Sonic Advent Calendar: Day 21 - What Child Is This?

Though i am an atheist, i do love me some Christmas music, and particularly the hymns.  Maybe it's a little odd that i go for the religious songs this time of year, but there's just something so melancholy and lovely about so many of them.  Take a listen to noted curmudgeon Mark Kozelek's solo acoustic take on "What Child Is This?" below.

Jesu / Sun Kil Moon

So, Mark Kozelek is an asshole.  There's really no denying that.  But he's still a talented dude, and he's got a collaborative album in the works with Jesu's Justin K. Broadrick due in January on Caldo Verde/Rough Trade.  I'm expecting it to knock my socks off.  Anyway, a first taste has surfaced, the interestingly and totally Kozelek-sounding titled song "America's Most Wanted Mark Kozelek and John Dillinger."  It sounds like a more atmospheric Sun Kil Moon, but i'm game for that.  Listen to the track here.

Sun Kil Moon - The Possum

It's been a big and interesting year for Mark Kozelek, a stellar new Sun Kil Moon album, another album of Christmas songs, the weird and obscenity-fueled beef with The War on Drugs, and now another new jam called "The Possum."  The song clocks in at almost 9 minutes and is all about dead possums and hanging out with Godflesh.  Get it from Kozelek's Caldo Verde label next month and listen below.

Sun Kil Moon - War on Drugs: Suck my Cock

I've been a fan of Mark Kozelek for a number of years, in whatever guise he happens to be making music in, be it Red House Painters, Sun Kil Moon, or solo, but some of his shenanigans of late have been wearing a little thin, from his verbal abuse of his "fucking hillbilly" audience, to this latest seemingly one-sided feud with Philly band War on Drugs.  And here's the latest shot, Sun Kil Moon's newest jam, "War on Drugs: Suck my Cock."  Part of me thinks this is all some big Kaufmanesque jest, but who really knows?  Mark "sourpuss" Kozelek has a long and painful history of talking shit and hating on his fans...and everyone else.  The song is still kind of pretty though, despite its ugly content.  Listen below.

On a side note, i saw Kozelek perform a couple of years ago in a small and intimate venue, and he is an amazing presence...but we were drunk, and we were rowdy, and we really should not have been at a Mark Kozelek show in the state that we were in.  So we got the fuck out of there before he could berate us.

Sun Kil Moon

Mark Kozelek is prepping a new album under his Sun Kil Moon moniker, and if the first taste, "Richard Ramirez Died Today of Natural Causes," is any indication, this new record is going to be intense.  Kozelek's practically unmatched acoustic guitar picking skills are paired with the drumming of former Sonic Youth member Steve Shelley, and a stream of consciousness style vocal delivery that is unsettling, and at times almost confusing.  I fucking love it.  Listen below and look for the album in February on Caldo Verde.

Mark Kozelek

Red House Painters and Sun Kil Moon mastermind Mark Kozelek loves covers.  The man has been doing stripped down, emotionally stirring versions of everyone from Modest Mouse to Ace Frehley, AC/DC to Simon and Garfunkel, The Cars to our own national anthem, turning the songs into deeply moving, personal gems.  Needless to say, i'm pretty stoked about new album "Like Rats."  On it, Kozelek covers Danzig, Bad Brains, Descendents, Godflesh (from whence the title comes), and more.  Watch the video for the title track below and look for the album from Kozelek's own Caldo Verde Records.