Ready For The House
Jandek album #1, Ready For The House. Released in 1978.
The entire album is Jandek singing along with a quite out-of-tune guitar, by most standards. The first eight songs go along like they were all the same song with different variations on them. It's like he sat down and decided to record an entire album at one sitting, and made it up as he went along - the music that is. The lyrics definitely have a little more thought put into them, and the opener, "Naked In The Afternoon", is actually a little catchy.
Then there's track 9, "European Jewel (incomplete)". This one is on electric guitar and a different song altogether than the rest of the album. The playing is still very amateurish, but you have much more of a sense that there's something actually going on here. Is it the same person playing the guitar, or is he singing along while someone else plays? "Jandek" could just be the name of this project.
This album reminds me a lot of when I very first picked up a guitar at the age of ten and tried to make up songs. I strummed the open strings and made up lyrics that wandered around three pitches that sounded right to the strings I was playing.
And yes, this project does remind me of what The Residents did to Penn Jillette way back when he was locked in a hotel room and forced to listen to every Residents record and record an audio diary each day. However, you have to remember one thing about The Residents, and they have admitted this from day one: Somewhere in all the information you hear about them, someone is lying to you.
More tomorrow.
The entire album is Jandek singing along with a quite out-of-tune guitar, by most standards. The first eight songs go along like they were all the same song with different variations on them. It's like he sat down and decided to record an entire album at one sitting, and made it up as he went along - the music that is. The lyrics definitely have a little more thought put into them, and the opener, "Naked In The Afternoon", is actually a little catchy.
Then there's track 9, "European Jewel (incomplete)". This one is on electric guitar and a different song altogether than the rest of the album. The playing is still very amateurish, but you have much more of a sense that there's something actually going on here. Is it the same person playing the guitar, or is he singing along while someone else plays? "Jandek" could just be the name of this project.
This album reminds me a lot of when I very first picked up a guitar at the age of ten and tried to make up songs. I strummed the open strings and made up lyrics that wandered around three pitches that sounded right to the strings I was playing.
And yes, this project does remind me of what The Residents did to Penn Jillette way back when he was locked in a hotel room and forced to listen to every Residents record and record an audio diary each day. However, you have to remember one thing about The Residents, and they have admitted this from day one: Somewhere in all the information you hear about them, someone is lying to you.
More tomorrow.
posted by Bill @ 1:05 PM
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