Friday Night Masterpiece #3

Friday Night Masterpiece #2

King of Nails

I thought I might say a few words as tribute to Mark Linkous from Sparklehorse who died at the weekend. Another depressing suicide by a brilliant musician and songwriter. Like Elliot Smith, anyone who knew his story wouldn't exactly be surprised at the news but it's still a big loss that he won't be making anymore music. Not exactly prolific, mainly due to long periods of depression and illness, he managed to create a body of work that I think stands up with some of the best alternative American songwriters of the past 15 years.

His first album "Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot" ranks well inside my top ten and serves as a good primer for a lot of the quality Americana bands that followed, Fleet Foxes to Beach House, Iron & Wine to Bon Iver. I got into Pavement, Will Oldham, Sebadoh, Lambchop, Mercury Rev and Yo La Tengo through Sparklehorse so I'm very sad about the news.

He had an album in the can with Steve Albini so hopefully that will see the light of day soon enough. For anyone who hasn't heard "Dark Night of The Soul", the recent album he did with Danger Mouse and a stellar list of collaborators; Wayne Coyne, Iggy Pop, Vic Chestnutt and Julian Casablancas all on board, I've posted it below as it didn't get an official release on record. Enjoy...

1. Revenge (Ft. Flaming Lips)
2. Just War (Ft. Gruff Rhys)
3. Jaykub (Ft. Jason Lytle)
4. Little Girl (Ft. Julian Casablancas)
5. Angels Harp (Ft. Black Francis)
6. Pain (Ft. Iggy Pop)
7. Star Eyes (I Can't Catch It) (feat. David Lynch)
8. Everytime I'm With You (Ft. Jason Lyttle
9. Insane Lullaby (Ft. James Mercer)
10. Daddys Gone (Ft. Nina Persson)
11. The Man Who Played God (Ft. Suzanne Vega)
12. Grim Augury (Ft. Vic Chesnutt)
13. Dark Night Of The Soul (Ft. David Lynch)