Mark Lanegan Band

Here Comes That Weird Chill (Beggars Banquet)
by Brain Varney

When the very first sounds you hear on a recording credited to Mark Lanegan are a sampled bit of clanging percussion and a raucous peal of laughter from the normally dour-faced Mr. Lanegan, you should know immediately that you’re in for something completely unexpected. Lanegan’s five previous solo albums have more or less been of a piece, moody singer-songwriter inspired by folkie heroes like Tim Hardin, Fred Neil, and Townes Van Zandt.

What you get on Here Comes That Weird Chill, an eight-song teaser EP for a full-length to follow sometime in 2004, is very unlike anything that appeared on the previous albums. In addition to the synthesized percussion, you get chunky, jaggedly-distorted guitar (often played by QOTSA buddy Josh Homme, though Chris Goss and Dean Ween lend their axe skills as well), clanging, lurching percussion, and even some distortion on the vocals. An air of sticky morbidity and perversion covers everything, the resulting clamminess not unlike Island-era Tom Waits, who’s clearly one of Lanegan’s heroes. I’m a huge Tom Waits fan, especially the Island stuff, but I hated this disc the first two times through. I wasn’t ready for such a radical change. However, after a few more spins, and the shit started getting under my skin, and now I feel as cold and nasty as this sounds, and, somehow, that’s a comforting feeling.
(625 Broadway New York, NY 10012)