Mark Kozelek What’s Next To The Moon.
As someone who sincerely believes that the absolute freaking peaking pinnacle of this ‘music’ thing we all like is AC/DC Powerage* how was I ever going to resist this LP? especially as it is named after my joint favourite Powerage track? especially as the other joint favourite is this LP’s opener? especially as I have come to worship the Red House Painter’s slow-e-motion charms? especially as the cover features moody shots of train tracks and cars**? especially as I wanted it from the moment I first read about it back in 2001? especially when it got released on LP for the first time as a limited edition of 1700 for RSD 2015?
No resistance at all from me.
What’s Next To The Moon is an excellent collection of solo acoustic Young/Young/Scott AC/DC covers. I know, I know what you’re thinking that by 2019 the surprising/inappropriate-slow-acoustic-acapella cover of a happy song is the absolute staple of TV show themes and marketing campaigns^^, way back in the year 2001 this was not the case. In Red House Painters Kozelek had already done the do on KISS’ ‘Shock Me’, so he had his ear tuned right for this kind of thang.
Kozelek picks 10 AC/DC album tracks for this LP, with a fairly even distribution weighted towards the mighty Powerage (which tops the table with 3) including the laudably obscure ‘You Ain’t Got A Hold On Me’ from the Aussie version of High Voltage. I like the way there are a few tracks I’d consider ‘lesser treasures’ here such as ‘If You Want Blood’ and ‘Love Hungry Man’ getting their day in the acoustic sun. Kozelek tweaks the lyrics ever so slightly from time to time and cuts back the repetition in the choruses a bit, necessarily.
Some tracks on What’s Next To The Moon work better than others, which is to be expected. Before I bang on about the title track at unnecessary length here are the best bits:
- Up To My Neck In You: a lovely chiming song full of yearning and plaintive love^*.
- Love Hungry Man: gorgeous melodies and gentle uncertainties abound.
- Bad Boy Boogie: some lovely picking and somewhat resigned rebellion.
- If You Want Blood: a tough-strumming acoustic act of defiance.
- Walk All Over You: it’s a tentative song about love and self-subjugation, not about aggressive sex at all, who knew?
For me, as well as the novelty of the idea, What’s Next To The Moon is all about, umm, ‘What’s Next To The Moon’; it does not disappoint. Kozelek reinterprets it as a faintly menacing percussive murder ballad, which is about right, although a couple of lyrics are tweaked. We’re right in Mark Lanegan’s bailiwick here. My particular favourite bit is where Kozelek goes all Bobby McFerrin on us and sings us a guitar solo.
Tied my baby to the railroad track
Train rolling down the line
Givin’ that woman just one more chance
To give it to me one more time
Engineer wishin’ he was home in bed
Dreamin’ about Casey Jones
Wide-eyed woman with a hole in her head
Crying over broken bones
‘What’s Next To The Moon’ does exactly what all the best covers do, they make us look at something we know and love in a different light, show us something new refracted through another’s gaze. No mean trick.
To a greater or lesser extent the same is true for the whole of What’s Next To The Moon. Mark Kozelek teases out a certain uncertainty from these songs and suggests that there may be something occasionally deeper underlying all the machismo on show, maybe even (whisper it!) feelings; whether there actually is or not, or whether his interpretations are more of a reflection of his own mental topography is another matter. The most Red House Painterly track here is ‘Love Hungry Man’ and Kozelek does indeed conjure soul from base material.
As much as I want him to follow this up with a second collection called Big Balls*^, a more instructive exercise might be to try and do the same with the Johnson era of AC/DC. I loved the man as the band’s singer but his, ahem, straight-forward lyrical style would not I suspect lend itself to such interpretation/extrapolation of vulnerability. Please feel free to contain your howls of derisive laughter when in 5 years I’m here wittering on about how Kozelek has managed to illuminate hitherto undreamed of depths of emotion in ‘Sink The Pink’ and the gentle torment that has always been an inherent quality for me in ‘Heatseeker’.
What’s Next To The Moon will do fine until then, a collection of covers that mostly embellish and elucidate the originals, in the way that covers should but so rarely do; mind you most covers LPs cannot boast a talent a quarter as talented as Mark Kozelek.
971 Down.
*and all human culture thus far.
**referencing the lyrics of said titular track^.
^lord, how I love the word ‘titular’, a word that can both make me giggle and feel wiser simultaneously.
^^how long until we have some daft bastard sad-crooning ‘Hell Bent For Leather’, or ‘Long Stick Goes Boom’ at us like he’s dawdling on the way to his father’s funeral as the theme tune for True Detective: 4 ?
^*and there was me thinking it was all a dodgy, pounding double entendre (repeat comment for every single track here).
*^good luck teasing gentle melodies and plaintive yearning out of that title track.
