The 1981 Listening Post - Jandek - Six and Six

 Reviewed by Jim Coursey

Released: 1981 Jandek Six And Six Genre: Man In A Dark Room With A Broken Guitar Rating: 2 out of 5 I was right in the middle of listening to Lou Reed and Metallica's 2011 one collaborative album “Lulu” for the first (and last) time when I was asked to review one of Jandek’s 1981 albums. While I wasn't enthusiastic about hearing another Jandek album. I was happy to get a break from “Lulu.” That album pretty much consists of modern day Metallica doing the modern day Metallica thing with Lou Reed rambling on like a cranky old beat poet over the top of it. Occasional metal vocals courtesy of James Hetfield of course. I like Lou Reed but I don't encourage anyone to go out of their way to hear that album. If you had told me that Jandek’s “Sixes and Sixes” was a “Lulu” cover album, or vice versa, I wouldn’t have batted an eye. To be fair, Reed is more verbose and talks with a more of a “hip New Yorker” kind of jive to Jandek’s quiet caterwauling, but both albums feel like vehicles for bitter rambling / beat poetry. This album is to my ear almost identical to “Staring at the Cellophane”, and I can’t find anything new to say about it. I did however do some listening *about* Jandek including a lengthy interview with fellow weirdster John Trubee which I found much more enjoyable than the music.[1] Jandek comes across like a pretty down-to-earth guy, if a bit eccentric.[2] They spend a while talking about the poetry of his lyrics, and I must say that his album titles, largely excerpted from his lyrics, are often haunting and evocative: “Chair Beside a Window”, “Living in a Moon So Blue,” Your Turn to Fall,” “Telegraph Melts.” Jandek calls out "I Knew You Would Leave" from “Six and Six” as one of his favorite lyrics and I listened back to that one without finding myself any more engaged by it. Ultimately I’d rate Jandek higher than Lou and Metallica though. While I can’t knock these bigger names for their experimentation, the results don’t mesh, and the result sounds contrived. Jandek on the other hand is clearly true to himself, and I’d rather listen to his sour self portraits any day. ********** 1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiF6yBRzA3w 2. Jandek claims he tunes his guitar frequently, often between each song, but tunes it to whatever he feels is right as opposed to relying on tuners. (He is well aware that his tunings are unconventional.) He reports listening to a wide variety of music, although Tom Petty is the only artist he namechecks (aside from a classical composer whose name I missed). Jandek targeted releasing 2-3 albums a year lest he fade into obscurity, although he seems well enough aware that he is not everyone’s cup of tea. He pays the production charges himself, presses 300 copies of each album, and appears to mostly give them away to interested parties, radio stations, etc.

The 1981 Listening Post - Jandek - Later On

 Reviewed by Paul J Zickler

Released: 1981 Jandek Later On Genre: Jandek Rating: 3.7 out of 5 (see note) Highlights: Your Condition Oh Jenny Fifteen Observations on Jandek’s 1981 album, Later On: 1. “Some of that sounds like Native American chanting.” (My wife, who is always right) 2. It took me a few seconds to recognize that the other instrument (besides the guitar) was a harmonica. On the Last.fm page for this album, someone wrote, “Damn, that harmonica surely adds up to the music. This sounds like satanic folk music.” 3. Yes, he only plays one “chord” on the guitar, but if you think of it as purely a percussion instrument, it’s a breakthrough moment when he starts playing a different rhythm after the same strum over and over. 4. “I was walkin’ down the road / Yes, I was walkin’ down the road / I was walkin’ down the road / Movin’ down the road / Saw you comin’ back.” In the world of Jandek, this feels like a blues. Actually it’s not that hard to imagine someone like John Lee Hooker making the same lyric into a blues. 5. My favorite “song” on the album is Oh Jenny. It has a good rhyme in it! The harmonica actually feels plaintive, a real music adjective. The refrain, “Oh Jenny” is sung with a recognizable melody. 6. I decided I should also include the first song, Your Condition, as a highlight, not because I liked it or would want anyone to listen to it, but because someone on YouTube commented, “First song is one of the best things i’ve heard in my life.” I felt this warranted a highlight. 7. On some of these songs, Jandek plays individual strings of the guitar separately from others. This, too, feels kind of bluesy, although I cannot explain why. 8. "You walk along / You sing a song / You know tomorrow’s gone.” These lyrics inspired my personal conspiracy theory about Jandek: he is actually Jim Morrison, who didn’t die, but suffered a massive brain injury and lives with a caregiver who periodically releases his music and tells him he’s still a big star. It all makes sense! 9. The song Don’t Know If I Care includes one section of guitar that comes dangerously close to an actual melody. It fades out quickly, thank god. 10. John Carne also sounds like a Jandek blues song. “Well I been up the mountain / I been down below / Been in the sky / Down valley.” That’s all there is to it. 11. In the album’s scariest song, Jandek tells a girl named Jessica to “Go gently to your chambers / Open a window and greet the sky.” If I were her, I would politely refuse. 12. I wonder if Jenny, Max, John Carne, or Jessica from the song titles are real people. Imagine being a person named in a Jandek song. Would you ever sleep normally again afterwards? 13. Another title with a name is Jackson Go Down the Mississippi. Jandek wants him to sail to the sea and away to another land. “Now Jackson, look to the skies / They’re the reason for your eyes.” I mean, yeah, sure, that’s possible. Why not? 14. The album ends with a song called Second End. I don’t know when or if there was a first end. I felt this song was attempting to hypnotize me into doing something, perhaps listening to the album again from the beginning. I resisted this impulse. 15. The last lyrics on the album are “Joy to the world / Hallelujah.” I mean, those lyrics come just a few seconds before this album is over. Make of that what you will. NOTE: I had no idea how to give this record a score out of 5, so I decided to use a random number generator. It only seemed fair. I put in 0 to 50, and it gave me 37. Thus, 3.7 out of 5.

The 1986 Listening Post - Jandek - Telegraph Melts

Jandek - Telegraph Melts

#473/2123

1986 Housekeeping

Jandek

Telegraph Melts

Genre: Improvisational noise garbage (Yes, I listened to this entire piece of hot trash)

0.25 out of 5

Daniel Johnston + The Residents - talent =

Jandek.

Releasing over ONE HUNDRED records over the years, this is the brain child of Houston machinist, Sterling Richard Smith. 

It’s terrible. 

Now, no one has ever been able to prove that Smith is Jandek and that’s the way the 74 year old wants it. I think it’s remarkable to be able to put out this much content, be completely unheard of and anonymous AND play to sold out audiences in Austin (makes sense, tho) and all over the world. And only start doing that in your 60s. 

And still remain anonymous. Except that he puts amateur pictures of himself on the cover of his releases. 

I love that this stuff exists. That there is some guy out there, plugging away on some recording equipment, who wants for no notoriety or fame and just wants to do his thing. Some documentarian should search him out. 

I want to never hear anything by him again. For the record, we never need to include Jandek on any list ever again. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6ryO-B4KnM