LANEGAN & DULLI reparten clase y amor

Txomin Sorrigueta escribió:Joder, que mala hostia. Hoy salía la programación del Later... with Jools Holland para dentro de 3 semanas una vez que terminaban las temporadas recientes (37 a 39 que ha sido la del otroño 2011) y estaba ansioso por saber como iba a seguir el tema, a ver si hay suerte y se pueden completar temporadas antiguas desde el 92 hasta el 2005 que es cuando empezaron a emitir digitalmente y yo a coleccionarlas.

Pues resulta que la bolita ha caido en la temporada 8, otoño del 96 que es la única vez que tocaron allí los Screaming Trees, pero por mala hostia no ha caido en el episodio 1 de esa temporada, lo que sería señal de que la iban a emitir entera, sino en el episodio 5, el posterior al de Lanegan y Cía. Así que me quedo con la mala hostia y el suspense de ver si van a saltar aleatoriamente a otro episodio de cualquier otra temporada o si habrá suerte y caiga esta temporada 8 entera. Sería cojonudo poder tener una grabación de calidad de su único paso por el Later...

Según el histórico de programas que manejo las canciones que tocaron fueron Halo of Ashes y All I Know.

Si hay suerte y cae el programa ya lo comentaré. Y en su día avisaré cuando publique el DVD en el blog (si hay suerte, insisto), pero esto último no sería antes de abril porque cierro la barraca por dos meses.

Eight years ago, Mark Lanegan (Ellensburg, Washington, 1964) made a masterful record which we still love very much: it was called "bubblegum", and if youi as us, it's the very best of his richly filled and very varied career.

Since then, Lanegan, almost out of nowhere (his first records were only bought by a handful of die-hard aficionado's), grew to one of the most unique, most appreciated and most wanted voices in rock: the last ten years, he did guest appearances with, amongst others, Queens of the Stone Age, the Twilight Singers, and Soulsavers, made the excellent Gutter Twins-record with Greg Dulli, and with Scottish singer Isobel Campbell, he actually finished in the "fucking ultratop".

Some Quotes

HUMO The last year you played with just about everybody. Don't you miss being in a group?

Lanegan: "All music I make, I make with a group"

HUMO You know what I mean, a read, own group. Something like, eh, Screaming Trees or something?

Lanegan: "I absolutely don't miss Screaming Trees.
When I was twenty years old, I started a group with a bunch of guys and we stayed a group for like fifteen, sixteen years. But through the years, five, six others were involved. Compare it to QOTSA: they are seen as a group, but I can't even begin to tell you how many people have played with them. The only fixed member is Josh (Homme), the rest of the line-up is almost constantly changing.

And if you mean if I miss being stuck with the same bunch of guys day and night for fifteen years, not for a second! I wouldn't event want to do that again with my best friends. A bit a change makes life interesting, right? (laughs).

HUMO: A while ago I read a review of a concert: "Fantastic show, even if he didn't seem to enjoy it himself" Indeed, you seldom seem to be having a good time on stage.

Lanegan: "you'll never see me starting a happy dance on stage, or hear me call "clap your hands!". I don't tell stories in between songs, nor jokes. I'm standing on a stage to sing. Some people think that's entertaining enough, others don't - too bad for them.

HUMO: Do you see yourself as an entertainer?

Lanegan: Well, yes. I perform for an audience: that's entertainment! I just don't know if many people see me as an entertainer: Liza Minnelli, that's the ultimate entertainer for many. And what I do... from a very special angle and with very specific lighting, you could call it entertainment, I guess (laugs).

I know I seem grumpy on stage. It may seem I don't like it, that's not true. I - honestly - really like to sing, I just think it's a very intense thing, for which I need to be extremely focused. To sing, I've got to be completely "in the moment". Even if I don't move at all during a concert, I can assure you that afterwards I'm completely empty, and soaked.

And about talking on stage... talking is not easy for me, I don't know why either. But I can assure you I really love singing, like I love being here talking to you - even if it may not seem that way (smiles). But some way or another, talking requires a lot of energy from me.

HUMO I've never seen you play an instrument. Can I ask you how you compose your songs?

Lanegan: usually on the guitar. I play the guitar like someone who started it in high school and gave up after a week. I've always been stuck at that level: I can play a few chors, nothing more.

I played the keyboards during a few Queens shows, but I never played guitar on stage, even if some peoply try to convince me to. You can hear my guitar a few times on records - once on Blues Funeral - but let's say my playing can at best be described as "rudimentary" (laughs).

HUMO: Strange that someone who can barely play the guitar can write all these celebrated songs.

Lanegan: Writing songs is one thing: when we start recording, I tend to call in people who actually know how to play. Records with crap musicians can be charming, but that doen's mean I want to make them.

HUMO: Maybe a great cliche, but I've never heard you answer it: What's your favorite record ever?

Lanegan: "Fire of love", the first Gun Club album. I had heard punk, I'd heard acid rock, I'd heard Blues, but never anything like THAT - and I still haven't. really. That record was scary. I thought: if someone can make a record that strange, and still make it sound familiar, then everything can be done in music. Maybe I can do that?

Jeffrey Lee Pierce wrote great songs, he had a great voice and a completely unique vision. For me - someone from a little village in America - what he did was very specific and very American, but the strange thing is that he was much more popular in Europe: that proved to me that throught music you can make a connection to anyone. In America no-one knows him, even now.

