What Mark Lanegan means to my life

I cried when I learned Lanegan died on Tuesday. I don't think I've allowed myself the space to grieve much lately [READER]( I cried when I learned [Mark Lanegan died]( on Tuesday. I've seen so many celebrated artists and criminally overlooked musical figures die in recent months that I thought I'd become inured to such news, which saddens me to put into writing. I don't think I've allowed myself the space to grieve much lately—for the loss of people I don't know nor for the death of those whose work has had some inexplicable influence on the shape of my life. I suppose I'm still figuring out what Lanegan means to my life. He knew how to relish a syllable long enough to send chills up my spine, and I always found that exciting. Lanegan's grizzled voice seemed to come from a place I couldn't identify on a map, because it didn't feel of this earth, or at least the parts of our world inhabited by people—he could hint at a subterranean darkness with just a brief vocal inflection, parlaying an air of mystery like few other vocalists I've encountered. And I encountered him at a young age; D.C. rock radio stations seemed to have "Nearly Lost You," by Lanegan's band Screaming Trees, on permanent rotation when I was a kid in the 1990s. "Grunge" was an opaque concept to me back then, but even then I understood Lanegan helped make it special. I've been thinking about Lanegan a lot recently in part because I've spent so much of my time re-familiarizing myself with grunge history while working on my newest feature: it's about a new reissue of [proto-grunge pioneers Bam Bam and their front woman, Tina Bell](. It was a challenge to write about a poorly documented band that formed nearly 40 years ago in a city more than 2,000 miles west of Chicago, in part because many of the people involved in Seattle's underground rock scene as grunge formed have died; Bam Bam's two founders passed before a loose network of musicians, writers, and music collectors helped to elevate the band and their legacy. A few of the most important people involved in enshrining Bam Bam in the history books live in Chicago: writer and rocker Jen B. Larson, and the cofounders of Bric-a-Brac Records, which released the new Bam Bam reissue on vinyl. Often the work of music journalism is confined to a few basic components. There's a new album (or single, or mixtape), the artist who made it, and a big event hooked to it, usually a concert. I love to learn how a song or album motivates the people who receive it, in part because those of us who've dedicated so much of ourselves to music have those touchstones that influenced the course of our lives—and continue to reinforce our dedication to this art. I wanted to tell the story of Bam Bam and Tina Bell because it also meant I'd tell the story of a local rock scene that's helped change the world's understanding of grunge history. Stories like this one motivate me to learn even more about how people in this city continue to change the world of music. Sincerely, 🏆[Sign up for exclusive Best of Chicago updates to be the first to know who wins!]( 🏆 ["The Softer Side of Skramz: Bedroom Pop and Screamo Collide,"]( by Jude Noel (Bandcamp Daily) ["'Mayor of Maxwell Street' Charlie Joe Henderson Kept Order At Iconic Market—And Never Missed A Day,"]( by Madison Savedra (Block Club) Lavender Country, [Blackberry Rose]( Drama, [Don't Wait Up]( Everson Poe, [Grief]( Florian T M Zeisig, [Walking Mix]( We've wrapped up season one of CQN! Listen back on all ten episodes [here]( or wherever you get your podcasts. [Deb Clapp takes final bows at the League of Chicago Theatres]( The longtime executive director reflects on her tenure; plus Hell in a Handbag gets an outing with La MaMa. by [Kerry Reid]( [‘We need to be imagining other possibilities for ourselves’]( Cadenza offers a sneak peek at a new opera about the carceral state. by [Irene Hsiao]( [Boxing Day]( by [Janaya Greene]( [Issue of Feb 17 -March 2, 2022 Vol. 51, No.]( [Download Issue]( [View this e-mail as a web page]( [@chicago_reader]( [/chicagoreader]( [@chicago_reader]( [Chicago Reader on LinkedIn]( [/chicagoreader]( [chicagoreader.com]( [Forward this e-mail to a friend](. Want to change how you receive these e-mails? You can [update your preferences]( or [unsubscribe from this list](. Copyright © 2022 Chicago Reader, All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: Chicago Reader, 2930 S. Michigan Ave., Suite 102, Chicago, IL 60616