Hold on to your guitar, Mark.
Around 1996, after the Red House Painters had left 4AD and signed to Island Records, I saw them at the Double Door in Chicago. Mark Kozelek led the band through no less than three Neil Young covers that night. After the third, I yelled out a request for “Cortez The Killer” and got the “God, do I look EVIL” Eye of Kozelek. “Don’t make fun of me,” he said. I also recall he peppered his onstage banter with various bawdy references to post-show encounters with females.
After the show, much to the chagrin of Katherine, the attractive woman who came with me and who’s probably listening to Beyonce now, I hung around a bit. I wanted to meet the man. I prioritized that aim over any type of relations with my date, which is probably why I’m still single now. I noticed that poor Mark was surrounded by nerdy guys, his leering eye scanning the corners for indie babes. So I vowed to make it one more nerd, and I wandered over.
“Do you ever play ‘Down Through’ anymore?” I asked him.
A slight spark in the eye, followed by gloom: “No… NO! I don’t remember how.”
My opening at last. “Well, I just figured out how to play it last week…”
At this, we were off to the races, Mark leading me through a breakneck tour of the Double Door, stage level, lower level, street level, alternate universe level, all of it. He was a man on a mission to find a guitar. There in the downstairs backstage area was Warn Defever and His Name Is Alive. I gulped. More heroes. But no guitars ANYWHERE. Not a one. The road crew had packed them all away. Mark’s boyish enthusiasm fell into a pout, and he insisted on getting my number to settle this later. He did call me after about a month or so, and left his number, but when he called I was in full Big Black Bear mode. I made a tape for him, but never sent it.
But this post is about him, not me. I saw in him that night a beautiful man, almost frightened when staring out at the world, but genuine and strong. It’s not my role to play psychiatrist, but I would wager a guess that the Mark Kozelek of 1996 had a lot of growing left to do, and that today he is a deeper, happier man. I saw him recently at the Ottobar in Baltimore, and those young, sporadic edges seem to have been smoothed out. His music is softer, more consistent these days. But out of that raw, jocular sensitivity of his youth came moments of arresting beauty.
Mark’s group charmed the pants off the frou-frou 4AD class in the early 1990s, and along with an impressive body of original (in the literal sense) material, the Red House Painters left us what I consider the best cover version of any song ever recorded by anyone. Almost defiantly, Mark would choose to cover songs (most vividly, Kiss’s “Shock Me”) to get a rise out of his hipster fanbase, and would prove that he could do it and still be cool. He transforms the Cars’ “All Mixed Up” into a masterpiece.
Interested? Seek out and purchase 4AD’s Retrospective, or any of the group’s first few self-titled albums, and season that with Mark’s gentile, epic album “April” (Sun Kil Moon) from last year.
Red House Painters: Uncle Joe (Demo)
Red House Painters: Evil
Red House Painters: All Mixed Up (video)
Sun Kil Moon: Moorestown
What I remember about seeing Mark Kozelek was when we saw him in London at 4AD’s 13 Year Itch. He was angry at Gordon throughout the show, but the performance of “Drop” made everything worthwhile.
Nice video find, too.
Yes, I remember that. Some stomping around and utterings of “I hate guitars!” And then THAT performance of “Drop.” Later we were disappointed by the version on Ocean Beach, because nothing was going to top that debut in that setting in London.
hi fellas. Great story Peter, glad to be reading your take on music again. Love the part about the nerd bumrush. Reminds me when I saw Mark Olson about 10 years ago and I yelled out that he should play a song. He started it, and then when he came to the first verse, he stopped, b/c he did not remember the words. I shouted out the first line, and then he played it. Definitely nerdy.