Read more: http://onewhiskey.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=boarda&action=display&thread=3981&page=10#ixzz1kzb2vmoU

William Cutting escribió:MARK LANEGAN PLANS ON WORKING WITH ALAIN JOHANNES AGAIN ON NEXT SOLO ALBUM




Mark Lanegan has stated in a new interview with Exclaim.ca that he would like to work with Alain Johannes (Queens of the Stone Age/Eleven/Them Crooked Vultures/Chris Cornell Solo Band) again on his next solo album. Lanegan said:

“Working with Al made dealing with all that a lot easier because he’s so musically intuitive,” Lanegan says. “I’ve made records with a lot of people over the last few years, but Al really supports my vision, and god willing we’ll make the next record the same way.”

Ripple. escribió:

Eight years ago, Mark Lanegan (Ellensburg, Washington, 1964) made a masterful record which we still love very much: it was called "bubblegum", and if youi as us, it's the very best of his richly filled and very varied career.

Since then, Lanegan, almost out of nowhere (his first records were only bought by a handful of die-hard aficionado's), grew to one of the most unique, most appreciated and most wanted voices in rock: the last ten years, he did guest appearances with, amongst others, Queens of the Stone Age, the Twilight Singers, and Soulsavers, made the excellent Gutter Twins-record with Greg Dulli, and with Scottish singer Isobel Campbell, he actually finished in the "fucking ultratop".

Some Quotes

HUMO The last year you played with just about everybody. Don't you miss being in a group?

Lanegan: "All music I make, I make with a group"

HUMO You know what I mean, a read, own group. Something like, eh, Screaming Trees or something?

Lanegan: "I absolutely don't miss Screaming Trees.
When I was twenty years old, I started a group with a bunch of guys and we stayed a group for like fifteen, sixteen years. But through the years, five, six others were involved. Compare it to QOTSA: they are seen as a group, but I can't even begin to tell you how many people have played with them. The only fixed member is Josh (Homme), the rest of the line-up is almost constantly changing.

And if you mean if I miss being stuck with the same bunch of guys day and night for fifteen years, not for a second! I wouldn't event want to do that again with my best friends. A bit a change makes life interesting, right? (laughs).

HUMO: A while ago I read a review of a concert: "Fantastic show, even if he didn't seem to enjoy it himself" Indeed, you seldom seem to be having a good time on stage.

Lanegan: "you'll never see me starting a happy dance on stage, or hear me call "clap your hands!". I don't tell stories in between songs, nor jokes. I'm standing on a stage to sing. Some people think that's entertaining enough, others don't - too bad for them.

HUMO: Do you see yourself as an entertainer?

Lanegan: Well, yes. I perform for an audience: that's entertainment! I just don't know if many people see me as an entertainer: Liza Minnelli, that's the ultimate entertainer for many. And what I do... from a very special angle and with very specific lighting, you could call it entertainment, I guess (laugs).

I know I seem grumpy on stage. It may seem I don't like it, that's not true. I - honestly - really like to sing, I just think it's a very intense thing, for which I need to be extremely focused. To sing, I've got to be completely "in the moment". Even if I don't move at all during a concert, I can assure you that afterwards I'm completely empty, and soaked.

And about talking on stage... talking is not easy for me, I don't know why either. But I can assure you I really love singing, like I love being here talking to you - even if it may not seem that way (smiles). But some way or another, talking requires a lot of energy from me.

HUMO I've never seen you play an instrument. Can I ask you how you compose your songs?

Lanegan: usually on the guitar. I play the guitar like someone who started it in high school and gave up after a week. I've always been stuck at that level: I can play a few chors, nothing more.

I played the keyboards during a few Queens shows, but I never played guitar on stage, even if some peoply try to convince me to. You can hear my guitar a few times on records - once on Blues Funeral - but let's say my playing can at best be described as "rudimentary" (laughs).

HUMO: Strange that someone who can barely play the guitar can write all these celebrated songs.

Lanegan: Writing songs is one thing: when we start recording, I tend to call in people who actually know how to play. Records with crap musicians can be charming, but that doen's mean I want to make them.

HUMO: Maybe a great cliche, but I've never heard you answer it: What's your favorite record ever?

Lanegan: "Fire of love", the first Gun Club album. I had heard punk, I'd heard acid rock, I'd heard Blues, but never anything like THAT - and I still haven't. really. That record was scary. I thought: if someone can make a record that strange, and still make it sound familiar, then everything can be done in music. Maybe I can do that?

Jeffrey Lee Pierce wrote great songs, he had a great voice and a completely unique vision. For me - someone from a little village in America - what he did was very specific and very American, but the strange thing is that he was much more popular in Europe: that proved to me that throught music you can make a connection to anyone. In America no-one knows him, even now.

Read more: http://onewhiskey.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=boarda&action=display&thread=3981&page=10#ixzz1kzb2vmoU

Gora Rock escribió:

Ripple. escribió:

Eight years ago, Mark Lanegan (Ellensburg, Washington, 1964) made a masterful record which we still love very much: it was called "bubblegum", and if youi as us, it's the very best of his richly filled and very varied career.

Since then, Lanegan, almost out of nowhere (his first records were only bought by a handful of die-hard aficionado's), grew to one of the most unique, most appreciated and most wanted voices in rock: the last ten years, he did guest appearances with, amongst others, Queens of the Stone Age, the Twilight Singers, and Soulsavers, made the excellent Gutter Twins-record with Greg Dulli, and with Scottish singer Isobel Campbell, he actually finished in the "fucking ultratop".

