Mark Lanegan

RS151862

Screaming Tree said:

static111 said:

Sadly  except for the great Screaming Trees song on Singles I am out of the loop on Mark's music.  Any good points to start?  Does he have some acoustic centered albums at all?

There is no wrong answer to where to start. To my mind, these are my five solo albums of his that I always return to:

Blues Funeral
Bubblegum
Whiskey for the Holy Ghost
Field Songs
Straight Songs of Sorrow

The Gutter Twins album
Mark & Isobel Campbell - Hawk

petted101

static111 said:

Sadly  except for the great Screaming Trees song on Singles I am out of the loop on Mark's music.  Any good points to start?  Does he have some acoustic centered albums at all?

If you are interested in his more acoustic stuff try either of the cover albums. Imitations or I'll Take Care Of You.

static111

petted101 said:

static111 said:

Sadly  except for the great Screaming Trees song on Singles I am out of the loop on Mark's music.  Any good points to start?  Does he have some acoustic centered albums at all?

If you are interested in his more acoustic stuff try either of the cover albums. Imitations or I'll Take Care Of You.

Thanks that is really helpful!

tino_11

I love Field Songs, his best acoustic album imo

mfc2006

Screaming Tree said:

static111 said:

Sadly  except for the great Screaming Trees song on Singles I am out of the loop on Mark's music.  Any good points to start?  Does he have some acoustic centered albums at all?

There is no wrong answer to where to start. To my mind, these are my five solo albums of his that I always return to:

Blues Funeral
Bubblegum
Whiskey for the Holy Ghost
Field Songs
Straight Songs of Sorrow

Mark said in many interviews that Blues Funeral was the album he was the proudest of. Great place to begin.

I am still having a difficult time processing his loss. Just terrible news. The man and his music meant a great deal to me.

My list is very similar. I'm there with you...tough time with this loss. His music is absolutely amazing and he was one of a kind. I find myself strumming One Way Street on my acoustic a lot these days.

Pap

static111 said:

Sadly  except for the great Screaming Trees song on Singles I am out of the loop on Mark's music.  Any good points to start?  Does he have some acoustic centered albums at all?

You can't go wrong with any of the three Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan albums.

ceska

I wrote the following for a friend of mine who is a complete stranger to Lanegan's recorded output. I hope this is alright to share here; it's not a reply to anyone here, it's just my own personal take. Perhaps it will be informative and helpful to other folks, unfamiliar with Lanegan's albums, who stumble upon this thread down the line.

-Rob

______________________

My introduction to Mark Lanegan came via Kurt Cobain. When I was in college (mid-late 1990s) I was on a huge Nirvana kick. I probably read it in the Michael Azzerad biography Come As You Are, that Kurt was a huge fan of Lanegan, and that they had collaborated. At the time I thought I was being cool, and I checked out most bands that Kurt name-checked though few actually stuck with me. The first Lanegan album I got was The Winding Sheet, Lanegan's first solo album. I think that Kurt plays guitar on Where Did You Sleep Last Night, and maybe background vocals on one other song. It's a solid record, not a masterpiece, but I listened to it a lot.

In 1998 I was already a fan so when Lanegan's third album Scraps at Midnight came out that summer, I was all over it. It was my first summer working at what is now my full-time job and it was also my first time doing the kinds of exploring/photography day trips that are now my full-time hobby. So it is my soundtrack to that epochal time. The record is just amazing and the album artwork is awesome too. I love it when both are great. As for the music itself, the first six songs are just phenomenal. "Stay", "Last One In The World" and "Wheels" are among three of my favorite songs ever.  I really connected with the lyrics, and still do. Scraps remains my favorite album of his, although Lanegan seemed to not be fond of it in retrospect. Few of the songs got played in concert after the 1998 tour.

