Raise Your Hand if you Don't Care About Jandek

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Don't see the big deal, sorry. Want to be reminded that the whole world hasn't gone insane.

― Hurting (Hurting), Friday, 5 August 2005 14:36 (twenty years ago)

ihttp://www.tiberspace.net/2004.05.15/all-in-favour-raise-your-hand.jpg

― Jim M (jmcgaw), Friday, 5 August 2005 14:39 (twenty years ago)

I've never heard him, I must admit.

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Friday, 5 August 2005 14:41 (twenty years ago)

don't worry, you got lots of company, fat guy

― Outsider Enter Port City (sexyDancer), Friday, 5 August 2005 14:42 (twenty years ago)

I'd never heard of him before I noticed people on ILX making veiled jokes about him. The whole "HE'S CRAZY! (whispered) ... but he's brilliant" thing never really made me want to investigate any further.

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 5 August 2005 15:28 (twenty years ago)

Pat Yourself on the Back if You Feel Like a Big Man Because you See through the "Bullshit"

― n/a (Nick A.), Friday, 5 August 2005 15:29 (twenty years ago)

Also, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!

― n/a (Nick A.), Friday, 5 August 2005 15:29 (twenty years ago)

Now, roll over. Play dead.

― n/a (Nick A.), Friday, 5 August 2005 15:30 (twenty years ago)

pretty sure no one would give a shit if it werent for the accompanying 'story' that goes along with his 'music'

― michael burble, Friday, 5 August 2005 15:30 (twenty years ago)

Actually, I bought a Jandek record in a used record store in 1987 or so because it looked interesting and took it home and found it interesting when I played it. I think this was before I'd read about him or at least read much about him.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Friday, 5 August 2005 15:37 (twenty years ago)

n/a you didn't say "simon says"

― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 5 August 2005 15:41 (twenty years ago)

If anybody knows a good link to criticism of Jandek's work, share it here. I'd love to see a review that explains the appeal of the music rather than the mystique (I'd rather not read handwringing about how the writer can't separate the two, though).

― miccio (miccio), Friday, 5 August 2005 16:27 (twenty years ago)

Neither him nor Daniel Johnston neither.

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Friday, 5 August 2005 16:42 (twenty years ago)

The appeal of Jandek's music:
1. the lyrics (got to be one of the best lyricists of the last thirty yrs)
2. beautiful primitive blooze drone
3. the occasional through composed song (srch the first half of the "Lost Cause" album)
4. electric guitar slaughter (srch "interstellar discussion" and "modern dances" and the last half of "lost cause" as well as others)

― Ian John50n (orion), Friday, 5 August 2005 16:54 (twenty years ago)

for jandek at his most accessible, try the blue corpse album. Mostly tuneful, morose blooze.

― Ian John50n (orion), Friday, 5 August 2005 16:56 (twenty years ago)

I need say nothing for Ian has said all that needs to be uttered.

― Dr. Walter Freeman (Grodd), Friday, 5 August 2005 16:59 (twenty years ago)

three acapella albums in a row, dudes

― Outsider Enter Port City (sexyDancer), Friday, 5 August 2005 17:01 (twenty years ago)

Also: Jandek is funny.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Friday, 5 August 2005 17:03 (twenty years ago)

quite so.

― Ian John50n (orion), Friday, 5 August 2005 17:05 (twenty years ago)

I dunno...I mean, I was listening to John Fahey's City of Refuge the other day, and I can see some similarities to Jandek, at least the Jandek I own (Later On)....like Ian says, primitive blues drone...and I don't think that anyone would accuse someone of being a "poseur" or whatever for liking Fahey, he's generally considered a crit darling (for good reason as well)....

I don't think Jandek is that out of line with tons of more avant/weird folky stuff like Eugene Chadbourne or whatever....

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Friday, 5 August 2005 17:07 (twenty years ago)

it's way he give a big, pregnant pause before delivering the most obvious rhyme possible.

― Outsider Enter Port City (sexyDancer), Friday, 5 August 2005 17:08 (twenty years ago)

A reclusive musician from Houston, Jandek has never performed in public, That individual would come to be more commonly known as Jandek, Until recently, Jandek embodied obscurity: forty albums, Jandek is a reclusive musician living somewhere in Houston. Nothing is publicly known , Great news for the ninny fans of outsider music: Famously reclusive Texas musician Jandek, Surely most of those who post and read here already know that Jandek buys women's underwear at Target, Jandek is an enigma, wrapped in a riddle, mounted on a spindle that sticks from his rectum, Jandek is a mysterious Houston "recording artist" who has been self-releasing albums since 1978, some call him a genius, many just call him late for dinner, drop everything you're doing and go buy Jandek music, I've never been able to listen to a Jandek album all the way through which makes him perfect, Jandek was a recovering psychiatric patient, secretly a cross-dresser and a Christian, Poor Jandek: all he wants is to spend his whole life recording incomprehensible, amateurish music,
this is Jandek’s most rocking set to date and there are moments here of such vulcanism you'll put away your AC/DC records, Spin magazine proclaimed Jandek as one of the ten most interesting musicians in the universe, I had a 3 second look at Jandek, he grew a beard, that's awesome, Jandek is one talent not to be trifled with, Jandek is a recording artist around who has developed somewhat of a Jandek, do you want to eat acid before we go see Jandek?

