R.I.P. Mark Linkous

I write today with sad news and sad, beautiful music. Mark Linkous, who put out several gorgeous, heartbroken albums under the Sparklehorse moniker, took his own life last weekend. Mark was in Knoxville, Tennessee working on his music when he shot himself in the heart.

Rather than dwell on his premature death, here is a bit about his life and art. He first recorded as Sparklehorse in 1995, releasing the album Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot and jumping right into the fractured, slightly lo-fi indie guitar rock scene alongside Pavement and Guided By Voices. He followed it up by opening for Radiohead (who have spoken sadly of his passing) on their OK Computer tour. During the tour, he ingested a mix of Valium and antidepressants that left him legally dead for over three minutes, resulting in 14 hours of unconsciousness and a subsequent heart attack when medics attempted to straighten his legs. It required seven surgeries to repair his damaged limbs, and he never fully won his battle with depression and drug addiction. He went on to release three more solo albums, Good Morning Spider (1999), It's a Wonderful Life (2001) and Dreamt For Light Years In the Belly of the Mountain (2006).

After experiencing good chemistry with DJ Danger Mouse (of Grey Album and Gnarls Barkley fame) on a track for Dreamt, Mark went in for a full-album collaboration, wanting to focus on writing music while Danger Mouse handled production and a roster of indie all-stars came in to write and perform vocals. The project, Dark Night of the Soul, expanded into an audio-visual collaboration with auteur David Lynch (Twin Peaks, Mulholland Drive) supervising an accompanying book of photographs. Danger Mouse and the record label, EMI, ran into issues with the release and the full package will now be coming out in summer 2010. The music was leaked on to the internet in 2009, coinciding precisely with Danger Mouse's release of the accompanying book and a blank CD-R labeled "For Legal Reasons, enclosed CD-R contains no music. Use it as you will." Guest vocalists include Wayne Coyne (of The Flaming Lips), Jason Lytle (of Grandaddy), Julian Casablancas (of The Strokes), Black Francis (of The Pixies), Iggy Pop, and James Mercer (of The Shins).

His legacy lives on in his music - below is a brief sampler, showing the build from subdued psych-folk on "Sad and Beautiful World" to wistful psych-folk on "Gold Day" to hopeful psych-folk on "Don't Take My Sunshine Away" to resigned psych-folk on "Everytime I'm With You". Write what you know, indeed.

Sparklehorse  - Sad and Beautiful World (from Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot)

Sparklehorse - Gold Day (from It's a Wonderful Life)

Sparklehorse - Don't Take My Sunshine Away (from Dreamt For Light Years In the Belly of the Mountain)

Sparklehorse w/Danger Mouse and Jason Lytle - Everytime I'm With You (from Dark Night of the Soul)