His second album Whiskey For the Holy Ghost was already out by this point, obviously, but I didn't enjoy it when I first heard it. A friend of mine kept telling me how awesome it was, and it wasn't until about six months later after I first heard it that I listened to the CD again that it clicked. It was a great soundtrack for train rides along the back to college on bleak winter/early spring days. Borracho is probably Lanegan's signature song, and I think that many Lanegan fans still look at this album as his high point musically

Right after Scraps, Lanegan released an album of cover songs, I'll Take Care Of You. None of the songs are hits, or at least they weren't known to me in 1999. But they sound so good, and I also connected deeply with several of the lyrics. It's a short, easily-digestible album of 11 songs. I played that one on repeat often.

Next in 2001 was Field Songs. It is a really strong record with great songs, but it is just a notch below Whiskey & Scraps in my book. Not that level of greatness, but still really good. There are no bad/skip songs on this album. I also played this one a lot.

I should mention Screaming Trees here. Lanegan was the singer of the band from mid-1980s until their last-gasp effort in 2000. They were kind of just before grunge blew up, and while grunge was huge they were already dissolving, not ready for prime time due to Lanegan's drug use and fighting within the band. So they are kind of a second-tier band of the Seattle scene, never as huge as Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Soundgarden or Alice in Chains. But they had a couple songs that can justly be called hits. In fact their two 1990s albums Dust and Sweet Oblivion are both really solid albums. I didn't know this until I read Lanegan's biography, but those two albums are the ones where Lanegan actually wrote the majority/entirety of the lyrics. Previously he really was just the singer. I guess that's why I really like these two albums much more than their earlier works. I don't find myself pulling out Screaming Trees CDs as much as his solo stuff, but I highly recommend checking out those two CDs.

In the early 2000s Lanegan's output as a solo artist began to slow down. His next record Bubblegum came out in 2004. It's a solid record but just a notch below Field Songs, in my book. It is grittier and darker and edgier than what I really like, and there are a couple songs I skip. Still, a must have in the collection. He also released an 8-song EP around this time.

Around the mid-2000s is when Lanegan abandoned his solo career for an endless string of collaborations. A lot of people like the Queens of the Stone Age records, or his albums with Greg Dulli as the Gutter Twins, and he did a few albums with Isobel Campbell too. Each of these records has maybe a song or two that I like, but they're not my cup of tea overall.

I thoroughly enjoy the two records Lanegan did with Soulsavers. It's Not How Far You Fall, It's the Way You Land (2007) and Broken (2009) are phenomenal. Highly recommend checking them out. The song Revival is among the best he's ever done.  They also have an official live recording from 2007. Until this point I'd never seen Lanegan live, and it was the Soulsavers 2009 tour that I finally got to see Mark Lanegan live, at Bowery Ballroom in New York City. I saw him twice more in 2012, and one last time in 2014, all in New York. He toured Europe far more often; somehow, and regretfully, he had a more-dedicated following over there.

In the early 2010 Lanegan's solo records resumed and he put out several good records in quick succession. Blues Funeral has a bit of techno feel, perhaps inspired by his time with Soulsavers, but I like it. Ode to Sad Disco, Phantasmagoria Blues, and Harborview Hospital are my favorite tracks from the album. You might feel like you yourself just got released from a mental hospital after listening to this disc. Another must-have.

Lanegan then released another covers-album Imitations, but I don't like it as much as the first one. I've got a home-made CD of outtakes and collaborations from the early 2000s that features a bunch of covers, and I refer back to that disc a lot instead. (There is also a fan-made mix CD of the original versions of songs Lanegan has covered, and that is awesome too.

Phantom Radio and Gargoyle are two good, interchangeable albums from the mid-2010s. Solid, but I don't revisit them as much as perhaps I should. Around this time Lanegan released Houston Publishing Demos, a collection of songs recorded, but not released, in 2002. Also a solid set but not extraordinary.

His last two solo albums, Someody's Knocking and Songs Of Straight Sorrow, don't really appeal to me. In fact I don't think I even bought Knocking. At this point the forgettable songs outnumber the memorable ones.

I was gifted his last record, the 2021 collaboration Dark Mark Vs. Skeleton Joe, and I was surprised to like it. I haven't spun it much lately, but I did play it a few times when I first got it.

