From Mark Kozelek's living room window, he can see the Golden Gate Bridge, the San Francisco Marina and, he points out to Uncut, the Tiburon neighbourhood where Robin Williams killed himself. "It's hard for middle-aged people to see San Francisco taken over by young, Silicon Valley money," he says ...
“Sad reminders of what seems years ago…”
Mark Kozelek: A buyer’s guide
- RED HOUSE PAINTERS
RED HOUSE PAINTERS
4AD 1993
The second RHP album (commonly known as “Rollercoaster”), after the demos collection Down Colorful Hill. Two CDs of often pretty, often harrowing, confessionals that established Kozelek’s reputation as a sadcore magus. Another eponymous CD (aka “Bridge”) from the sessions was released later in 1993.
- RED HOUSE PAINTERS
SONGS FOR A BLUE GUITAR
SUPREME/ISLAND 1996
Dropped from 4AD because, allegedly, their guitar solos had got too long, RHP found a new home at the label run by filmmaker John Hughes. Kozelek once spent seven hours on the phone with Hughes because he wanted to borrow money. “I just wanted to get $15,000. Listening to him talk for seven hours was the price I had to pay.”
- RED HOUSE PAINTERS
OLD RAMON
SUB POP 2001
Record label politics left the final RHP album on the shelf for three years. By the time this exceptional collection was finally released, the band had dissolved, and Kozelek had tentatively embarked on a solo career: his album of acoustic AC/DC reconstructions, What’s Next To The Moon, preceded Old Ramon by three months.
- SUN KIL MOON
GHOSTS OF THE GREAT HIGHWAY
JETSET 2003
Alongside RHP drummer Anthony Koutsos, Kozelek launched his second band with what is, arguably, his masterpiece. A rolling expansion of Old Ramon’s Crazy Horse vibe, with meditations on memory, Judas Priest guitarists and sundry boxers that culminate with the 14-minute slow-burn of “Duk Koo Kim”.
- SUN KIL MOON
ADMIRAL FELL PROMISES
CALDO VERDE 2010
Kozelek rates Admiral Fell Promises and his 2013 collaboration with Jimmy LaValle, Perils From The Sea, as his best albums. A solo recording that privileges Kozelek’s increasing mastery of the nylon-string guitar sound he loves on classical work by the likes of Andres Segovia. The last SKM album before Kozelek moved towards his current spontaneous, sprechgesang style.
- SUN KIL MOON
BENJI
CALDO VERDE 2014
An unflinching and profoundly moving collection of stories, so unmediated they seem to unravel in real-time; Will Oldham and Steve Shelley figure in an expanded cast. “When you’re middle-aged, you are who you are. I’m a full time musician. I play decent-sized rooms, I make a good living. I’ve never, ever compromised.”