13 July 2024

MARK LANEGAN who was a member of many bands/projects (Screaming Trees,
QOTSA, The Gutter Twins and more) and scored 12 solo LPs, passed away in 2022,
at the age of 57. No cause of death was revealed.

One of his most praised albums, BUBBLEGUM
came out 20 years ago, on 10 August 2004.

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A 20th-anniversary edition of the longplayer will be released as BUBBLEGUM XX
with a 2xLP vinyl reissue of the original album and a 4xLP/3xCD/digital release containing
40 remastered tracks. A dozen of those are previously unreleased, including ‘Union Tombstone’ with Beck and six tracks recorded in various hotel rooms with Queens Of
The Stone Age bandmate Troy Van Leeuwen.

Mark Lanegan Band; Belgium, 2015 – Photo by Turn Up The Volume

Van Leeuwen: “So these hotel demo sessions were basically forgotten…When I heard the news of Mark’s passing, these memories started rushing back to me. I searched through my archive of drives and somehow magically was able to open up these sessions. I thought to myself, “That NEVER happens.

These ideas couldn’t be more fresh out of the tap. The original rough mixes are a real time capsule that stands up to the 20 years that have passed. It’s a true gift from Mark to those
of us who love him and his unvarnished expression of beauty. With every listen, I am humbled and honored to share his gift with you.”

The reissue box contains also a 64-page hardcover book with essays by Van Leeuwen,
Josh Homme, Chris Goss, Alain Johannes, David Catching, Greg Dulli, Duff McKagan, and
Brett Netson along previously unseen photographs by Steve Gullick.

More info and pre-order details here

It also includes an expanded edition of Lanegan’s 2003 EP Here Comes That Weird Chill,

In his 2017 memoir I Am The Wolf, Lanegan wrote about Bubblegum.

“I had been awake for days and nights, crazed from no sleep and illegal stimulants, and was sitting cross-legged on the studio floor with sheets of paper covered in handwritten lyrics, notes, and ideas strewn out around me in a ten-foot circle. While I had been out of my mind making records in the past, this was a new peak… or low, depending on one’s perspective… Many of the songs came from a place of dejection and ennui.”

When the singular voice passed away 2 years
ago I made myself a playlist of
15 Mark Lanegan diamonds.

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Mark Lanegan: Story