SPARKLEHORSE Vinyl Records and CDs

This band is essentially the brainchild of singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Mark Linkous, and a revolving cast of his cronies. They make strangely beautiful, beautifully weird music that draws from Country Rock, blues, and Soul and adds a cut-and-paste sonic adventurousness to the proceedings, finally winding up someplace that can only be described as "different." Linkous has a penchant for subverting the hooks in his melodies, altering the vocals or piling heaps of sound effects, feedback, or seemingly random instrumental fragments on top of them. His densely ambitious music has gained him cult status in the U.S., but European audiences have embraced his vision and made him something of a star.