One of the founding fathers of Seattle
grunge
, the former vocalist of
Screamig Trees
and
Queens Of The Stone Age
, the buddy of
Kurt Cobain and Josh Homme
and the fantastically gifted performer of
tripped-out, bluesy rock ballads
gave one of the best concerts of 2012 on
A38
, and chances are this time will be the same…
Mark Lanegan
and his band will showcase their new album Phantom Radio, released on October 21.
Mark Lanegan
’s oeuvre is almost contemporary rock itself. Born in 1967, the singer-songwriter is one of the greatest figures of his genre, who has inspired cultic reverence, which in his case is by no means an exaggerated statement. His unique voice, equally reminiscent of
Tom Waits
and
Nick Cave
, his more than compromise-free lifestyle, his QOTSA membership, his unbelievably high number of guest appearances and collaborations, and his characteristic rock ballads, which are sad as well as angry with a tinge of melancholic blues, have made him an iconic performer.




Starting out in the mid-‘80s with Screaming Heads and later working with Kurt Cobain, Lanegan became more widely known around 2000 when Josh Homme invited him - with many of his ideals - to the recording sessions of Rated R, which landed Lanegan in Queens Of The Stone Age for quite a while. In the meantime, he also continued his solo career (started together with Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic), and due to his amazing voice he’s been asked to make quite a few guest appearances, which in return resulted in a quite magical list of collaborators on Lanegan’s own solo records. His albums feature basically everyone who’s ever played guitar or shot heroin in the US: Layne Staley of Alice In Chains, Ben Shepherd of Soundgarden, Josh Homme and Nick Oliveri, PJ Harvey, Duff McKagan from Guns N' Roses, Michel McCready from Pearl Jam, and the list goes on.




It was all the more surprising when in the second half of the 2000s he said yes to a request of the most nonsensical kind. He was asked by
Isobel Campbell
, the singer-cellist of
Belle & Sebastian
, the Glasgow pop band famous for its mellow sound, to work with her on her album - and chemistry kicked in between the two artists living and working thousands of kilometers from each other. Campbell wrote the songs, Lanegan sang, and their seemingly astounding cooperation not only did not end in disaster, but it inspired another two records and joint gigs. The world beyond grunge and stoner, most notably electronic musicians in Britain, finally discovered Lanegan’s unique voice (which Campbell said reminded her of her cello). His dark, demonic voice is there swirling in the simmering ballads of
UNKLE, Soulsavers
and
Tim Simenon
of
Bomb The Bass
, and last year even Moby contacted him with a collaboration in mind. Meanwhile, he hasn’t forgotten about his rock roots: this year he contributed his vocals to two tracks on Earth’s new album Primitive and Deadly that came out on September 2.




Lanegan also appeared in the gangster movie Lawless, released in Hungary two years ago. The score for the film was written by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, and Lanegan sings – with the usually amazing intensity – two super powerful covers, Velvet Undergroud’s White Light/White Heat and Captain Beefheart’s Sure 'Nuff 'N Yes I Do.




It wasn’t only electronic artists who noticed the capabilities of Lanegan: Lanegan’s eyes were opened to the possibilities in electronic music, too. His more recent records feature some pretty cool effects - of course they are all very tasteful, and reveal that Lanegan is no longer the expressly guitar-centered grunge fighter he was for decades. A characteristically balladic-melancholic, pulsating rock bordering on demonic and dark, is the determining sound on his 2013 cover album – its first track was penned by
Chelsea Wolfe
, who played on A 38 in August - and his new record Phantom Radio that was released on October 21. Naturally, both materials are dominated by Lanegan’s crushing, yet captivating voice:
“the voice of grunge”
. In 2012 Lanegan played one of the best concerts of the year on A38, and it is highly likely that the Phanom Radio tour will be much the same.