Search - Jandek :: Ready for the House

The Beginning of the Jandek Genre

Antonio A. Urdiales | NYC | 01/28/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Everything you've heard about Jandek is true. And everything you've hear about Jandek is wrong. Alot of people who are interested in indie rock or bands like Sonic Youth are mislead into buying a Jandek album. His music sounds nothing like indie rock or Sonic Youth. Sure, they both use guitars with alternate tunings producing atonal rock songs. But that's where the similarity ends. Whereas Sonic Youth are an extremely tight set who undeniably have a terrific sense of melody, Jandek forgoes melody or technical skills and runs straight into the deepest recesses of loneliness and soul. Obviously Jandek is aware of current music and knows how to play his instruments, but the way he must record is so loose. He must just sit in his bedroom with a 2 track and just lie there strumming for hours, picking random notes, mumbling. This record isn't for the Britney Spears fan or the Arcade Fire fan. This record calls for someone who is completely and utterly open to the most lucid and dreamlike form of music making imaginable. Stream of conciousness rambles into the heart of someone who is just lonely and gone. This was his first album and it remains a cornerstone to the Jandek genre, he frequently covers songs from this album, borrows lyrics from it, repeats the same random noting and instruments. Indeed, this album instituted the Jandek tradition of blurry photo album covers. Jandek never strays from Jandek. Which brings me to the reason Jandek is wrongly labeled as an obscuro artist. Obviously Jandek is obscure, obviously Jandek produces works that are uncategorizable and hard to be comfortable with. But Obscuro has a level of freakishness attached to it mainly coming from other Obscuro acts like The Shaggs, or Wesley Willis. Jandek is not freakish like those acts, he doesn't have the naivete of The Shaggs, or the unpoetic grotesque of Wesley Willis. Jandek is a true outsider artist though. I could compare his artistry to Daniel Johnston, a fellow Texan. But comparing the two is wrong as they are completely different. Jandek songs border on dreamy soundscapes, whereas Daniel's songs are concise psychological rock songs. Daniel frequently uses the same subject matter for alot of his songs, whereas Jandek's songs dont really seem to have any subject matter except for his own loneliness. This listener had the honor of catching him at one of his first and only live shows in NYC, and he was terrific. Jandek is God. This record is a great work of art, essential for any Jandek fan."