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“Multifaceted” would be the laziest adjective you could think of when describing Mark Lanegan, but in his case, it really rings true.
After a series of accidents in the late eighties, Mark Lanegan (who looks equal parts Will Ferrell and Tom Waits) helmed Screaming Trees, one of the pioneering bands from the Seattle scene. Although it was on the sidelines during the wave of grunge, it had a bit of a following thanks to one of their songs having a guest spot in Cameron Crowe’s ode to grunge, Singles.
Lanegan’s massive love of blues and punk gave a characteristic sound to Screaming Trees, who suffered by getting the dreaded blanket label of ‘alternative’ and thus their albums never got too much attention.
Always the workaholic, he had several side projects on his plate (including a cover of Leadbelly‘s ‘Where Did You Sleep Last Night‘, which he worked on with Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic and which surfaced on Nirvana’s Unplugged). He worked on his solo albums, which were the quiet polar opposite of the noisy garage of Screaming Trees, almost parallel to what Lou Barlow (from Sebadoh) was doing at the time.
Once the wave of grunge bands withered and died and with his band broken up, Lanegan decided to branch out, proving that although Screaming Trees had been his first successful band, it wasn’t the one sound that he’d like to stay at for the rest of his career.
Experiments with psychedelia (Mad Season, Josh Homme’s Desert Sessions), folk (a couple of duet albums with the beautiful Isobel Campbell), electronica (Soulsavers), stoner rock (his never-ending stint as guest in Queens of the Stone Age) and hypnotic alternative rock (The Gutter Twins) are some of the many genres that Mark Lanegan manages to swiftly move between at will (and to our listening pleasure).
Some are more successful than others, but it’s always nice to see an artist that is never complacent and always needs to move forward and reinvent himself, even managing to get a few accolades for his solo efforts (like the lauded Bubblegum). The only constant through his career is his remarkable baritone voice, the one you can appreciate on the following playlist.
Plus, here are some of the bands where you can hear his influence (via a guest spot or by his sound):-
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