Some Quotes

HUMO The last year you played with just about everybody. Don't you miss being in a group?

Lanegan: "All music I make, I make with a group"

HUMO You know what I mean, a read, own group. Something like, eh, Screaming Trees or something?

Lanegan: "I absolutely don't miss Screaming Trees.
When I was twenty years old, I started a group with a bunch of guys and we stayed a group for like fifteen, sixteen years. But through the years, five, six others were involved. Compare it to QOTSA: they are seen as a group, but I can't even begin to tell you how many people have played with them. The only fixed member is Josh (Homme), the rest of the line-up is almost constantly changing.

And if you mean if I miss being stuck with the same bunch of guys day and night for fifteen years, not for a second! I wouldn't event want to do that again with my best friends. A bit a change makes life interesting, right? (laughs).

HUMO: A while ago I read a review of a concert: "Fantastic show, even if he didn't seem to enjoy it himself" Indeed, you seldom seem to be having a good time on stage.

Lanegan: "you'll never see me starting a happy dance on stage, or hear me call "clap your hands!". I don't tell stories in between songs, nor jokes. I'm standing on a stage to sing. Some people think that's entertaining enough, others don't - too bad for them.

HUMO: Do you see yourself as an entertainer?

Lanegan: Well, yes. I perform for an audience: that's entertainment! I just don't know if many people see me as an entertainer: Liza Minnelli, that's the ultimate entertainer for many. And what I do... from a very special angle and with very specific lighting, you could call it entertainment, I guess (laugs).

I know I seem grumpy on stage. It may seem I don't like it, that's not true. I - honestly - really like to sing, I just think it's a very intense thing, for which I need to be extremely focused. To sing, I've got to be completely "in the moment". Even if I don't move at all during a concert, I can assure you that afterwards I'm completely empty, and soaked.

And about talking on stage... talking is not easy for me, I don't know why either. But I can assure you I really love singing, like I love being here talking to you - even if it may not seem that way (smiles). But some way or another, talking requires a lot of energy from me.

HUMO I've never seen you play an instrument. Can I ask you how you compose your songs?

Lanegan: usually on the guitar. I play the guitar like someone who started it in high school and gave up after a week. I've always been stuck at that level: I can play a few chors, nothing more.

I played the keyboards during a few Queens shows, but I never played guitar on stage, even if some peoply try to convince me to. You can hear my guitar a few times on records - once on Blues Funeral - but let's say my playing can at best be described as "rudimentary" (laughs).

HUMO: Strange that someone who can barely play the guitar can write all these celebrated songs.

Lanegan: Writing songs is one thing: when we start recording, I tend to call in people who actually know how to play. Records with crap musicians can be charming, but that doen's mean I want to make them.

HUMO: Maybe a great cliche, but I've never heard you answer it: What's your favorite record ever?

Lanegan: "Fire of love", the first Gun Club album. I had heard punk, I'd heard acid rock, I'd heard Blues, but never anything like THAT - and I still haven't. really. That record was scary. I thought: if someone can make a record that strange, and still make it sound familiar, then everything can be done in music. Maybe I can do that?

Jeffrey Lee Pierce wrote great songs, he had a great voice and a completely unique vision. For me - someone from a little village in America - what he did was very specific and very American, but the strange thing is that he was much more popular in Europe: that proved to me that throught music you can make a connection to anyone. In America no-one knows him, even now.

Read more: http://onewhiskey.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=boarda&action=display&thread=3981&page=10#ixzz1kzb2vmoU

Disfrutas con esto, eh Ripple!

Mark Lanegan: "My natural inclination is to make as loud a noise as possible"
Returning this month with his first 'solo' album since 2004, Mark Lanegan assembles his band for a Blues Funeral and lays the past to rest
Feature by Dave Kerr.
Published 31 January 2012

Lounging in the restaurant of a Westminster hotel on a rare sunny December morning, Mark Lanegan – flannel shirted, starter cap flipped backwards, tattooed fingers locked under his chin – peers over his glasses to summarise the eight year period since he last released a solo album.

“I’ve been blessed with a lot of opportunities involving people who sounded interesting, people whose music I already liked and people whose company I enjoyed,” he starts. “I’ve taken advantage of that and always done the next indicated thing. Most of the stuff I’ve been asked to do hasn’t been crazily outside my ballpark. Usually if it is outside my ballpark it’s more attractive to me anyway.”

One can only imagine that the intervening years – spent on projects with fellow dark lord of 90s alt rock Greg Dulli, electronic producers Soulsavers and Glaswegian chanteuse Isobel Campbell – had proven creatively fortuitous, arming Lanegan with an arsenal of ideas for his seventh solo album. “Generally when I start a record I go back into my bag of cassette tapes where I’ve put down ideas and usually find one or two things to start a record with there,” he says. “I went back through those tapes this time around and they were all demagnetized – there was nothin’ on any of them.”

Save for a solitary track idea that didn’t pan out for an unnamed 'electronic' contractor’s record – only to later become the basis for lead single The Gravedigger’s Song – Lanegan took to the studio with a clean palette. Fans who have become accustomed to the Washingtonian’s brand of ‘dead slow rock and roll’ might be surprised to find our man down the disco, arms aloft, for Blues Funeral. Did he set out to make a more up-tempo record?

