All things Mark Kozelek

[LemonMelon]

 

[corianderstem]

8 This is My First Day and I'm Indian and I Work at a Gas Station`

 

[cobl04]

first four Red House Painters album are getting the boxset treatment

 

[cobl04]

Stream Sun Kil Moon's New Song, 'Ali/Spinks 2' | SPIN | Premieres

it's out June 2, btw.

 

[liamcool]

"Ali/Spinks 2" is SUPER WEIRD. That instrumental break was not what I was expecting.

I am really excited for this now.

 

[cobl04]

Me neither. Not big on it. I don't think it will be better than Benji but I'm sure it will be good.

"Dogs" didn't get enough love.

 

[nielsgov]

Awful song.

 

[cobl04]

God, Micheline is so heartbreaking. So goddamn sad what happens to these people.

 

[cobl04]

Alright so I saw Sun Kil Moon on Saturday night. (I left my cousin’s wedding to go - is that bad? To be fair to me I bought the ticket before the wedding date was announced.) It was at the Athenaeum Theatre, a seated venue that houses about 1000 or something, so it was pretty perfect for him. He started at 830 on the dot, I was a fraction late, he was already into Send in the Clowns. I’d post a setlist but there is none online, and to be honest it would be kind of difficult to list... about 10-15 minutes in he started speaking to the crowd and yeah, he is fucking hilarious. Nandos (chicken joint) asked him to write a jingle. “I can’t write jingles, but I can write 10-minute songs so I’ll take your $100,00” and he actually fucking played this song he had written, which was extremely hilarious. It was basically about some hot young girl he had seen last time he was in Australia and how he gave her his hotel room details and he wanted to fuck her but it didn’t happen. The song kept coming back to the line “she ate Nandos chicken / nandos chicken” etc and then it had a bit about how he wanted to “punch that fucking Gotye idiot in the head”. Like it was five or six minutes long and the whole crowd was in tears of laughter. He had several digs at Australia, how we don’t have a recognisable cultural dish of our own. “Sell me on Australia!” he said. I yelled out “we love the MCG!” and he said “you love MSG?” and the whole crowd laughed haha. He also talked about how Brisbane was in his top three worst places he’d ever been, and how he hated Jet - “War on Drugs can suck my cock, Jet can suck my cock twice”.

Other hilarious moments included him talking about his drummer’s girlfriend used to fuck the drummer of Train, how he once dated an Asian girl who fucked the singer who replaced the original singer of Foreigner, several rants about the War on Drugs (and yes, he played War on Drugs Suck My Cock in full in all its glory, including some bloke he pulled up from the crowd to play the tom-tom), and so many others.

As for the actual show itself, it was great. He didn’t play Ben’s My Friend (my favourite song) but it looks like he’s never played it, which is weird. Also no Duk Koo Kim, was hoping to sit there in bliss listening to that riff for 10 minutes but alas. But he played most of the rest of Benji. Micheline was played sans guitar and it was heavier and darker. Can’t Live Without My Mother’s Love was just gorgeous, Kozelek shuffling around on stage with his non-mic hand in his pocket. I Watched the Film The Song Remains The Same was quite stunning, Kozelek sitting off to the left strumming his guitar. I was sitting with my head lying back on the chair, it ended up feeling like a dream, it was so so nice. When he introduced Jim Wise he actually broke down in tears, I never quite realised how sad that song was. The Possum was also a stunning moment. The gig went for three hours and the last half an hour it probably overstayed its welcome a bit. Kozelek decided he wanted to keep singing and the last few songs were all of a similar, slow, keys-led no-guitar vein, and though they were all really nice (one about ceiling-gazing in particular) it did test my patience a fraction. Still Kozelek was funny, “if you wanna leave go I don’t give a shit”. More talk about the War on Drugs. He finished with an early ACDC song.

So yeah, a really great, memorable show. Very unique. He was really appreciative of the crowd, who were silent during songs but cheered and clapped and engaged with enthusiasm in between songs. His stage presence is very interesting, he spends a lot of time in that very low monotone voice of his, tunes his guitar, stands in one spot signing with his hand in his pocket, from the sound of it it would seem boring but he pulls it off and it adds to the show. Great stuff. Anyone else seen him lately?

 

[liamcool]

I'm seeing Marky Mark and the Killing Moons tonight. So stoked.

 

[liamcool]

I basically echo what Cobbler's said above - he played most, but not all of the same material as he did in Melbourne, and I am going to be really fucking disappointed if he doesn't release The Nando Jingle in some form. It's crass and hysterically funny.

Few things about the show.

- The Recital Hall has 1,200 seats. The floor was full, first tier of seats maybe a third full, second tier empty. Maybe 800 people there. He's played at The Factory before, which is an old factory converted into a venue. Good mood as a result. A lot of Kozelek's banter was done without a mic, which was fine when people weren't talking because it's a recital hall. Obviously.

- he performed under very low light, maybe ten percent of what you would normally see at a recital. It gave the whole thing a very dream like quality - you couldn't see any of the band members' faces, you could barely see their bodies. It made taking photos fucking impossible until the end, which was great.

- Richard Ramirez was played in an even darker arrangement - Mark has a tom tom and ride cymbal front centre stage, and instead of playing guitar he played that for half of the night. It was kind of extraneous, but Ramirez was incredibly frightening at a result.