― Irv Veeblefetzer, Friday, 5 August 2005 17:09 (twenty years ago)

You might as well ask "Who'd want to listen to Robert Johnson?"

I think the appeal for me lies mainly in his voice. There's something compelling about it even when the music is completely atonal, as it often is.

Bearded Jandek looks quite a lot like Torgo from "Manos: The Hands Of Fate":
http://tisue.net/jandek/images/covers/thumb-0776.jpg

― Philip Alderman (Phil A), Friday, 5 August 2005 17:36 (twenty years ago)

I'm waving my hand in the air like I just don't care.

I'm sure he's great tho.

― Anti-Pope Consortium (noodle vague), Friday, 5 August 2005 17:49 (twenty years ago)

The editor was big on Jandek, an atonal acoustic singer-songwriter, is a "sellout" for playing LIVE, next thing you know he'll be in a Burger King, there are people who try to sound like Jandek, but NOBODY sounds like Jandek, I saw pictures of Jandek on the link you gave and it ruind it for me, don't try listening to Jandek with other people, proviamo un'introduzione a Jandek, un oscuro e leggendario cantautore folk, the fall of Jandek, the purpose of our trip will be to find Jandek -- not Jandek himself, Jandek è l'archetipo del cantautore lo fi, ha introdotto in musica prima, Apparently Jandek was feeling the rush of Rocktober as well, The love for Jandek is a lonely and fierce one, I just got a package of CDs in the mail from Jandek, both Jandek and Milli Vanilli taught semiotics as expertly as Umberto Eco, Bien sûr, Jandek ne livre aucune clé, se terre, se cache dans son ermitage, Jandek er blandt den musikalske undergrunds største mytiske personer, I signaled to Jandek that I had roughly one minute until complete exhaustion, As for "imbecile" applied to Jandek, the comment specifically referred to his one recorded piano.

― Irv Veeblefetzer, Friday, 5 August 2005 20:01 (twenty years ago)

You might as well ask "Who'd want to listen to Robert Johnson?"

Wow, that comparison is DEEPLY insulting to Robert Johnson. Does scratchy recording+black=primitive nowadays?

― Hurting (Hurting), Friday, 5 August 2005 21:00 (twenty years ago)

jandek is black?

― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 5 August 2005 21:01 (twenty years ago)

Ha.

― Hurting (Hurting), Friday, 5 August 2005 21:03 (twenty years ago)

http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B00008WDA6.03.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

― Fetchboy (Felcher), Friday, 5 August 2005 21:06 (twenty years ago)

scratchy recording?
dude uses protools beeyatch.

― Outsider Enter Port City (sexyDancer), Friday, 5 August 2005 21:09 (twenty years ago)

Robert Johnson =/= primitive. Robert Johnson obviously had pretty sophisticated knowledge of music and the guitar. Which is not to say that this inherently makes him better than Jandek, who just drones and wails a lot, but in this case it happens to be true.

― Hurting (Hurting), Friday, 5 August 2005 21:13 (twenty years ago)

Jandek is a blues artist, pal. And the world HAS gone insane. Way gone. Dontchoo read teh papers???

― Outsider Enter Port City (sexyDancer), Friday, 5 August 2005 21:16 (twenty years ago)

Robert Johnson obviously had pretty sophisticated knowledge of music and the guitar.

whatever dude, he bought that shit from satan, it wasn't his.

― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 5 August 2005 21:22 (twenty years ago)

I also heard that Jandek was raised by blacks, which is why he's so raw.