I should add, a big reason that I like most the era of Whiskey For the Holy Ghost through Field Songs, is that Lanegan's guitarist at the time was Mike Johnson (he is also on the Winding Sheet). I just love his guitar sound and the feel that surrounds it. He's one of the most under-rated/least-known-but-awesome musicians out of Seattle. If Mike McCready wasn't Pearl Jam's lead guitarist, Mike Johnson would have been the next-perfect fit.

Here's a very stripped down TV performance of House a Home to try on.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ie9vymWC7oE

Johnson moved to France in 2006, and he and Lanegan maybe collaborated on a song or two here and there, and he also played on the 2002 Houston Publishing album that got released a decade later, but their only other full-album collaboration was the covers disc Imitations.

Beyond the LP
Lanegan's autobiography is possibly the best rock bio I've read. I learned so much from it. Maybe because Lanegan hasn't been previously covered by the media to the extant that certain other rock stars were, or maybe because Lanegan dug really deep and was not shy about being honest about his depths of his personal adventures. But it certainly illuminated many aspects of his career for me. And some parts of it were downright, and grimly, hilarious. I blew through the book in just a few days. Here's the Rolling Stone coverage:
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/mark-lanegan-interview-memoir-kurt-cobain-layne-staley-978123/

The best interview Lanegan ever did was with Joseph Arthur on JA's Come To Where I'm From podcast. Check it out here when you have two free hours. You'll be glad you did.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MM4F5s8J3XU

Fan Interview with Lanegan, from 2018. Pretty informative especially if you haven't read his book.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9BPh6fBsEw
15 minutes long

Parts Unknown with Anthony Bourdain
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPERDbYE5OM
Pretty heavy, now that both are gone. Not as deeply informative as the other interviews, but a real heavy mood. Some choice live takes cut in, ca. early-mid 2010s. It kinda goes off track at the end with a needless scene of Bourdain rolling a joint on his hotel balcony, and a cringey sing along by Bourdain's staff (or maybe random people?) to one of Lanegan's songs. The song is Strange Religion, another one of his sparse, heavy songs. But worth a watch. 10 minutes long

I am a bit surprised at the extant of coverage of Lanegan's death. I know he wasn't "unknown", but I feel like Lanegan was disregarded during his life. All the articles following the death of Chris Cornell said that Ed Ved was the Last Man Standing in Seattle, or some bullshit. I thought  "Um, Mark Lanegan, anyone?" He put out five times as many records as Pearl Jam did in the 2010s. I get that Lanegan was not as popular as Cobain, Staley, Vedder, and Cornell, but goddamn if he didn't write music as good, or day I say better at times, than those guys. And his voice. Phenomenal.... Again, I'll carry Whiskey for the Holy Ghost and Scraps at Midnight to my desert island, or to my grave, and if I've got room in my pocket I'll sneak a couple more albums in too.

I did meet Lanegan twice after his shows where he was doing autograph sessions. He looked an intimidating fellow, tall and tattooed and stone-faced, and he seemed to have a reputation for indifference (at least to my uninformed self at the time), but he was really cool and generous in his time at the signing table, and he was not too quiet. I am grateful for having those experiences.

Pap

ceska said: I did meet Lanegan twice after his shows where he was doing autograph sessions. He looked an intimidating fellow, tall and tattooed and stone-faced, and he seemed to have  reputation for indifference (at least in my uninformed self at the time), but he was really cool and generous in his time at the signing table, and he was not too quiet. I am grateful for having those experiences.

I chickened out of the autograph session the last time I saw him live (2015). I was thinking too much about the right words, while all I should have told him was: "Thank you so much for another great show! Can I take a picture with you?". In retrospect, I, of course, regret the fact that I couldn't find the courage to approach him.

ceska

That's too bad, sorry you missed the opportunity. Yes, keeping it short and simple is always a good and perfectly appropriate way to go.

petted101

I met Mark three times after shows when he was doing signing sessions. To me, he seemed more comfortable when he had someone with him. The first his wife was there and the second he was with Duke Garward.

