Music

Covering Up

Mark Kozelek, on hiatus from Red House Painters, takes on John Denver and AC/DC

By Jeff Stratton 

The dichotomy is almost paralyzing. But for Mark Kozelek, singer-songwriter for Red House Painters, it's a badge of courage to fess up to a love of vintage AC/DC. He feels perfectly at home singing elegant, unplugged versions of "Up to My Neck in You," from Powerage, "Love at First Feel," from Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, or "If You Want Blood" from Highway to Hell. Similarities between the two acts are difficult to locate: The Australian heavy-metal rockers are as power-chord crunchy as the Red House Painters are folksy and featherweight. Both bands adhere to bare-bones, low-frills mannerisms -- albeit originating from different poles -- but the disparate parties are set to be forever linked following the release of an upcoming Kozelek solo album. Will his fans, who fell in love with his sadly beautiful and introspective songs, embrace his love of party animal, petty criminal, death-by-whiskey metal legend Bon Scott?

Born in Ohio in 1967, Kozelek was caught up in prescription drugs, pot, and alcohol by his early teens. By age 18 he'd gone virtually straightedge. Relocating to Atlanta, he met drummer Anthony Koutsos and began a band called God Forbid. In 1988 the pair moved to San Francisco and recorded some starkly confessional, moody, acoustic-folk tunes with guitarist Gorden Mack and bassist Jerry Vessel, adopting the Red House Painters banner after a mythical labor union.

Those early demos curried the favor of Ivo Watts-Russell, head of England's 4AD Records. At the time the label had its hands full with collegiate staples such as the Pixies, Cocteau Twins, and Dead Can Dance. These initial Red House Painters recordings were compiled as Down Colorful Hill in 1992, marked by long, wandering, diary-draining novellas. Two self-titled LPs followed, the second ushering in what has now become a Kozelek hallmark: odd cover songs, in this case Paul Simon's "I Am a Rock" and a painfully re-arranged "Star Spangled Banner."

But what followed was stranger yet. Red House Painters had begun performing a slow, melancholic revision of Ace Frehley's "Shock Me," originally found on Kiss' 1977 album Love Gun. The Painters released an EP in 1994 with two versions of the song; both were utterly unrecognizable. Only a slim crossover crowd caught the lyrics, which gave the game away.

By 1995's Ocean Beach, Kozelek and Watts-Russell no longer saw eye to eye, a situation that worsened when Kozelek submitted what was to be his first solo album, Songs For a Blue Guitar. (Although Koutsos, Vessel, and Phil Carney -- who'd replaced Mack a year earlier -- don't play on the album, it's still credited to Red House Painters.) It included Painted versions of Yes' "Long Distance Runaround," the Cars' "All Mixed Up," and Wings' "Silly Love Songs." But the album's centerpiece was a ragged Crazy Horse­ish original called "Make Like Paper," containing a blistering guitar lead that Watts-Russell found incongruous with the tidy 4AD aesthetic. He instructed Kozelek to excise the solo and trim the song from 12 minutes to a more manageable three or four.

Says Kozelek: "I grew up listening to fuckin' Jimmy Page and Neil Young. If I wanna play some fuckin' guitar leads, I wanna play a guitar lead. I don't need some guy from England telling me what I can or can't do."

After the group parted ways with 4AD, the Blue Guitar album was released in 1996 through Supreme Records, an Island subsidiary owned by director John Hughes. The band toured relentlessly and prepared another album, for a 1998 release. But the Island/Polygram/Seagrams merger complicated that, leaving the record and the Painters in limbo.

Finally Old Ramon, the first RHP album in five years, will be in stores in February, Kozelek reports. Although there's a touch of frustration in his voice, he also displays some Zen wisdom.

"It sucks," he admits, "but things could be a lot worse. I'm not dying of any horrible disease that I'm aware of. The record will finally see the light of day, but it'll be really old when it comes out. And it really sucks that the record's coming out so late, but whatever. People are getting killed and stuff around the world. What am I gonna do -- cry because my record's coming out too late?"

He's barely had time for tears. Last year Kozelek landed a movie role, appearing as the bassist for the fictional '70s band Stillwater in Cameron Crowe's Almost Famous. "I guess I can sum it up by saying it was the seven months of my life where I had absolutely nothing to worry about," he says. "Everything was taken care of. If I had a hangnail, five people would come over and make sure I was OK."

He compiled and produced a John Denver tribute project called Take Me Home, featuring three Red House Painters songs and contributions from the likes of Mojave 3, Low, Tarnation, and Will Oldham. "I don't think it sold tons of copies," Kozelek reports, "but I think it turned out nice and represented him in a good way."

The band also added four songs to the AIDS benefit Shanti Project Collection CD -- two originals plus covers of the Stephen Stills/Neil Young obscurity "Midnight on the Bay" and Genesis' "Follow You, Follow Me," answering observers who wondered when he was going to get around to Phil Collins.

"Hey, I did a Paul McCartney song, and I hate him," Kozelek says with a chuckle. "All the cover songs I do are all flukes. I'll hear a Ted Nugent song and think it'd be funny. I have a knack for taking a ridiculous Ace Frehley lyric and turning it into something of my own. That's how I approach covers. And the people I cover I'm not necessarily a huge fan of. I don't own a Kiss record. With a lot of this stuff, they're like my own songs to me."

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