Sparklehorse

The brainchild of singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Mark Linkous (plus a revolving cast of cronies), Sparklehorse made strangely beautiful, beautifully weird music that drew from country rock, blues and soul, but added a cut-and-paste sonic adventurousness to the proceedings, finally winding up someplace that can only be described as "different." Linkous had a penchant for subverting the hooks in his melodies, altering the vocals or piling on heaps of sound effects, feedback and/or seemingly random instrumental fragments. His densely ambitious music gained him cult status in the U.S., but European audiences made him something of a star, and fellow outre artists always admired him, as evinced by his Dark Night of the Soul project with Danger Mouse and David Lynch. Tragically, after a lifetime of bringing emotional turmoil to vivid musical life, Linkous committed suicide in March 2010.