[Jandek] Mojo / Note from Corwood / The Door Behind / Tunings

[Paul Condon]

There's a short piece on the Instal gig in the news section in this
month's issue of Mojo (John Peel on the cover, though maybe there's a
different cover in the US), humourously headlined "Jandek sells out!",
which quotes posts to this list from Gavin Prior and David Tibet, and
is illustrated by one of Alan Cummings' photos. Unfortunately it says
Gavin's band United Bible Studies are from Glasgow – they're from
Dublin ^_^
*
I sent a letter with my last order congratulating Corwood on the
Instal gig. I mentioned that I had heard a recording, and that I
thought Youngs and Neilson were very well suited to the material. Also
that I thought the lyrics were particularly lucid and effective and
that the gig didn't sound anything like a debut performance. In the
reply, Corwood thanked me for my comments and added, "we completely
agree". No information as yet on a dvd/cd release.
*
"The Door Behind" on heavy rotation... lyrically, something of a
sequel to "The End of It All", apparently dealing with the same
burgeoning relationship. "Gate Strikes One" (anybody got any idea what
the title might mean?) is a description of a first meeting at some
sort of undefined social gathering, rendered in exhaustive but almost
childishly simple detail. However it's very tense due to the delivery
(does anybody else feel spooked on the first listen to a new Jandek
album, because you don't know what's going to happen next?).
"The Slow Burn" develops into a rant about squirrels – initially it
seems as if they're metaphorical squirrels (bear with me here),
because he says they live in his head. Then it seems that he's
referring to actual vermin in his house that "eat electricity",
threatening to burn down his house, when all he wants to do is be
alone to entertain the new girlfriend! The pyromaniac squirrels are
firmly dissed.
The closing pair of tracks are ultra-obsessive love songs, very
emotionally unhealthy of course, but if we wanted well-balanced lyrics
from a secure and well-adjusted individual we wouldn't be listening to
Jandek...
Don't know how he held off on using that beard pic for so long!
I'll transcribe and post the lyrics shortly unless someone else has
already done so.
*
I have some more transcriptions of tunings somewhere or other - I'll
try and get these together soon. Even on the later acoustic albums
there's at least one song where only the open strings are used, which
makes it easier to work the tunings out.