The Living End

Jandek album #18, The Living End. Released in 1989.

Master bluesman Jandek slingin' some stride blues your way with his jammin' band. Instrumentation on this is 2 guitars and random drums, with Jandek on the mic. He sounds like he's in a good mood, he's comfortable, and he's preachin' them blues. Actually, this is the best singing he's done yet! The title cut sounds like it's from the same recording as "Message To The Clerk" of the last record. Then, once the tune really gets going, it stops dead.
"Talk That Talk" gets adventurous when Jandek starts interjecting things and the guitar starts playing disjointed but very distinct stabbing chords.
"Start The Band" is a quick instrumental that goes to nice places and then stops abruptly.
"Girl From America" has a woman singing quietly in the background - is this the return of Nancy?
Gotta love the false starts on "Embrace The World Outside". There's that female humming again, now singing full volume. Brushes on the drums. Are we in San Francisco?
The long piece on this disc, "Take Me Away With You", tries the blues format with the female vocalist. It doesn't work as well as when Jandek does it, but the female singer gets into it a little bit. Some nice blues lead work though.
The last song, "Crazy", is loud and obnoxious and intoxicating. The guitars are too loud, the female voice is going nowhere, and Jandek's chanting a drone in the background. At the very end, Jandek siezes the mic and sings in his best alto, "You're mine... you're mine... yo-" and the tape runs out. I laughed out loud! A rockin' end to this strange album.
Another neat thing that happens during this recording is some obvious tape machine screw-ups. Sounds like the thing is broken or Jandek's using some really crappy tape stock. It all makes for a quick grin on my face when those little glitches creep in.

On The Way

Jandek album #17, On The Way. Released in 1988.

Another straight forward blues oriented Jandek album. This one is more of a blend between Jandek and other musicians, not sounding uncomfortable at all. The album starts out loud and electric, and gets quieter from there. "Message To The Clerk", a re-make of the tune from THE ROCKS CRUMBLE, is constructed as a Muddy Waters kind of workout, with extra distortion and massive whiteness built-in. Good stuff. "Give It The Name" and "Sadie" sound like someone else singing. There are several songs that sound like a full band - bass drums guitar vocal, and even the occasional harmonica. The drums still have a long way towards resembling any type of real beat, but they can be an infectious sort of anti-beat... Makes you want to put on The Shaggs.
Then there's the eight and a half minute "I'll Sit Alone And Think A Lot About You". Starts out with acoustic guitar, some of those random drums creep in, and Jandek starts singing quietly. Really quietly. Is it Jandek or someone else? I don't care, it is almost not even there. The recording is looking so hard for level that the monitor speaker starts fading back - no need to re-record, it's a Jandek record. It goes on, and on, and then it ends. The album ends quiet. It's almost unnoticeable.
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Happy Easter. I'm in a Jandek kind of mood, so I might do another one of these today. I've been trying to learn Pro Tools, a bitchen recording program that I'll be doing a lot of work in this year. If you want a fantastic electric guitar sound, get yourself a PODxt from Line6. It's a little expensive, but it nails the sound of many different amplifiers, cabinets, microphones and classic effects boxes. Then it allows you to combine these in any combination imaginable. The pedal controller is really expensive, too... almost as much as the unit itself, but when you see all the stuff that it can do, it just might be justifiable. I still haven't decided if I want to get the pedal or not since I probably won't be playing out with it.

Getting back to Jandek, the 40th album has been released, and I still have a lot of listening to do. Also, it has been announced that he'll be playing at another festival in England organized by the same guy who orchestrated his Glasgow appearance in October last year. No, I'm not going to fly to England to see Jandek. I'd rather see Ben Folds.