Sparklehorse
Encyclopedia
Sparklehorse was an American
indie rock
band led by the singer and multi-instrumentalist Mark Linkous
.
(1995) featuring Bob Rupe
of the Silos and Cracker, was a modest college radio success. In 1996, while touring Europe with Radiohead
shortly after the album's release, Linkous consumed a combination of anti-depressants, valium, alcohol
, and heroin in a London
hotel room. Unconscious and with his legs pinned beneath him for almost fourteen hours, the resulting potassium
build up caused his heart to stop for several minutes after his body was lifted up. The ensuing surgery almost caused him to lose the use of both legs
and left him wheelchair
-bound for six months.
Good Morning Spider
(1998) was recorded following this incident. Critics have conjectured that Linkous's brush with death inspired the sombre tone of the album, though Linkous stated that much of the material on GMS had already been written. One song which did result from it is "St. Mary", which is dedicated to the nurses at the eponymous hospital in Paddington
where Linkous recuperated.
2001 saw the release of It's a Wonderful Life
, featuring appearances by Tom Waits
, PJ Harvey
, Bob Rupe
, Vic Chesnutt
, Nina Persson
and Dave Fridmann
. Whereas much of Vivadixie... and Spider were recorded solely by Linkous on his Virginia
farm, the new album was a more collaborative work. Linkous expressed his satisfaction with the overall sound of It's a Wonderful Life, while also claiming that he would have preferred to include more experimental and instrumental material.
On September 25, 2006, Sparklehorse released their fourth album, Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain
, collaborating with DJ Danger Mouse, Christian Fennesz
, and Steven Drozd
. This album featured the radio release "Don't Take My Sunshine Away" and a remastered version of "Shade And Honey", which Linkous originally wrote for Alessandro Nivola
to sing in the 2003 movie Laurel Canyon
, as well as a virtually unchanged re-release of "Morning Hollow," the bonus track from It's a Wonderful Life.
In 2008, Sparklehorse recorded a cover of the song "Jack's Obsession," from Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas for the official compilation album Nightmare Revisited
. In 2009, Sparklehorse teamed up with Danger Mouse
and David Lynch
in the project Dark Night of the Soul
.
In 2009, Linkous teamed up with electronic ambient-music
artist Christian Fennesz
to create In The Fishtank 15
, a wafting album EP of dreamy atmospherics and glacially beautiful experimentation. The last four live shows, Linkous did together with Fennesz during a European tour that was held during October 2009.
Joe Tangari describes Linkous's songs as "defiantly surrealist...with all manner of references to smiling babies, organ music, birds, and celestial bodies. In fact, some of the lyrics are so surreal that it's hard to imagine they're even metaphor
s for anything." Many of these references are literary or from a variety of rock music sources.
Linkous committed suicide in Knoxville, Tennessee
, on March 6, 2010, thus ending the band's 15-year-long run.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
indie rock
Indie rock
Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. Indie rock is extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include lo-fi, post-rock, math rock, indie pop, dream pop, noise rock, space rock, sadcore, riot grrrl and emo, among others...
band led by the singer and multi-instrumentalist Mark Linkous
Mark Linkous
Mark Linkous was an American singer, songwriter and musician, best known as leader of Sparklehorse. He was also known for his collaborations with such notable artists as Tom Waits, PJ Harvey, Daniel Johnston, Radiohead, Black Francis, Julian Casablancas, Nina Persson, Sean Terrington Wright, David...
.
History
Sparklehorse's first album, VivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplotVivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot
Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot is the 1995 debut album by Sparklehorse. The album was largely recorded with musicians from Cracker, for which Mark Linkous worked at the time as guitar tech, roadie, and sometimes collaborator...
(1995) featuring Bob Rupe
Bob Rupe
Bob Rupe, born in Detroit, Michigan on September 16, 1956, was co-founder of the NYC based indie band Silos. He was lead guitarist, writer and producer for the band from 1985-1991. Bob Rupe was also a member of the indie supergroup Gutterball in 1992. Bassist for Cracker from 1994-2000...
of the Silos and Cracker, was a modest college radio success. In 1996, while touring Europe with Radiohead
Radiohead
Radiohead are an English rock band from Abingdon, Oxfordshire, formed in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke , Jonny Greenwood , Ed O'Brien , Colin Greenwood and Phil Selway .Radiohead released their debut single "Creep" in 1992...
shortly after the album's release, Linkous consumed a combination of anti-depressants, valium, alcohol
Alcohol
In chemistry, an alcohol is an organic compound in which the hydroxy functional group is bound to a carbon atom. In particular, this carbon center should be saturated, having single bonds to three other atoms....
