JANDEK Glasgow Friday (DVD) (Corwood) dvd 14.98

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 Helsinki Saturday (Corwood Industries) 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 London Tuesday (Corwood) cd 8.98

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 Not Hunting For Meaning (Corwood Industries) cd 8.98
Oh boy another Jandek!

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 23.00
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 Six and Six (Corwood Industries) lp 22.00
Record number two, originally released way back in 1981, from this not-so-mysterious-anymore and not-so-reclusive-anymore mysterious recluse, finally available again on vinyl!
Another raw glimpse into the hermetic soul of this unliklely underground troubadour, through his ultra-minimal, angular trance-blues soaked with as always, lots of spring reverb and moaned wavering vocal. An acquired taste for sure, but those who do acquire a taste for Jandek's unique twangy murky off kilter caterwaul, often end up completely obsessed.

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"

JANDEK The Ruins Of Adventure (Corwood Insudtries) cd 8.98
What to say about Jandek that hasn't already been said. This is release number 49, the last of 2006, ifÊyou're already a fan, you might have to buy this one too (some of us here are so inclined), if none of the last 48 records have managed to turn you into a fan, odds are this one won't either. That's not to say it isn't good, it is, really good actually, but good in that way only Jandek records can be good. An alternate universe of sound, where a 'good' Jandek record is one that seems to be mostly solo bass and vocals. Plodding lugubrious low end, simple fumbling basslines, and that atonal croon, spewing tales of sadness and misery and loneliness and despair. The ultimate outsider solo doom folk death trip. Recommended, if that's your sorta thing. It is ours...
MPEG Stream: "The Park "
MPEG Stream: "Bluff Brink"

JANDEK This Narrow Road (Corwood) cd 8.98
Jandek has put down his guitar for a second a capella album that's half-sung / half-spoken following "Put My Dream On This Planet." These two a capella albums debunk the myth that Jandek recorded all of his albums during an excessively manic period of his life, as the voice which utters and lolligags through the stream of consciousness verbage has clearly aged from the wispy juvenile voice found on "Ready For The House" to hold a more grizzled delivery that is eerily similar to Charles Manson. As if Jandek alone weren't creepy on his own...

JANDEK Twelfth Apostle (Corwood) cd 8.98
The previous albums from Jandek have often re-visisted the chord progressions of delta blues and Appalachian folk. Of course, our Texas mystery man obliterated these archetypes into a raw expression of abjection, sorrow, revelation, and ecstacy, typified in "The Blue Corpse" and "Ready For The House." Jandek's 1993 release "Twelfth Apostle" finds him stripping away even those recognizable elements from his already spartan productions. Here, Jandek offers just an atonal fingerpicking and strumming of his acoustic guitar with his voice wavering against whatever musical grain might be in the music. A static patina of reverb and delay occasionally smears across some of the tracks on "Twelfth Apostle," sinking his voice further into the mix and making him sound much more detatched than on previous efforts. It's a very cold and impersonal facet of Jandek's complex cosmology that seeps out from his huge catalogue of records which he's been making since the late '70s. Seth Tisue's excellent Jandek web site offers the pithy remark that this album is "thorny and ambivalent." Well said.
MPEG Stream: "Walking"
MPEG Stream: "Twelfth Apostle"

JANDEK What Else Does The Time Mean (Corwood) cd 8.98
Jandek's always been a difficult proposition, with his atonal deconstructed blues, drastically out of tune guitars, howled and groaned harrowingly emotional vocals, definitely an acquired taste. So to imagine Jandek sounding EVEN MORE atonal, and off key, and detuned, and damaged, seem pretty much impossible. But that's precisely what has happened on What Else Does The Time Mean, the 46th Jandek, release and the 3rd of 2006! We were worried that Jandek's mystery would have faded with his recent shuffle into the spotlight (including several live shows), but if anything it's only made him more of an enigma. A handful of live performances and a higher profile than he's ever had in his entire career have done absolutely nothing to change his totally unique, totally fried haunting abstract blues stumble. If anything it's pushed it even further OUT. This record is totally damaged and incredibly difficult to listen to even by Jandek standards. The opening track is a 16 minute stoned stagger, a lugubrious drift through prickly steel string strum, accopanied by a slurred, sleepy sounding, stream of conciousness tone deaf mumble. The rest of the record follow essentially the same sonic blueprint, each tune a tiny tragedy, each one a creepy out of tune crawl through a drunken drowsy abstract blues-scape. This is definitely dark and emotional stuff, practically dripping with pathos, a seriously intense soul laid bare for sure, but the sound of pain and anguish is meant to be sharp, and jagged, sounds that help the listener feel that pain as if it was being inflicted upon them, which in a way it kind of is. What Else Does The Time Mean is a gloriously and fantastically uneasy listen, the sort of musical discomfort we've come to expect, and anticipate from quite possibly the saddest sounding man in the world!
MPEG Stream: "My Own Way"
MPEG Stream: "Walk Over"

JANDEK What Was Out There Disappeared (Corwood Industries) cd 8.98
Oh geezus more Jandek!

JANDEK When I Took That Train (Corwood) cd 8.98

JANDEK White Box Requiem (Corwood) cd 8.98
That guy in the sun on the cover again, this time with mutton chop facial hair.