Jandek's second album, Six and Six ( 1981)
Jandek is a musician, presumably from Houston, Texas. Since 1978, he has self-released 40 albums of unusual, often emotionally dissolute folk and blues songs without ever granting a real interview (but see documentary below for a phone interview early in his career) or providing any biographical information.
Jandek plays a very strange and frequently atonal form of folk and blues music, often using an open and unconventional chord structure. Jandek's music is very much unlike almost anything else, but his lyrics closely mirror the country blues and folk traditions of Eastern Texas.
Barely a handful of people claim to have contacted Jandek, whose steadfastness in anonymity is legendary. Without any conventional attempts at promotion, he releases albums through his own record label Corwood Industries, which is addressed at a Houston post office box. Fans can write to Corwood for a typewritten catalogue and order Jandek’s albums, usually at inexpensive prices. Jandek’s work has been available on vinyl and on compact discs. Many of his albums feature pictures of the same young man (seen above) at various ages, whose identity is unknown. Some have suspected that the man pictured is Jandek but others have doubted someone so reclusive would release his picture.
The mystery of Jandek's identity was partially resolved in late 2004 when Jandek performed live in Scotland, at the Instal 04 music festival in Glasgow. This was Jandek's first known live performance. The man on stage was obviously the same man who appears on the album covers. Corwood stipulated that the performance was not publicized in advance. In early 2005, however, it was announced that Jandek would be performing at the Music Lovers’ Field Companion festival in England on May 22.
Jandek’s first album, Ready for the House (1978), was first accredited to a band called “The Units” but it was obviously a solo work. Jandek presumably plays acoustic guitar and has recorded much of his work apparently unaccompanied (assuming that the person singing is also the person playing guitar). However many other songs feature female vocals and/or different male vocalists. Others feature bass guitar, electric guitar and/or drums, presumably played by collaborators. No proper credits list has ever appeared on an album, but song titles have included "Nancy Sings" and "John Plays Drums".
A huge part of Jandek’s allure stems from his small but devoted fan base that includes Sonic Youth frontman Thurston Moore, Kurt Cobain, and K Records founder Calvin Johnson.
Outsider music expert Irwin Chusid brought quite a bit of attention to Jandek by including an account of his own dealings with Corwood Industries in his book Songs In The Key of Z: The Curious World of Outsider Music. Katy Vine tracked down a "Jandek-like person" and gave an account of her experiences in the August 1999 issue of Texas Monthly.
In 2004, a documentary on Jandek was released, Jandek on Corwood. It was directed by Chad Freidrichs, and produced by Freidrichs and Paul Fehler.
Discography:
External links
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