, and heroin in a London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
hotel room. Unconscious and with his legs pinned beneath him for almost fourteen hours, the resulting potassium
Potassium
Potassium is the chemical element with the symbol K and atomic number 19. Elemental potassium is a soft silvery-white alkali metal that oxidizes rapidly in air and is very reactive with water, generating sufficient heat to ignite the hydrogen emitted in the reaction.Potassium and sodium are...
build up caused his heart to stop for several minutes after his body was lifted up. The ensuing surgery almost caused him to lose the use of both legs
Paralysis
Paralysis is loss of muscle function for one or more muscles. Paralysis can be accompanied by a loss of feeling in the affected area if there is sensory damage as well as motor. A study conducted by the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation, suggests that about 1 in 50 people have been diagnosed...
and left him wheelchair
Wheelchair
A wheelchair is a chair with wheels, designed to be a replacement for walking. The device comes in variations where it is propelled by motors or by the seated occupant turning the rear wheels by hand. Often there are handles behind the seat for someone else to do the pushing...
-bound for six months.
Good Morning Spider
Good Morning Spider
-Track listing:All songs by Mark Linkous, except where stated.#"Pig" – 2:22#"Painbirds" – 3:50#"Saint Mary" – 3:59#"Good Morning Spider" – 1:09 #"Sick of Goodbyes" – 3:32...
(1998) was recorded following this incident. Critics have conjectured that Linkous's brush with death inspired the sombre tone of the album, though Linkous stated that much of the material on GMS had already been written. One song which did result from it is "St. Mary", which is dedicated to the nurses at the eponymous hospital in Paddington
Paddington
Paddington is a district within the City of Westminster, in central London, England. Formerly a metropolitan borough, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965...
where Linkous recuperated.
2001 saw the release of It's a Wonderful Life
It's a Wonderful Life (album)
It's a Wonderful Life is the third album by Virginian indie rock group Sparklehorse, released in 2001. The album features appearances by Tom Waits, PJ Harvey, John Parish, Nina Persson, Vic Chesnutt, and Dave Fridmann.-Track listing:...
, featuring appearances by Tom Waits
Tom Waits
Thomas Alan "Tom" Waits is an American singer-songwriter, composer, and actor. Waits has a distinctive voice, described by critic Daniel Durchholz as sounding "like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car."...
, PJ Harvey
PJ Harvey
Polly Jean Harvey is an English musician, singer-songwriter, composer and occasional artist. Primarily known as a vocalist and guitarist, she is also proficient with a wide range of instruments including piano, organ, bass, saxophone, and most recently, the autoharp.Harvey began her career in...
, Bob Rupe
Bob Rupe
Bob Rupe, born in Detroit, Michigan on September 16, 1956, was co-founder of the NYC based indie band Silos. He was lead guitarist, writer and producer for the band from 1985-1991. Bob Rupe was also a member of the indie supergroup Gutterball in 1992. Bassist for Cracker from 1994-2000...
, Vic Chesnutt
Vic Chesnutt
James Victor "Vic" Chesnutt was an American singer-songwriter from Athens, Georgia. His first album, Little, was released in 1990, but his breakthrough to commercial success didn't come until 1996 with the release of Sweet Relief II: Gravity of the Situation, a tribute album of mainstream artists...
, Nina Persson
Nina Persson
is the lead singer and lyricist for the Swedish pop group The Cardigans. She has also worked as a solo artist, releasing two albums as A Camp and appearing on the tribute album to Serge Gainsbourg entitled Monsieur Gainsbourg Revisited...
and Dave Fridmann
Dave Fridmann
Dave Fridmann is an American record producer and musician. From 1990 onwards he co-produced all releases by Mercury Rev and The Flaming Lips...
. Whereas much of Vivadixie... and Spider were recorded solely by Linkous on his Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
farm, the new album was a more collaborative work. Linkous expressed his satisfaction with the overall sound of It's a Wonderful Life, while also claiming that he would have preferred to include more experimental and instrumental material.
On September 25, 2006, Sparklehorse released their fourth album, Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain
Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain
Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain is the fourth and final album by Sparklehorse before Mark Linkous' death in 2010. It was released September 25, 2006 on Astralwerks Records.-Recording:...
, collaborating with DJ Danger Mouse, Christian Fennesz
Christian Fennesz
Christian Fennesz is an Austrian guitarist active in electronic music, often credited on albums simply as Fennesz....
