JANDEK ON CORWOOD FAQ/ Everything You Wanted to Know About Jandek, but You Never Asked Because You Probably Never Heard of Him Before Q: Who is Jandek Jandek is a musician from Houston, Texas. Jandek has released 35 albums in the last 25 years, all on his label,Corwood Industries. Q: So, this guy's mysterious, right? Jandek is the most mysterious American musician of the last half century. He's never played live, never been interviewed, and only one person has ever claimed to have met him. Jandek's cloak of secrecy is impregnable, and he's never let it down, even for a moment.

Q: What is his music like? Jandek's music has been characterized as "atonal, abrasive, and harsh" but has also been called "austere, beautiful, and honest." One thing almost everyone can agree on is that Jandek's music is very hard to describe. Music writers, feel free to flex your music writing muscle and flaunt almost every ten-dollar word and concept you picked up during your long, dreary undergraduate work. If you're not a music writer, read on to the next paragraph. "I usually tell people that it's someone who has a completely untuned guitar and is just sort of meandering and yelling over it," says Angela Sawyer of Twisted Village Records in Cambridge Massachusetts. Reviewers have an equally troubling time describing what a Jandek song sounds like. An Option magazine article refers to his "anguished, moaning, impassioned vocals." A mention in a 1998 book compares his guitar playing to "a deathbed Neil Young." Certain words stick out in the multitude of reviews and articles that have appeared in various publications, like "spooky," "honest," and "wispy." Yet none can really capture the distinctiveness of Jandek's sound.