I’m very sad to read about the death by suicide (he shot himself in the heart with a rifle) last week of musician Mark Linkous, founder and primary member of the band Sparklehorse. I’ve been listening to Mark’s strange and compelling music for over a decade now. He didn’t play pop music or follow trends in the contemporary rock music scene. He was his own man and used music as a form of intense self exploration and expression. His creativity and desire for unique sounds led him to use a variety of unusual instruments and recording techniques. In addition to some incredible albums (Good Morning Spider is a personal favorite) he was much in demand as a record producer and championed the music of Daniel Johnston, an outsider artist who shared some of Mark’s notions of music as poetry. I think someone once described Sparklehorse as making music that sound like “psychedelic Appalachian folk-slop” which fits it’s pretty well. I find it haunting and moving like a musical counterpart to the films of Lynch or Bunuel.
Mark apparently struggled with depression for most of his life according to interviews I’ve read with him. I guess it finally got the best of him. He wasn’t the same man after overdosing in 1996 during the first Sparklehorse tour with Radiohead. His body was fucked up and I think his heart was broken at the same time.
I know something about severe depression having survived it myself, but it looks like Mark couldn’t battle the beast anymore and gave up. I’m sorry for him and for his wife, 3 brothers and his mother and father. I’m not going to judge him for taking his life, but I wish I could have been there to talk to him. Standing at the abyss and looking down you start to think that it might be better for everyone if you just jumped; at least you wouldn’t be hurting yourself and everyone else any more. But this is just a foolish lie you tell yourself (part of the depression) because the truth is that you hurt your loved ones more by taking your life. They end up blaming themselves for your death and wondering what they could have done to save you.
My heart goes out to his family and friends. At least we have his magical music to remember him by.
Mark Linkous website and wikipedia entry. Here’s one of my favorites among his music videos:
Tags: mark linkous, sparklehorse