, and Steven Drozd
Steven Drozd
Steven Gregory Drozd is an American musician. He is a multi-instrumentalist and lead guitarist for The Flaming Lips.-Early life:...
. This album featured the radio release "Don't Take My Sunshine Away" and a remastered version of "Shade And Honey", which Linkous originally wrote for Alessandro Nivola
Alessandro Nivola
Alessandro Antine Nivola is an American actor, perhaps best known for his roles in the films Best Laid Plans, Jurassic Park III, Face/Off, and the first two films of the Goal! trilogy.-Personal life:...
to sing in the 2003 movie Laurel Canyon
Laurel Canyon (film)
Laurel Canyon is a 2002 American drama film written and directed by Lisa Cholodenko. The film stars Frances McDormand, Christian Bale, Kate Beckinsale, Natascha McElhone, and Alessandro Nivola.-Plot:...
, as well as a virtually unchanged re-release of "Morning Hollow," the bonus track from It's a Wonderful Life.
In 2008, Sparklehorse recorded a cover of the song "Jack's Obsession," from Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas for the official compilation album Nightmare Revisited
Nightmare Revisited
- Personnel :1. "Overture"2. "Opening"3. "This Is Halloween"4. "Jack's Lament"- Personnel :1. "Overture": Produced by DeVotchKa: Mixed by Greg Macrae2. "Opening": Produced by Danny Elfman: Narration recorded and mixed by Noah Snyder...
. In 2009, Sparklehorse teamed up with Danger Mouse
Danger Mouse
Brian Joseph Burton , better known by his stage name Danger Mouse, is an American musician, songwriter and producer. He came to prominence in 2004 when he released The Grey Album, which combined vocal performances from Jay-Z's The Black Album with instrumentals from The Beatles' White Album.He...
and David Lynch
David Lynch
David Keith Lynch is an American filmmaker, television director, visual artist, musician and occasional actor. Known for his surrealist films, he has developed his own unique cinematic style, which has been dubbed "Lynchian", and which is characterized by its dream imagery and meticulous sound...
in the project Dark Night of the Soul
Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse Present: Dark Night of the Soul
Dark Night of the Soul is an album written by Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse. It features a wide range of singers, which include James Mercer of the Shins, Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips, Gruff Rhys of Super Furry Animals, Jason Lytle of Grandaddy, Julian Casablancas of the Strokes, Black Francis...
.
In 2009, Linkous teamed up with electronic ambient-music
Ambient music
Ambient music is a musical genre that focuses largely on the timbral characteristics of sounds, often organized or performed to evoke an "atmospheric", "visual" or "unobtrusive" quality.- History :...
artist Christian Fennesz
Christian Fennesz
Christian Fennesz is an Austrian guitarist active in electronic music, often credited on albums simply as Fennesz....
to create In The Fishtank 15
In the Fishtank 15
In the Fishtank 15 is a collaborative EP by Sparklehorse and Christian Fennesz. It is the fifteenth and most recent installment of the collaboration project by Konkurrent and the final release by Sparklehorse before the death of leader Mark Linkous in 2010...
, a wafting album EP of dreamy atmospherics and glacially beautiful experimentation. The last four live shows, Linkous did together with Fennesz during a European tour that was held during October 2009.
Joe Tangari describes Linkous's songs as "defiantly surrealist...with all manner of references to smiling babies, organ music, birds, and celestial bodies. In fact, some of the lyrics are so surreal that it's hard to imagine they're even metaphor
Metaphor
A metaphor is a literary figure of speech that uses an image, story or tangible thing to represent a less tangible thing or some intangible quality or idea; e.g., "Her eyes were glistening jewels." Metaphor may also be used for any rhetorical figures of speech that achieve their effects via...
s for anything." Many of these references are literary or from a variety of rock music sources.
Linkous committed suicide in Knoxville, Tennessee
Knoxville, Tennessee
Founded in 1786, Knoxville is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of Tennessee, U.S.A., behind Memphis and Nashville, and is the county seat of Knox County. It is the largest city in East Tennessee, and the second-largest city in the Appalachia region...
, on March 6, 2010, thus ending the band's 15-year-long run.
Albums
- VivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplotVivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplotVivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot is the 1995 debut album by Sparklehorse. The album was largely recorded with musicians from Cracker, for which Mark Linkous worked at the time as guitar tech, roadie, and sometimes collaborator...
(August 1995, UKUK Albums ChartThe UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart...
