The Blog of Bill.

Bill Camarata types to you with musings that might actually mean something to him, and you, too! Jandek reviews. Music He's listening to, and making as well. Technology opinions. Read it because it's there.

Wednesday, December 08, 2004

Interstellar Discussion

Jandek album #9, Interstellar Discussion. Released in 1984.

In continuing with my series of Jandek chronological album reviews, let me assure you of one thing: I am not listening ahead. I am not listening to a lot of new stuff. Most of my recreational listening this time of year is Christmas music, because I love it a lot. I have heard the new U2 (good) and that really popular Maroon 5 album (better) and haven't even touched the new Eminem (on the pile below Jandek's "The Door Behind"). I have been spending time Christmas shopping, caregiving and doing research on marketing for the D.Verada album, which will be coming out in January for sure.

Back to this posts' subject, Interstellar Discussion. As far as Jandek albums go, this is the best yet. Electric and acoustic, with lots of variety. Still blazingly amateurish, in the course of Jandek albums this one shows a great leap in album making. There is definitely some multi-tracking going on here, like the dual Jandeks in"Hey". The electric guitar playing continues the trend of the last album, where the notes and chords are using the fretboard, but the acoustic guitar playing is still almost all open strings.
Drums, guitar, harmonica and the Jandek voice as well as percussion (banging on the microphone) make this an entertaining as well as amusing album. Two big faves are "I Ain't Got None", which makes the title plainly obvious (none what?), and the brilliant "Ha Ha", which spotlights Jandek's harmonica playing. The last half of the album is acoustic, sort of a cool-down after all of this banging about.

I'll try and continue this review string a bit more often, but this is a very busy month.

Big guilty pleasure on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim: "The Venture Brothers". Part Jonny Quest and Thunderbirds meet National Lampoon and Freakazoid (little-known WB cartoon from the 90s) with loads of thought and hidden back stories for those who discover them, the show is amazingly well written and plenty of surprising out-loud laughs.

Extra thanks to those who have contributed comments to this thread. It keeps me motivated!