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SUN KIL MOON - GHOSTS OF THE GREAT HIGHWAY
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ARTIST:
TITLE:
Ghosts Of The Great Highway
LABEL:
CATNO:
RTRADLP885
STYLE:
FORMAT:
Vinyl record
DESCRIPTION:
2x12" 10 Track LP Originally Released in 2002 - Repressed - Sun Kil Moon is a new band project fronted by Mark Kozelek of the Red House Painters.
Given the composition of Ghosts of the Great Highway, it's difficult to see how it will all turn out in the end, given that Kozelek takes on the roles of singer, songwriter, guitarist and who knows what else, while the band sports two drummers in Anthony Koutsos (also formerly of RHP), and Tim Mooney (from American Music Club and the Toiling Midgets), as well as bassist Geoff Stanfield, who came from the ruins of Black Lab. There's a string trio present on the album, as well as some minimal use of keyboards, but the propulsive sounds here are guitars, drums, and Kozelek's haunted, Neil Young-inflected voice. Fans of RHP's later work, such as Songs for a Blue Guitar, may be prepared for the material here -- but then again, maybe not. There is a decidedly languid pace here that is not as mopey as RHP, and the melodies are more pronounced and out front, purposefully intertwining with the layers of guitars and strings. Lyrically, Kozelek is as obsessed with memory and the romance of it as ever. In "Glenn Tipton," the opening track, Kozelek compares the blows received by Sonny Liston and Cassius Clay to the debated preference by fans for one Judas Priest guitarist (K.K. Downing) over another (Glenn Tipton), and Jim Nabors over Bobby Vinton, and contrasts them with his own memories of his father watching late-night movies on TV, as he observes himself doing the same thing, and finally, with the death of a friend who owned a donut shop. An acoustic guitar is the sole accompaniment that this tune full of non sequiturs needs through its verses, before a 12-string, organic percussion and bass enter the middle. The lyrics may not add up, but they evoke the notion of nostalgia, the ache of time's passage, and the dreams of what might have been. "Carry Me Ohio," with its slowly rung electric guitars, dual tap kits, and stripped-to-the-bone bassline, is a lexicon. Side by side narratives of broken lovers and Kozelek's boyhood years in Ohio turn in on one another, and into the shimmering drift guitars and a limpid pulse. There are two versions of "Salvador Sanchez": one is straight from the Crazy Horse riff book. Kozelek tells a heroic and heartbreaking story of the champion featherweight boxer, the "magic matador," who died at the age of 23 in an auto accident. The guitar solos open and wind, and the drums usher in the great textured feedback in the bridge. "Duk Koo Kim" appeared in a different version from Cameron Crowe's Vinyl Records label earlier this year. Here it's over 14 minutes long; it's a swirling, kaleidoscopic, instrumental with strings, xylophones, guitars, and drums everywhere. It's a dream cycle that has its roots in the most brilliant and dynamic psychedelia, and charts a panoramic vista of lush textures and towering sonic waves. "Si Paloma," with its acoustic guitars piled on top of one another, and mandolins thrown in for good measure, is its mirror image, all bright, sprightly, and shiny, like a full-on mariachi band playing Big Star. The disc closes with another bout of mirror logic in "Pancho Villa." The cut is simply a gorgeous acoustic read of "Salvador Sanchez," given the different arrangement and the placement of Kozelek's voice in the mix -- not to mention his changing accents in the lyrics; it's a different song, hunted and haunted by its predecessor, sending the record off in a mist of myths and legends, where memory is as present as the moment one lives in, and as distant as whatever it took to get there.
The bottom line here is that Kozelek's aesthetic with Sun Kil Moon may not be radically different than his RHP project, but it is moving, graceful, and consciously beautiful.
