who make themselves known within Jandek's world, the woman who had previously been called "Nancy" and may have been his girlfriend makes an appearance on this album singing on a couple of tracks. Might they have gotten back together?
RealAudio clip: "The Living End"
RealAudio clip: "Janitor's Dead"

JANDEK The Myth Of Blue Icicles (Corwood) cd 8.98
For a while there, we used to really try and keep up with the detailed reviewin' of new Jandek joints as they came out... but now that we, and he, are on his 52nd (!) record, it's tough. We still like getting a new Jandek cd, to get another shot of that one of a kind Jandek feeling (lonely, weird, confusional) and they're cheap enough, so we hope he keeps on cranking 'em out (pretty sure he will, based on his track record over the last thirty years!!) but having something new to say about the mysterious Texas troubadour isn't easy.
Of course, he's not *quite* so mysterious as he used to be, with live performances (begun in 2004) now almost commonplace. The front cover picture on this one (a grinning red haired man, who now we can identify as Jandek himself in younger days, photographed against a portion of Houston skyline) needn't necessarily be read for signs and portents the way they used to, but his words and music remain pretty opaque.
On The Myth Of Blue Icicles there's four songs in the typical Jandek mold of minimal, meandering (track 3, "The Daze", is over 14 minutes long), not-so-melodic outsider folk: Lethargic, stream of consciousness singing-talking, sounding pained and maybe a little drunk. Atonal, abstract guitar strum. Also pained and somewhat drunken. But for sure not jolly-drunken... this is all about emotively sparse, depressive atmosphere.
And it's a proper solo "studio" album, not one of the many live documents with avant-indie sidemen that Jandek's label Corwood has been releasing of late as well. Not that the distinction is terribly meaningful, since Jandek's live records feature all new songs anyway, and also any album with Jandek on it is indeed equally uniquely Jandek...
MPEG Stream: "The Daze"
MPEG Stream: "Too Course"

JANDEK The Place (Corwood) cd 8.98
On the evidence of his unwieldy catalog of atonal folk damage and lithium soaked vocalizations, it's not an uncommon assumption that Jandek has absolutely no clue about music, but rather has stuck with the same untrained ethos of raw expressionistic power since his debut album "Ready For This House." However, albums like "The Place" hold a few obscure, revelatory keys into the mysteries of Jandek, offering the possibility that the entire catalogue of Jandek records is far from untrained, but quite deliberate and maybe even musical.
As it's hard to say just exactly how old Jandek is, given his hermetic reluctance to speak to the media, the best guess places him in his late 40s with the assumption that he began recording in 1978 in his early '20s. Age is clearly a factor for "The Place," not so much as a lyrical theme in Jandek's songs; but rather, it's a simple fact that he's getting older and his voice is growing deeper. Just as Leonard Cohen and Michael Gira have shifted the key of the mature songs to accompany their lowered voices, Jandek has downtuned his guitar to match his voice. The sounds of him scrabbling across the strings with an indifferent half-strummed / half-picked guitar style are not that different from anything that he's produced in the past 10 years or so. Yet these detacted, angular reconstitutions of folk and blues chords have the distinct musical direction of matching his changing voice. It's a very subtle difference, but one that fans of Jandek should certainly take note of.
MPEG Stream: "The Picture"
MPEG Stream: "The Stumble"