Interview with Greg Prato – Lanegan – Part 1

 Review for www.nomoreworkhorse.com 

Screaming Trees - Dust

https://nomoreworkhorse.com/2019/06/13/screaming-trees-dust/Article for www.nomoreworkhorse.com

Album Review: Screaming Trees – Invisible Lantern

In 1988 the Screaming Trees released their third album, Invisible Lantern.  Opener Ivy immediately sets the tone for the album, it’s muddier, heavier and more unhinged than their previous 2 albums.  A rough and ready, downward spiraling riff is the bedrock for Mark Lanegan to roar his vocals over, and roar he does with a gloriously messy performance.

Walk Through To This Side, is more psychedelic, with jangly, 60s sounding guitars, before following track Lines & Circles kicks up a fine racket with a bludgeoning riff right out of Gary Lee Conner’s book of monster riffs.  After the noise of She Knows and Shadow Song, Grey Diamond Desert slows things down, turning the fuzz down a shade and heightening the doom in Lanegan’s voice.

Some of the rest of the tracks are a little interchangeable, but Even If (presumable held over from 1987’s Even If and Especially When) has a fine gallop and a strong melody.  The album is quite far removed from the band’s 90s material, more like a punky, garage band than the classic rockers they would become.

Album Review: Screaming Trees – Last Words: The Final Recordings

Review for www.meg.ie

Album Review: Screaming Trees – Uncle Anesthesia

The Screaming Trees released their first album on Epic records in 1991, right before what became known as ‘grunge’ became a seriously big noise. But this band were more grunge by association with the pacific Northwest, than their actual sound. The album initially felt disappointing, with many of the songs lost in Terry Date and Chris Cornell’s somewhat muddy production. It also saw the final stage of the Trees’ transition from a punky sound to a more classic rock sound.

Opening song Beyond This Horizon doesn’t really work, Mark Lanegan’s developing croon failing to rescue the track from sounding like a refugee from The Cult’s Sonic Temple album. Though drummer Mark Pickerel, on his final album with Screaming Trees, gives a fine performance here.

Bed of Roses fairs much better with Gary Lee Conner’s jangly guitars fitting in well to the overall heavy sound, though there is way too much reverb on Lanegan’s voice. The title track is probably one of the best here, Conner’s heavily wah-wahed (grammar?) guitar riff rocks hard and Lanegan is in fine voice, his voice rising from a deep croon about “dusted preacher in the dark” to screaming unintelligible lyrics over the guitar solo.

Many of the songs take a relatively simple chord progression and layer them with heavy, yet jangly guitars and Lanegan’s wonderful voice (Caught Between, Alice Said), and one of these, Lay Your Head Down, contains a wonderfully weedy recorder solo from Chris Cornell amid the raging guitars!

There are some fine slower tracks here also. Disappearing finds Lanegan singing at the top of his register over a descending melody featuring a trumpet, while final track Closer builds from a sparse opening to a slow anthem, leaving plenty of room for another fine Lanegan vocal.

They would go on to arguably greater heights with Sweet Oblivion and Dust but this often overlooked album is a strong sounding album, albeit with slightly less memorable songs than subsequent albums. It also bears witness to the maturing of Mark Lanegan’s voice to the powerful instrument that it has become.

Album Review: Screaming Trees - Buzz Factory

On this album, their fourth released in 1989, Screaming Trees began to sound less like the somewhat shouty band they had been and started to become a little more melodic. Mark Lanegan had started to actually sing rather than roar, and the album shows the first signs of his undoubted vocal talents. The guitar attack of Gary Lee Conner became a little more refined here as classic rock influences became apparent. Indeed his guitar work is very disciplined and concise throughout, with very few wasted notes, almost like an extension of the rhythm section.

Where the Twain Shall Meet is a kind of sludgey, droney guitar anthem. The guitars are quite downtuned here and sound really good, smouldering away with the requisite slacker attitude. Black Sun Morning is a great early grunge anthem. Lanegan’s vocals here are all over the shop as he bawls his throat out, but the squalling guitars keep everything together, leading into an unashamedly big chorus. Van Conner’s basswork is particularly good in this one, and the whole thing finishes up with some unexpected piano work almost taking it into the realm of Roxy Music.

Too Far Away is about as classic rock as it gets. It kicks off with a repeating guitar riff which would be fairly unremarkable until Lanegan spreads his giant vocal chords over the proceedings. His vocal here is a million miles away from Black Sun Morning and he sounds great. The song closes with some fairly pleasing “ba ba bas” over more squalling guitars. The guitars get dirtier for Subtle Poison, before things calm down a bit for Yard Trip #7, a kind of Doors-y slowish song.

Before the next song, a clip of a radio appearance is played (“The question will be what kind of trees you are; the answer will be 'Screaming Trees'"), then the band kick into the jangly power-pop Flower Web, which features another great vocal from Lanegan.

Towards the end of the album the band come on a bit like a heavy version of the Doors, on tracks like Wish Bringer and especially End of the Universe, which definitely takes some influence from The End, especially Mark Pickerel’s drumming in the middle section, and some of Lanegan’s vocal ‘mannerisms’. But the band lock into a great heavy groove on this and other tracks.

This is the first real 'Lanegan as proper singer' record. The problem with the Screaming Trees is that they were too heavy for mainstream pop/rock in the late 80s, but not heavy enough for metal thus falling between two stools. They didn’t really sound like anything in the embryonic grunge scene either, and record companies therefore had no idea what to do with them. But quite simply, this is a really good hard rock album. Pretty meaningless title though.