― Hurting (Hurting), Friday, 5 August 2005 21:23 (twenty years ago)

The idea of 1979-era Steve Martin playing Jandek in a biopic fills me with awe.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 5 August 2005 21:25 (twenty years ago)

Jandek's music has been characterized as "atonal, abrasive, and harsh" but has also been called "austere, beautiful, and honest," Here, Jandek offers just an atonal fingerpicking and strumming of his acoustic guitar, according to the New York Times This indie-rock Sasquatch, who calls himself Jandek, plucks out his atonal efforts, the music critic reads Jandek as an atonal master, the longest-running, weirdest, loneliest enigma in popular music is a guy from Texas who calls himself Jandek, I am not really into the whole atonal jandek thing, By show of hands the selection was overwhelmingly for Jandek, It's true that not every ear will be able to enjoy the atonal ramblings of Jandek, It's been a wild ride lately for Jandek, Although often atonal and always out of tune, Jandek sounds somehow, That's a Texan atonal folk singer, Makes for a fascinating listen and I am featured on a Jandek tribute, Jandek has become a giant hairball ... This shit is seriously detuned, Perhaps Kurt Cobain said it best: “Jandek’s not pretentious, Where does one start in this morass of Jandek, Jandek juega una forma muy extraña y con frecuencia atonal de la música, Strangely, you mention Jandek in your Spiderland review, and ragged as masters of the form like Jandek, Keiji Haino and Derek Bailey, he talks but says nothing about jandek, a song in the key of Jandek, It sounds atonal and lame -- Of course, I'm going to hear it ad nauseum, Everyone from Led Zeppelin to Jandek has one, you and I are Jandek followers, and I think there's at least one other, Fans of such amateur savants as the Shaggs and Jandek will be suitably enraptured, do you think people, like Jandek, will go down in musical history, If you think that you're fucked-up, listen to Jandek, MC5 soundcheck, the agarophobic soul-suffocation of the best Jandek, Jandek's neither "rock" nor "roll," for more unforgivably boring albums than Rod "Jandek" Stewart, Jandek-on-’ludes janglers and tons upon tons of nine-minute acid jams, assuming Jandek was really big on the pagan folk tip, We recorded a song for the Jandek tribute, Jandek music looks like Jandek album covers!

― Irv Veeblefetzer, Friday, 5 August 2005 21:26 (twenty years ago)

I wonder whose ass Denise Richards is using in that poster.

― Outsider Enter Port City (sexyDancer), Friday, 5 August 2005 21:27 (twenty years ago)

Irv's posts are fantastic. (Google results?)

― Hurting (Hurting), Friday, 5 August 2005 21:28 (twenty years ago)

jandek is a hack and merzbow is a poser

― jerry atricks, Friday, 5 August 2005 21:30 (twenty years ago)

The misuse of the word "atonal" is one of my pet peeves, but that's for another thread, I guess.

― Hurting (Hurting), Friday, 5 August 2005 21:31 (twenty years ago)

Results 1 - 10 of about 530 for "Jandek" AND "atonal".

Results 1 - 10 of about 5,420 for "Jandek" AND "reclusive

Results 1 - 10 of about 4,240 for "Jandek" AND "outsider".

Results 1 - 10 of about 554 for "Jandek" AND "lame".

Results 1 - 10 of about 90 for "Jandek" AND "nausea".

Get the Google Toolbar!

― Irv Veeblefetzer, Friday, 5 August 2005 21:36 (twenty years ago)

Anthony, seriously, the a capella albums. The three fucking a capella albums in a row. It makes its own backstory, you don't have to know anything about it in advance.

― Banana Nutrament (ghostface), Friday, 5 August 2005 21:59 (twenty years ago)

The misuse of the word "atonal" is one of my pet peeves, but that's for another thread, I guess.
-- Hurting (Hurtingchie...), August 5th, 2005.

Is it being misused? Probably, a lot of Jandek melodies are fairly tonal. But a lot of them are a kind of sprechstimme and a lot of his guitar playing is kind of harmolodic jamming on the not-tuned guitar. Not sure what's wrong with using the term "atonal," given that it means "not tonal" and a lot of the music on Jandek records is not tonal.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Friday, 5 August 2005 23:45 (twenty years ago)

J'aime la musique de Jandek.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Friday, 5 August 2005 23:53 (twenty years ago)

....

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Friday, 5 August 2005 23:59 (twenty years ago)

All men Jandek! Abandon ship!

― Irv Veeblefetzer, Saturday, 6 August 2005 00:47 (twenty years ago)

I think Jandek's lyrics are fantastic and scary, If you love the sound of the train's brakes screeching, you'll love Jandek, In New Zealand, Jandek is more popular than anywhere else in the world -- he sells 10 records per year, I see Jandek as a kind of "personal blues" type thing like Keiji Haino, In America Jandek gets written about in mainstream magazines and all the radio stations have his complete works, It's interesting how the goalposts moved, possibly *because* of Jandek, Jandek could conceptually be the greatest avant-garde musical anomaly on the planet, the more I think about it, the more I become convinced that Jandek is one of the greatest lyricists of the past thirty years -- up there with Van Morrison, Ted Nugent, Dylan et al.