I guess he saw it as an opportunity to sell some more merch (he said as much about his book of lyrics). But it made these shows extra special and I have cherished items he touched. 

The Someone's Knocking tour schedule has been the background on my phone since it's announcement. I had two shows booked for that tour and i am gutted I will never get to see him live again.

1ThoughtKnown

Screaming Tree said:

static111 said:

Sadly  except for the great Screaming Trees song on Singles I am out of the loop on Mark's music.  Any good points to start?  Does he have some acoustic centered albums at all?

There is no wrong answer to where to start. To my mind, these are my five solo albums of his that I always return to:

Blues Funeral
Bubblegum
Whiskey for the Holy Ghost
Field Songs
Straight Songs of Sorrow

Mark said in many interviews that Blues Funeral was the album he was the proudest of. Great place to begin.

I am still having a difficult time processing his loss. Just terrible news. The man and his music meant a great deal to me.

The Winding Sheet doesn’t make your list?  Phantom Radio is fucking awesome as well. 

I was away when I heard this terrible news. I’ve got the Earthlings and Vault 1 wax to spin and then I’ll be settling into a lot of Trees and Lanegan records. 

Cheers Mark…

The night is born, my time has come
With the setting sun 
With the setting sun
Jesus touch my hand

Leezestarr313

Gutted.

facepollution

100 Days

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qn28Y6DR8g

goldrush

static111 said:

Sadly  except for the great Screaming Trees song on Singles I am out of the loop on Mark's music.  Any good points to start?  Does he have some acoustic centered albums at all?

One of my favourite Lanegan albums is the ''Live At Leeds" cd. It's just Mark with Dave Rosser on acoustic guitar

1 Field Song

2 One Way Street

3 No Easy Action

4 Miracle

5 The River Rise

6 Like Little Willie John

7 Don't Forget Me

8 Can't Catch The Train

9 Message To Mine

10 Mirrored

11 Resurrection Song

12 Julia Dream

13 One Hundred Days

14 On Jesus' Program

15 When Your Number Isn't Up

16 Hangin' Tree

There are 2 different versions of this, I think because of copyright laws. The Australian version doesn't have On Jesus' Program, and has Sunrise instead of Julia Dream, and Where The Twain Shall Meet instead of Hangin' Tree.

Someone has put all of the tracks from the cd on Youtube. This is just haunting...

https://youtu.be/258SvpuJnas

goldrush

I'd also agree on Blues Funeral being a great place to start. It's just a masterpiece from start to finish. I absolutely love Somebody's Knocking, I think it's a really solid record.

It's strange, but after Chris Cornell died it took me a long time to want to listen to his voice, the same with Elliott Smith. Since Mark died, he's all I've wanted to listen to. I find myself listening to his collaborations as much as his albums. I think I have over 170 tracks in a playlist, and that's not including full albums like Soulsavers or the records with Isobel. A few of the really good ones have been posted in this thread over the years.

goldrush

Barrett’s third story. I still think Sweet Oblivion is an absolute masterpiece, one of my favourite records of the last 30 years.

Story #3 (Remembering Mark Lanegan)

“Beneath The Underdog: The Making Of Sweet Oblivion”

By Barrett Martin

This next story is a bit of a back track, as it’s about the actual making of the album, Sweet Oblivion, which took place exactly 30 years ago this month. Part of this story was originally used as the liner notes for a limited edition repress of the vinyl in 2013. However, few people have ever read it and I always thought it was a great description of how to make a rock album, regardless of who the band might be. Sweet Oblivion was only the 3rd album I had made at that point in my life and I was only 24 at the time. But for me, it still stands as one of the greatest rock albums I was ever a part of. So for all you grandchildren out there, this is how you make a right proper, cracking rock album.   

