Mark Kozelek announces another LP, two books, & tells us about his favorite stuff of 2018
Mark Kozelek had a lot of irons in the fire in 2018. He released two albums — a self-titled solo album and the recently released Sun Kil Moon album This is My Dinner (stream them below) — and toured a bunch. In March of 2019, Mark’s got a collaborative album with Donny McCaslin and Jim White, titled I Also Want to Die in New Orleans (funny story, that title), and has also just announced another new album, due out in the summer, which will feature Petra Haden, Jason Lindner, Kevin Corrigan, Steve Shelley, Donny McCaslin, Ben Boye, and “other great talents.”
He’s also got two books due out this year: a lyric book, Nights of Passed Over 2, which includes all lyrics his lyrics from Admiral fell Promises to the present; and 500 Payphones, a book he’s been working on since 2012. “It’s a collection of payphone photos that I’ve taken around the world; the purpose is to document the decline of the payphone. All of the photos were taken with disposable cameras and a flip phone.” Both of those will be out via Rough Trade Publishing.
We’ve been asking artists for their Top 10 lists of 2018, and Mark has sent us his, including favorite concerts (his own and ones he saw), meals, venues, venue staffs, hotels, phone booth photos, and more. Read that, along with Mark’s commentary and a few photos, below.
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MARK KOZELEK – TOP 10 OF 2018
1. Best meal I had this year on tour: Halepi in London – always. My favorite spot in London since the Columbia Hotel days with Red House Painters. Great Middle Eastern food.
2. Best show I played: a record store in Bergen called Apallon. It was a free concert booked last minute. Nice crowd but I had to keep asking people not to step on my alligator skin shoes when they passed me to use the bathroom.
3. Best staff at a venue. So36 in Berlin. All female staff except for one guy. Great sound girl. Great light girl.
4. Best sound guys of this year: Paul O’Brien in Portland and Bryan Mills in London.
5. Best recording experience: Recording at Isaac Brock’s Ice Cream Party studio in Portland. All he wanted in return for our session time was a Slurpee at 7-11. We had a nice talk to and from.
6. Best photo I took for my payphone book: Chloe Sevigny. NYC.
7. Most interesting thing I saw this year: A whale surfacing in the Pacific Ocean somewhere between Lompoc and LA.
8. Best Concert – David Crosby and Friends in San Francisco. He stood there with his hands in his pockets and tossed his voice around with three other amazing singers on stage. The most powerful show of the year this year by far.
9. Best walk: with Kevin Corrigan from Mandoo Bar on 32nd to Argosy book store on East 59th. The bookstore has cool green banker’s desk lamps and a great selection of original old books. I got into a great conversation with two women there about New Orleans and William Faulkner. One of them had just bought a small first edition 20-page original Faulkner book I’d never heard of before, for a wedding gift.
10. Best Hotel I stayed at: Carbon Hotel in Genk, Belgium. A beautiful courtyard and an amazing raised bathtub the middle of the room that was fun to shadow box around. My footage for the Donny McCaslin with Sun Kil Moon’s video was filmed there.
