Jandek on Corwood

Jandek on Corwood. 2004 Unicorn Stencil.
Featured: John Trubee, Phil Milstein, Katy Vine, Dr. Demento, Gary Pig Gold, Richie Unterberger, Calvin Johnson, Douglas Wolk
Director: Chad Freidrichs
Available on Amazon.
Visit the official website.

Among the dozens of records released in the year 1978, one came out from an act calling itself "The Units" from Houston, Texas. That record, Ready for the House, is forty-four and a half minutes of uncomfortably out of tune acoustic guitar playing (except for the last track) accompanied by a haunting, wavering voice. This unusual album came out on a label called Corwood Industries, which anyone could contact by writing to its post office. Ready for the House turned out to be the only album released by The Units, as another New Wave band from San Francisco with claims to that name stopped the Texas musician from using that name. One thousand copies of the album were pressed, and initially, just two copies were sold.

Three years later, Six and Six came out on the Corwood label, and now the musician was known as Jandek. This name is a combination of the month of January, and a man named Decker, who the man from Corwood spoke to on the telephone. Jandek is generally assumed to be a man named Sterling Richard Smith, although this has never been confirmed, and anyone at Corwood Industries isn't telling.

Very little is known about Jandek, aside from what little information that Corwood shared in letters to WFMU disc jockey and music historian Irwin Chusid, and in a fifty minute interview with former Spin Magazine writer John Trubee (which is included on the DVD in its entirely as an extra)*. So, how does one make a 90 minute documentary about a subject who has revealed very little about himself to the public, but he did sanction and cooperate with director Chad Freidrichs?

Utilizing many, many interviews with people discussing their interpretation of Jandek and his music, as well as mixing images of Jandek album covers and other random photographs, Freidrichs manages to present the whole Jandek story in 88 minutes in a way that can easily be grasped and appreciated by any newcomers to one of the most willfully obscure and private musicians out there. Highlights include Dr. Demento (who will probably be the only person most of the world would even recognize in this documentary) discussing his interactions, or lack thereof with Corwood, and Texas Monthly reporter Katy Vine, who tracked down a man who looked like the one on several of Jandek's album covers one day in 1999 intending to interview him about the music. Vine and the Corwood representative enjoyed an afternoon at a nearby tavern, but the man made it clear he didn't wish to talk about Jandek or the music.

So, over the course of the film, you will find that it's very possible to create a film about a subject who keeps to himself most of the time.

At the time that Freidrichs completed Jandek on Corwood, Corwood has issued 32 records under the name Jandek, included a re-issued Ready for the House with any reference to The Units replaced. Five more albums were recorded and issued after the film's completion (a bonus feature highlights these five new records), and most surprisingly, Jandek made his first onstage appearance at a music festival in Glasgow in October of 2004. Billed as a "representative of Corwood Industries", the man (who is the same as the one on the album covers) played an hour of abstract and largely improvised music with two backing musicians. Over the next several years, Jandek has released another thirty albums, including several live recordings from his concerts, played several dozen more live shows, and Corwood Industries finally opened an official website in 2010. Even if Jandek is now willing to make live appearances, and occasionally socialize with fans after the gigs, the mystery still remains about exactly who he is...or why.

Recommended music documentary.


* In Trubee's interview, the Corwood representative admitted he worked as a machinist at the time, and among other things, admitted that his guitars were not in fact, detuned, but instead tuned to unique keys that sounded good to him. At the time, Jandek estimated that he had sold only 150 copies total.