Mark Lanegan solo album recommendations... (RIP February 2022)

I remember him at that LSE show moving his fingers at the mic stand like he was playing double bass. Wonder if that was something he made a habit of.

i know i have posted re my love re this production crew here and there on ilm,
however, when the results end up like this, then i have no regrets.
in my world, mark provided the best vocals they ever had.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErmJa3MBI10

I never got to see him with the Trees (iirc), but I got to see him with Isobel Campbell, with the QOTSA, with Greg Dulli, and that really says it all. His voice worked wonders in lots of contexts.

mark e. — YES. I've had that one on repeat more than anything else. Open arms.

unearthing all of his collaborations i havent heard has been a bittersweet positive

A compilation -- no, a full box set -- of all the astounding one-offs and tribute comp appearances and everything else would be so welcome. Hell I was reminded of this the other day -- he takes a Marc Almond song that was originally a duet with Nico (her last formal recording IIRC), sings it with Beth Orton and while keeping all the melodrama of the original heightens it by default into a Lee and Nancy song from hell:

https://soundcloud.com/heavenlyrecordings/your-kisses-burn-mark-lanegan-beth-orton

i made a youtube playlist of some of my favorite stuff plus tons of stuff i discovered these past couple of days

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLHnyDe_1GTvcILl3Z2MTTUBXigxer4gx

there’s no reason for this “November Rain” cover w Nicole Atkins to work but lord i believe it does

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ee6eI1P7IvY

vegemite — I've been making a playlist too, I'll check out yours soon. Just came across this now. He looks like a man truly at the end of his tether but he somehow goes all the way on the vocal. Beautiful/heartbreaking to hear the final refrain.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvQ5FgcLveo

heartbreaking

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/feb/24/you-were-my-heathcliff-isobel-campbell-pays-tribute-to-collaborator-mark-lanegan

Apologies if somebody else has posted this already. I think this is the way I want to sit with his music, and his spirit, for a while. For whatever reason, here he seems calm and bemused while being asked the usual interview questions, live on the air, and then completely focused on singing the most lovely/loving songs — especially the closer which is essentially Lanegan doing a lullaby of the standard Reaching for the Moon. This is the rare event where Lanegan has his eyes open (sometimes, just a bit) while singing. I swear he is close to tears.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwKzkAYZtCE

Reaching for the Moon, only

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPf8B2FBWmc

One Mr. Cave

Lovely tribute to Mark Lanegan from Nick Cave on his Red Hand Files email today (definitely worth subscribing to). pic.twitter.com/ulv6Vl8Da3

— Ted Kessler (@TedKessler1) February 25, 2022

<3

that Brompton Oratory cover he mentions is really something . The original is one of my favorite alltime Cave tracks, Lanegan sings it so beautifully

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obrG7t2kgM0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvtRyyhvOtQ

Lovely words from the other week

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNfiYwbhFyw

Meantime, I took my piece on seven interpretations of others' songs he did from behind the Patreon paywall. They're all amazing.

https://www.patreon.com/posts/seven-by-mark-63087735

hey, I don't know if there are any screaming trees megafanz here, but I found this press photo earlier when I was digging through my stacks - yell if you want it! think it was in a review copy of 'Even If...' which I don't have anymore

https://i.ibb.co/LJCJRmn/PXL-20220302-210055371-2.jpg

aw that is so sweet
thank you for posting!!

yeah, they're pretty young there - van conner must be about 20 or something like that? btw my ilx-mail doesn't work, so if anyone does want it just shout at me here

A few days ago I downloaded a sample of ML's memoir because unfortunately I had snoozed on his excellent writing. I am reading about the early days of the band and it's fun to put a face to a name.

i think that's mark pickerel on the left then van conner at the front and gary lee behind him

The baby has to be Pickerel

i went back & re-listened to the early Trees albums, they are really great. I think my favorite is Clairvoyance. First three or four albums definitely have a heavy throwback psychedelia/garage vibe. First album is that in its purest form imo, very Sonics, at times reminds me of Electric Prunes, just a bunch of 20 year olds making music & having fun. It’s cool & they are fucking great.