“I didn’t really know what kind of record I was going to make,” he shrugs. “I just started doing it. Didn’t have any songs when I started, just started writing and recording. The music dictated the setting and the instrumentation. For a long time I’ve been into electronic music, using drum machines and synthesizers on Bubblegum quite a bit, so it didn’t seem odd to me.”

Lanegan has come a long way since making his solo debut on the fledgling Sub Pop label with The Winding Sheet in 1990. Overseen by in-house producer Jack Endino and featuring performances by then upcoming friends Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic, the sparse, largely acoustic offering was later referenced by Dave Grohl as a key influence on Nirvana’s approach to Unplugged in New York. But it was his partnership with guitarist Mike Johnson that would prove the most fruitful on record; the two struck upon a kind of modern blues – as indebted to the folk standards of Leadbelly as the punk sensibilities of The Gun Club. “You know what,” he grins. “I was just trying to find a way to get a hold of Mike a few days ago. I’d seen something funny I knew he’d enjoy too. I love Mike, and I love those records we made together, mainly for the experience of working with him. We both really enjoyed the same kind of obscure music, and had a shared vision.”

The two worked together until the completion of the tour behind Lanegan’s majestic 2001 album Field Songs, by which time he was already entrenched in Queens of the Stone Age. Having recorded Bubblegum and now Blues Funeral with a number of steady collaborators he’s regularly gravitated towards over the years – most of whom share Queens or The Twilight Singers as a common denominator – I ask whether it’s a comfortable arrangement. “In [Chris] Goss’s case, I loved his music since before I ever met him – loved the first Masters of Reality record. He’s a friend of mine. Is it comfortable? Not always, with him it’s sometimes challenging,” Lanegan concedes. “At some point I think we’re going to do a record together – just he and I, that’s another plan on the backburner. Mainly I’m just a huge fan of what he does, and when I’m doing something I can oftentimes hear his voice or his playing. On this one I asked him to do something on a particular song and when he heard it he said ‘I think that’s fine without me,” he chuckles. “I was like, y’know, ‘c’mon man!’ He did it, and that makes the song for me. It’s a resource.”

As Lanegan traces his prosperous friendship with Goss back to the recording of Screaming Trees’ gospel-tinged 1996 swansong Dust, we stray onto the topic of the recently released Last Words – a chronicle of the Trees’ final demo sessions, recorded while the band knew it was falling apart. 12 years after their final gig, is he glad the recordings finally surfaced?

“Those guys have been coming to me for a while,” he says hesitantly. “I liked those songs when we did ‘em. When I listened to the mixes – that was my involvement, saying this is OK, which they all were – there wasn’t anything I wasn’t cool with, they did a fine job of mixing it. That’s all I really cared about. But when I heard those songs back I was surprised at the emotion that it brought up. It was weird – I realised that they were still really good songs; so yeah, in that way I was glad that they came out.

“But I would have felt that the Trees was bookended if we had ended on any of our records,” he laughs. “I mean, that’s not to say I didn’t think there was a wealth of songs – there could have been three more records after that, because one thing Gary Lee Conner did was write a lot of really great songs in my opinion, but, five years is a long time for a band, ten years is a long time for a band, fifteen years is a really long time for a band – and that’s how long we were together. That’s a good eight years longer than my longest love relationship.”

With a number of Screaming Trees’ formerly defunct peers having overcome ego (Soundgarden) and even death (Alice in Chains) to once again function as formidable touring prospects in recent years (indeed, the news that Dulli is set to reconvene the Afghan Whigs for a series of gigs this summer breaks just a few days after we meet), does Lanegan see any allure in following suit?

“Well, after the very last show that the Trees did – which I’ll say we only did because we were offered a significant amount of money to do it – I said to whoever was managing us at the time ‘Don’t ever tell me again if someone wants me to do this,’” he shakes his head even now. “It didn’t make me feel good. It wasn’t easy collaborating with the Trees; for some reason we were like water and fire. Music should have a certain amount of joy to it, and it had stopped doing that for me. I won’t say how long before, but it had stopped. Regardless of me saying that, it still comes up. As a matter of fact there was an offer last summer, but I’m not interested in doing it. I don’t know if those guys are…”

Are the lines of communication open? “Sure, I just exchanged texts on Thanksgiving with Van and Barrett Martin, and there was a certain amount of contact as this demos record came about. When I’m in Seattle sometimes I see Barrett, Van lives quite a bit further north from there. Lee has lived in Texas for years and he and I were never close anyway, so… it’s like family,” he laughs.

Not that this has stopped Lanegan from embracing his old band’s catalogue – an acoustic UK tour with guitarist Dave Rosser in the summer of 2010 saw the dust blown from several songs long overdue an airing. “The fact I found some Trees songs that I could actually play in that setting and had never played with Dave – that was cool. I enjoyed that. Even some of my own songs that I’d never played before somehow lent themselves to that setting. Of course, more than that, it was the cover songs that I enjoyed the most, that’s what I get psyched the most about.

“Playing those Trees songs was actually like doing covers. It gave me an opportunity to do some stuff that I hadn’t done, but also it was challenging. Always with me, my natural inclination is to make as loud a noise as possible; I don’t know it that’s because I’ve always felt uncomfortable on stage in a setting like that. I’m probably not naturally inclined to be the guy standing in front of people doing stuff, but that forced me to, in a bare-naked way, and really that’s one of the things that keeps me interested in music, and doing something a little bit outside of my comfort zone.”

