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Jandek's second album, Six and Six ( 1981)Jandek is a musician, presumably from Houston, Texas. Since 1978, he has self-released 38 albums of unusual, often emotionally dissolute folk and blues songs without ever giving a known concert or interview 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.
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 unaccompanied (assuming that the person singing is also the person playing guitar). However many other songs feature bass guitar, electric guitar and/or drums, presumably played by collaborators, although no proper credits list has ever appeared on an album. A female vocalist or vocalists have appeared on some of his early 1980s work.
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 RecordsK Records is a record company in Olympia, Washington and was founded, owned, and operated by Calvin Johnson, formerly of Beat Happening. Musicians such as Kurt Cobain of Nirvana, John Wozniak of Marcy Playground, and Jason Frost of Love Junkies frequented founder Calvin JohnsonCalvin Johnson is a guitarist, vocalist and founding member of the bands Beat Happening, Dub Narcotic Sound System, and The Halo Benders. He has worked with Beck, The Microphones, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, and Built to Spill among others. Calvin Johnso.
Outsider musicOutsider music is music performed either by social outsiders, who have no or few associates in the mainstream music business, or by musicians who choose to live and work in seclusion, often due to compromising behavioral or psychological conditions. Outsi 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 1999For the album by Prince, see 1999 (album 1999 is a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar), and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the UN. Events Kosovo War Former child star Gary Coleman files for bankruptcy Y2K prep issue of Texas MonthlyTexas Monthly is an American magazine founded in 1973. The magazine has a circulation of around 300,000 and strives to document " politics, the environment, industry, leisure, and education in contemporary Texas. Its annual Bum Steer Awards poke fun at od.
Jandek recently played his, presumably, first show. At the Instal 04 music festival in Glasgow. More information can be found at this site. http://tisue.net/jandek/live.html
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