Intersting the different quality to Lanegan’s voice, he’s in a Jim Morrison lane here & hasn’t yet plumbed down into the baritonal depths of later Trees & solo career. More energetic YAYUH stuff, he sounds so good but its exciting in that unformed, “doesn’t know what he is yet” kinda way.
Youthful, obviously, too which is also fun to hear from a guy who has sounded older than his years for a long time.

Intersting the different quality to Lanegan’s voice, he’s in a Jim Morrison lane here & hasn’t yet plumbed down into the baritonal depths of later Trees & solo career.

He told me that during this era he'd walk offstage every night with a headache from trying to sing songs written in a register other than his. He was really sour on the early Trees stuff, and didn't sweeten on it when he wrote his memoir. But I love those records; they aren't the equal of Sweet Oblivion or Dust, but they are fantastic garage rock - In The Forest and Back Together have this excellent proto-punk energy, End Of The Universe has that thundercrack second riff towards the end that Jack White later half-inched, Cold Rain is just a fantastic pop song. And Grey Diamond Desert is just this majestic, slow, shimmering thing. That's the song where whatever Lanegan was going to become first surfaces.

For those with an interest in young Screaming Trees, The Fertilichrome Cheerleader Massacre has been released on youtube since last I checked!

Trailers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwDD8f-LiCE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIWDbWjuVu0

Full movie:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rqghby05ImU

This whole session is great, they also cover The End and Tales Of Great Ulysses
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjzmOquIP8g

So glad to see all these posts, photos, videos, links. ILM can be so wonderful.

Meanwhile, fwiw, I've written a very simple thing about discovering a deeper pattern in my mourning process involving musicians. Lanegan, Prince, Bowie, etc.

https://jaybabcock.substack.com/p/landline-in-love-with-the-love-that

Yes! I have that too - thank you :-)

Nice. I have already listened to that Bowie thing a few times just now.

The first memoir is pretty good, very scathing though. Really didn't like himself much. Hope he wasa lot more comfortable with himself later on.
I'm like 2/3s of the way through it.

Gary - The Bowie is just the best, isn't it? His joy in figuring out the puzzle of each vocalist's approach is a delight I never tire of.

Thanks, Jay. Truth be told I couldn't totally figure out who each singer was until I looked at the comments. Think Lou was my favorite, Marc Bolan a close second. To me it was disingenous of him to say Iggy was "hard to do" since there is a lot of obvious overlap in their singing styles.

Also, say hello to your brother for me.

Finally, you may call me James.

Just gonna put this here. Watch to the very end.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9BPh6fBsEw

Thanks. Will watch later. Also meant to come back and say I ended up listening to The Gutter Twins over the weekend and finally paid a little attention

Another gorgeous cover/interpretation I'd missed. I saw him joke/not-joke in a 2019 interview that it had become his signature song and now I hear why.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaGE_MsUmPA

xp That KXLU session is awesome

Missed this at the time -- Barrett Martin's response to the news (there are various further posts)

https://www.instagram.com/p/CaTD40dvh4g/

It was a real treat to do something long overdue here: an introductory guide to Lanegan’s work across all the decades and in numerous contexts.

https://theshfl.com/guide/mark-lanegan

The focus is on albums for Shfl so it’s not the true range given all the EPs, singles and one-offs, but I really think this gives him his real due.

excellent!

Thanks!

Enjoyed this write-up! Working my way through a few things I hadn't heard. The gravel/grain of his voice well recorded is such a force.

There's some really great live stuff from the Bubblegum tour in 2004. I remember the Milan date and the video from Other Voices in Dingle, County Kerry both being brilliant. May have said that on here before but not managing to look back on thread cos on my phone and video and other images are messing up scrolling.

Great stuff Ned!

Thanks very kindly.

A new piece talking with many who knew/worked with him

https://www.vulture.com/2022/05/mark-lanegan-tribute-remembrance-screaming-trees.html

beautiful

Among other things, I hadn't realized the mid-90s MTV taxi guy in those spots was Donal Logue!

Interesting. This appears to be something of a general memoir?

https://moochinaboutltd.bandcamp.com/merch/confessions-of-the-night-porter-mark-lanegan-moochin666

Or rather some kind of interpretive work of his lyrics and words but with his participation? Whatever it is, potentially of interest.

One year. Miss him.