“The older I get, the more I enjoy it. I really enjoy travelling. Now I enjoy lots of things I didn’t appreciate when I was younger – I enjoy meeting people,” he chuckles, appreciating the irony of pointing at a journalist while he says it. Renowned as a personality who has treated the press with distrust in previous years, I ask if it’s getting easier. “It’s all easier now,” he confesses, sprawled on a sofa. “When I was younger there was nothing easy about it for me, somehow. Even playing and making new songs wasn’t easy for me. I was one of those people who tended to make life difficult for myself. I’ve learned through time, trial and a lot of error to embrace life,” he laughs heartily. “For lack of a better term.”

Lanegan leaves us with the news that he’ll be touring Blues Funeral extensively for most of the year, and that he’s just finished an album with English folk guitarist Duke Garwood, though “there’s no timetable for that release, or even a home for it yet.”

Is it possible that Mark Lanegan – having recorded with Cobain, passed up a tour fronting MC5 and co-written a song with his idol Jeffrey Lee Pierce – still has a dream collaborator out there that he’s waiting on a phone call from? “I’m sure there is; there’s a tonne of ‘em.” It’s anyone's guess where he'll turn up next; even he's in the dark. I remind him that we're overdue some new material from his virtuosic old partner Mike Johnson. “I never rule anything out,” he lingers over the prospect. "That would be fantastic."

Mark Lanegan Band: 'Blues funeral

Género: Rock
Título: Blues funeral
Sello: 4AD / Popstock
Año: 2012
Puntuación: * * * *

Si determinadas novelas llegaran a tener un sonido propio, una voz, seguramente querrían tener la voz de Mark Lanegan. Una voz que lo dice todo más allá de las palabras. Una voz que se ha curtido leyendo los capítulos menos gratos de una vida que no es otra que la suya. Lanegan lleva años cantando, pero durante los ocho últimos, lo ha hecho como colaborador en proyectos ajenos (Queens Of The Stone Age, Soulsavers) o en grupos compartidos (Gutter Twins, su dúo con Isobel Campbell). Blues funeral parte del punto en que dejó su discografía en solitario en 2004, para llevar su música más allá. La huella de sus colaboraciones con un grupo como Soulsavers es visible, y aunque Lanegan ya había usado los loops y una electrónica bruta en su último disco, aquí la usa en todo su poderío en Ode to sad disco, que es lo más cercano que este hombre estará de una pista de baile por su cuenta.

Blues funeral se abre camino a través de los estilos dejando que Lanegan se funda en ellos y los recree a su manera. Bleeding muddy water es un blues crepuscular que hipnotiza, lo mismo que hipnotiza la guitarra de Gray goes black, una canción que desprende un elegante fatalismo. El rock desatado de Riot in my house –con la inconfundible guitarra de Josh Homme- y la stoniana Quiver Syndrome, dibujan la cara más fiera de Lanegan, aunque nada puede competir con Harborview hospital, donde la desolación de un adicto intentado desintoxicarse puede sentirse en cada nota. En Blues funeral, Mark Lanegan levanta con sus propias cenizas un disco bello y estremecedor, digno de ser cantado por una voz como la suya.

Txomin Sorrigueta escribió:http://cultura.elpais.com/cultura/2012/02/03/tentaciones/1328268751_562023.html

Crítica de Rafa Cervera en EL PAIS:

Mark Lanegan Band: 'Blues funeral

Género: Rock
Título: Blues funeral
Sello: 4AD / Popstock
Año: 2012
Puntuación: * * * *

Si determinadas novelas llegaran a tener un sonido propio, una voz, seguramente querrían tener la voz de Mark Lanegan. Una voz que lo dice todo más allá de las palabras. Una voz que se ha curtido leyendo los capítulos menos gratos de una vida que no es otra que la suya. Lanegan lleva años cantando, pero durante los ocho últimos, lo ha hecho como colaborador en proyectos ajenos (Queens Of The Stone Age, Soulsavers) o en grupos compartidos (Gutter Twins, su dúo con Isobel Campbell). Blues funeral parte del punto en que dejó su discografía en solitario en 2004, para llevar su música más allá. La huella de sus colaboraciones con un grupo como Soulsavers es visible, y aunque Lanegan ya había usado los loops y una electrónica bruta en su último disco, aquí la usa en todo su poderío en Ode to sad disco, que es lo más cercano que este hombre estará de una pista de baile por su cuenta.

Blues funeral se abre camino a través de los estilos dejando que Lanegan se funda en ellos y los recree a su manera. Bleeding muddy water es un blues crepuscular que hipnotiza, lo mismo que hipnotiza la guitarra de Gray goes black, una canción que desprende un elegante fatalismo. El rock desatado de Riot in my house –con la inconfundible guitarra de Josh Homme- y la stoniana Quiver Syndrome, dibujan la cara más fiera de Lanegan, aunque nada puede competir con Harborview hospital, donde la desolación de un adicto intentado desintoxicarse puede sentirse en cada nota. En Blues funeral, Mark Lanegan levanta con sus propias cenizas un disco bello y estremecedor, digno de ser cantado por una voz como la suya.