― Irv Veeblefetzer, Saturday, 6 August 2005 01:02 (twenty years ago)

irv, you are now my favourite poster. goalposts, nugent--hail, sir or madam.

― mookieproof (mookieproof), Saturday, 6 August 2005 01:04 (twenty years ago)

The misuse of the word "atonal" is one of my pet peeves, but that's for another thread, I guess.

I'm with you there.

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Saturday, 6 August 2005 01:08 (twenty years ago)

I haven't heard much Jandek and what I have heard is patchy at best, but he definitely has something for me. Most of the stuff I've heard (I think it's his first 3 albums) is very formulaic in a way but it's so unique I still find it quite compelling. I can't imagine wanting to buy many of his albums but I need some that's for sure.

xpost I don't even listen to the lyrics much although I've liked what I've paid attention to, it's the bizarre guitar playing, which has its own style quite apart from any other "alternative" tuning stuff I've ever heard that does it for me.

― Colonel Poo (Colonel Poo), Saturday, 6 August 2005 01:09 (twenty years ago)

Considering how cool all those rather anonymous mysterious record sleeves were, I was surprised how shit the music was when I finally heard it. And there's WAY too many Jandek threads on this new answers page right now.

― The Spiderwebbed Wilderness (Bimble...), Saturday, 6 August 2005 04:23 (twenty years ago)

Can somebody send me a Jandek song that is completely without tonality? Because I have yet to hear one.

― Hurting (Hurting), Saturday, 6 August 2005 04:38 (twenty years ago)

I've never heard him. The backstory and sleeves even kind of turned me off to be honest. But some of the descriptions here are interesting. If it's anything like Tom Verlaine singing over Eugene Chadbourne or John Fahey, it's proably up my alley.

― Sundar (sundar), Saturday, 6 August 2005 04:51 (twenty years ago)

Whaddya know, it's a googlewhack:

Results 1 - 1 of 1 for jandek AND "not atonal".

― Hurting (Hurting), Saturday, 6 August 2005 04:51 (twenty years ago)

xpost I don't think it sounds so much like John Fahey as your noodling college roommate playing the guitar.

― Hurting (Hurting), Saturday, 6 August 2005 04:52 (twenty years ago)

I just somewhat randomly listened to "Spanish in Me," the first song on the Foreign Keys album. There is nothing tonal about it. Seems fairly typical. (Sorry, I can't send it to you.)

Nancy's vocals seem to have more traces of tonality. I recall her singing in minor pentatonic. Not that the pitch she is centered on at any given point has anything to do tonally with what the guitar is doing.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Saturday, 6 August 2005 04:54 (twenty years ago)

Sundar, Jandek sounds nothing like that description. It sounds like someone insistently playing these raucous atonal notes on an out of tune guitar and emoting strangely in a Texas accent over humorous, meaningless lyrics.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Saturday, 6 August 2005 04:56 (twenty years ago)

hmm, i'd never heard him either. listening to the clips on allmusic, it sounds like something i could become inexplicably fascinated with and swallowed by, ariel pink style. could. on the other hand i can't seem to muster much interest in exploring his massive discog atm so i guess I Don't Care About Jandek.

― sleep (sleep), Saturday, 6 August 2005 04:59 (twenty years ago)

jandek >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> ariel pink

― Ian John50n (orion), Saturday, 6 August 2005 21:04 (twenty years ago)

I'm going to have to download an album, if only to hear what people think a texas accent sounds like.

― Jamey Lewis (Jameys Burning), Saturday, 6 August 2005 23:49 (twenty years ago)

Extended audio interviews with Jandek scholars Byron Coley: To inhabit a Jandek tune, you might rearrange the furniture, This Jandek Must Die, Of course, if you pay close attention you discover that the central core is as explosively cathartic as any of Jandek's previous recs, ... Jandek recalls the savage beauty of Mr. Howling Wolf, I had a night of dreams where I met Jandek & I don't remember any of what he said, Accordingly, Jandek is best listened to on headphones, preferably at night, and preferably while walking through deserted streets, Jandek - the Thomas Pynchon of the underground music scene, About a year ago, I left friends and family behind and moved to a nondescript commuter town to be with Jandek, my incompatibility with Jandek is not his fault but my own, where the Shaggs were mind-bendingly incompetent, Jandek is just not working in a context where competence matters, listening to a single album all the way through is a torturous exercise, Stephin Merritt's frustration with Ferdinand de Saussure has roots in the 1980s, when the anti-career of Jandek doubled as a pop music course in general linguistics.

― Irv Veeblefetzer, Sunday, 7 August 2005 20:15 (twenty years ago)

six years pass...

controversial

― Pizzataco Five (admrl), Thursday, 25 August 2011 22:33 (fourteen years ago)

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