Given the composition of Ghosts of the Great Highway, it's difficult to see how it will all turn out in the end, given that Kozelek takes on the roles of singer, songwriter, guitarist and who knows what else, while the band sports two drummers in Anthony Koutsos (also formerly of RHP), and Tim Mooney (from American Music Club and the Toiling Midgets), as well as bassist Geoff Stanfield, who came from the ruins of Black Lab. There's a string trio present on the album, as well as some minimal use of keyboards, but the propulsive sounds here are guitars, drums, and Kozelek's haunted, Neil Young-inflected voice. Fans of RHP's later work, such as Songs for a Blue Guitar, may be prepared for the material here -- but then again, maybe not. There is a decidedly languid pace here that is not as mopey as RHP, and the melodies are more pronounced and out front, purposefully intertwining with the layers of guitars and strings. Lyrically, Kozelek is as obsessed with memory and the romance of it as ever. In "Glenn Tipton," the opening track, Kozelek compares the blows received by Sonny Liston and Cassius Clay to the debated preference by fans for one Judas Priest guitarist (K.K. Downing) over another (Glenn Tipton), and Jim Nabors over Bobby Vinton, and contrasts them with his own memories of his father watching late-night movies on TV, as he observes himself doing the same thing, and finally, with the death of a friend who owned a donut shop. An acoustic guitar is the sole accompaniment that this tune full of non sequiturs needs through its verses, before a 12-string, organic percussion and bass enter the middle. The lyrics may not add up, but they evoke the notion of nostalgia, the ache of time's passage, and the dreams of what might have been. "Carry Me Ohio," with its slowly rung electric guitars, dual tap kits, and stripped-to-the-bone bassline, is a lexicon. Side by side narratives of broken lovers and Kozelek's boyhood years in Ohio turn in on one another, and into the shimmering drift guitars and a limpid pulse. There are two versions of "Salvador Sanchez": one is straight from the Crazy Horse riff book. Kozelek tells a heroic and heartbreaking story of the champion featherweight boxer, the "magic matador," who died at the age of 23 in an auto accident. The guitar solos open and wind, and the drums usher in the great textured feedback in the bridge. "Duk Koo Kim" appeared in a different version from Cameron Crowe's Vinyl Records label earlier this year. Here it's over 14 minutes long; it's a swirling, kaleidoscopic, instrumental with strings, xylophones, guitars, and drums everywhere. It's a dream cycle that has its roots in the most brilliant and dynamic psychedelia, and charts a panoramic vista of lush textures and towering sonic waves. "Si Paloma," with its acoustic guitars piled on top of one another, and mandolins thrown in for good measure, is its mirror image, all bright, sprightly, and shiny, like a full-on mariachi band playing Big Star. The disc closes with another bout of mirror logic in "Pancho Villa." The cut is simply a gorgeous acoustic read of "Salvador Sanchez," given the different arrangement and the placement of Kozelek's voice in the mix -- not to mention his changing accents in the lyrics; it's a different song, hunted and haunted by its predecessor, sending the record off in a mist of myths and legends, where memory is as present as the moment one lives in, and as distant as whatever it took to get there.
The bottom line here is that Kozelek's aesthetic with Sun Kil Moon may not be radically different than his RHP project, but it is moving, graceful, and consciously beautiful.
PRICE:
£22.99
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Mint (M)
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Mint (M)
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Last FM Information on Sun Kil Moon
Please note the information is done on a artist keyword match and data is provided by LastFM.
Sun Kil Moon is the current project of San Francisco, California-based singer-songwriter Mark Kozelek, best known for his previous band, Red House Painters. Sun Kil Moon sees Kozelek undertake all the writing, composing, singing and guitar playing accompanied by Anthony Koutsos (also an ex-member of RHP) on drums, and Geoff Stanfield on bass. Tim Mooney also played drums with Sun Kil Moon until his death in June 2012. The band is named after Korean bantamweight boxer Sung-Kil Moon.
Following the dissolution of Red House Painters after the tumultuous release of their last album Old Ramon, Kozelek released a handful of solo recordings before forming Sun Kil Moon in 2002. Their debut album, Ghosts of the Great Highway, was written entirely by Kozelek, and released by Jetset Records in 2003. It is an album centered around the theme of memory, connecting Kozelek's haunting memories with the true-life stories of deceased boxers, such as featherweight champion Salvador Sanchez and flyweight Pancho Villa. Kozelek's music with Sun Kil Moon spans genres such as the simple acoustic country-folk of "Glenn Tipton" to the heavy, Crazy Horse-esque rock of "Salvador Sanchez" and the light-hearted "Lily And Parrots," onto the fourteen minute psychedelic tour de force, "Duk Koo Kim" (another homage to a deceased boxer) and the beautiful and haunting "Gentle Moon" and "Carry Me Ohio." Kozelek's voice is now more flexible and less downcast than in his work with Red House Painters, resulting in a resonant and often beautiful album.
The band's follow-up Tiny Cities was released on November 1st 2005 on Kozelek's own Caldo Verde label. The album covers eleven songs by the indie/alternative group Modest Mouse and, in its sparse production and spare instrumentation, is more or less a solo work by Kozelek.
Kozelek is known for covering songs from bands not normally associated to his genre of slow, introspective music. They are more than traditional covers, as they are extensively re-worked and re-interpreted to the point that they are often not recognizable to the originals, and take on a different meaning despite the lyrics remaining intact word-for-word. Kozelek's 2000 solo debut Rock 'n' Roll Singer featured covers of songs by AC/DC and John Denver.
His solo 2001 follow-up, What's Next to the Moon was an entire album of AC/DC songs done in his typically languid, hypnotically melancholy acoustic style. Even further back, Songs For A Blue Guitar, the 1996 Red House Painters album, featured covers of Yes's Long Distance Runaround, Paul McCartney & Wings's Silly Love Songs and The Cars' "All Mixed Up". Tiny Cities is very much in this tradition, taking the often frenetic, noisy songs of Modest Mouse and transforming them into haunting, acoustic guitar-dominated midtempo ballads filled with a deep-seated, haunting melancholy. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.