A halting conversation with Mark Lanegan

By J. Bennett

When we meet Mark Lanegan at a picnic table in a nearly-empty public park in Burbank, it feels like one of us should be carrying a briefcase full of money. Like there might be a sniper in the bushes, watching two guys in sunglasses make some sort of shady handoff. But really it’s just awkward, mostly because Lanegan clearly doesn’t want to be here, and essentially says as much before we even start the interview. A notoriously reluctant and guarded interviewee, he presumably picked the spot because it’s close to where he lives but not so close that we might actually get a glimpse of his pad. Fair enough, we figure: Privacy is a precious commodity these days. Still, there’re a lot of painful pauses and one-word replies, many (but not all) of which were edited out of the following transcript. But first, some basic facts…

As the singer of the Screaming Trees in the ’80s and ’90s, Lanegan just might be the only Seattle frontman who both made it through the grunge era alive and the aughts with his musical dignity intact. Aside from a brief stint in North Carolina—where he says he lived so far out in the sticks that he had to drive 20 minutes just to get coffee—he’s resided in Los Angeles for most of the last 15 years. And he’s done a lot of moving around, even here—from Pasadena to North Hollywood to the Hollywood Hills to Echo Park to Glendale and finally to Burbank.

Lanegan is either unwilling or unable to explain his inability to settle into one place, but it might not be a coincidence that his musical path mirrors his domestic restlessness. Over the course of the last decade and a half, he’s recorded multiple albums—nearly all of them superb—with the likes of Queens of the Stone Age, the Gutter Twins, the Twilight Singers, ex-Belle & Sebastian songstress Isobel Campbell and English electro-gospel gurus Soulsavers while releasing five excellent solo albums, marking each with his own inimitable and smoky singing style. His latest solo record—which, like 2004’s haunting Bubblegum, appears under the banner of the Mark Lanegan Band—is entitled Blues Funeral.

self-titled: Do you play or write music every day?
I used to. Now I pretty much only do it when I have something to write for. And then, I approach it like it’s work. I get up in the morning and do it.

Does the fact that it’s work take any enjoyment out of the process?
Well, I’ve been making music for a living for a while, so that would mean that the enjoyment went out of it like 20 years ago. [Laughs]

Does making music mean something different to you since it’s become a career?
Well, for a long time I was just figuring out how to do it. I was in the Trees for a long time, and made a lot of records before I even started really writing songs. It was kinda like that Rush song about the guy who discovers a guitar in his hands. “What is this piece of wood?” It’s kinda like that for me. I’m not really proficient on any instrument, but I know enough chords to write a song. I learned how to play stuff out of necessity. I’m still figuring it out, really.

So you write mainly on the guitar?
With this record, I wrote a couple of them on the keyboards and some with a synthesizer and drum machine, just to give it a different angle. But then I hand all that stuff over to a guy who can really play. But yeah, mainly guitar.

Did you write all the songs on Blues Funeral yourself?
Yeah, with the exception of “Ode to Sad Disco,” which came from a series of films by a Danish director, Nicolas Winding Refn, called The Pusher trilogy. The second film has a great soundtrack, and there’s a piece of music in there called “Sad Disco,” so I lifted the music and wrote my own song to it. Hence the title, “Ode to Sad Disco.” So that’s the only one that wasn’t specifically written by me.

What other kinds of things inspired the songs on Blues Funeral?
Well, I try to be open to inspiration no matter what I’m doing. For a large part, stuff starts from memory. Maybe a real experience, maybe somebody else’s experience, maybe something I heard about. I don’t know. Or it could be other people’s music. Wherever the spark comes from, I can’t really give any specific examples, although I’m sure there are some. I really don’t even think about where it comes from. I just let it go where it’s going and don’t really question it too much. I think it just comes from life in general.

Like your last solo album, Blues Funeral has some electronic elements—they’re especially present on “Ode To Sad Disco” and “The Gravedigger’s Song.” Do you program that stuff yourself?
That stuff was mostly done by Alain Johannes on this record.

Is that something you specifically wanted to incorporate, or did it just work out that way?
We started to incorporate it on the last record, but with this one I wanted to use it in a less noisy or abrasive way, which is how I’ve used it in the past. This time, I wanted it to be more unabashedly beautiful. But those elements are things that people have been using since the ’60s, really, so it’s nothing new.

The press release for the new album says you have two dogs. Why did you want to include that information?
Well, the record company had somebody write a bio, and it was really long and really…well, personal. It was filled with facts that bored the shit out of me, and it also included a review of the record for people who were gonna review the record. It drew my ire immediately, so I wrote a really brief bio, just a couple of lines long. At the end, trying to be funny, I put in that I live in Los Angeles and have two dogs. That was the personal aspect of it. I didn’t really intend for them to use that—especially not the dog part—but they did.

It reads like a statement of exactly how personal you’re willing to get.
[Smiles and turns palms upwards]

You recently recorded a Johnny Cash song for the Hangover II soundtrack. Was that something you had kicking around?
No, they specifically asked me to do it for the movie. The Cash version is actually a cover of a Nick Lowe song, but the Cash one is the definitive version. When they asked me to do it, I thought, “Okay, but it definitely won’t sound like Johnny Cash.” [Laughs]

Were you hesitant to do a song for a movie that’s essentially a goofball comedy?
No, I’ll pretty much do a song for anything. Back in 1986, maybe I thought that was something that reflected on me. But in 1986, I was also afraid of having a record that sounded good. But music is music. If it’s anything remotely in the ballpark of something I can handle, I’ll usually think about doing it, at least.

