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MARK LANEGAN BAND announce new album “Gargoyle”, released 28th April on Heavenly Recordings + European tour in June & July

February 7, 2017

Eric Gabriel

MARK LANEGAN

Announces new album, Gargoyle
Due 28th April on Heavenly Recordings

Listen to “Nocturne“:
https://soundcloud.com/heavenlyrecordings/nocturne-mark-lanegan-band/

UK & European Tour Announced

Heavenly Recordings are thrilled to announce the release of Gargoyle, the new album from MARK LANEGAN BAND, on 28th April 2017 via the label. The 10-track LP features guest appearances from long-time collaborators Josh Homme, Greg Dulli and Duke Garwood.

An extensive European tour has also been announced throughout the summer, beginning in the UK with the below June dates which include a Glastonbury festival appearance:

Monday 19th June – BIRMINGHAM – Library tickets
Tuesday 20th June – GLASGOW – Garage tickets
Wednesday 21st June – MANCHESTER – Ritz tickets
Thursday 22nd June – LONDON – KOKO tickets
Friday 23rd June – PILTON – Glastonbury Festival

 

Early in 2016, Mark was at home in LA, working on some ideas for what might turn into his next album when he got an email from a friend, an English musician named Rob Marshall, thanking Mark for contributing to a new project he was putting together, Humanist. The pair first met in 2008, when Marshall’s former band Exit Calm supported Soulsavers, who Mark was singing with at the time. Now Rob was offering to write Mark some music to return the favour: “I was like, Hey man, I’m getting ready to make a record, if you’ve got anything?’” Mark recalls. “Three days later he sent me *10 things… !”

In the meantime, Mark had written ‘Blue Blue Sea’, a rippling mood piece that he thought might be a more fruitful direction for his new record. “It’s almost always how my records start,” he explains. “I let the first couple of songs tell me what the next couple should sound like, and it’s really the same process when I’m writing words. Whatever my first couple of lines are tell me what the next couple should be. I’ve always built things like that, sort of like making a sculpture I guess.”

Within an hour, Mark had written words and vocal lines for two of the pieces Rob had cooked up at Mount Sion Studios in Kent and pinged through the virtual clouds to California. Rob’s music fitted perfectly with the direction Mark had been pondering: in essence, a more expansive progression from the moody Krautrock-influenced electronica textures of his two previous albums, ‘Blues Funeral’ and ‘Phantom Radio’. Eventually, Rob Marshall would co-write six of the songs on the new Mark Lanegan Band album. “I was very thankful to become reacquainted with him,” Mark deadpans.

The remainder of the album was written, recorded and produced by Lanegan’s longtime musical amanuensis Alain Johannes at his 11 AD base in West Hollywood. Everything was done and dusted within a month, unusually fast by Lanegan’s recent standards. “I definitely feel like I’m a better songwriting than I was 15 years ago,” he says. “I don’t know if I’m just kidding myself or what, but it’s definitely easier now to make something that is satisfying to me. Maybe I’m just easier on myself these days, but it’s definitely not as painful a process, and therefore I feel I’m better at it now. But part of the way that I stay interested in making music is by collaborating with other people. When I see things through somebody else’s perspective it’s more exciting than if I’m left to my own devices.”

While sharing roots with its two predecessors, on Gargoyle there’s a significant up-shift in the swaggering powerlode of such keynote songs as Nocturne and Beehive, while the lyrics’ tonal palette is more varied. The album title comes from a lyric in Blue Blue Sea – “Gargoyle perched on gothic spire” – and was chosen for its hint of self-deprecation. “I’m most proud of the songs that are atypical to stuff that I’ve done in the past” says Mark. “So I really like Old Swan, because it’s an expression of positivity, which is completely anti-anything I’ve done before!” He laughs. “Y’know, I haven’t played this record for too many people yet. I played it for Greg Dulli, who played on some of it, and he was like, ‘Wow, I had to listen to it twice – it sounds like he’s having a good time…’

It’s been a long journey travelled, not always easy, but in 2017, at the age of 52, Lanegan’s got the look of permanence about him. Like that gargoyle on the gothic spire….

Gargoyle will be released 28th April on Heavenly Recordings.

 

Gargoyle tracklisting:

1. Deaths Head Tattoo
2. Nocturne
3. Blue Blue Sea
4. Beehive
5. Sister
6. Emperor
7. Goodbye To Beauty
8. Drunk On Destruction
9. First Day Of Winter
10. Old Swan

Critical acclaim for Phantom Radio, the previous album from Mark Lanegan Band, released late 2014:

“Lanegan deserves elevation to the front rank of rock artists and Phantom Radio may be the album to finally force that shift.” The Independent – 5 Stars ***** (Album Of The Week)
“A brave inspired step into the unknown.” MOJO – 4 Stars ****

“Like Lee Hazlewood were performing early-80s New Order.” Q – 4 Stars ****

“A beautiful set that balances Lanegan’s ongoing love of blues and folk with further explorations of the electronic terrain he explored on 2012’s Blues Funeral.” Uncut – 8/10
“A graceful record that brings out the very best in the gruff veteran.” NME – 8/10
“A career highlight… The Superb ‘Floor Of The Ocean’ could be the Sisters Of Mercy covering Joy Division, while ‘Torn Red Heart’ might be the most beautiful love song Lanegan has ever recorded.” The Guardian – 4 Stars ****
“Phantom Radio proves that there’s not just mileage left in him still, but that he’s going to lead us to many more places yet.” DIY – 4 Stars ****
“These songs are compelling, bleak, bruising and brilliantly realised… A compelling return.” The Sun – 4 Stars ****
“Phantom Radio builds on the electro leanings of 2012’s Blues Funeral, taking us back to the gloomier bits of the 1980s, with the transitional Joy Division/New Order a reference point.” The Sunday Times (Album Of The Week)
“His voice, if anything, is getting better with age – grittier by the year and more soulful… There’s no faking this kind of quality.” Classic Rock – 8/10
“Rich in blood, sweat and atmospherics… With no sign of any creative let-up as he approaches his 50th birthday, its time to tune in and feel the spirit.” The Mirror – 4 Stars ****

Connect:
https://www.facebook.com/MarkLanegan
http://marklanegan.com

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