Jandek Ready for the House lp

lp
2008/1978
new
American spirituality meets total existential discomfort, and it wails like a recently de-furred polar bear lost in a blizzard. Claustrophobic, lonely-hearted, supremely isolated, and black-key-tuned, there's no record quite as nicely frayed as the 1st Jandek (originally released under the anonymizing name 'The Units'). Sometimes schizoid and sometimes gently wandering (but always spidery), Jandek's guitar playing seems to have been learned from watching people play on tv and then trying to imitate the visuals in a mirror. As a rule Jandek's Thomas Mannish Boy blues combine horribly self-conscious romanticism with Texas desolation & flat out surreal fun. But those beatific English-class poem endings aren't quite fully in play here. All the longtime themes are all certainly around though: cloistered & empty suburban houses, the song European Jewel, etc. Tracklisting: Naked in the Afternoon, First you Think Your Fortune's Lovely, What Can I Say What Can I Sing, Show Me the Way O Lord, Know Thy Self, They Told Me About You, Cave In On You, They Told Me I Was A Fool, European Jewel.