Jandek

Jandek's second album, Six and Six (1981)

Jandek is a musician from Houston, Texas. He has created 33 albums, the first appearing in 1978.

Jandek plays a very strange and frequently atonal form of folk or blues music, often using an open and unconventional chord structure. Jandek's music is very much unlike almost anything else, but his lyrics and delivery are remarkably conventional, and closely mirror the country blues and folk traditions of Eastern Texas.

Barely a handful of people claim to have contacted Jandek, he has never performed live, and his steadfastness in anonymity is legendary. The mystery surrounding Jandek, and his record Label Corwood Industries is a huge part of his allure to a 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 these events in the August 1999 issue of Texas Monthly.

Jandek's first release was titled Ready for the House (originally recorded under the name the Units) in 1978 and was given the serial number 0739.

Discography:

• Ready for the House (1978)
• Six and Six (1981)
• Later On(1981)
• Chair Beside a Window (1982)
• Living in a Moon so Blue (1982)
• Staring at the Cellophane (1982)
• Your Turn to Fall (1983)
• The Rocks Crumble (1983)
• Interstellar Discussion (1984)
• Nine-Thirty (1985)
• Foreign Keys (1985)
• Telegraph Melts (1986)
• Follow Your Footsteps (1986)
• Modern Dances (1987)
• Blue Corpse(1987)
• You Walk Alone (1988)
• On the Way (1988)
• The Living End (1989)
• Somebody in the Snow (1990)
• One Foot in the North (1991)
• Lost Cause (1992)
• Twelfth Apostle (1993)
• Graven Image (1994)
• Glad to Get Away (1994)
• White Box Requiem (1996)
• I Woke Up (1997)
• New Town (1998)
• The Beginning (1999)
• Put My Dream on This Planet (2000)
• This Narrow Road (2001)
• Worthless Recluse (2001)
• I Threw You Away (2002)
• The Humility of Pain (2002)

External Links

• an overview of Jandek
• Jandek on Corwood a documentary film
• another background piece on Jandek

Referenced By