The Daily Swarm

Official Statement:

It is with great sadness that we share the news that our dear friend and
family member, Mark Linkous, took his own life today. We are thankful
for his time with us and will hold him forever in our hearts. May his
journey be peaceful, happy and free. There’s a heaven and there’s a star
for you.

The New York TImes:

Mark Linkous, a singer-songwriter whose music, released under the name Sparklehorse, was renowned in the indie-rock and alt-country worlds for its dark, allusive themes and fragile beauty, committed suicide on Saturday in Knoxville, Tenn. He was 47.

He shot himself in the heart in an alley outside a friend’s home, said his manager, Shelby Meade. Lt. Greg Hoskins of the Knoxville Police Department confirmed that the police responded to a call at 1:20 p.m., and that Mr. Linkous was pronounced dead at the scene. According to his family, Mr. Linkous owned the gun that he used.

On four Sparklehorse albums released between 1995 and 2006, and in numerous collaborations, Mr. Linkous developed a style that sent sunny, Beatles-esque melodies through a filter of crackling, damaged folk-rock, and his songs were filled with entropic imagery. “Everything that’s made is made to decay,” he sang on Sparkehorse’s debut album, “Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot” (Capitol) in a whispery tenor that had echoes of coal-country folk.

Born and raised in Virginia, Mr. Linkous began his musical career in punk bands, and in the 1980s he lived in New York and Los Angeles in pursuit of mainstream rock success as part of the band the Dancing Hoods. Disillusioned with the music business, he returned to Virginia and reinvented his sound as Sparklehorse, a name that applied to himself as well as the band he led.

Mr. Linkous had recently completed most of the work for a new Sparklehorse album and was in the process of moving to Knoxville and setting up a new studio to complete the album, said Ms. Meade, his manager.

Update Via L.A. Times:

A spokeswoman for the artist corroborated the family’s statement and provided additional details. Linkous took his own life with a gun on Saturday, she said. He was 47. His survivors include his wife, Teresa; his mother, Gloria Hughes Thacker; his father, Frederick Linkous; and his brothers, Matt, Paul and Daniel Linkous

Pitchfork:

Linkous made his debut under the Sparklehorse name with the 1995 album vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot, which yielded the minor hit “Someday I Will Treat You Good”. He went on to release three more acclaimed records of fractured, experimental alt-blues: 1999’s Good Morning Spider, 2001’s It’s a Wonderful Life, and 2006’s Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain, as well as the Danger Mouse/David Lynch all-star project Dark Night of the Soul and the Fennesz collaboration In the Fishtank. A voracious collaborator, Linkous also worked with PJ Harvey, Daniel Johnston, Tom Waits, and many others.

Last year, Dark Night of the Soul was released as a book and a blank CD and leaked to the internet due to a legal battle between Danger Mouse and EMI. Earlier this week, it was announced that Dark Night of the Soul would finally receive physical release this summer.

Blurt Online:

According to BLURT contributor John Schacht, who interviewed Linkous last year, “I liked his [sense of] humor – nice guy, very damaged though. When I hung up the phone the last time, he was walking into a therapist’s in Asheville, and [I sensed] I’d never speak to him again. You could feel the weight of his depression.”

Just the same, Linkous’ career yielded a number of impressive peaks over the years. He got his start in the ‘80s with Virginia-based band Dancing Hoods, then gained national acclaim in 1995 with the Sparklehorse debut Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot. Several other albums followed, notably 2001’s It’s A Wonderful Life (featuring guests Tom Waits, PJ Harvey, Vic Chesnutt and others. The last Sparklehorse album appeared in 2006, Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain.

Along the way Linkous also became a producer, working with the Cardigans’ Nina Persson, Daniel Johnston and others. (He helmed a Johnston tribute album, 2004’s Discovered Covered, which included a collaboration between Linkous and the Flaming Lips.) In more recent years he’d settled in Hayesville, NC, several miles southwest of Asheville, and was spotted around town in Asheville on numerous occasions, sometimes checking out other bands in the local clubs. He will be greatly missed.

Sparklehorse MySpace Page:

Sparklehorse: General Info
Member Since 12/9/2005
Band Website www.sparklehorse.com
Band Members Mark Linkous & Friends
Influences Mark is influenced by various artists. His first moment of clarity, musically, was when a friend played him ‘House of the Rising Sun’ by The Animals. Mark was hooked because it was louder than a dirt bike. When he was young he was mostly into bluegrass and country, and artists such as George Jones, Johnny Cash, The Stanley Brothers. Later on he got into punk rock, notably the Sex Pistols, Led Zeppelin, and The Damned. However when forming Sparklehorse it was Mark’s intention to make a kind of pop equivalent to Tom Wait’s ‘Swordfishtrombone.’