Mark Edward Kozelek is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, record producer and occasional actor. He is known as the vocalist and primary recording artist of the indie folk act Sun Kil Moon and founding member of the indie rock band Red House Painters, with whom he recorded six studio albums from 1988 until 2001.
In 1996, Kozelek recorded the band's fifth studio album, Songs for a Blue Guitar, mostly alone.[1] The release of the band's final studio album, Old Ramon (2001), was delayed for three years. In the interim, Kozelek recorded both an album and an EP of AC/DC cover songs.[2]
Reconvening with Koutsos and Vessel, the trio continued performing under the new name of Sun Kil Moon, releasing their debut album, Ghosts of the Great Highway, in 2003. Inspired by classical guitar music, Kozelek recorded Sun Kil Moon's fourth studio album, Admiral Fell Promises (2010),[3] as a solo act and continued to record mostly alone on its follow-up, Among the Leaves (2012), and later Perils from the Sea and Mark Kozelek & Desertshore, both released in 2013.[4]
In 2014, Sun Kil Moon's sixth studio album, Benji, was released to widespread critical acclaim[5] and increased exposure with its follow-up, Universal Themes,[6] featuring lengthy compositions and stream-of-consciousness lyrics. In 2016, Kozelek released a collaborative studio album with Jesu, titled Jesu/Sun Kil Moon.[7]
Across his work in Sun Kil Moon, Red House Painters, and his own solo material, Kozelek has released thirty-one studio albums, with his most recent being All the Best, Isaac Hayes (2020).[8] A number of commentators have described him as one of the greatest songwriters of his generation.[9][10][11][12][13]
Career
Kozelek was born and raised in Massillon, Ohio. In his teenage years, he led a band named God Forbid.[14] Upon relocating to Atlanta, Georgia, he met drummer Anthony Koutsos. After the pair moved once again to San Francisco, California, Red House Painters formed with the addition of guitarist Gorden Mack and bassist Jerry Vessel.[15] From 1992 to 1996, Red House Painters released a series of acclaimed albums, showcasing Kozelek's intense, highly autobiographical songs.
However, Kozelek's parting with the record label 4AD, followed by a major label merger which left Red House Painters' 1998 album Old Ramon on the shelf, proved highly frustrating and stifled the group's momentum.
In 2000, he released the solo EP Rock 'n' Roll Singer, which featured three original songs as well as covers of John Denver's "Around and Around" and three AC/DC songs ("Rock 'n' Roll Singer," "Bad Boy Boogie," and "You Ain't Got a Hold on Me"). Two of the AC/DC cover versions on Rock 'n' Roll Singer were radical re-arrangements of the originals which removed the Bon Scott-penned lyrics from their hard rock context and placed them into gentle, acoustic "folk ballad" settings.[16]
Kozelek expanded on this idea in 2001, releasing a full-length album composed solely of AC/DC covers titled What's Next to the Moon.[17]
Sun Kil Moon debuted with Ghosts of the Great Highway in 2003, and also features former RHP members Jerry Vessel and Anthony Koutsos as well as new collaborators Geoff Stanfield (formerly of Black Lab) and Tim Mooney of American Music Club. Their follow-up effort appeared in 2005 on Kozelek's newly formed label, Caldo Verde Records. Titled Tiny Cities, the album is made up entirely of covers of songs by Modest Mouse. Once again, Kozelek's cover versions varied greatly from the originals. In a February 2014 interview with Seattle's The Stranger, Kozelek commented that he's "never heard from Modest Mouse" as to what they think of the record.[18]
Kozelek returned in 2008 with the release of Sun Kil Moon's third album April. The album features 11 brand new recordings, including guest vocal contributions by Ben Gibbard, Will Oldham and Eric Pollard.[19]
The release of the new album also brought the re-issue of Nights of Passed Over, a 256-page, hard-cover book of all the lyrics to Kozelek's solo songs, Red House Painters' songs, and Sun Kil Moon's songs. It also features setlists, handwritten lyrics, and a preface by Kozelek himself. The original edition of this book was released in 2002 in Portugal, and featured all the lyrics up to that point, printed in both English and Portuguese. The updated edition spans to his current Sun Kil Moon days, and the book also includes a 12-track bonus CD titled Nights LP, featuring live and rare versions of songs dated 1996 to 2007. The edition is sold exclusively on his label's website and is limited to 2,500 copies.[20]
On April 23, 2010, the release of Sun Kil Moon's fourth album, Admiral Fell Promises, was announced. The album was released on July 13, 2010.[21][22][23]
A documentary film titled Mark Kozelek: On Tour was released via Caldo Verde Records on August 16, 2011. The movie was filmed during portions Mark Kozelek's European/North American tours of 2010 and early 2011.
Sun Kil Moon's fifth album, Among the Leaves, was released on Caldo Verde Records on May 29, 2012.