 

It’s hard to forget the first time you ever saw the Screaming Trees - or the last time, for that matter. They always left a lasting impression that a person didn’t soon forget. I first saw them in 1989, when they played a show at my former college, Western Washington University, in Bellingham, WA. The Trees were already a well-known Northwest band by then, having formed in 1985 and releasing a handful of critically acclaimed indie rock albums on the legendary SST label.  My very first rock band, Thin Men, was picked to be the opener for the show, and we did our punk rock best against the rising tide of what was fast becoming known around the world as grunge. When the Trees finally took the stage that night, I remember being awed at the sight of the Conner brothers, as they book-ended the tall stoic figure of Mark Lanegan, all of which was propelled by the bombastic playing of their original drummer, Mark Pickerel, as the Trees threw down lightning bolts of sonic fury.

The following year I was playing drums for proto-grunge veterans Skin Yard, with producer Jack Endino on guitar. Jack had produced Nirvana’s Bleach album, as well as the Screaming Trees’ superb album Buzz Factory. By the autumn of 1991, Skin Yard was returning from our first (and only) European tour and we essentially called it quits on the flight home from London. About two weeks later, I got a call from Van Conner asking me to audition for the Trees.

It was December of 1991 and my audition was at a place called the Olympic Foundry in south Seattle. It was literally a place where they forged iron, and still do to this day, but the owner of the foundry also loved rock & roll, so he made some rooms available for local bands to rehearse. My audition was essentially a jam session with Van on bass and Gary Lee on guitar and the three of us had a wonderful, creative time working on new songs that were still in their infancy. We played early versions of “Shadow Of The Season,” “Dollar Bill,” and “Nearly Lost You,” as well as several other skeletal ideas that later evolved into songs. Our musical chemistry was immediate and the next day Van called to offer me the gig, which I immediately accepted.

We began to rehearse regularly at the foundry, getting the new songs arranged and tightened up, until one day when the brothers visited me at my warehouse loft on Jackson Street, in the international district. They decided on the spot that they wanted to move the band’s backline into my loft and start rehearsing there instead of the foundry, largely because I had a kitchen, a bathroom, and a refrigerator for cold drinks. I have said more than a few times over the years that a drummer can usually get a gig if he has a great rehearsal space, because the bands will flock to him. In my case, that loft on Jackson Street had been the perfect rehearsal space for Thin Men, Skin Yard, and now the Screaming Trees as we honed our musical ideas.

The rehearsals at the loft had a fiery, energetic quality to them, which I think was partly due to my influence as a new drummer, but also because we had exceptionally good songs that were really taking shape. We continued to rehearse diligently for another month, as Mark Lanegan added his evolving lyrics to the mix.  We would methodically go through the songs, arranging and perfecting them as we went, and we also talked about our influences and the musical direction we wanted to take when it came time to finally record the album. 

Sometime after the new year of 1992, we had a meeting with Bob Pfeifer, our A&R from Epic Records. He flew to Seattle to observe us as we recorded demos for all the new songs in a whirlwind one-day session at Seattle’s Avast Studios, which was produced by Jack Endino. The next day Bob sat us down and told us that because the Trees’ previous album Uncle Anesthesia hadn’t sold well (even though it is a great album), and because bands like Nirvana and Pearl Jam were now selling albums by the millions, we were really in a make or break situation. In other words, if we didn’t make one hell of a great album that got some serious attention – and sold well, we would likely be dropped from the label and that would be the end of the band.

This was to be the first major label album I had ever played on, but it was also looking like it could be my last. Thus, I joined the Screaming Trees with the odds of an underdog, a metaphor that I have always kept close to my heart and which very aptly applied to the Trees. And that’s because when the underdog has the odds stacked against him, he has to work twice as hard to overcome them. Everyone is betting against him, yet they are also secretly hoping he will win, and that’s the true power of the underdog.

About a month later we got the official green light from Epic Records that our demos and recording budget had been approved, so we packed up our gear and had everything shipped to New York in giant wooden crates. I put my personal belongings in a small storage unit, I gave up my lease on the Jackson Street loft, and I said goodbye to the space where so many great songs and albums had been written, and so many friendships forged. It was now February of 1992, and I was only 24 years old. It was the end of the early grunge era, however it was also the beginning of an entirely new era in Seattle rock history.

