One of the most talented and unique songwriters of his generation, Mark Kozelek is also a prickly pear. The only time I saw him perform live in the 1990s, he threatened to stab someone in the audience for talking during his set.
Born and raised in Ohio, Kozelek formed Red House Painters after moving to San Francisco in the late 80s. I bought their first album, Down Colorful Hill (1992), because it was on the 4AD label, which had earned my trust with the Cocteau Twins and Pixies. I knew right away this band was something special, and not only because the average length of the six songs was around seven minutes, including the stunning title track that runs 10:51. The album is spare, deliberately paced, and intense, with the exception of the uptempo indie rock gem, “Lord Kill the Pain.” It could almost be a Cure album had Robert Smith been American rather than British. There’s no doubt in my mind that Kozelek is a fan of Disintegration.
Red House Painters’ eponymous sophomore album is a more fleshed out, less dour, more accessible indie folk album that I would recommend to almost any music lover. If you don’t like album opener “Grace Cathedral Park,” then you probably won’t like Red House Painters. And I am morally certain that the end of the song inspired the beginning of Radiohead’s “Let Down.” And then there’s fan favorite “Katy Song” and another one redolent of (and worthy of) the Cure,“Mistress.”
However, at 14 tracks in 76 minutes, the album is way too long. I never listen to two of the last three songs (“Mother” and “Strawberry Hill”) which are a combined 20 minutes. Kozelek does more for me on the gorgeous, less-than-two minute album closer, “Brown Eyes,” than he does in the twenty minutes of the other two.
You can skip their third, also oddly eponymous album, although it contains Kozelek’s first of many incredible covers, in this case of Simon & Garfunkel’s “I am a Rock.” It’s almost hard to listen to the S & G version again after you hear this one, even though the original is a song I’ve always loved. And as with all the best covers, this one makes you appreciate the original in a new way.
It’s hard to imagine music more unfashionable than these albums which were released at the height of the grunge era.
RHP’s fourth long player, Ocean Beach (1995), is another incremental progression in Kozelek’s songwriting journey. The first five songs are all special to my ears as is the stunning 13 minute album closer, “Drop.” Though I prefer the 8:51 second version that can be found on 1999s Retrospective.
He/they followed it quickly with Songs for a Blue Guitar (1996). More than half originals and less than half covers, you can’t go wrong with the first four songs (the 12 minute “Make Like Paper” gives Neil Young & Crazy Horse a run for their money) and his cover of the Cars, “All Mixed Up” which blows the original out of the water.
Just as it was starting to feel like RHP had some momentum (both critically and commercially), Kozelek recorded his best album up to that point, Old Ramon, only to have it orphaned by its original label (Island) for several years before Sub Pop picked it up and released it in 2001 without one of its best songs, “Find Me, Reuben Olivares.” Oddly, this incredible song can only be found today on a rarities collection of various artists called the Shanti Project Collection (which is available on streaming platforms). It is no accident that it’s the opening track. I strongly urge you to download and listen to this song.
In between these last two RHP albums, Kozelek released his first solo album, What’s Next to the Moon, a surprisingly excellent collection of Bon Scott-era AC/DC covers. If you’ve never heard Bon Scott’s AC/DC (the pre-Back in Black albums), this 30 minute album makes a strong and sincere case for those records (which I love).
Also in between the last two RHP albums, Cameron Crowe cast Kozelek to play the bass player in Stillwater, the fictional band at the center of his perfect film, Almost Famous.
But back to RHP. Had Old Ramon closed with “Find Me, Ruben Olivares” instead of the plodding “Kavita,” it would probably be my favorite album of Kozelek’s prolific career (25 albums and counting). But instead, that honor goes to his first of thirteen albums as Sun Kil Moon, Ghosts of the Great Highway (2003), one of the top 100 albums of the 2000s for sure. The version on streaming includes six bonus tracks. The first ten songs are the original album. If you don’t know it, it may be the best place to start your exploration of Kozelek’s body of work.
“Carry Me Ohio” is an obvious standout track, but the whole album represents Kozelek at the peak of his powers. Who other than him could have written the 14 minute epic, “Duk Koo Kim,” about the Korean boxer who died in the ring fighting Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini?
Sun Kil Moon started out as the same core band as Red House Painters, but added outside musicians including drummer Tim Mooney from American Music Club, who would go on to produce one of my favorite albums of the 21st century, John Murry’s The Graceless Age, before his untimely death.
This album represents the end of Kozelek’s peak songwriting period for me, though critics went crazy for Sun Kil Moon’s Benji in 2014, with its stream of consciousness, intensely personal lyrics and seemingly spontaneous songs. I find some of it transcendent (the unabashed songs of love for his parents, the song about Sandy Hook, and a few others), some of it redundant (two songs about relatives who died in fires?), and some of it just plain boring (the 10 minute “I Watched the Film the Song Remains the Same”).
And I can safely say that you can skip Kozelek’s musical effluvium of the last decade. Mark, please don’t stab me for saying that.
Great piece, I know you said skip the 3rd album, you don’t care for the track, “New Jersey”? Such a great song.
Thanks for sharing, Matt. Big fan of Mark. Wrote about his ability to transform cover songs here:
https://dustywright.substack.com/p/coverville