Kozelek also contributed as a vocalist and bass player to Desertshore, a group featuring Red House Painters guitarist Phil Carney, classically trained pianist Chris Connolly, and more recently Sun Kil Moon drummer Mike Stevens.[4] His first collaboration with Desertshore came on the group's second studio album, Drawing Of Threes (released November 22, 2011, Caldo Verde Records). Kozelek appeared in 6 out of 10 tracks as a vocalist and bass player. He played a more major role in the third studio album titled Mark Kozelek & Desertshore (released August 20, 2013, Caldo Verde Records), where he is featured as vocalist and bassist on all 10 tracks. In the same year, Kozelek released Perils From the Sea, a collaboration album with multi-instrumentalist Jimmy LaValle of The Album Leaf, and covers album Like Rats.[24]
In 2014, Sun Kil Moon released Benji to wide acclaim, garnering a score of 85 from the critical rating aggregate website, Metacritic. No Ripcord calls it Kozelek's "most intimate work yet" and Kitty Empire of Observer added, it "might well be this difficult artist's most direct work."[25] Soundblab rated it the best album of 2014, stating "When I remember 2014 in music, there will be Sun Kil Moon's Benji and there will be everything else."[26] Several publications praised Kozelek's songwriting skills and highlighted Benji as his best work to date.[5][27]
Sun Kil Moon's sixth album of original material, Universal Themes, was released on June 2, 2015.[6] The album again featured drummer Steve Shelley, who previously played drums on Benji and then released an album in 2017 Common as Light and Love Are Red Valleys of Blood. Kozelek toured Europe, the United States, and South America in support of the album in 2017 and 2018. On May 11, 2018, Kozelek released an eponymously titled double CD album, which "was recorded in San Francisco hotels and studios between May 2017 and January 2018."[28]
Acting
Kozelek has also dabbled in acting. Friend and director Cameron Crowe cast him in his film Almost Famous (2000) as Larry Fellows (the bass player in Stillwater) and in Vanilla Sky (2001) as a clubgoer who mocks Tom Cruise's character.[29] In 2005, he appeared in Steve Martin's film Shopgirl, playing a musician who befriends and mentors Jason Schwartzman's character. Kozelek also performed "Lily and Parrots" (a Sun Kil Moon song) live in the film.[30]
Kozelek appears as himself, and contributed to the soundtrack to Paolo Sorrentino's 2015 film, Youth.[31]
On September 5, 2014, during a Sun Kil Moon performance at Hopscotch Music Festival in Raleigh, North Carolina, Kozelek called the noisy crowd "fucking hillbillies" and told them to "shut the fuck up" or else he would leave.[32] He traded insults with the crowd before saying that his previous comments were meant as a joke.[33] Allison Hussey of Indy Week first reported the incident, and linked to audio of Kozelek berating the audience.[34] On September 9, 2014, Kozelek's label Caldo Verde began selling t-shirts with "All You Fuckin' Hillbillies Shut The Fuck Up" printed on the front.[35][36]
The War on Drugs
On September 14, 2014, Sun Kil Moon performed at the Ottawa Folk Festival in Ottawa, Canada, and their set overlapped with that of American rock band The War on Drugs. Kozelek complained of noise from The War on Drugs' set bleeding over to his stage and told the audience, "I hate that beer commercial lead-guitar shit". He introduced his next song as being titled "The War on Drugs Can Suck My Fucking Dick".[37][38]
On September 17, 2014, Kozelek wrote a statement on the Sun Kil Moon website[39] which Pitchfork later reported on September 29, 2014, as being an apology to The War on Drugs.[40] On September 30, 2014, Kozelek made another post in response to Pitchfork and Stereogum in which he clarified that his statement had in fact not been an apology to the band, saying that he does not "apologize for stage banter". He also challenged the band to let him join them onstage at their upcoming concert on October 6, 2014, at The Fillmore to play a "hilarious song" Kozelek wrote entitled "War On Drugs: Suck My Cock/Sun Kil Moon: Go Fuck Yourself".[41] On October 6, 2014, Sun Kil Moon released "War on Drugs: Suck My Cock", a seven-minute "diss track" targeting The War on Drugs and featuring commentary about the Hopscotch and Ottawa festival incidents. However, in the song Kozelek also targeted Indy Week journalist Allison Hussey, calling her "some spoiled bitch rich kid blogger brat".[42][43]
On October 28, 2014, War on Drugs frontman Adam Granduciel revealed in an interview that he was contacted privately by Kozelek to join them at The Fillmore before Kozelek posted the challenge online to the public, but that Kozelek responded that "the offer has expired" before Granduciel had time to respond. On October 30, 2014, Sun Kil Moon released a second diss track entitled "Adam Granofsky Blues", a spoken word track featuring Kozelek mockingly reciting Granduciel's comments.[44][45]
Laura Snapes