We flew to New York and the next day we met up with our producer Don Fleming and our engineer John Agnello. We converged at the studio Don had picked out for us called “Baby Monsters,” located on 14th street in the Chelsea district of Manhattan. The studio was small and rustic, as warehouse studios tend to be, but it also had many vintage guitars and amps, and enough space to get a good, cracking drum sound.  We set up our gear on the first day, and by the second day we were tracking the first basic tracks. The sessions were “hot” as they say, very focused and inspired with an intense energy that surrounded us. We’d work for many hours throughout the day and late into the night, and around midnight we’d start breaking off into groups to take a car back to our hotel, the Gramercy Park Hotel. 

Now, back in 1992, the Gramercy Park Hotel was not the glamorous hotel it is today. It had been glamorous in the 1920s, but by the 1990s, it was a rather grimy and rundown affair. Van Conner and I roomed together and we joked that we might catch Legionnaires disease as we languished in our dank, sweltering room. Thus, we rarely spent any time there except to sleep, choosing instead to walk the late night streets of Manhattan every chance we got. 

Conveniently, the Gramercy’s best feature was its downstairs bar, which was a watering hole for every rock musician who was passing through New York on tour. Everyone made a stop at the Gramercy Hotel Bar, it was a destination point, and every night Van and I would return from the studio to have a nightcap before retiring to our room of gloom. Almost every night we’d run into someone from some other band that we had known from our previous time on the road, and this would lead to a long night of highly animated, exaggerated storytelling and outright lying. 

I remember a lot of laughing in that bar, the clinking of glasses, and a room so thick with cigarette smoke that it seemed more like a cowboy saloon from the Wild West than a hipster bar in Manhattan. And when I look back at the month we spent recording in New York, I mostly remember the inside of Baby Monsters Studio, the Gramercy Hotel bar, and the pizza joint across the street, on whose $1.00 slices we survived. 

Perhaps the most important thing in the making of the album was the philosophy we took as we approached each song. We believed that it was our highest goal to serve the song first, whatever that meant, and whatever the song needed. Usually that meant simplifying our parts and playing with more feel and emotion, rather than a technically perfect performance. I remember that Don Fleming didn’t want me to use a click track for any of the songs, and instead the band would follow my natural tempos as they ebbed and flowed. This made the music come alive, and you can hear that feeling in the songs - breathing, waiting, and then accelerating with explosive power like a sprinter at the starting gun. 

We recorded the rhythm tracks live as a band, with Mark singing a scratch vocal, which he would later re-sing after we had picked the final takes. We usually got the basic track within the first 3-4 takes because we were so well rehearsed. Sometimes it was even the 2nd take that had the magic that we wanted. We’d often keep a take even if there was a slight mistake in it, and that’s because we were recording onto 2” magnetic tape. With tape, you have to make a decision after each performance and decide if that was “the one”, and if not, you took the chance that you’d lose the take when you recorded over it. A great basic track, even with a slight mistake or flaw, always has more life and character than a technically perfect performance with no soul. And that’s because a great song represents life itself, full of mistakes and flaws and soul. And as every Screaming Trees fan knows, the Trees were all about the soul. That became our benchmark – does the song have soul or not? 

After the basic tracks were finalized, Lee would do a few guitar overdubs, but not too many, and usually not more than a second rhythm guitar with a lead or solo. I would record some simple hand percussion like tambourine or shaker, and then Mark would sing his final vocal performance after drinking a small amount of whiskey that Don Fleming would measure out in small doses. Don’s theory was that whiskey warmed the vocal chords and put a little hair in the voice. Mark didn’t like whiskey, and he only drank gin, but his vocal performances on Sweet Oblivion are arguably some of the best in his long and varied career. That, combined with the band’s ferocious musical delivery, is what gave the album its classic, timeless quality.  

