Noise Pollution #33: The Emperor
I guess it’s somewhat true that the older you get the more time seems to not just slip by but burst through like a bad meal at a truckstop in the middle of nowhere, coursing through the asshole of existence as water does a stream. And you can’t put shit back in the toothpaste tube, or whatever the old saying is. My memory’s hazy.
Anyway, you blink and you fucking miss it. And it’s been two years since Mark Lanegan died.
A few weeks before he died, I was plotting out the skeleton of a Noise Pollution where I was going to talk about some of his collaborations and less well known work, which got a little waylaid by a combination of my own inability to keep on track and, well, his unexpected death.
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A lot has been written about him since his passing and we’re starting to see some unreleased and rare Screaming Trees material being put out by surviving guitarist Gary Lee Conner (whose brother and former Trees bassist Van also passed away in January of 2023) but besides that it’s been rather quiet. And I don’t mean that because he’s dead, but you know people tend to rush out before the corpse is even in the ground (or whatever final resting place they like, a jar in a shed? As long as it’s in the will, I guess.) and fuck it dry of any “found” material which turns out to be (mostly) pieces of ideas the deceased had left on the cutting room floor. But it’s so far seemed like he’s going to be left in peace after all. And that’s somewhat refreshing in these days of needing constant access to every single aspect of an artist’s creative life.It’s been over ten years since Lou Reed died and the people “closest” to him have managed to twist his legacy from proto-punk provocateur to an incessant social media bombardment of his love of Tai-Chi. You’d think that’s all his body of work represented, and they keep just fucking his corpse over and over, trying to thrust out little bits that can keep the money flowing in…I mean keep his legacy alive. His social media guardians have done more to fuck up his image than “Lulu” ever could.
I’m sure people would disagree with me. Those people have a right to their opinion. And that opinion is wrong.
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Earth - There Is A Serpent Coming (Featuring Mark Lanegan)
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One of the greatest surprises of the last few weeks of managing a record store (before the married woman my boss was fucking--with her husband’s consent I guess--decided I needed to be let go, with the offer of police escort!) I received a promo package with Earth’s “Primitive and Deadly” with a one sheet that said Lanegan was appearing on two of the songs. A decade and change before I had first heard of Earth when I was up late watching the “Kurt and Courtney” documentary and the interview with Dylan Carlson was one of the most fascinating pieces, and included bits of songs from the “Pentastar” album. Bringing this back to Lou Reed (as everything is fucking circular) this was sometime in the spring or summer of 2002, when my discovery of The Velvet Underground through Lou Reed through “A Perfect Day” being in “Trainspotting” opened me up to a whole new world of music, literature and even thought, the timing of hearing Earth for the first time versus even a year prior when all I cared about was black metal, was perfect.
Both “Pentastar” and “Earth 2” became huge records for me, being highly influential on Krieg’s “The Black House” and I would eventually cover “Charioteer (The Temple Song)” so I was excited when Carlson apparently dried up and came back into the light, with the help of Southern Lord Records. But the new material, while focused and well done, just never grabbed me the way the old stuff did so I stopped paying much attention. But staring at the promo, seeing Lanegan’s name and also working a twelve hour shift gave me every reason to give it a shot. I’m very glad I did.
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“Primitive and Deadly” would have been one of my favorites of the year regardless of Lanegan’s involvement, it was just that fucking good. Riffs that just led you places, as fucking corny as that sounds, and everything seemed to be sonically in line with the record’s cover. Just a perfect record overall. And the last record I’ve listened to by Earth. Why? Beats me, I’ve never said I’m writing a perfect narrative that makes logical sense or, fuck, even goes anywhere. But oddly enough a few hours before I was fired, the store copy of “Primitive and Deadly” went missing. I have no idea what happened there other than someone should have learned not to choreograph a termination.
For those, like me, who didn’t pick up the vinyl the first time, “Primitive and Deadly” has recently been reissued through Southern Lord and it came out beautifully.
Lanegan, as I’ve come to learn, had countless appearances across genres, many of which I haven’t even explored yet. That’s one way I’ve been able to keep him, for lack of a better word, “alive” in some respects. I was familiar with his first record with Duke Garwood, “Black Pudding,” which was mostly acoustic folk-ish songs and it was fine, but I never really found myself going back to it. It wasn’t until a few years later I found out they did a second album together called “With Animals” in 2018. This one is far more experimental, stranger, and fucking darker than their previous work. Minimalist electronica mixed with the American Gothic that Lanegan had been perfecting the last part of his life.
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I’m trying to remember the exacts but a few years ago someone who, and I had no idea about this fact until I made the mistake of voicing my opinion, directed a video for a (at the time) new Lanegan song that broke up the actual music for some skit that was just abysmal. Anyway I guess I told him it sucked and he told me I sucked “bro” and that was something I’d kind of forgotten until I was writing this. They can’t all be beautiful days.
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I’ve probably spent the last week or so relistening to “Gargoyle” over and over, mostly “Nocturne” on repeat, paying very close attention to the lyrics. I don’t really have very much to add here except that this is a beautiful song.
Since his death I’ve read his memoir “Sing Backwards and Weep” which is simultaneously the best music related book I’ve ever read and also one of the most bleak and depressing as well. It ends just as Josh Homme forms Queens of the Stone Age and leaves a lot left to tell. And I guess that’s the mark of a good writer-leaving the audience wanting more, even if it’s unintentional, like in this instance.
I don’t think I’ll ever have that problem with my audience.
Lanegan’s last record was a solo, his first since “Field Songs” if I’m correct, and it’s meant as a compliment to the experience of his memoir. “Straight Songs of Sorrow” is just as bleak a listen as “Sing Backwards..” was a read. I guess it’s a fitting end to a long and, ultimately, excellent discography.
It’s certainly no posthumous ambient album about Tai Chi with lengthy bullshit about the practice being the thread of decades worth of work.
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I plan on reading “Devil in a Coma”, his account of Covid (which eventually contributed to his death) and considered it while I had Covid myself, but we’ve already established I’m a fuck up when it comes to planning my life. Which also means I don’t really have a plan for the next one of these. But I’ll think of something. See you then.
