Mark Kozelek February 27, 2010

NOISE POP 2010

Born and raised in Ohio before moving to San Francisco, Mark Kozelek is a singer and songwriter of the highest order. For over 25 years, he has written richly textured, highly vulnerable, and agonizingly sorrowful songs in the tradition of Leonard Cohen and Nick Drake.

Beginning with his first acclaimed band, Red House Painters, in the early part of the 90's, Kozelek has changed the face and redefined the term folk with darkly introspective tales and emotional weight that's been dubbed by some as sadcore. Red House Painters was praised by the likes of American Music Club's Mark Eitzel for their intimate and cathartic style, founded on Kozelek's melancholy prose and a restrained atmosphere. After four years and several albums, Red House Painters slowly dissolved, giving Kozelek the opportunity to lend his stark baritone voice to very different yet personal sets of projects.
His first solo record Rock 'n' Roll Singer EP surfaced in 2000 and sported vastly reworked versions of songs by John Denver and, surprisingly, AC/DC. Kozelek would continue this trend of masterful covers with albums dedicated entirely to AC/DC and even Modest Mouse.

In 2002, Kozelek returned to form Sun Kil Moon, featuring several Red House Painters alumni. Adding a more Midwestern sensibility to it's folk renderings, Sun Kil Moon showcased a decidedly more straight forward approach to songwriting. Recently, Kozelek has been more than busy, founding Caldo Vera Records and steadily releasing material under his own name, most notably the Finally LP in 2008, and last year's Lost Verses Live, an acoustic concert album featuring a career's worth of material recorded at various intimate theaters throughout the U.S., not least of which included San Francisco's Palace of Fine Arts.

Official Website: http://www.noisepop.com/2010/schedule.php