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June 24, 2015 11:20 AM Subscribe
EL-P of Run The Jewels Interview With Mark Kozelek [Interview took place March 14, 2015]
I feel like if anyone found themselves in a room with El-P and Mark Kozelek they would disintegrate from exposure to overwhelming levels of ambient cranky. But just the two of them, they seemed to pretty much cancel each others' crankyfields out and have a fairly nice conversation.
posted by Hoopo at 12:00 PM on June 24, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by Hoopo at 12:00 PM on June 24, 2015 [2 favorites]
On the one hand, Kozelek's acoustic interpretations of Bon Scott-era AC/DC songs are just brilliant, Up To My Neck in particular ripping the hard rock veneer off Scott's melancholy street poetry. On the other hand, he can come off as pretty jerky, which I guess everyone who follows him more closely than I do already knows.
posted by bassomatic at 12:19 PM on June 24, 2015 [4 favorites]
posted by bassomatic at 12:19 PM on June 24, 2015 [4 favorites]
If you want to get a little more insight into what made Kozelek the man he is today, I recommend listening to last year's Sun Kil Moon release Benji, which is a bit of a departure, in that the songs (if you can even call them songs) appear to be 100% autobiographical, and are pretty emotionally devastating. (I bought the album, and have only been able to listen to it once. And I'm a huge fan of his work. It packs that much of a punch.)
posted by Atom Eyes at 12:40 PM on June 24, 2015 [5 favorites]
posted by Atom Eyes at 12:40 PM on June 24, 2015 [5 favorites]
Oh daaaang:
Mark: This is a reality check song for those who get seriously bent out of shape about not being able to use phones at concerts or that a limited run of vinyl is out of print. "Williamsburg Sleeve Tattoo Blues" isn't a love song for people who complain about not having a place to sit at concerts, it's a love song for the handicapped who have no choice but to sit.posted by boo_radley at 1:15 PM on June 24, 2015
He's written some good music, but I'm done with the guy after this past year. That he appears to be a sensitive and tortured artist doesn't mitigate his behavior, it just makes it worse. Worth reading: The Sun Kil Moon Problem by Sasha Geffen.
Power lends itself to abuse. Sun Kil Moon played another show recently, and Mark Kozelek allegedly said something gross, creepy, and abusive about a woman journalist. As John Mulvey noted in his review of the show for Uncut, the acclaimed singer-songwriter reportedly called her out by name for reasons that were unclear, then started singing “a spontaneous song about the writer — a woman — about how she ‘totally wants to fuck me’ and how she should ‘get in line, bitch.'”
This is not surprising, because Kozelek has leveled the B-bomb at women writers in his songs before as part of his well-documented, semi-comic feud with The War on Drugs. This is also not surprising because I’ve personally seen Kozelek make inappropriate comments to young women in his audience before. When he played Pygmalion Festival last September, he insinuated that he would like to see a woman in the front row naked. He was in an auditorium on a college campus; I don’t know if the woman was a college student, but she could have been.
Kozelek harasses people at his shows, but he is hardly the first or only musician to do so. His behavior stands out in part due to the quality of his music, which is soft, sympathetic, and deeply attuned to the nuances of human suffering. I am disturbed by and disappointed with his antics, and I will probably never see him play live again. But I don’t know if a Sun Kil Moon boycott solves the problem that Kozelek makes obvious. He is an easy indication of a larger power dynamic that lends itself to abuse on a much wider scale.
posted by naju at 3:06 PM on June 24, 2015 [4 favorites]
Power lends itself to abuse. Sun Kil Moon played another show recently, and Mark Kozelek allegedly said something gross, creepy, and abusive about a woman journalist. As John Mulvey noted in his review of the show for Uncut, the acclaimed singer-songwriter reportedly called her out by name for reasons that were unclear, then started singing “a spontaneous song about the writer — a woman — about how she ‘totally wants to fuck me’ and how she should ‘get in line, bitch.'”
This is not surprising, because Kozelek has leveled the B-bomb at women writers in his songs before as part of his well-documented, semi-comic feud with The War on Drugs. This is also not surprising because I’ve personally seen Kozelek make inappropriate comments to young women in his audience before. When he played Pygmalion Festival last September, he insinuated that he would like to see a woman in the front row naked. He was in an auditorium on a college campus; I don’t know if the woman was a college student, but she could have been.
Kozelek harasses people at his shows, but he is hardly the first or only musician to do so. His behavior stands out in part due to the quality of his music, which is soft, sympathetic, and deeply attuned to the nuances of human suffering. I am disturbed by and disappointed with his antics, and I will probably never see him play live again. But I don’t know if a Sun Kil Moon boycott solves the problem that Kozelek makes obvious. He is an easy indication of a larger power dynamic that lends itself to abuse on a much wider scale.
posted by naju at 3:06 PM on June 24, 2015 [4 favorites]
Wow, I had not heard of this, and that's super depressing and horrible. Ugh.
posted by Fizz at 5:12 PM on June 24, 2015
posted by Fizz at 5:12 PM on June 24, 2015
I remember finding his AC/DC covers disturbing; such a "sensitive" voice and musical setting for "I'm gonna walk all over you..." and "I want you to bleed for me..." Sounds like Bon Scott's lyrics were actually a pretty good fit for Kozelek's character, based on what naju quoted.
posted by clawsoon at 5:28 PM on June 24, 2015
posted by clawsoon at 5:28 PM on June 24, 2015
I feel your pain, Fizz. I used to adore his music but haven't bothered to listen to his new album after his comments about Snapes.
posted by oceanview at 11:52 AM on June 26, 2015
posted by oceanview at 11:52 AM on June 26, 2015
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posted by Fizz at 11:22 AM on June 24, 2015