Mark Lanegan and Will Ferrell

I saw Soulsavers last night at the Bowery Ballroom, they are a British band that has had a bunch of musicians associated with them, Mark Lanegan is the main vocalist at the moment. Mark was the lead singer of the 90s grunge band The Screaming Trees, and he's put out a bunch of good solo records. I thought I got the Soulsavers record from Radiobutt but when I searched there and wanted to link to it for this post I couldn't find it. Anyway, in keeping with my loose music piracy philosophy (I don't buy records any more but I will do my very best to go see any band I like when I can) I checked out Soulsavers. I couldnt' get over how much Mark Lanegan looked like Will Ferrell, I actually kept laughing, when he wasn't singing, he looked like Will Ferrell making fun of an angst-riddled grunge singer, lurching around, awkwardly earnest. Do people make fun of him about this? I thought it was uncanny. Anyway, he does have a really cool voice, deep, smokey baritone, unique; when I see a band live I often find it's hard to discern the lyrics but he is uniquely able to cut through the instruments with his voice and articulate every word, pretty cool. The band is good, they are not my favorite, but kind of refreshing to see just a "rock" band as opposed to "indie rock" or any of the hybrids of rock music out there, most of which I like a lot, but this was kind of a throwback to 1993 in a good way.

BTW, Radiobutt has a bunch of interesting albums up, the new Sufjan Stevens album about the BQE, which is actually an orchestral performance; Monsters of Folk is worth checking out, inconsistent but some good songs if you're a fan of M. Ward, Bright Eyes or My Morning Jacket; I like the Volcano Choir record, which features Justin Vernon and sounds like his Bon Iver record but more experimental and electronic; Fuck Buttons is cool.

Also, for anyone in NYC, Child Abuse is playing the new Knitting Factory Friday night, Tim played me some tracks from the new record the other night, pretty insane.