Modern Dances

Modern Dances is the fourteenth album by Jandek, released as Corwood #0752. It is the first of two releases from 1987, and marks the end of the original "garage" band (which would have a different incarnation starting a few albums later).

1 Overview
2 Track Listing:
3 Album Cover Description
4 External links

[edit] Overview

Modern Dances sounds like a looser-limbed cousin to the crazed tension of Telegraph Melts and Foreign Keys, and also marks the end of the original "garage" band. Everyone sounds a little worn here, and there's some tension between band members. This is most audible on "Number 512," in which the guitarist, bassist and drums are playing an open jam similar to many other songs, and "Nancy" begins singing "What we need very quickly is a change...and immediately we will change the pace/ because we’re tired of this one." The band continues, unabated, and she continues ranting around them, insulting the drummer (though in a "jabbing" sort of way) and finishing with "somebody's got to go fast with me/cause oh God I get so bored."

But that's not to misrepresent the album as an extended "jam" session. The first track re-writes the devastating "You Painted Your Teeth" (from Telegraph Melts) as "Painted My Teeth," and it's a riot. Over a much looser music, the two trade off, with "Nancy" saying "you just made my day...you didn't paint your teeth." To which the man responds, "I'll tell you somethin' baby/I painted my teeth...behind your back...I want to do it again." We also find out that "Karl Marx painted his teeth." This leads into the equally-loose "Twelve Minutes Since February 32'ND" in which the Corwood Rep builds up a serious head of steam and goes into his screaming as the band finally takes off.

But from there it's pretty mellow, as things go, with a less-raucous take of "Spanish in Me" from Foreign Keys (as "Spanish in Me 03")"Hand for Harry Idle" and "I Want to Know Why" being the standard odd, garage sound and a pair of what seem to be pretty straight-up religious numbers ("Nothing is Better than God" and "Spiritual Song") making for an interesting diversion in the middle. The vocals are mostly traded around here, with it all feeling like a late night loft session, at least until the last "I wanna know why" is screamed, and the band fades away.

And then we're dropped back down a hole, so to speak. The final three tracks are acoustic numbers, and they're as creepy as anything on Six and Six. A memorial to the band, or the loss of "Nancy?" Hard to say, but they hit hard, with "Carnival Queen" especially apocalyptic, ending with the high-end, ghostly wail singing, "Carnival queen/your hair is on fire/your nails pierce my palms."

[edit] Track Listing:

Painted My Teeth – 4:45
Twelve Minutes Since February 32nd – 4:05
Hand for Harry Idle – 3:44
Number 512 – 3:33
Nothing Is Better Than God – 4:21
Spiritual Song – 3:58
Spanish In Me 003 – 4:22
I Want To Know Why – 4:59
Simple As That – 2:07
Open E – 3:16
Carnival Queen – 3:36

[edit] Album Cover Description

Shaggy haired and sinewy Jandek looks to our right in the right 1/4 of the frame. A featureless brick wall dominates the left 3/4.

To the right of Jandek is the glint of some sort of machine... (a tractor?). The lower part of the right side of the frame is a four-slat fence (very similar, possibly identical, to the fencing around the garden in the Telegraph Melts album cover). A large, featureless brick wall in Jandek's neighborhood? Where would that be? Perhaps related to the cement pediment in the lower right corner of Telegraph Melts.