Sunday, March 7, 2010

Goodbye Sparklehorse RIP Mark Linkous

Seems these days alot of my favorite musicians are dying, first Vic Chesnutt committed suicide, then Jay Reatard OD'ed on booze and coke and now Mark Linkous aka Sparklehorse has killed himself as well, Sparklehorse was one of those twisted, cracked and warped soundtracks to late nights, the music was mellow and eerie and beautiful all at the same time and Mr. Linkous was known as a bit of a recluse and social misfit... back in 2000 or so i went to see Wilco, the greatest version of Wilco with the now deceased Jay Bennett in it and it was a small club and a couple of us had got there early and between bands out shuffled this guy with a laptop and drum machine and guitar, he sits down in an old wooden chair and hooks up some vintage mic and starts playing and i look at my friends and gasp and say this is fucking Sparklehorse, maybe 6 people in the whole place knew who he was and he played 4 or 5 songs, mumbled thanks and shuffled off with his gear, he would've been great playing in some big city dive as the soundtrack to a David Lynch flick as the crowd smoked those last desperate cigarettes before dawn, drinking to drive back the sun as the boys and girls wiped at their noses and shuffled back and forth to the bathroom with glassy eyes and knowing looks. So long Mark Linkous.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

it seems since the beginning of civilization that there is a direct correlation between "talent" and "self-destruction"...

Anonymous said...

Sparklehorse did a great version of Vic Chestnutt's West of Rome.

this is really sad news.