What Are You Listening To Right Now? Febus Mark 11

Polymorphia wrote: ]I like what I've heard of Jandek so far, but I've not listened to any albums yet. Any recommendations?

There's a lot of them, and I've heard less than half of them, but I think of his stuff in terms of either a) acoustic plus vocal, b) electric plus drummer plus vocal, c) electric on stage with backup musicians, or d) oddball deviations from these three paths.   Of the pure acoustic plus vocal, his very first album (1978) "Ready for the House" is a great example.  The majority of his albums follow a pattern similar to this one, with varying degrees of focus, desperation, and emotion.  Of the electric plus drummer plus vocal, these sound like they were recorded in a basement while the drummer was falling down the stairs, but they have a cool sound to them and are often more rockin' and less monotonous.  "Telegraph Melts" is a good example of this.  Of the live albums (he came out of hiding in 2005 and played live for the first time, and has toured sporadically since), my absolute favorite album of his is "Brooklyn Wednesday", which is 4 CDs of improvised avant garde brilliance, like early Sonic Youth or something.  Of the "other" category, he's done albums entirely on electric bass guitar (the haunting "Raining Down Diamonds" is good), complete a capella moaning and poetry recitation (maybe best to steer clear of these at first), and sometimes he even does albums where he plays keyboards (the live "Toronto Sunday").

Chrome—Blood on the Moon

The Tangent-The World That We Drive Through

Hopper/Tippet/et al - Cruel But Fair

Am - Brewed In Belgium