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Mark Kozelek - Mark Kozelek

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Mark Kozelek Mark Kozelek Mark Kozelek Mark Kozelek Mark Kozelek Mark Kozelek Mark Kozelek Mark Kozelek Mark Kozelek Mark Kozelek Mark Kozelek Mark Kozelek Mark Kozelek Mark Kozelek Mark Kozelek Mark Kozelek Mark Kozelek Mark Kozelek Mark Kozelek Mark Kozelek Mark Kozelek Mark Kozelek Mark Kozelek Mark Kozelek Mark Kozelek Mark Kozelek Mark Kozelek Mark Kozelek Mark Kozelek Mark Kozelek Mark Kozelek Mark Kozelek Mark Kozelek Mark Kozelek Mark Kozelek Mark...

Mark Kozelek with Donny McCaslin and Jim White - "Day in America" ft. Kevin Corrigan

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As we all know at this point, Mark Kozelek is never not recording music, hence the recent announcement of a new collaborative album with Blackstar saxophonist/flautist Donny McCaslin and drummer/previous collaborator Jim White. Mark has a solo album dropping in May, as well as a Sun Kil Moon album in November, so he doesn't plan for this collab to come out before 2019.

However, we already have the 15-minute-long lead single, "Day in America," which makes ridiculously timely commentary on the Valentine's Day shooting in Florida. Despite the unfortunate suggestion in the song's opening seconds that Sandy Hook is a high school, Mark's sentiments on the subject are respectable. Even his eye-for-an-eye vision of justice is hard to fault in the face of such atrocity. You certainly can't say the man's not doing his part to combat the normalization of gun violence. But, as is often the case, Mark's lyrics stray from the topic at hand. (Let's just not talk about the part when he confuses Bill Evans with Bob Evans, OK?)

The instrumental is quite progressive and heads in all sorts of interesting directions, as well; closing with a monologue from actor Kevin Corrigan as he reflects on the tragedy. You can listen to the song below or download it by clicking here.

-Austen

Mark Kozelek - "This Is My Town" / "My Love for You Is Undying"

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Last month in his annual holiday letter, Mark Kozelek announced not one, but TWO new Sun Kil Moon albums that were in their final stages and would be released in 2018. The first of these is titled simply after the man himself and comes May 11 through Mark's Caldo Verde imprint. Along with the album's details come – again – not one, but TWO new singles, which clock in at over 20 minutes on their own. So they're already living up to the title of Mark Kozelek.

As stated in the year-end message, this batch of songs was recorded in hotel rooms by Mark alone, so we're in for a more modest and intimate project than, say, Common as Light. Also unlike that album, this new one will consist primarily of electric guitar and voice, with Steve Shelley contributing drums to just one track. Though there shouldn't have been any doubt, the Koz is still on his own level when it comes to crafting lovely guitar melodies, and it seems with every passing year his talk-singing matches that of Lou Reed more and more. Without spoiling too much about the storytelling of these two pieces, I'm gonna have to give the edge to "My Love for You Is Undying," which finds Mark flipping a few awkward and unpleasant encounters into something life-affirming. Its final verse is a highlight, featuring a callback to everyone's favorite Benji meme (that doesn't quite land with Mark) and a moment when he gets a little carried away with the end rhyme.

-Austen

Mark Kozelek with Ben Boye and Jim White - "The Black Butterfly"

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Here's the second single from Mark Kozelek's upcoming collaborative album with Ben Boye and Jim White, which will apparently contain the Koz's sixth and seventh discs of 2017. Lyrically, "The Black Butterfly" is a step up from the previously released "House Cat," with Mark spending the first portion of the song conveying a dream he had about Elliott Smith. Then the track gets Beefheartian with an off-kilter, seemingly improvised section; though after hearing Jim's drumming on the Yellow Kitchen cut "Daffodils" (and considering his free-form work with the Dirty Three), I can't say that's really out of left field.

I'm digging the dark vibe of this song overall, and am just curious at this point to hear how the whole album will come together. A full stream will go live on Sun Kil Moon's site on October 1, along with an interview about the project with producer Tony Visconti.