#58) - Good Morning SpiderGood Morning Spider-Track listing:All songs by Mark Linkous, except where stated.#"Pig" – 2:22#"Painbirds" – 3:50#"Saint Mary" – 3:59#"Good Morning Spider" – 1:09 #"Sick of Goodbyes" – 3:32...
(October 1998, UK #30) - It's a Wonderful LifeIt's a Wonderful Life (album)It's a Wonderful Life is the third album by Virginian indie rock group Sparklehorse, released in 2001. The album features appearances by Tom Waits, PJ Harvey, John Parish, Nina Persson, Vic Chesnutt, and Dave Fridmann.-Track listing:...
(June 2001, UK #49) - Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a MountainDreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a MountainDreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain is the fourth and final album by Sparklehorse before Mark Linkous' death in 2010. It was released September 25, 2006 on Astralwerks Records.-Recording:...
(September 25, 2006, US Heatseekers #11, UK #60) - Dark Night of the SoulDanger Mouse and Sparklehorse Present: Dark Night of the SoulDark Night of the Soul is an album written by Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse. It features a wide range of singers, which include James Mercer of the Shins, Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips, Gruff Rhys of Super Furry Animals, Jason Lytle of Grandaddy, Julian Casablancas of the Strokes, Black Francis...
(with Danger MouseDanger MouseBrian Joseph Burton , better known by his stage name Danger Mouse, is an American musician, songwriter and producer. He came to prominence in 2004 when he released The Grey Album, which combined vocal performances from Jay-Z's The Black Album with instrumentals from The Beatles' White Album.He...
) (2009) - In the Fishtank 15In the Fishtank 15In the Fishtank 15 is a collaborative EP by Sparklehorse and Christian Fennesz. It is the fifteenth and most recent installment of the collaboration project by Konkurrent and the final release by Sparklehorse before the death of leader Mark Linkous in 2010...
(with Fennesz) (September 2009)
Singles and EPs
- Chords I've Known EPChords I've Known EPChords I've Known is an EP by Sparklehorse, released in 1996.-Track listing:#"Heart of Darkness " – 2:07#"Almost Lost My Mind" – 1:41#"Midget in a Junkyard" – 1:22#"Dead Opera Star" – 1:58#"The Hatchet Song" – 2:42...
(April 1995) - "Spirit Ditch" / "Waiting for Nothing" (1995)
- "Hammering the Cramps" / "Too Late" (1995)
- "Someday I Will Treat You Good" / "Rainmaker" (February 1996, US Modern RockModern Rock TracksAlternative Songs is a music chart in the United States that has appeared in Billboard magazine since September 10, 1988. It lists the 40 most-played songs on modern rock radio stations, most of which are alternative rock songs...
#35) - "Someday I Will Treat You Good" / "London" (February 1996, UK issue)
- "Hammering the Cramps" / "Spirit Ditch" (April 1996)
- "Rainmaker" / "I Almost Lost My Mind" (August 1996, UKUK Singles ChartThe UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
#61) - "Come On In" / "Blind Rabbit Choir" (February 1998)
- "Painbirds" / "Maria's Little Elbows" (July 1998)
- "Sick of Goodbyes" / "Good Morning Spider (session version)" (October 1998, UK #57)
- Distorted Ghost EPDistorted Ghost EPDistorted Ghost is an EP by Sparklehorse, released in 2000.-Track listing:#"Happy Man " – 3:41#"Waiting For Nothing" – 2:31#"Happy Place" – 2:17#"My Yoke Is Heavy " – 3:32#"Gasoline Horseys" – 3:28...
(July 2000) - Chest Full of Dying Hawks ('95-'01) (U.S. promo) (2001)
- "Gold Day" / "Heloise" / "Devil's New" / Maxine" (July 2001)
- "Ghost in the Sky" 7" and CD (September 11, 2006)
- "Don't Take My Sunshine Away" 7" (September 18, 2006)
- "Knives of Summertime" 7" (September 18, 2006)
External links
- Sparklehorse.com (official site)
- Sparklehorse MySpace (official)
- "He sparkles: The sad and beautiful world of Mark Linkous" 2002 interview in the Hook weeklyThe Hook weeklyThe Hook is a weekly newspaper published in Charlottesville, Virginia and distributed throughout Central Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley. It was founded in 2002 by a number of former employees of another Charlottesville weekly, C-ville Weekly, including its co-founder and editor Hawes Spencer.In...
- August 2006 interview, Harp Magazine
- October 2006 interview, Subculture Magazine
- Interview with LeftLion Magazine
- Tribute Piece in Crawdaddy! Magazine