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16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
The Mystery is One Step Closer to Being Solved, December 27, 2004
This review is from: JANDEK - JANDEK ON CORWOOD (DVD)
For those of you who don't know, Jandek is an atonal folk-musician based out of Houston, Texas. He has released 38 albums (to date) since "Ready for the House" (credited to The Units) was released in 1978. Despite this prolific output, he has only conducted one formal interview, has not allowed any photographs to be taken of him aside from those that appear on his album covers, and has never performed live [see note at end of review]. His music is very far from being accessible, so most people are not likely to be interested in this musical enigma. But for those who are, this documentary sheds some light--but mainly speculates--on the artist, his intentions, his neuroses, his lyrics and his music.
This documentary features of series of interviews with music critics who have reviewed his work, praised his work, and contains interviews with the few people who have actually come into personal contact with Jandek. The most noteworthy inclusion on the DVD is the full-length interview--the only one Jandek has ever allowed--granted to a writer in 1985.
Much of the commentary by the critics here is interesting, noting the fascination a small but devoted base of fans has to his recordings. That being said, the flow of the documentary is quite lethargic at times, especially in the last half-hour (where it seems as if the film is wrapping up continually, even though there is still 30 minutes left), where many of the facts and assessments of Jandek's life and work are recapitulated with somnolent precision. Also, many critics speculate on his potential insanity, which is just sheer sensationalism. It's clear from his output and his media (or, lack thereof) representation that he is a very calculating artist who has shrewdly created a fascinating persona ... if he is crazy, he's crazy like a fox.
The bonus features include excerpts from his last five albums. [Note: Jandek broke his hermitage and performed a concert at the Instal.04 Festival in Glasgow on October 17, 2004. According to Seth Tisue's Jandek website, the initial reaction was one of disappointment, but that is probably owing to ridiculously high expectations.]
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13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Jandek on Corwood, December 23, 2004
This review is from: JANDEK - JANDEK ON CORWOOD (DVD)
You get to see this invisible man emerge by way of the very few people who have glimpsed, seen, or spoken to him. Somewhere in the history and mystery of Houston, Texas there is this fellow, who alone and with companions has made a large body of some of the most willfully uncommercial and purely personal music ever recorded. He's only spoken to a couple people in his career (I'm one of them), and only done one interview, but has become a legend and inspired a couple tribute albums and this very watchable and respectful film. This successfully captures the singular Jandek vibe, as it unfolds like the mystery story that it ultimately is. Despite my admitted lack of objectivity, I found this one of the rare music related films that worked as a film, as well as it did an exploration of the artist.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Eternal navel-gazing of the Indie rockcrit..., March 25, 2007
This review is from: JANDEK - JANDEK ON CORWOOD (DVD)
The work of Sterling Smith, aka Jandek, the reclusive representative from Corwood Industries, is sadly miscast as "outsider art." This disc's positive elements stem mostly from the quality and consistency of Jandek's recordings over time; the soundtrack is strong. Unfortunately the endless line of talking heads act to its detriment; mostly scribblers with varying degrees of talent, literacy and knowledge of their field wax on about the purported mysteries of the man. Byron Coley stands out as entertaining and concise, with less tendency to myth-build; overall though, the sense of the work veers towards self-parody. The foolish practice of American rock journalists taking themselves far too seriously is the disc's main trope. I half-expected Anthony DeCurtis and Lou O'Neill Jr. to enter with prissy cameos damning the Texan's efforts.
Which is specious right off the bat since most of the commentators should know better. Jandek's main touchstone is Blind Willie Johnson's wordless masterpiece "Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground" from the late 1920's. Johnson was active in Beaumont, not far from Jandek's home base of Houston, and the company reissuing his works is named Yazoo ("river of death") after the legendary Mississippi waterway. Obviously there is much more going on in Jandek's albums, but the haunting, echo-drenched illusion of formlessness and sense of despair stems from here. Jandek is perfectly lucid in the one recorded interview with John Trubee; his main characteristic seems to be reticence.
Then again the whole notion of "outsider art" is facile, if not outright evil. Is there some gradient with which to weigh "errant" creativity? A checklist for disabilities? "This singer has Tourette's, that one has Epstein-Barr's, this one has OCD, that one's a homeless amputee"...there is something patently offensive about that. Four decades ago, Angus Maclise was "out there;" Hermann Nitsch was, and remains "out there." Jandek is a compelling and idiosyncratic songwriter, whose brand of lonesome bedroom blues is particularly distilled.
I wonder if the goofy pundits @ Spin and Option and RS would ever admit one possibility: that Mr. Smith listened to Hendrix and Zeppelin just like every other teenager in the 70's before establishing his own idiom. American rock critics prefer to minimize the impact of pop culture, to play down its homogenizing effects, which is what makes music like Jandek's seem more outre than it is. They also do it a disservice by marginalizing it with simplistic reductions and emphasizing, ad nauseum, the anecdotal negative reactions of their peers. So what? Shut up and listen.
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