Getting Tuesday up and rolling in a calm direction with a set from Sparklehorse, recorded on November 6, 1996 at Bullet Sound Studios in the Netherlands for VPRO, Hilversum.
There’s always a sense of poignancy, listening to one of these Sparklehorse concerts. Not knowing then, but knowing now the tragedy surrounding the band and their founder Mark Linkkous.
Sparklehorse was active from 1995 until Linkous’s 2010 death. Before forming Sparklehorse, Linkous fronted local bands Johnson Family and Salt Chunk Mary. Only one song, “Someday I Will Treat You Good”, survived from these earlier bands to be played by Sparklehorse. Linkous said he chose the name Sparklehorse because the two words sounded good together and could be a loose metaphor for a motorcycle. At its inception, members of Sparklehorse included Paul Watson (banjo, cornet, lap steel and electric guitar), Scott Minor (drums, chord organ, banjo), Johnny Hott (Wurlitzer organ, percussion, backing vocals), and Scot Fitzsimmons (standup bass).
Sparklehorse’s first album, Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot (1995), produced by Cracker frontman David Lowery (credited as “David Charles” on the record), was a modest college radio success. In 1996, while touring Europe with Radiohead shortly after the album’s release, Linkous consumed a combination of anti-depressants, valium, alcohol, and heroin in a London hotel room. Unconscious and with his legs pinned beneath him for almost 14 hours, the resulting potassium build-up caused his heart to stop for several minutes after his body was lifted up. The ensuing surgery almost caused him to lose the use of both legs and, as a result, he needed to use a wheelchair for six months and required dialysis for acute kidney failure.
In 2009, Sparklehorse teamed up with Danger Mouse and David Lynch on the project Dark Night of the Soul. Corliss et al. (2010) described Dark Night of the Soul as “spooky, beautiful, (and)… bittersweet…considering Linkous’ untimely death.”
In 2009, Linkous collaborated with electronic ambient-music artist Christian Fennesz to create In the Fishtank 15, a wafting EP of experimentation and dreamy atmospherics. In October 2009, Linkous performed with Fennesz during a European tour.
Linkous died by suicide in Knoxville, Tennessee, on March 6, 2010.
For a glimpse of Sparklehorse relatively early on, here is the session they did for Dutch Radio in 1996.
Take a deep breath and move slowly.