 

As we were finishing the last few overdubs on the album, the final mixes started coming back from Andy Wallace’s studio across town. Andy had mixed Nirvana’s Nevermind, Jeff Buckley’s Grace, and a slew of other brilliant albums that had been hugely influential in the previous year. Andy definitely had the golden ear, and when we heard his first mix for the song “No One Knows” we knew right away that we had a very special album on our hands. Andy mixed about one song per day over the next two weeks, including all the B-Sides, and they were immediately sent over to Epic’s office for final approval. Word came back that the label was very excited, the band was relieved, and it seemed like the hangman of doubt would not be getting his silver coin after all.

A few weeks later, Van and I returned to New York to master the album with Howie Weinberg, who liked to master rock albums at full volume. Needless to say, that methodology suited our music very well, and I’ll never forget how good our album sounded that day in Howie Weinberg’s mastering suite. 

We gave our album the title of Sweet Oblivion because of a line in the opening track “Shadow Of The Season” in which Mark sings, “Oh sweet oblivion feels alright!” I think it was also because we had been living that lifestyle for the last few months jetting back and forth between Seattle and New York and it was deeply embedded in the feeling of the album.  

In the spring of 1992, Epic Records decided on a September release date, which gave them the opportunity to release our first single, “Nearly Lost You” for the Singles soundtrack. This turned out to be our first and biggest hit, cracking the top 10 in the rock charts, and even President Bill Clinton used the bridge of “Nearly Lost You” as the soundtrack for his inaugural entrance onto the global stage. It was a surreal time to say the least, and we hit the road for two straight years of touring around the world, a story that would require many more words than this story can accommodate.

When I listen to Sweet Oblivion today, I hear the rise and fall of the tempos, the ferociousness of the musical delivery, and the emotional tension and release of the songs. Mark’s vocals roar and howl with the wisdom of a man much older than the 27 years he was at that time. He tells stories that are both majestic and spiritual, as well as haunting and ephemeral. Gary Lee’s guitar work is highly original and inspired, even brilliant in places. And the rhythm section work of Van’s bass and my drumming makes the band swing like a battleship in a hurricane.

Now in the 21st century, most albums are recorded to click tracks or they are programmed with drum machines, so the rhythmic feel is linear, extremely sterile, and utterly lacks swing. I tend to think that a great album, like a human being, should be a fluid, living, breathing entity. The body inhales and expands, and then it exhales and contracts. So too should the feel of a song move like the expansion of the human body. It is life, after all. This is also why when we hear a great rock band we all feel it in a much different way. It reminds us of our early origins, when live, organic music kept us warm and safe around the embers of the collective fire. 

That was the power of the Screaming Trees when we made Sweet Oblivion in the deep New York winter of 1992. We brought the fire and we captured it on magnetic tape, in real time, with swing and soul. It’s an album about love, hope, the possibility of the future, with a fearless abandon that says, I will go for it all, right here and right now, because I have nothing to lose and everything to gain. We were the total underdogs, but we were also the champions of the people, and that is why we are still in their hearts.

static111

goldrush said:

static111 said:

Sadly  except for the great Screaming Trees song on Singles I am out of the loop on Mark's music.  Any good points to start?  Does he have some acoustic centered albums at all?

One of my favourite Lanegan albums is the ''Live At Leeds" cd. It's just Mark with Dave Rosser on acoustic guitar

1 Field Song

2 One Way Street

3 No Easy Action

4 Miracle

5 The River Rise

6 Like Little Willie John

7 Don't Forget Me

8 Can't Catch The Train

9 Message To Mine

10 Mirrored

11 Resurrection Song

12 Julia Dream

13 One Hundred Days

14 On Jesus' Program

15 When Your Number Isn't Up

16 Hangin' Tree

There are 2 different versions of this, I think because of copyright laws. The Australian version doesn't have On Jesus' Program, and has Sunrise instead of Julia Dream, and Where The Twain Shall Meet instead of Hangin' Tree.

Someone has put all of the tracks from the cd on Youtube. This is just haunting...

https://youtu.be/258SvpuJnas

is this an official release?  Sounds like just the ticket for me.

mickeyrat

static111 said:

goldrush said:

static111 said:

Sadly  except for the great Screaming Trees song on Singles I am out of the loop on Mark's music.  Any good points to start?  Does he have some acoustic centered albums at all?