- Australian fans are fucking ASSHOLES. Lots of people wooing, a couple in front of me yelled "turn the lights up!" to which Kozelek told them to fuck off, people talking throughout some of the quieter songs. From about an hour in to the end of the night, people were getting up in droves to go and get a drink, which is really fucking noticeable in a 1,200 seat venue. (About fifty people got up halfway through "I Watched The Film...")

- The Possum into Ali/Spinks 2 came off far better than the recorded versions.

- They did a cover of "I Got You Babe" with a woman from the crowd and one of the ushers, and then the usher got called up to play mini-drums on "Truck Driver" and another tune I didn't recognise. People got really behind this.

- I have a new fucking appreciation for Carissa after hearing the other musicians sing backing on it. Totally heartbreaking.

- Before the last song ("Gustavo") he called for the house lights to be turned up so he could see the crowd, mentioned we were all a bunch of white motherfuckers, said the one black guy in the crowd looked like Phil Lynott, and then hit on a very attractive woman in the front row. Hysterically funny. Seeing Gustavo with full lights was bordering on a religious experience.



Go and see him. He is an amazing live performer.

 

[cobl04]

Australian fans are notorious for being arseholes. I will admit that I went to the toilet during Ramirez, I had to, I was going to die. But I certainly wouldn't have got up to get a drink. When I came back it certainly was intense (and I could hear it clearly from the toilet too).

He also had the lights down at our gig as well and yeah you're right that the entire gig had a dream-like quality. He didn't play Carissa at our show, which was a bummer. But agreed, definitely go and see him people, it's very memorable.

Also I bought Ghosts of the Great Highway last night

 

[Vlad n U 2]

I don't know who this Kozelek bloke is but he sounds like a real colossal asshole.

 

[cobl04]

He's also very, very funny and breathtakingly honest when singing. Liam will back me up here but he clearly knows he's got a bit of a reputation and he does not care in the slightest. He doesn't give a shit how he comes off, which makes it easier to deal with.

 

[liamcool]

Here's a Kozelek interview that deals with this question, Vlad.

I don't think he's an asshole so much as he's very dedicated to his music, and excruciatingly honest (in the best possible way).

 

[cobl04]

Thanks for sharing that Liam. Loved this

But I played “Mistress” this year at one show, in Maine, because there was a guy in a wheelchair and he kept yelling out for it and that he’d waited 22 years to come see me – and I believed him, because he was in a wheelchair and it was my first time playing Portland, Maine. After the show, he wheeled himself up to me and asked for a hug and I gave him one and he would not let go. I mean, he would not let go. It just killed me. His name was Mike. Mike, it’s not my favourite song any more, but if I ever play “Mistress” again, it’ll be for you, because you’re the definition of strength and bravery and that hug made my fucking year.

 

[Vlad n U 2]

That's cool, it was a good read.

 

[LemonMelon]

There is a fine line between being honest and being an asshole and Mark seems to cross that line every now and again, but I would never question his sincerity.

 

[iron yuppie]

I don't know who this Kozelek bloke is but he sounds like a real colossal asshole.

Reading through this thread, it seems like the guy is preoccupied with where he is or isn't able to put his dick, which is bad enough in a 20-year-old frat boy, but substantially worse for a guy pushing 50.

 

[liamcool]

So Australian right wing fuckhead Andrew Bolt has something to say about Mark.

 

[cobl04]

I'm still laughing. So fucking funny.

 

[cobl04]

"Koszelek"

 

[iron yuppie]

I've never heard anything from Red House Painters, but this Red House Painters: Box Set | Album Reviews | Pitchfork makes it seem like the early albums are pretty essential listening.

 

[LemonMelon]

Please hear lots of things from Red House Painters. They're every bit as good as Sun Kil Moon.

 

[iron yuppie]

Well that's the thing - I'm not super high on SKM, so I'm hoping Red House Painters are better.

 

[liamcool]

Well, Red House Painters were more of a band than Sun Kil Moon's solo project style. (I really like Songs For A Blue Guitar, which is basically a solo album, though.)

Here's a song for you. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMBisq2b3yQ

 

[cobl04]

The more I think about it the more I think "I Can't Live Without My Mother's Love" might be my favourite song of his. It's got beautiful, reflective guitar, then a lighter, even more beautiful guitar that comes in over the top towards the end of the song. Kozelek's vocals float effortlessly over the track, and though it follows the intensely autobiographical nature of the rest of Benji I think it's one of the few songs where the lines sit well together, where the lyrics actually work one after the other, like a more normally structured song (not to say the other songs don't work, they all do, I love the album dearly but there is a certain incongruousness to lines like "and I love the thunder of John Bonham's drums / but even more I liked No Quarter's low Fender Rhodes hum"). But it all comes back to Kozelek. Whenever I start to think that yeah, maybe he is a bit of an arsehole, I come back to this song. I honestly think it's the most powerful, the one where he lays himself the most bare. It's truly remarkable, this narrative where everything that's happened it his life is insignificant compared with the love he has for his mother, having that shoulder to rest on in your weakest moments.

 

[liamcool]

Gustavo is currently breaking my heart.

If you wanna hear Kozelek fuck about with drum machines and synths, and then break your heart anyway, here's your place.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nSuTSyymvU

 

[LemonMelon]

Yes, that song is incredible. Perils got overlooked.

 

[liamcool]

Courtesy of Pitchfuck, here's another song off the new album.