'Access All Areas'
The Daily Telegraph, Sydney, Australia.

If there's one record AAA insists you go out and get immediately, it's the
new one from Virginia's Sparklehorse, Good Morning Spider.  A record to
match it's subtlety and intricate bliss certainly hasn't come across this
desk in some time.

But that should come as no surprise.  Sparklehorse's debut
Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot (hey, what are you laughing at?), was a
favourite of critics around the world (NME, Rolling Stone, Vox) a couple of
years ago.

The man behind Sparklehorse, the quietly spoken Mark Linkous, still gets
overwhelmed at the reaction his music evokes.

"I'm still just so flattered by all of that because I never really expected
it," Linkous said shyly.  "That's one thing that has really helped me keep
on making music and keeping it together.  I've got letters from people and I
just couldn't believe that one of my records could affect people the way it
did.  That really helped me get through a lot of bad shit."

"Some times I just sit and look at it and hold it and imagine if i was a
person who didn't have anything to do with the making of it, what impression
would I have?  And I always feel like I would be really intrigued.  If I was
holding that and listening to it for the first time."

Virtually a solo artist, Linkous now makes much of his music by himself at
home.  With one of the tracks on the new album, Painbirds, he spent six
months of the mixing alone.

"It's a big advantage having a little home studio, a little 16-track.  I'm
able to experiment and erase.  Whereas a lot of records are done in a fairly
sterile, proper recording studio environment and everybody's eyes are on the
clock.  That's like being at the dentist for me."

Linkous spent several years in minor bands in and around LA but gave that
scene away in 1995 when he decied to relocate back home to Virginia and
launch Sparklehorse.  "Living in LA is the epitome of hype and glam and
fluff," he explained.  "It was really nice to just abandon all that shit and
just be isolated in the country."

Linkous is hoping to bring the live version of Sparklehorse to Australia
early next year.  If he manages to do so, there probably won't be any AAA
that week.  We'll be too busy waiting outside his hotel for an autograph,
mummy.