Cargo Records

Ready For The House + Jandek on Corwood - A Documentary

The 1978 release of Corwood Industries, "Ready For the House", began one of the most compelling, disturbed, and singular legacies in musical history. In the 30 years since this unique debut, Jandek has released 53 albums of mournful, atonal music that continues to defy classification and accessibility.

And while the past three decades of intense productivity have yielded a depth of discussion, a handful of legendary live performances and even a documentary film, no amount of time or experience can prepare a listener for the experience of "Ready For the House." Beyond stark, beyond oblique, beyond outsider even, the first Jandek LP (originally credited to The Units) explores musical territories no one even knew existed, with just a hollowed-out voice and a lonely, detuned guitar.

“There were plenty of significant events in 1978, (“You’re The One That I Want” by John Travolta & Olivia Newton John was quite a popular track, for example), and one of the most low-key yet significant events was the debut LP release on the Corwood Industries label out of Houston, TX. Mysteriously enough it came out under the name “The Units”, but it was obviously a singular vision and not a band. That individual would come to be more commonly known as Jandek, and a total of 28 albums have been issued on Corwood to date. In 1978 however, there was no telling what was to come. Ready For The House was a mostly acoustic guitar/vocal record, of ethereal, shambling post-blues form. It set the stage for one the most individualistic and fascinating bodies of work in contemporary music. The original LP was casually issued in a beautiful color sleeve, featuring a mundane but striking image of a living room chair & table (replicated with almost pop-art brilliance on this CD). No other information was ever offered. As it remains today. Ready For The House sounded like no other record, and it’s doubtful that more than a handful of copies were sold at the time (promotional copies sent to out radio stations and reviewers were more voluminous). A second Jandek album wouldn’t come out till 1981. By the mid-80s a wealth of documentation had occurred and the early Corwood albums became notoriously unavailable just as people were finally getting up the gumption to consider buying them. This record has been “in demand” for over a decade now and Corwood has finally caved in and reissued it proper. Find out what you’ve been missing for the last 21 years!” Forced Exposure, 1999.

"The longest-running, weirdest, loneliest enigma in popular music is a guy from Texas who calls himself Jandek." (Douglas Wolk, Providence Phoenix) 25 years, 35 albums and not a single live show or public appearance. The documentary film Jandek on Corwood definitively explores the most intriguing mystery in modern music. Featuring revealing interviews, evocative imagery and one of the most bizarre and compelling soundtracks in film history, Jandek on Corwood will challenge the viewer's conception of music, Art and the nature of celebrity.

"A huge success A fantastic evocation of one of the most compelling soundworlds ever to orbit the contemporary underground. It makes you believe." -- David Keanan, Wire Magazine.