A Solo Acoustic Performance: Mark Kozelek @ Great American Music Hall

Description

For many, the introduction to musician Mark Kozelek's artistry came in 1992 when after nearly a minute of whispering guitar, a pristine voice rose out, haunting and inhabiting the air it traveled. Greeting listeners with interlocking images of lost childhood and the depravity of aging, these initial seconds of "24" marked the entrance unto the romantic, reflective realm of Red House Painters - Kozelek's first musical effort to find label support. With each deliberate note and every articulated word, a feeling hung, suspended in the memory of a talented songwriter who could, through an unshakable, natural devotion to lyrics and guitarsmanship, pull an audience into the very moment of his inspiration.
Underpinning these ruminations are lucid pictures of the past that recapture old relationships, formative places and tumultuous experiences. From his riverside youth of gleaning classic-guitar magic in Massillon, Ohio, to late-adolescent participation in local bands, Kozelek used music as a way to comprehend his life. On the cusp of adulthood, Kozelek, along with band mates in the trio God Forbid (an all-too-apt moniker that continues to grace his publishing efforts), headed to Atlanta. Over the next couple years, big-city life cast off the three members in different directions and Kozelek was left working odd jobs in a new location. Soon, a kindred spirit was found in drummer Anthony Koutsos and the kindling for Red House Painters was halfway there. With a connection to chords deepening and heightened awareness of Southern perspective, the pair plodded westward in 1988 to San Francisco, California, in pursuit of a more open-minded musical scene. Within a year of relocating, they united with bassist Jerry Vessel and guitarist Gordon Mack to form the first full incarnation of Red House Painters. As singer and guitarist, Kozelek would craft the melodies and lyrics, next entreating the band to fill in their own elements. Together, their Bay Area performances garnered the attention of Mark Eitzel, then figurehead of San Francisco-based American Music Club. His support spurred the Painters' six-track cassette across the pond into the sonic space of Ivo Watts-Russell, creator and owner of the luminary 4AD label. Enthralled by the undeniably beautiful music before him, Watts-Russell immediately signed the Painters and released the demo-turned-debut LP Down Colorful Hill in 1992, enchantingly setting the tone for what sounded ahead in Kozelek's musical career.
With nascent creative efforts still warming their new imprint, the band retreated to the studio to cut another 22 songs. 1993 was fortunate to see the split release of sister eponymous opuses, familiarly known to fans as the Rollercoaster and Bridge albums for the images that seal the sepia-spun covers. Tingling spines with rippling guitars, reverb-ebbing vocals and dizzying distortion, Rollercoaster thrilled the growing fan base. Where Down Colorful Hill was a less-than-an-hour glimpse, a window into the deep Painters' psyche, the half-hour-longer, 14-song (13 proper songs with two versions of "Mistress," evenly spaced at positions four and 11 in the track listing) Rollercoaster enhanced the entrancing songwriter's vision, illuminating tales of lost people and settings with unique reverence.
Rounding out that early burst of outputted material were eight songs, also released in 1993, which make up the christened-by-fans Bridge. Starting with a laugh, the long-playing album fittingly follows the same darkly introspective journey as the two previous albums before presenting new tricks in song selection as well as sonic experimentation. Their sequel to "New Jersey," a song from Rollercoaster, and covers of Paul Simon's "I Am a Rock" and United States' national anthem, "Star Spangled Banner," showed that the band were as willing to rework their own previously released songs as those of other artists. Already, Kozelek's live performances, solo or with accompaniment, frequently included covers ranging from down-tempo versions of Blue Oyster Cult's "Don't Fear the Reaper" to drawling takes on Neil Young's "Albuquerque." Despite being characterized by uncomfortable, self-deprecatingly humored interviews and live performances, Red House Painters very quickly had fans mesmerized. In sync with the aching honesty of the band's music, Kozelek held back little in the limelight, often chiding acoustics and ex-girlfriends in the same breath. Not always pleasant between-song banter was often forgiven because fans knew that soon replacing it would be a pain-imbued music that resonated with beauty.
