Sun Kil Moon Band • Page 6

It's both immature and creepy to put young girls -- minors at that -- under the microscope the way you said he did and the "name some songs off my record" stuff is eye roll worthy at least. I believe you about the husker du part but yeah. Are his sets typically weird like that?

 

This was my first time seeing him so I'm not sure if that's what it normally is like.

 

Also the girls were 18 and 19. Don't think would change people's perception of it really, just figured i'd note that they weren't actually minors, Show was 18+

 

Fair, still personally weirds me out though

 

I understand that. His vibe seemed to be to create tension, then cut it in a dark way. My friend and I thought it was great.

 

dude suxxxxxx

 

His personality aside, his show was incredible.

I also got the Admiral Fell Promises tour documentary, really good so far.

 

guy who was at show: wasn't weird

guy who wasn't: I am sure it was weird

¯\_(ツ)_/¯


saw him in NY on Friday

top 10 shows ever in my life

 

I’ve seen him twice and he was pretty funny and put on great sets without any super weird banter. Sounds like a hit or miss thing

 

?????
He wasn't talking about some incomprehensible, ephemeral atmosphere that I'm commenting on, he mentioned something very specific that comes off as weird to me? But alright cool w/e

 

I guess tonally it's hard to get if you weren't there.

It's like "Mark comments on how young girls look hot still" is one way to read it. Maybe I didn't describe the environment well enough, since like I had mentioned, he likes to create tension like cut it with the crowd.

But if I were to explain the atmosphere and go into more of what he said (and i'm avoiding quoting him directly because I don't remember everything and feel it would not be fair) it goes like "Mark comments how girls in the front look younger than 18, didn't think it was all ages show. Then they say they are 18 and 19 and he comments how he's getting older, and uglier, and hitting a mid life crisis, but notes that young women are still beautiful, and that older men don't understand how old they are in comparison."

Then he asks one of them, who is wearing a sun kil moon shirt, what her favorite song is off the new record, and she doesn't answer. He then replied "story of my life" and notes that he feels like that's a trend he is seeing. To me it felt like after Benji got big, a lot of people just dig and wanna hear Benji, not his newer, even more off the middle stuff.

That's just my take. I get why people can think he can be immature. But I never got the feeling that was he was doing anything to hurt.

 

I'd agree it was one of my top shows ever for sure.

 

I can't find the Panera/rejection/bookstore/my love is undying song

I guess it hasn't been released?

that one was sooo moving/funny

classic Mark making you cry and laugh many times during the same song

 

i don't think that's appropriate to mention in, like, any context

 

"Let me single out you girls who don't look 18--oh-- but you are 18. In that case, I'm going to offer my unwarranted opinion on your appearances. I'm also aware that I'm old and hitting a mid-life crisis, and that it's usually weird for older men to make comments like this, but I'm Mark Kozelek and I'm self-aware enough to get away with this dirty-old-man-ism."

 

Yeah he played that near the end of his set. Everyone was laughing with it, lots of fun.

 

Noting that some girls look pretty, while he notes that his youth is fading? It really didn't seem like that big of a deal during the show. I think Mark enjoys the online social commentary about it, and loves to feed it to watch people freak out over it. Not justifying everything he's said, but in the context of the show it didn't seem to be an outward call out. He was right in the fact that they didn't know anything off of his later records, which is where the whole issue started.

I wouldn't quote him if you weren't there, I didn't even quote him besides a line or two I specifically remembered, and I was there.

 

Also, he never commented on their appearances. Just stated that young woman are, and will always be beautiful, though his looks are fading as he ages.

 

Fair fair. It just bothers me when old white men try to test social conventions. I suppose the tension creating/alleviating is all part of his performance now. To some i suppose that makes it feel more honest and sincere, but to me it feels like hes tainting the legacy of beauty of his earlier work. Sometimes its best to let the art speak for itself. Im biased tho because i really dont like the new material.

 

I can totally see that argument. Seems that his more outspoken and purposefully enticing personality corealates with the obscurity of his new music. "House Cat" for example was super weird live.

 

I still maintain that Among the Leaves was the best example of him blending his off the cuff lyrics and beautiful music. That and the Album Leaf collab

 

I never felt the atmosphere was tense during the NY show - everyone was laughing the whole time

"do Mistress!!"

Mark: you are absolutely insane if you think I can just randomly jump into a song I wrote 25 years go (not literal quote but something like that)

*everyone laughs

then he did a funny bit about some random dude in the audience that probably had a God Bless Ohio tattoo and wanted to show it to him and Mark didn't want to see it because it was weird - everyone, even the guy, was laughing about it

he wasn't a dick, it was all lighthearted fun

_________________

his new work is, I think, very unique in the way it blurs the line between artist and art (as you know, I am very interested in stuff like that (and vocal and annoying)) - it also has an additional duality to it - he represents the concept through his "blending his off the cuff lyrics and beautiful music" as cherrywaves just mentioned... so there are several dimensions to it and they interplay in beautiful ways

I think it is also unique from a muscial perspective... what he did in Common as Light and Love is not something I've heard before - from the sounds (the sort of dubby bass sound, minimal synth shit) to the compositions in themselves (rhythm based hypnotism cutting into beautiful guitar arpeggios etc.) and of course, the hyper reality/transparency of everything ties it all together

It is also wonderful how his songs can be rearranged from minimal synth pop to folk/flamenco inspired guitar, to orchestral pieces and rocking jams and still work (the girl that arranged his music for the Boston/NY shows is brilliant btw!!)

all in all, I find his art life affirming, compassionate and beautiful

_________________

I feel some people just click on anything Mark/SKM related expecting to find something to be outraged about and to call Mark out on, which is a super weird and exhausting way of going about anything

but

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

Yep.

 

New Release: Mark Kozelek - May 11, 2018 - Caldo Verde Records
Recorded at Mark Hopkins Hotel, Seal Rock Inn, Hyde Street Studios, San Francisco May 11, 2017 through January 26th, 2018. All music by Mark Kozelek except drums on 'Sublime' by Steve Shelley.

Track list:
1. This Is My Town
2. Live In Chicago
3. The Mark Kozelek Museum
4. My Love For You Is Undying
5. Weed Whacker
6. Sublime
7. Good Nostalgia
8. 666 Post
9. The Banjo Song
10. Young Riddick Bowe
11. I Cried During Wall Street

Sun Kil Moon: The Official Website for Sun Kil Moon, Mark Kozelek, and Red House Painters

 

Really liking the sound of the electric guitar with no drums.

"My Love For You Is Undying" is a hell of a song..