In 2015, Kozelek was interviewed by journalist Laura Snapes over e-mail. She had approached friends of Kozelek for supporting interviews, but later learned that Kozelek previously asked journalists not to do so when writing a piece on him. On June 1, 2015, Kozelek improvised a song about Snapes during a concert at the Barbican in London, performing to an audience of 1,900 people. He told the audience, "There's this girl named Laura Snapes, she's a journalist. She's out to do a story on me, has been contacting a lot of people who know me." The song included derogatory lyrics, including, "Laura Snapes totally wants to fuck me / get in line, bitch ... Laura Snapes totally wants to have my babies." Snapes wrote about her experience in a piece for The Guardian.[46][47]
Sexual misconduct allegations
In August 2020, in an article published by Pitchfork, Kozelek was alleged to have engaged in sexual misconduct with a woman named Sarah Golden, as well as two other unidentified women.[48][49] On August 17, Kozelek denied the allegations against him and stated that he has retained a law firm to "investigate and pursue as necessary any claims against anyone participating to defame me".[50]
On March 25, 2021, Pitchfork published another article on seven more women who accused Kozelek of sexual misconduct. Several of these women alleged that, in separate incidents, Kozelek brought them back to a hotel room, promising them that the encounter would not be sexual, before later emerging from the bathroom unclothed or in underwear and then masturbating. He then allegedly groped some of these women despite repeated requests to stop, then repeatedly pressured them to have sexual intercourse with him until they either left or had sex with him. Pitchfork reported that Kozelek denied the allegations in a letter issued to them by his attorney.[51]
In August 2022, he announced two concerts in Hungary and Slovenia after an almost two-year absence from live performance.[52][53]
Sun Kil Moon is an American folk rock act from San Francisco, California, founded in 2002. Initially a continuation of the defunct indie rock band Red House Painters, Sun Kil Moon is now the primary recording moniker of vocalist and guitarist Mark Kozelek. The project is named after the Korean super flyweight boxer Sung-Kil Moon.
Ghosts of the Great Highway is the debut studio album by San Francisco quartet Sun Kil Moon, led by Red House Painters' founder Mark Kozelek, who composed all of the lyrics and music on this album. The other members are Anthony Koutsos, Geoff Stanfield, and Tim Mooney.
Tiny Cities is the second studio album by American indie folk act Sun Kil Moon, released November 1, 2005 on Caldo Verde Records. The album features the same lineup as the band's debut, Ghosts of the Great Highway (2003). This album was chosen as one of Amazon.com's Top 100 Editor's Picks of 2005.
Caldo Verde Records is a San Francisco–based indie rock and folk record label founded by Red House Painters and Sun Kil Moon frontman Mark Kozelek in 2005. The label primarily features releases by Kozelek and Sun Kil Moon, but has also released albums by Jesu, Corrina Repp, Retribution Gospel Choir, and Kath Bloom. Photographer Nyree Watts is the commissioned artist for Caldo Verde, as almost all of the releases on the label feature her photography.
April is the third studio album by American folk rock band Sun Kil Moon, released in the US on April 1, 2008 through Caldo Verde Records, and on April 18, 2008 in Japan via P-Vine Records. The album was recorded at Hyde Street Studios in San Francisco and Well Recording in Seattle during a seven-month stretch from spring to late summer in 2007. The album was produced and written by Mark Kozelek. Will Oldham, Ben Gibbard and Eric Pollard lend their backing vocals throughout the album. The album also comes with a bonus disc of four alternate recordings.
The Finally LP is a compilation album by Mark Kozelek. The CD was released on December 9, 2008 via Caldo Verde Records. From the press release:
Over the years, Mark Kozelek of Sun Kil Moon and his earlier band, Red House Painters, has gained well deserved praise for his extraordinary songwriting. At the same time, he has developed a parallel reputation for his unique covers of other people's material. Many of these tracks were recorded for tribute albums that are now unavailable. Caldo Verde Records has now collected them in a cohesive, 10-song CD titled The Finally LP.
Red House Painters were an American rock band formed in Atlanta, Georgia in 1988, before relocating to San Francisco, California. They were one of the most prominent acts associated with the slowcore/sadcore subgenre. The band was formed by primary songwriter Mark Kozelek and drummer Anthony Koutsos. Together, the pair moved to San Francisco, California, where they were joined by bassist Jerry Vessel. Guitarists Gorden Mack and Phil Carney both performed with the band during separate six-year tenures.
Admiral Fell Promises is the fourth studio album by American indie folk act Sun Kil Moon, released on July 13, 2010 on Caldo Verde Records. Despite being released under the Sun Kil Moon moniker, the album features Mark Kozelek performing solo on acoustic nylon-string guitar. Along with the standard CD release, the album was also released on vinyl in October 2010, which includes liner notes, lyrics, and two bonus tracks recorded live in Saint-Malo, France.