One of my favourite Lanegan albums is the ''Live At Leeds" cd. It's just Mark with Dave Rosser on acoustic guitar

1 Field Song

2 One Way Street

3 No Easy Action

4 Miracle

5 The River Rise

6 Like Little Willie John

7 Don't Forget Me

8 Can't Catch The Train

9 Message To Mine

10 Mirrored

11 Resurrection Song

12 Julia Dream

13 One Hundred Days

14 On Jesus' Program

15 When Your Number Isn't Up

16 Hangin' Tree

There are 2 different versions of this, I think because of copyright laws. The Australian version doesn't have On Jesus' Program, and has Sunrise instead of Julia Dream, and Where The Twain Shall Meet instead of Hangin' Tree.

Someone has put all of the tracks from the cd on Youtube. This is just haunting...

https://youtu.be/258SvpuJnas

is this an official release?  Sounds like just the ticket for me.

Mark Lanegan - Live At Leeds, Brudenell Social Club, April 24, 2010

Url: https://www.discogs.com/master/264990-Mark-Lanegan-Live-At-Leeds-Brudenell-Social-Club-April-24-2010

Shared from the Discogs App

static111

mickeyrat said:

static111 said:

goldrush said:

static111 said:

Sadly  except for the great Screaming Trees song on Singles I am out of the loop on Mark's music.  Any good points to start?  Does he have some acoustic centered albums at all?

One of my favourite Lanegan albums is the ''Live At Leeds" cd. It's just Mark with Dave Rosser on acoustic guitar

1 Field Song

2 One Way Street

3 No Easy Action

4 Miracle

5 The River Rise

6 Like Little Willie John

7 Don't Forget Me

8 Can't Catch The Train

9 Message To Mine

10 Mirrored

11 Resurrection Song

12 Julia Dream

13 One Hundred Days

14 On Jesus' Program

15 When Your Number Isn't Up

16 Hangin' Tree

There are 2 different versions of this, I think because of copyright laws. The Australian version doesn't have On Jesus' Program, and has Sunrise instead of Julia Dream, and Where The Twain Shall Meet instead of Hangin' Tree.

Someone has put all of the tracks from the cd on Youtube. This is just haunting...

https://youtu.be/258SvpuJnas

is this an official release?  Sounds like just the ticket for me.

Mark Lanegan - Live At Leeds, Brudenell Social Club, April 24, 2010

Url: https://www.discogs.com/master/264990-Mark-Lanegan-Live-At-Leeds-Brudenell-Social-Club-April-24-2010

Shared from the Discogs App

Thanks

mickeyrat

static111 said:

mickeyrat said:

static111 said:

goldrush said:

static111 said:

Sadly  except for the great Screaming Trees song on Singles I am out of the loop on Mark's music.  Any good points to start?  Does he have some acoustic centered albums at all?

One of my favourite Lanegan albums is the ''Live At Leeds" cd. It's just Mark with Dave Rosser on acoustic guitar

1 Field Song

2 One Way Street

3 No Easy Action

4 Miracle

5 The River Rise

6 Like Little Willie John

7 Don't Forget Me

8 Can't Catch The Train

9 Message To Mine

10 Mirrored

11 Resurrection Song

12 Julia Dream

13 One Hundred Days

14 On Jesus' Program

15 When Your Number Isn't Up

16 Hangin' Tree

There are 2 different versions of this, I think because of copyright laws. The Australian version doesn't have On Jesus' Program, and has Sunrise instead of Julia Dream, and Where The Twain Shall Meet instead of Hangin' Tree.

Someone has put all of the tracks from the cd on Youtube. This is just haunting...

https://youtu.be/258SvpuJnas

is this an official release?  Sounds like just the ticket for me.

Mark Lanegan - Live At Leeds, Brudenell Social Club, April 24, 2010

Url: https://www.discogs.com/master/264990-Mark-Lanegan-Live-At-Leeds-Brudenell-Social-Club-April-24-2010

Shared from the Discogs App

Thanks

self produced and distributed, apparent at shows....