Sparklehorse
Born: 1962
Location: Arlington, Virginia, USA
Genre: Rock, Indie Rock, Alt-Country
Years Active: 1995 - 2010
Real Name: Mark Linkous
Meaning of the Name: Another word for motorbike. Linkous was friends with a biker gang as a teenager.
Way of Working: Single artistic vision
Essential Releases
Good Morning
Spider (1998)
A dark album recorded after a near-death experience.
It's a Wonderful
Life (2001)
More accessible and commercially viable. Polished indie rock.
The reclusive multi-instrumentalist behind Sparklehorse, Mark Linkous, had a near-death experience only a year into his music career. He overdosed on a cocktail of prescription drugs and alcohol while supporting Radiohead on a tour of the UK in 1996 and spent six months confined to a wheelchair. Linkous walked again, but never fully regained the use of his legs.
The first two Sparklehorse albums were recorded at a lonely farmhouse in Dillwyn, Virginia (population 440). Linkous played every instrument, wrote every word of every song himself. Each was a pure distillation of the man and the music he kept for company, like a fine-grain whisky maturing in a barrel. But the music industry kept knocking at the door.
Capitol Records, like a surly lawman, insisted he open on up and invite the world in to play. The resultant It's A Wonderful Life (2001) featured collaborators from places as far afield as Sweden (The Cardigans' Nina Persson) and the United Kingdom (PJ Harvey, Adrian Utley of Portishead, and John Parish), and what was once the work of a solitary man in his run-down farmhouse encompassed the globe. Even the bedraggled grandee of American misfits Tom Waits provided vocals on 'Dog Door'.
By calling his album It's A Wonderful Life, Linkous was making a joke at the expense of critics who labelled his music as depressingly morose, but the album did have the joyful quality of adventure that comes from embracing the world and was missing in his earlier work.
"I got fed up with people in America thinking that my music is morose and depressing and all that. That song ('It's a Wonderful Life') is like a 'fuck you' to journalists, or people who are not smart enough to see what it is.
But in the end, it was more about how everyday, you should pick up something, no matter how minuscule or microscopic it is, and when you go to bed, you can say I was glad that I was alive to see that. That's really what it's about." (talking to Free Williamsburg)
Listening to the melancholy alt-country of Sparklehorse is to hear one man's valiant fight with depression. It is unquestionably dark in places, but having the ability to make beautiful music from such emotions takes real artistry. It's like a Virginia sky full of looming clouds that carpet the world in a thick black pitch. Even though you've parted ways with the sun, you know it's still around, silently shining in defiance, and what you choose to think about is the sun. Yes, Mark Linkous lost his battle, but we all lose eventually.
Skills
*This is a work in progress. Values are subjective.Emotional Impact
90
Mental Impact
80
Originality
70
Artistry
70
Authenticity
90
Live
70
Production
60
Musicianship
95
Singing
70
Songwriting
85
Danceability
45
Fun
45
Consistency
80
Range
75
Cool
60
Charisma
40
