The next step on my Jandek journey was something completely different. I’d heard him do avant-folk, “accessible” folk, blues rock, and a few other things, but I was not prepared for the absolute cacophony and disturbing confusion that is Telegraph Melts.
Jandek’s “noise rock band” era preceded his blues rock era and was similarly short-lived, but produced some of his most interesting and varied content. I don’t think the whole experimental band era of Jandek gets as much appreciation as it should, because I consider this album one of the “Jandek masterpieces” because of the effect it’s had on me and the amount of variety. Out of the four albums that roughly fall under this category (Interstellar Discussion, Foreign Keys, Telegraph Melts, and Modern Dances), Telegraph Melts definitely far exceeds the others. These albums primarily feature a full band performing extremely dissonant, noisy, slightly blues-inspired outsider “garage rock”. The vocalists include the same Jandek from the previous albums, a second male vocalist who sounds very similar to Jandek (easily mistaken for him) but has a different accent and a deeper tone, and a female vocalist named Nancy who we previously heard on “Nancy Sings” from Chair Beside a Window.
There were a lot of words I used to describe this album after I finished my first listen - weird, raw, dirty, intense, provocative, confusing, which all fit fine - but perhaps the most apt is “feral”. I love that the band members sound like they have no formal musical training whatsoever, but have a very precise and clear vision of what kind of art they want to make, and accomplish it perfectly because they don’t have the skills to make “perfect” music. It all comes out incredibly raw and rudimentary, and while it may sound similar to 80s No Wave bands like Sonic Youth and DNA, this has more of an untrained youthfulness to it that somehow makes it more disturbing. The singers make improvised, primal shouts, the untuned, dirty-sounding instruments stumble along, and several songs have abrupt endings.
On the short opener “You”, the drums march quickly while the guitar jerks awkwardly and Nancy starts to sing much more wildly than she did on the primitive, hymn-like “Nancy Sings”. This sets the stage for the following “On the Planes”, a similar song, where Nancy belts an awkward yet strangely beautiful melody that somehow works over the dissonant instrumental. While she is a skilled singer, something about her voice is so familiar that she still sounds like a random girl from the deep south that got put in the band by chance. The fact that no one knows her identity makes her feel more ghostly. “Go To Bed” is more intense and disturbing, with the tempo of the song increasing and Nancy’s vocals becoming more raw as she holds long, echoing notes, and screams the title of the song by the end.
“Ace of Diamonds” brings in a vocal performance from Jandek that is more intense than normal and very memorable. It is not far off from “Go To Bed” where the drums increase the tempo throughout the song and the vocals become louder and more fervent as Jandek screams at the top of his lungs at his poker opponent about how he’ll destroy them. The lo-fi compression and the feedback sounds make it more chaotic. “Twenty-Four” is another similar song with Jandek vocals. It rises and falls in intensity throughout. The lyrics are very dark and pessimistic and speak of the inevitability of death.
“No Slow Ones” and “Telegraph Melts” are like awkward, ill attempts at ballads that end up becoming something different and very experimental in the process. Nancy does her improvised, country-like, somewhat catchy melodies over slower, subtler instrumentals. On the title track, she sings one of Jandek’s poems that later got used on You Walk Alone, whose lyrics I have already interpreted on my review of that album. However, it’s still a unique take on the song because it’s being sung from the woman’s perspective, which includes a pronoun change. Jandek comes in toward the end of the song to sing a sort of bridge, which makes it feel like a conversation, and hints that the song may be about the relationship between the two singers. A harmonica gives the song a slight tinge of blues.
“Governor Rhodes” departs from the formula of the previous song and introduces the alternate male vocalist who sings/chants together with Nancy. The title may refer to Ohio governor James A. Rhodes. They chant repetitively about celebrating nature and singing together and mention random names over a primal drum beat, creating something creepily cult-like. This song marks somewhat of a midpoint in the album where the content becomes a lot more intense and disturbing after this.
“Star Up in the Sky” shows the alternate male vocalist’s ability to freak us out. His creepy voice is rebellious and youthful, and the loud mixing gives it a smothering effect. He wavers between deep droning notes and high, disturbed screams with a slight humorous tone. He sings together with Nancy, but his voice is very much overpowering in the song. A harmonica hums like a deconstructed blues song throughout.
“You Painted Your Teeth” is the main highlight from this album and is still probably the most disturbing Jandek song, or maybe even the most disturbing thing I’ve heard from anyone. The guitar and drums randomly jerk around quietly, and then the male singer’s voice comes in and it’s piercing and loud. It launches right into intense screaming with no intro or anything, and somehow it grabs my attention and captivates me for the whole time every time I listen to it. A YouTube comment describing this as “Swans with extra chromosomes” actually describes it perfectly. The disturbing lyrics sound like they came from an alternate universe because they make no sense. The singer frenziedly yells at a woman, telling her not to paint her teeth, or else he will literally murder her. At the midpoint of the song he admits “I painted my teeth”, which just makes me think about what’s the deeper meaning behind not wanting someone to paint their teeth, but doing it to yourself anyway.
“You’re going to go to heaven,
Everything’s going to be WHITE!
WHITE, WHITE WHITE WHITE WHITE WHITE, BABY!!!
BUT NOT YOUR TEETH!”
Nancy randomly yelps “No…” with fear at the end of the song, which aptly describes my reaction to this song. My jaw was literally on the floor. It was hard to believe that this was the work of a “band” that had to be playing together to make this music instead of this just being something from the disturbed mind of one person. That goes for this whole album, really.
“Mothers Day Card” follows the terrifying song with something a little more lighthearted. Two male singers, or perhaps the same guy overdubbing himself, read off the lines from what sounds like a Mother’s Day card from the dollar store with a sinister and humorous tone. “The Fly” has Jandek and the other male vocalist singing together. Jandek takes the lead while the other guy mostly moans and screams morbidly in the background. The lyrics sound like nonsense but bring up themes of death again. The closer “House Up on the Hill” is a proper duet between Nancy and the second male vocalist and describes a creepy abandoned house where they go to drink. The man does more of his scary screaming, but Nancy’s repetition of “To the water” is actually pretty catchy. It’s definitely one of my favorites on this album.
Overall, I love all the unique little flaws of this album and the confusion and disturbance that it exudes. It’s definitely one of the heaviest and most experimental albums from Jandek. I also like the amount of “theatricality” it has in comparison to other Jandek albums because of a unique picture painted with each track. The tone of the lyrics is very sinister and confused to fit the qualities of the music. The themes are less personal than previous albums to illustrate a kind of collective suffering among the performers. They sing very strange and nonsensical things, but the lyrics plus the chaotic music somehow convey the deepest, most hidden human desires for darkness, violence, and death.
8.5/10
Essential album?: Yes
Essential tracks:
Ace of Diamonds
Go To Bed
Telegraph Melts
Governor Rhodes
You Painted Your Teeth*
House Up on the Hill
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