The Cell.

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   max says ah, looking foward to hearing it, i've heard little bits and peices of jandek, but never sat down with anything...anything else worth a spin?

   Permalink posted 08/28/2006
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   Spencer Owen says I've heard probably 1/4 of his albums at this point and my #1 is definitely his very first recording, Ready for the House. That being said, so far my second favorite might be this one. He can be a rough listen, and he's not a conventionally-good musician at all, but ... he is unique, more than most "unique" people are unique, and despite his hilarious "anonymous" mythology, he is extremely thoughtful, and worth a look.

   Permalink posted 08/28/2006
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   Kent Lambert says I've never owned any Jandek records but I find him to be a fascinating and completely anomalous figure in contemporary American music/culture, and I was excited for the opportunity to see him play last night at the Empty Bottle. He was backed by John McEntire (yep, the Tortoise guy) and Josh Abrams (bassist on Sam Prekop's albums and about a million free jazz combos around Chicago) and played for about 90 minutes. The show was indeed a bit of a rough listen (sort of like one monotonous song with short breaks every 15 minutes) and I'm not sure that McEntire and Abrams really worked as his backing "band"--McEntire's solid, virtuosic, and oftentimes dramatic playing (ie. moving from quiet and minimal rhythms to heavier backbeats) usually seemed out-of-sync with Jandek's irregular guitar plucking and sparse sing-speaking. I got the impression that there had been no rehearsal whatsoever, that Abrams and McEntire were just improv-ing while Jandek did his thing. I doubt it's an easy thing to try to accompany "songs" as utterly unconventional as Jandek's, but I would be very interested to see how his music would come off with different (perhaps less "professional") accompaniment. Not surprisingly, Jandek said absolutely nothing between songs and made no acknowledgement of the audience... As for Jandek's "anonymous" mythology: my friend Chad told me last night that in the book Songs in the Key of Z Irwin Chusid exposed Jandek as a corporate man--an executive (or something like that) at the Michelin tire company! Do you know anything about that? I can't find any reference to Jandek and Michelin online so I'll have to check the book out to find out more. If it's true it would explain in part how he's been able to self-release 48 albums in 28 years, and perhaps it might offer some insight into the sometimes terrifying banality of his lyrics? In one of his songs last night he twice sang "He talked about money / he talked about drugs / he talked about what he spent / at the border in the strip clubs", and I couldn't help but think that "he" was some sleazy corporate dude Jandek met at his high-level day job. All the same, maybe it's foolish to try to connect Jandek's musical persona to his "real" identity. He's managed to keep the two almost completely separate for close to 30 years, and maybe it's best to respect that separation. Nevertheless I'm still going to check that book out from the local library--have been meaning to read it for a while anyway... I hope Jandek does make it to the Bay Area some day. I can't say I've seen any performance quite like his.

   Permalink posted 09/21/2006
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   Spencer Owen says Wow, McEntire backing Jandek... fantastic and very appropriate (seeming). Thanks for reminding me of that book, as well. I'm not sure why I haven't read it; I've known about it for so long... As for his day job, Jandek on Corwood (the documentary videofilm) suggests factory work of some sort... I feel like they also mentioned tires??

   Permalink posted 09/21/2006

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