Among the Leaves is the fifth studio album by American indie folk act Sun Kil Moon, released on May 29, 2012 on Caldo Verde Records. Similar to Sun Kil Moon's previous studio album, Admiral Fell Promises (2010), the album is predominantly performed by founding member Mark Kozelek on a nylon-string guitar.
Perils from the Sea is a collaborative studio album by American singer-songwriter Mark Kozelek and multi-instrumentalist Jimmy LaValle, released on April 30, 2013 on Caldo Verde Records.
Live at Phoenix Public House Melbourne is a live album by American singer-songwriter Mark Kozelek, released on February 19, 2013 on Caldo Verde Records. Recorded on June 11, 2012, and released on the same day as Kozelek's covers album, Like Rats (2013), the album predominantly features tracks from the then-recently released Sun Kil Moon album, Among the Leaves (2012).
Mark Kozelek & Desertshore is a collaborative studio album by American singer-songwriter Mark Kozelek and indie rock band Desertshore, released on August 20, 2013 on Caldo Verde Records. The album was Kozelek's third studio album of 2013.
Benji is the sixth studio album by American indie folk act Sun Kil Moon, released on 11 February 2014 on Caldo Verde Records. Self-produced by primary recording artist Mark Kozelek, the album takes its name from the 1974 film Benji, and was recorded between March and August 2013 at Hyde Street Studios in San Francisco.
Mark Kozelek Sings Christmas Carols is a Christmas album by American singer-songwriter Mark Kozelek. It was released on November 4, 2014, through Kozelek's own record label, Caldo Verde Records.
Live at Biko is a live album by American singer-songwriter Mark Kozelek. It was released on July 1, 2014, through Kozelek's own record label Caldo Verde Records.
Universal Themes is the seventh studio album by American indie folk act Sun Kil Moon, released on June 2, 2015, on Caldo Verde Records.
Jesu / Sun Kil Moon is a collaborative studio album by American indie folk act Sun Kil Moon and British experimental act Jesu, released on January 21, 2016 on Caldo Verde Records and Rough Trade. The album also features guest musicians Will Oldham, members of Low, Rachel Goswell of Slowdive, and Isaac Brock of Modest Mouse. Jesu and Sun Kil Moon including drummer Steve Shelley of Sonic Youth played six shows in February and March 2016 to support the album.
Common as Light and Love Are Red Valleys of Blood is the eighth studio album by the American indie folk act Sun Kil Moon, self-produced by primary recording artist Mark Kozelek. The album was released on 17 February 2017 on Caldo Verde Records. It is a double album and comprises 16 tracks in total, being Sun Kil Moon's longest album to date.
Yellow Kitchen is a collaboration album between American musician and singer Mark Kozelek of Sun Kil Moon and Sean Yeaton, bassist of Parquet Courts, released on June 30, 2017 by Caldo Verde Records, though available for streaming shortly prior to that. Kozelek and Yeaton met at a Dutch festival in summer 2016, and recorded and self-produced Yellow Kitchen from December 2016 to May 2017 in the United States. Guest appearances on the album include Steve Shelley and Jim White on drums and Holly Throsby and Will Oldham on vocals.
I Also Want to Die in New Orleans is the tenth studio album by American band Sun Kil Moon. It was released in March 2019 under Caldo Verde Records.
↑ Slaughter, Matthew. "Mark Kozelek". undertheradarmag.com. Archived from the original on December 26, 2019. Retrieved December 27, 2019. One of the truly great and largely overlooked songwriters of our times, [...]
↑ "Mark Kozelek, I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down". Stereogum. October 6, 2014. Archived from the original on January 30, 2020. Retrieved December 27, 2019. I was convinced he would be discovered posthumously, and eventually recognized as one of the greatest songwriters of his generation, maybe one of the greatest songwriters in the history of American rock music.
↑ "Here's Five: Saddest Songs By Mark Kozelek aka Sun Kil Moon". UnderTheRadarNZ. Archived from the original on December 27, 2019. Retrieved December 27, 2019. He is also responsible for some of the most deeply melancholy music ever recorded, and is, by my reckoning, one of the greatest living American songwriters.
↑ Hawthorne, Marc (September 25, 2007). "Red House Painters: Red House Painters". The A.V. Club. Archived from the original on November 18, 2019. Retrieved September 8, 2020. “[...] a discography that has placed him alongside the greatest songwriters of all time.”
↑ Womack, Andrew (February 20, 2003). "Red House Painters, Retrospective". The Morning News. Archived from the original on January 7, 2021. Retrieved January 5, 2021. "Mark Kozelek is arguably one of the greatest songwriters of all time."
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