You’ve been more prolific than ever in the last few years—making music on your own, with Isobel Campbell, Greg Dulli, Soulsavers, Queens. What do you attribute that to?
I’ve just been blessed with a lot of opportunity in the last ten years or so. That’s just the way it’s panned out. I can’t really tell you why. I’m glad it has, though, because I’ve enjoyed the music I’ve made and I’ve enjoyed playing with different people. But you’d have to ask someone else why that is.

Obviously, all those people I just mentioned play different styles of music. Do you specifically seek out projects with different styles to challenge yourself?
Well, I’d say for the most part that they seek me out. But the things I’m interested in are definitely things that I probably wouldn’t do left to my own devices. But then again, I guess what I’d do when left to my own devices is anyone’s guess at this point. [Laughs] But generally the criteria is that it’s someone whose music I enjoy without me being involved in it. It’s really not much deeper than that.

Do you feel less pressure in projects for which you’re not writing the music?
Well, there’s pressure in every situation. I’m not sure writing my own music changes that.

Do you work on your own material while working in these other projects, or do you generally concentrate on just one thing at a time?
It depends. I usually have several things going at once, and just concentrate on whichever one is most pressing—the one that’s gotta be finished soonest. Right now I’m just working on stuff for myself because I don’t really have much else going on. Although I’m kinda working on Gutter Twins stuff at the same time.

Are you involved in the new Queens record that’s reportedly in the works?
No.

Are you doing anything with Soulsavers?
No.

Isobel Campbell?
No.

Do you have a backlog of material—stuff that hasn’t come out or isn’t quite finished?
Well, there was an entire bag of cassettes that I’d been carrying around for years—some of them were songs, some weren’t quite songs yet, and whenever I was working on something, I’d reach into the bag. But when I went to do that for this record, they were all de-magnetized from all the moving around I’ve done. So I have a few new cassettes, but I just got a new digital thing. I haven’t figured out how to work it yet, though.

Is there anyone left on your wish-list of people you’d like to collaborate with?
I’m sure there’s a million of them. If Brian Eno asked me to do something, I probably wouldn’t say no. But that’s probably not likely to happen. He’d be great to work with, though.

The long-lost final Screaming Trees record, Last Words: The Final Recordings, was released last year. Are you happy that it’s out?
Let me clarify that that was not a record and it was never meant to be a record. It was from different demo sessions done over a period of two years. I’m fine with it coming out; I thought the songs were okay. The other guys really wanted it to happen, but it wasn’t a record. When I listened back to the songs, I was surprised that I thought they were as good as they were.

Do you stay in touch with those guys at all?
Sure, we send texts at the holidays and stuff. We talk occasionally. We’re like family.

But you’d never play shows with them again?
As Screaming Trees? I’d never say never, but I’m pretty damn sure it’d be never. [Laughs] You gotta really want to do that. We played together for so many years, and enough’s enough, really.

What kind of things have you been listening to lately?
Whenever somebody asks me that, I immediately draw a blank. [Laughs]


Okay, let’s talk about Queens. Your MO in that band was to walk onstage, sing three or four songs, and then walk off. It seemed like the best job in rock n’ roll. Was it that way for you?
Absolutely. [Laughs] When Josh [Homme] first asked me to do it, I thought it was crazy. But I quickly took to it. It’s a great job if you can get it. [Laughs] Have we met before?

Yes.
In those days?

Yes.
You were on Lollapalooza. I remember you.

Yeah, you told me you thought I was a cop.
[Laughs] I probably thought everyone was a cop back then. Don’t take it personally.

I didn’t understand that—I had long hair back then. I looked even less like a cop than I do now.
That’s how you were trying to get me.

You know, the impression I get from your records…I don’t know if this is going to make sense to you, but it’s like someone is telling you about not their private life but rather their inner life, the life of the mind—but not in forthright terms. It’s up to the listener to decode what’s really being said. Does that seem even vaguely accurate to you?
I couldn’t tell you. I think it’s cool that you think that, though, if that’s how it strikes you. I know that the music I enjoy usually has some element of mystery to it, where I’m left to draw my own conclusions and so on. If that’s the way the music I’m making strikes someone else, I think that’s fantastic.

You strike me as a very serious guy. Are you, or does it just seem that way because we don’t know each other very well?
It’s because we don’t know each other very well. I’m not David Caruso on, uh… goddamn, what is that fuckin’ show, where he’s so serious at all times, like: “I will catch you!”? CSI: Miami, that’s what it is. I’m not like him.

Does music in general mean something different to you now than when you started?
Not really. There’s two kinds of music in my life—the music I’m making, that I’m part of, and the music that I’m listening to for personal enjoyment. That’s never changed. The music I’ve been a part of has changed a bit over the years, and I think I’m finally figuring out how to do it in a natural way. But the music that I listen to as a music fan, that’s always been the same, luckily. That’s why I started making music in the first place.

STEREOGUM Your solo material is, in most ways, a very marked departure from your work with the Trees or the stuff you’ve done with other bands. Regarding the Screaming Trees, how do you feel when you look back at that band? Are you nostalgic at all?

LANEGAN: For the Trees? No man, not at all. Personally I don’t ever think about it. if there’s an interview someone’s bound to ask, but other than that it never crosses my mind. And even when I have interaction with the other guys — because I’m still friendly with those guys still, we exchange emails and texts from time to time — but even while doing that it’s not like I’m thinking back to the band. It’s like I’m staying in the here and now.

