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Houston, United States

Jandek is a musician, presumably from Houston, Texas. Since 1978, he has self-released 55 albums of unusual, often emotionally dissolute folk and blues songs without ever granting a real 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 unique, 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; in light of Jandek’s live performances it is almost entirely certain that the person featured on the album covers is Jandek himself.

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.

Tagged as:

folk, experimental, people who are freakier and folkier than motherfucking devendra banhart, outsider, singer-songwriter
See more…

1	They Told Me I Was a Fool	56
2	European Jewel	35
3	Naked in the Afternoon	28
4	I Ain't Got None	26
5	Nancy Sings	24
6	Cave in on You	22
7	What Can I Say, What Can I Sing	21
8	Show Me the Way, O Lord	20
9	They Told Me About You	19
10	First You Think Your Fortune's Lovely	18
11	Know Thy Self	16
11	Remain the Same	16
13	Anticipation	15
14	European Jewel (Incomplete)	14
14	Time and Space	14

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Novemberer wrote:
Tuesday evening

Paging Sterling R. Smith...

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mxbbxm wrote:
19 days ago

hey mister...

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Elowson wrote:
20 days ago

Jandek is god!!!

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rapeniggger wrote:
last month

Holy crap, London Tuesday is amazing.

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ggoes wrote:
last month

I forgot my tears..

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AgitReader wrote:
last month

Check out our review of the Columbus show: http://www.agitreader.com/news/jandek_live_wexner_center.html

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edith_lunch wrote:
last month

amazing show Friday!!!

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Ghost_train wrote:
last month

"Glasgow Sunday 2005" is great. Loren Mazzacane Connors does an amazing job on the first song.

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[deleted-user] wrote:
last month

i'm not a big fan of You Walk Alone or Blue Corpse, they're just not as creepy as his 3 first
nativewaiter wrote:
last month

Just listening to You Walk Alone for the first time and it's like fucking Velvets 1969. GENIUS!

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bagaski wrote:
last month

hey!

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edith_lunch wrote:
September 2008

I shot myself I can’t get up!

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Dr_Thunder_MD wrote:
September 2008

http://www.last.fm/group/Gears+Of+War+2

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[deleted-user] wrote:
September 2008

Actually it's the best fuckin' album ever made, i play it on loop, so when European Jewel just stops Naked In the Afternoon starts playing directly after, you get the feeling that the album is gonna play for all eternity, kinda creepy.
[deleted-user] wrote:
September 2008

Ready for the House is the best one!!!
redyapper wrote:
September 2008

jandek is awesome, which album should I buy first if I can get any of them?

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corwood wrote:
September 2008

it's the best one we have got :)

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[deleted-user] wrote:
September 2008

change the picture, this one is so overused
[deleted-user] wrote:
September 2008

"I made the decision... to get real wild"
trunfio wrote:
September 2008

death death death

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12…9 Next

Events

Jan 10 Jandek Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Serralves, Porto, Portugal
2 shouts | 5 attendees

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Recent Activity

VR71 tagged Jandek with ‘freak-zone’. 8 hours ago
Mattrock8000, mitchellcollins, thepulverizer and 7 other people added Jandek to their libraries. yesterday morning
thesky_7 updated the wiki page for Jandek. (diff) Monday evening
jamesandsarada, stone_breath, BenjiStudd and 6 other people added Jandek to their libraries. Monday afternoon
Lucky_D linked Jandek to a deleted event. last week
Bardacid, theslons and lancelaprince added Jandek to their libraries. last week
dofimdomundo added Jandek to the lineup of Jandek at Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Serralves. 13 days ago
cabiria1971, jramstead, Andrew_Williams and 4 other people added Jandek to their libraries. 13 days ago
corwood connected Jandek to the group Siva.. 18 days ago
ramonzavala added Jandek to ramonzavala’s library. 18 days ago