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LA Weekly, December 2003 Mark Lanegan Band After several orbits ’round the globe following the release
of their landmark Songs for the Deaf album, the Queens of the Stone Age
mothership of expansive-explosive-catchy rock has landed for some desert
leave. But just as mid-to-late-’70s Parliament-Funkadelic begot the Brides
of Funkenstein, Eddie Hazel, Parlet and Booty’s Rubber Band, so QOTSA
giveth us Mondo Generator, Desert Sessions, Masters of Reality, Eagles
of Death Metal and now, the eagerly awaited, reactivated Mark Lanegan
Band. Tonight, Mark Lanegan — black-night song-poet with the prematurely
weathered voice sponsored by Camel, ex-singer of Seattle psyche-grunge
band Screaming Trees, one of three current QOTSA vocalists, arguably contemporary
rock’s greatest interpreter of others’ songs, the man who’s suffered and
self-loathed and self-redeemed so you didn’t have to — appears on the
heels of a spectacularly grimy, spooked racket of a new EP (Here Comes
That Weird Chill). His band is like some sort of Pacific Coast All-Stars:
a bunch of lifers featuring Caustic Resin’s sun-blistering guitarist Brett
Netson, ex-Failure/ex–A Perfect Circle/current-QOTSA guitarist Troy Van
Leeuwen (whose band Enemy will be opening) and ex–Afghan Whigs singer
Greg Dulli (!) on keys. There’s a reason Lanegan has always attracted
the support of top talent, even in his lowest, leanest days, and tonight
we’ll be able to hear that reason for the length of a whole evening. Don’t
miss this — especially if you raised your glass for Johnny Cash. El Rey
Theater, 5515 Wilshire Blvd.; Wed., Dec. 17, 8 p.m. (323) 936-6400. |