STEREOGUM That’s good. That’s ideal, I suppose. Nostalgia can be a such weird bad thing. Sometimes it’s cool to see bands get back together but there’s something to be said for letting it be what it was and moving forward.

LANEGAN: I appreciate when other people reform their bands. You know, I might get nostalgic about Kraftwerk, but I’m not about the Trees. I get it when people reform the band because they have unfinished business, or a love for each other and the music and all that stuff. It’s just not something I’m interested in for us.

STEREOGUM I’m also such a fan of the records you made with Isobel Campbell. Do you anticipate working with her again?

LANEGAN: No plans to, but I’ll never say never. I’m really fond of those records, and very fond of her, so I don’t know what the future’s gonna bring but no, no plans to right now.

STEREOGUM So what will 2012 be like for you? Just be playing lots and lots of shows?

LANEGAN: Yeah, I’m just gonna tour as much as I can and live life.

STEREOGUM Do you have any other projects on the horizon with other people that you can talk about?

LANEGAN: I just finished a quieter, more acoustic based record with a British artist named Duke Garwood. We just collaborated on the record and wrote some songs together, just finished that, but no real plans for release for that now or even a home for it, but that’s something that will definitely come out

Ripple. escribió:[youtube][/youtube]

William Cutting escribió:

Ripple. escribió:[youtube][/youtube]

Joder, que cambiado le veo a Lanegan. Parece otro.

Ripple. escribió:

William Cutting escribió:

Ripple. escribió:[youtube][/youtube]

Joder, que cambiado le veo a Lanegan. Parece otro.

eso fue la reciente visita promocional donde concedio algunas entrevistas, para la gira no habra gafas de pasta, a no ser que lo inviten al Primavera Sound :goofy:

William Cutting escribió:

Ripple. escribió:

William Cutting escribió:

Ripple. escribió:[youtube][/youtube]

Joder, que cambiado le veo a Lanegan. Parece otro.

eso fue la reciente visita promocional donde concedio algunas entrevistas, para la gira no habra gafas de pasta, a no ser que lo inviten al Primavera Sound :goofy:

no, pero no lo digo solo en el aspecto fisico sino en la forma de ser, cómo se expresa. Parece que ahora mismo esta muy feliz (fuera del tópico en el que se le describe como uraño y poco hablador), si hasta suelta una carcajada

henchman escribió:
Me autocontesto:

Can't Come Down
The Gravedigger’s Song
Bleeding Muddy Water
Sleep With Me
Hit the City
Wedding Dress
Resurrection Song
Harborview Hospital
Quiver Syndrome
One Hundred Days
Creeping Coastline of Lights
Riot in My House
Ode to Sad Disco
Wish You Well
St. Louis Elegy
Methamphetamine Blues
Tiny Grain of Truth

Encore:

When Your Number Isn't Up
One Way Street

chinchon escribió:fue con Shelley Brien?

henchman escribió:

chinchon escribió:fue con Shelley Brien?

Parece que si habia una vocalista pero no han podido confirmar que fuera ella.

Además se vendia un CD con los ensayos de la gira y algún directo nuevo.

Y en el setlist después de One Way Street estaba un tema del Last Words de los Trees

Evil Elvis escribió:

henchman escribió:
Me autocontesto:

Can't Come Down
The Gravedigger’s Song
Bleeding Muddy Water
Sleep With Me
Hit the City
Wedding Dress
Resurrection Song
Harborview Hospital
Quiver Syndrome
One Hundred Days
Creeping Coastline of Lights
Riot in My House
Ode to Sad Disco
Wish You Well
St. Louis Elegy
Methamphetamine Blues
Tiny Grain of Truth

Encore:

When Your Number Isn't Up
One Way Street

Enorme setlist

Ripple. escribió:tiene pinta d ser la novieta de Lanegan, a ver si cruza el charco tambien y se marca strange religion como en la ultima gira

henchman escribió:

Ripple. escribió:tiene pinta d ser la novieta de Lanegan, a ver si cruza el charco tambien y se marca strange religion como en la ultima gira

¿En aquella gira que paso por el Azkena ella cantaba en bastantes canciones no? Es que aqui solo sale en dos.

Spoiler:

henchman escribió:
Ha estado hoy en el Morning Becomes Electric de KCRW

Se puede escuchar en:

http://www.kcrw.com/archive

Ha empezado con las dos primeras de Blues Funeral pero ahora está con Phantasmagoria Blues que no la tocó anoche

Txomin Sorrigueta escribió:AHI ESTAN LAS FOTOS DE LA SESSION DE LA KEXP

Los cabrones no permiten la descarga y hay que verlas allí.

Esperemos que pronto suban a Youtube el vídeo de la sesión. Suelen hacerlo a 720p y eso permite perfectamente usarlos para un DVD con calidad decente. Ya hice un DVD de sesiones de la KEXP el año pasado con Jesse Sykes, Eels, Steve Earle, Fistful of Mercy, Justin Townes Earle, Black Angels y Ryan Bingham y quedó de puta madre. (Puede descargarse aquí).

Resurrection escribió:Mark Lanegan Band
New York, NY
The Cutting Room Studios
2012-02-07


...para los proscritos de la papelera, en mp3:

Spoiler:

chinchon escribió:fue con Shelley Brien?