Chair Beside A Window
Chair Beside A Window, Jandek album #4. Released in 1982.
This album is an improvement over the others, but in odd ways. First track, "Down In A Mirror", is the familiar downer blues with voice and guitar, but there's this noise in the background. Could it be the motors in the tape recorder Jandek is using?
I was listening to it in my car and I had to stop the CD because I thought something was rattling underneath my vehicle.
Next we have "European Jewel", which was also a song on the first album, but this version has little resemblance to the original. Distorted electric guitar, drums, bass and voice. Is this a whole band, or did Jandek play all the instruments himself by overdubbing? The bass player sometimes sounds like he's unaware he's playing with other musicians, and decides to start playing sea shanties. The drums are a cacophonous racket that has a tempo not unlike a traffic jam with mortar fire. Just before the end of the song, it sounds like a fight breaks out to see who can play the fastest. Gee, I hope nobody get hurt during the recording.
While he's singing "Unconditional Authority", it sounds like someone's feeding him taffy, and he's trying to chew it and sing at the same time.
Then there's "Nancy Sings". A woman with a beautiful voice singing Jandek's lyrics while the usual Jandek guitar plays in the background. Haunting. Next up is another "band" track, "No Break". Nancy is talking random bits of speech, while the guitar cranks away and the drums struggle to keep a beat. Then back to the usual voice and guitar songs for the rest of the album, but overall this is the most varied Jandek album yet, ranging from the ridiculous to the sublime, not necessarily in that order, and some really pleasant things in there as well. Dare I say it? I enjoyed it.
Footnote to "Nancy Sings": Back when we were playing Jandek records at WBWC, we called her "Jandek's bitch".
Enjoy the weekend. I'll try to do some more of these reviews, but I may just want to take a break. Saw THE INCREDIBLES last weekend with digital projection. Awesome. When the digital projection started, I was looking for imperfections in the colors, but the only defects I saw were in my imagination. I'd really like to see it again with traditional film projection, to see if there's a measurable difference. I've heard that films shot digitally are better shown that way, and movies shot on film are best projected that way. If the Star Wars III trailer that showed is any indication, I wholeheartedly agree. But I also feel that the industry is going to try and push digital projection to all the theaters eventually, which I know will be a bad thing as a lot of purists are concerned. Remember when there was only one movie at each given theater? If so, you're probably over 30.
This album is an improvement over the others, but in odd ways. First track, "Down In A Mirror", is the familiar downer blues with voice and guitar, but there's this noise in the background. Could it be the motors in the tape recorder Jandek is using?
I was listening to it in my car and I had to stop the CD because I thought something was rattling underneath my vehicle.
Next we have "European Jewel", which was also a song on the first album, but this version has little resemblance to the original. Distorted electric guitar, drums, bass and voice. Is this a whole band, or did Jandek play all the instruments himself by overdubbing? The bass player sometimes sounds like he's unaware he's playing with other musicians, and decides to start playing sea shanties. The drums are a cacophonous racket that has a tempo not unlike a traffic jam with mortar fire. Just before the end of the song, it sounds like a fight breaks out to see who can play the fastest. Gee, I hope nobody get hurt during the recording.
While he's singing "Unconditional Authority", it sounds like someone's feeding him taffy, and he's trying to chew it and sing at the same time.
Then there's "Nancy Sings". A woman with a beautiful voice singing Jandek's lyrics while the usual Jandek guitar plays in the background. Haunting. Next up is another "band" track, "No Break". Nancy is talking random bits of speech, while the guitar cranks away and the drums struggle to keep a beat. Then back to the usual voice and guitar songs for the rest of the album, but overall this is the most varied Jandek album yet, ranging from the ridiculous to the sublime, not necessarily in that order, and some really pleasant things in there as well. Dare I say it? I enjoyed it.
Footnote to "Nancy Sings": Back when we were playing Jandek records at WBWC, we called her "Jandek's bitch".
Enjoy the weekend. I'll try to do some more of these reviews, but I may just want to take a break. Saw THE INCREDIBLES last weekend with digital projection. Awesome. When the digital projection started, I was looking for imperfections in the colors, but the only defects I saw were in my imagination. I'd really like to see it again with traditional film projection, to see if there's a measurable difference. I've heard that films shot digitally are better shown that way, and movies shot on film are best projected that way. If the Star Wars III trailer that showed is any indication, I wholeheartedly agree. But I also feel that the industry is going to try and push digital projection to all the theaters eventually, which I know will be a bad thing as a lot of purists are concerned. Remember when there was only one movie at each given theater? If so, you're probably over 30.
posted by Bill @ 8:33 AM
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