My Jandek Plague Journal: 4/13/20 "You Painted Your Teeth"

"I got my knife/If you want to breathe, baby/Don’t paint your teeth/Don’t paint your teeth." This is the song I'd always play my students when I said I listened to Jandek. I used it to emphasize the idea that they didn't have to agree with me. In that way, it was always kind of a joke: I like this thing that objectively can't be liked so don't trust me. Yet I was somehow surprised to hear it pop up even though I'm 12 days into the process of listening to every album in order. I knew it was here and it still caught me off-guard. And that should be the transition point, the metaphor of the music connecting to the political reality. So what unsurprising shocks are we witnessing? The administration trying to destroy the USPS and the revelation that the Labour Party sabotaged its own election to keep the leftists from winning. Both are shocking despite being the open ambition of everyone involved. But you rarely see people being such cartoonishly stupid villains, sabotaging themselves for "victory." -4/13/20. "You Painted Your Teeth" from Telegraph Melts (lyrics) (one week earlier) (one week later)