As if knowingly drifting away from the early Painters' sound, Bridge showcases a denouement of sorts in the fiercely poignant "Uncle Joe." An archetypal Kozelek masterpiece, replete with escalating desolation and elusive promise, the song goes so far as to weave the band's name into the crescendoing lyrics.
But, clearly, a directional change was imminent. It wasn't so much that the band needed to try something new as all three Red House Painters' efforts met with critical acclaim, but rather the artistry of the band members was growing and striving to encompass different sounds. The three-song Shock Me, issued in 1994, surprised fans and critics alike by cloaking Kiss' Ace Frehley tune into something entirely of their own design, exuding a marked confidence not felt on previous albums. A year later, this newfound assurance inspired the pared-down mellifluous, folksy acoustics of Ocean Beach, a transformation that brought Kozelek's once-buried vocals to the front of the mix. In addition, the inclusion of intra-Painters banter seemingly invites the listener into the studio, tearing down yet another barrier between artist and audience. In fact, Ocean Beach is the first Painters' album to include pertinent recording information, outside of mere song titles, in its liner notes. While arguably their most consistent, cohesive album to date, the nine songs of Ocean Beach signified a slight drifting away from the dream-distorted aesthetic of Watts-Russell's imprint. After just three years of being on the 4AD roster, tensions between Kozelek and Watts-Russell were coming to a head.
Between the recording and release of Ocean Beach, the last musical collection that the original band lineup would produce, the group's members grew divergent, choosing to pursue individual projects. Mack altogether left Red House Painters and would later be replaced by guitarist Phil Carney. Meanwhile, having already co-arranged songwriter Richard Buckner's Unreleased LP a year prior, Kozelek produced Demerol and River of Darkness, two musical ventures from neighboring songstress Hannah Marcus. In-studio time proved too much a temptation for the ever-prolific Kozelek and he soon crept, with nary a Painter, into a remote Northern Californian recording shop, ready to approach music-making differently.
Sparks of spontaneity shower Songs for a Blue Guitar, a wily, intimate bedroom reverie that fought off Kozelek's earlier tendencies toward careful recording and even-more-meticulous rerecording. Ennui at bay and artistic integrity unclouded, Songs revealed a looser Kozelek who was less bound by a newcomer's uncertainty than his nostalgia-clinging lyrics might suggest. Whether aglow with shimmering guitar solos or the crunching chords that electrify Cars' cover "All Mixed Up," the album glistens with new mystery - one that self-knowingly harkens back to Down Colorful Hill (in the lyrics to "Priest Alley Song") while treading ahead to rockier, rawer textures. These moves were not met without obstacle, however, and ultimately severed the Painters' ties to 4AD. As the story goes, a lengthy solo at the heart of "Make Like Paper," an abstractly craggy aural epic that chimes in just over 12 minutes, was the main source of contention between Watts-Russell and Kozelek. And when no compromise seemed possible between the two artists, Kozelek found Supreme Recordings, a subsidiary imprint of Island that was owned by film director John Hughes. And so, by the time Songs for a Blue Guitar arrived in stores during the summer of 1996, all signs indicated that Kozelek was going solo.
But, any question marks left in the wake of Songs regarding the future of Red House Painters were quickly erased as the band (with strummer Carney) began recording Old Ramon in late 1997. By early 1998, studio needs were drawing to a close and the sixth full-length feature was slated to drop in the summer of that year. However, said plans were thrust into chaos when Supreme Recordings fell victim to the Polygram-Universal merger, leaving the rights to Old Ramon tied to a label that had no means to release it. As the album sat silently, enduring the throes of bureaucratic red tape, Kozelek kept himself busy.
While negotiating to buy back the rights to the band's music, the restless singer promoted himself extensively, contributing to compilations and benefit albums and even dabbling a bit in cinema. As good terms were reestablished between Kozelek and Watts-Russell, the two organized Retrospective, a double-disc set culling together 25 versions, including demos and live recordings, of 4AD-era Painters' songs, along with a couple of until-then-unreleased instrumentals thrown in for good measure. And though little new material surfaced, longtime fans were again enraptured by a familiarly chilling back catalogue and were all too eager to support the release of something bearing the Red House Painters' name.

Biography by Rayna Khaitan