Live Video: Mark Lanegan

Some singers can sing anything, and some of them practically do. Mark Lanegan has one of those voices that will stop you dead in your tracks no matter when or how you hear him. The former local boy (he's lived in LA now probably longer than anywhere else) began a series of deep, dark solo albums that progressively grew more expansive, just like the roster of artists he's collaborated with over the years, from fellow rockers like Layne Staley, Queens of The Stone Age and Greg Dulli of The Afghan Whigs to folky singers like Isobel Campbell and Duke Garwood and electronic composers like Moby, The Soulsavers, UNKLE, Massive Attack and too many others to list. The list of covers he's recorded is no less varied. Imitations, his last LP, included songs by Chelsea Wolfe, Nancy Sinatra, Bobby Darin, and his current tourmates Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Yet no matter what style or genre, or whose songs he's singing, there's no mistaking that deep, dusty voice. So it was no surprise that Mark's setlist for his recent visit to the KEXP studio included both a reworked 15th century ballad and a tune by Irving Berlin, but we weren't prepared to hear him bust out two incredible new songs from an as yet unannounced new album, Phantom Radio, due later this year. Prepare yourself to be blown away as Mark Lanegan, joined by local guitarists Jeff Fielder and Johnny Sangster, sings everything but the phone book in this jaw-dropping live set.