His haunting/haunted skeletal reinterpretation of ‘I’ by Bad Brains is also one for the ages. He somehow extracts the essense whilst leaving all the violence & bluster on the side of his plate. I don’t even miss the violence & bluster even though that’s what attracted me to Bad Brains in the first place.
I can’t wait for his album of Dwarves covers, it’s sure to be a tear-jerker.
I just the creative process. Thanks for this one 1537. Right up old CB’s alley.
It’s a good one. I just wish TV wasn’t full of acoustic slow motion covers of everything these days.
I miss all that TV stuff so this is fresh to me. Just dig the sound and the vibe. Catches my ear bone.
Wouldn’t have pictured it working – good to be proven wrong!
It really does for me. Mind you I am recovering from a near-death heavy cold.
Dacca Unplugged! Wild if anything that the Young empire has not to try to shut him done. They can’t even unplug this guy haha
Good on him though breaking down these towns.
geez I meant to say..”.shut him down…”
and “Breaking down these tunes”
Tell Me Why I Don’t Like Mondays!
I think it actually works. Bon’s lyrics had a bit more depth to them (not too much!). Not sure you could make much of ‘Mistress For Christmas’ or ‘Sink The Pink’ on an acoustic.
HAHAHA…That would be something! I was hoping ZZ Top would tackle ‘Woke Up With Wood’ acoustically.
As much as I’m not a Kozelek fan, the concept for this appeals to me. One of my all-time covers is Luna’s cover of “Sweet child o’mine”, a reimagining of a hair metal classic. I would guess this album does much the same.
It’s a good listen this one. It sets a mood.
This is a great one and I don’t think I knew this got a vinyl release, so there you go. RSD rules! Anyhoo, would it surprise you if I said that this album was the first time I paid attention to AC/DC? Kozelek is such a, eh, interesting guy, eh? He definitely does the whole music thing more for himself than anyone else. And for cash.
His Modest Mouse LP is good, too (Tiny Cities)… and I’m still waiting for him to drop a War On Drugs one.
Haha! I don’t see The War on Drugs happening…
That whole thing was 5 years ago! Man, time flies!
Tell me about it. I was at that show!
No way! Tell me, were you watching the beer commercial music?
I was!!! I actually left Kozelek’s set to go watch The War on Drugs. He was his usually ornery self even before the noise bleed started.
Haha. He would not be pleased to hear that you left during his set to go listen to the beer commercial music! Sacrilege!
Sorry, have been on my man-flu death bed and missed all this – what are we referring to here?
Aw man!! Curse that dreaded man-flu! I hope you’re on the mend… though I dare say you’ll be taking a turn again by the weekend.
Anyhoo, a few years ago there was a spat between Kozelek and War On Drugs. They played the same festival and it got quite entertaining.
https://news.avclub.com/mark-kozelek-is-having-a-hilarious-fight-with-the-war-o-1798272742
Also resulted in two tracks from Kozelek; War On Drugs: Suck My Cock and Adam Granofsky Blues.
Congrats, you inspired a WoD post.
Haha. That’s unfortunate. Do I have to read it?
It’s compulsory.
Gah. Bloody beer commercial music.
Come on, we all love beer!
Hey J. First time … AC/DC … man, oh man. I do like this album a lot, a couple of the tracks REALLY don’t work, but hey nothing ventured, nothing gained.
As someone who wasn’t familiar with AC/DC at the time I had no reference point, you can imagine I was taken by surprise. Even when the song didn’t seem particularly suited.
This post has led to me listening to a lot of Kozelek again.
I have to admit this does sound interesting. Matt Nathanson did an EP called “Pyromattia” which were acoustic versions of Def Leppard songs and there a couple on there that took the songs to a whole differently level. I might have to check this out.
It’s worth a bit of Last FM-ing.
Acoustic versions of AC/DC? What a joke. Next you’ll be telling me there are bluegrass versions of that stuff too. Ridiculous.
Sorry Scott – I’ve been away teetering on the edge of life and death. Runny nose, coughing a bit, slightly hot forehead – the works!
This is way better than those Hayseed chaps – mostly because he plays it all with a straight face.
When’s your all penny whistle and kazoo Burzum covers LP out?
ACDC acoustic set, never thought I’d see the day.
It works, it really does.
It’s amazing how AC/DC’s lyrics change context when they’re delivered by a sensitive sounding man…
Simply based on the song above, I am not sure I can be convinced. We are not here to opine however, we are here to support. So…
The only Red House Painters I know is their (his?) version of ‘Silly Love Songs’, with its profound and absolute freaking elucidation of that song’s feelings. On that basis then, I think we can declare some common ground.
But it’s named after a Powerage song. That makes it better than everything else.
I appreciate that I may be a bit of a fundamentalist in such matters and you may have valid, nuanced reasons for disagreeing … BUT POWERAGE!!!!!