In that spirit, this book of dispatches between Mark Kozelek – one of my favorite correspondents on his records with Red House Painters and Sun Kil Moon – and actor Kevin Corrigan is a greatest hits of daily, emotional reporting: the rituals, trials, memories and discoveries of two friends on the front lines of their work, holding back nothing in wit and passionately honest judgement." -DAVID FRICKE, MOJO, Sirius XM Radio "A great song is like a letter from abroad, a sharing of experience and lesson from a trusted source on another path. Viva Kozelek! Viva Corrigan!” -CAMERON CROWE Like his best music, the layers swirl and build and suddenly you’re in a world you never want to leave. Now Mark expands his horizons yet again with a mesmerizing extended correspondence with actor Kevin Corrigan. From the soul-baring beauty of his songwriting and performing, to the sonic landscapes of his albums with Red House Painters and Sun Kil Moon and beyond, Kozelek creates a mood of depth and feeling like no one else. “Following the creative path of Mark Kozelek is one of the great joys of the last several decades. The standard ghost-written rock memoir can never approach this kind of honest intimacy.” -DEAN WAREHAM (Galaxie 500, Luna) Kozelek and Corrigan are not trying to impress Zhao Tao (A Correspondence) Book Releases - June 30, 2020, Caldo Verde Records PRE-ORDER: The Panther and The Honey Badger » PRE-ORDER: Zhao Tao » “This unusual double memoir is filled with many pleasures, most of all the pleasure of eavesdropping on a conversation between two artists, as they reveal, almost in real time, the daily rhythms and trials of being a touring, working performer, the effort it takes to get on stage day and night. This is an album (an EP by today’s bloated standards, but why would you want to pad this to 20 songs?) I’ll play when I’m in a certain mood, but I don’t imagine it’s an album that will change anyone’s life.The Panther and The Honey Badger (A Correspondence) The production is typically both lush and sparse, which highlights the beauty of both. Kozelek is a beautiful guitar player and has a pretty voice, though not much range in the way he uses it. The cover of Ed’s Redeeming Qualities’ “My Friend Bob” stands out for me, both because I hadn’t thought of Ed’s Redeeming Qualities in about two decades and because it adds some humor to what could otherwise be a rather maudlin album. “Send in the Clowns” is still sentimental dreck no matter how you play it (unless Sideshow Bob is involved). “If You Want Blood” is certainly far from AC/DC’s version, but nothing much is accomplished by playing it this way once we stop laughing at the idea of a folky cover of a metal song, and for most of us that was quite a long time ago. Covering Palace’s “New Partner” as though it’s a Nick Drake or Leonard Cohen song really isn’t changing it all that much, however nice it is. He lets you believe “ and getting out of school meant getting out of hand” for a good few seconds before the brutal chorus: “ Was this your celebrated summer?”Īside from this track, though, nothing here is really essential. Mould was always a beautiful songwriter under the distortion and feedback and Kozelek captures the resentful wistfulness and angry irony of the song perfectly. Years ago, I figured it would be Bob Mould, but now I’m hoping for Kozelek. I’ve been waiting years for someone to do an album of acoustic Hüskers covers. Kozelek’s cover of Hüsker Dü’s “Celebrated Summer” is beautiful. That’s not to say it isn’t worth buying it’s worth buying on the strength of one of its tracks alone, even if the others weren’t worth anything. Kozelek’s known for remaking songs when he covers them, but the songs on this album are far less of a reach the only track that even aspires to be as far from his milieu of hipster cool as John Denver was is “Send in the Clowns,” and the only track that aspires to go as far from his gentle sound as AC/DC was is “If You Want Blood.” I feel I should now find the irony in “the,” but sadly the final irony is that “finally” implies that this is something we’ve been waiting for, something essential, whereas this is merely good. Calling a cover album by a guy who made his name with John Denver and AC/DC covers “Finally” may be less intentional, though I can’t say what the motives are. Calling a CD- and digital- only release “LP” is a deliberate one, though it does evoke my nostalgia by keeping to 10 songs, as albums often did in the pre-digital days. There’s irony in the title of this album.
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