mark pickerel

rebel in the rearview mark pickerel’s new lp

by ron evans

Mark Pickerel may be the Kevin Bacon of the Pacific Northwest music scene. Not only was he a founding member of one of the area’s most influential bands - The Screaming Trees, he’s also been in Truly and The Dark Fantastic, and over the years he’s worked with The Dusty 45s, Brandi Carlile, Neko Case, Duff McKagan, Mark Lanegan and a little outfit called Nirvana, just to name a few.

His current musical operation, Mark Pickerel and His Praying Hands has just released a collection of cover songs and outtakes recorded over the past decade, Rebel In The Rearview. The album feels quite cohesive in spite of being an assembly of new works and old ghosts alike. Suitable homage is paid to these songs that clearly mean a lot to Pickerel - but the eerie ‘dusty trails and broken hearts’ arrangements and his trademark bass/baritone vocals feel so at home in these tracks that you’d never know he didn’t write them. and atmosphere, and there’s plenty of both in this collection. Every song belongs in a David Lynch film or maybe some postapocalyptic love story set in the desert. Especially his take on Lucinda Williams’ “Essence” featuring Star Anna, which has been on repeat for half the day here at Comet Headquarters.

Pickerel enlisted the help of many notable local and semi-local folks to work on the album including Jeff Fielder, Star Anna, Ian Moore, Drew Church, Johnny Sangster, and Jack Endino.

When not in the studio or on the stage, Pickerel manages his records, clothing and memorabilia boutique Roadtrip Records with a booth at the massive Thorpe Antique Mall and some real estate at Jerrol’s in Ellensburg. We sat down with the artist to chat about the LP, a little Screaming Trees, and his life inside and outside of the music industry.

of songs. Are they mostly one-off recordings as stand alone works or outtakes of previously released albums?

Early on in this Covid nightmare, I was trying to figure out ways to keep busy that didn’t involve getting into small rehearsal spaces with my mates, and I started going through old recordings to see if there were any forgotten songs that might be worthy of a release. After some digging, I came up with around twenty songs, all in various forms of completion, some dating back a decade or more, some from a session that I started just about a week before Covid lockdowns. I called Johnny Sangster, who is an ace producer (Mudhoney, Posies) and an incredible multi-instrumentalist (Neko Case, Praying Hands), and asked if he’d be comfortable having me spend a few days in his studio with him (masked except when stepping into the vocal booth), doing vocal and guitar overdubs, etc. We spent a couple of weekends doing some repairs to the original recordings and ended up completing every song from my list. I then sent everything to Martin Feveyear (Mark Lanegan, Shim, Dark Fantastic, Brandi Carlile) to mix. I decided that, from a marketing perspective, it made sense to release all the covers together. My thinking was that, since it’s been several years since I released anything, this might be a good way to introduce myself to a whole new audience, on the backs of some of my favorite artists: Townes Van Zandt, Secret Sisters, Leonard Cohen, Amy Winehouse and more. I also wanted to familiarize myself with how to promote a record in the digital age before I get to work promoting my release of originals later this year.

As the lineup of featured performers on the LP will show, you have worked with many groups and artists over the years. Some musicians seem content putting out solo works for the most part but you clearly have an interest in group performances and collaboration. How does that play into your creative output?

Right. You know, I could probably get away with performing more of the parts and instrumentation on my own records, but the truth is, I don’t think I would enjoy listening to them as much if it were just me and my limited talents on display. Hearing collaborators like Jeff Fielder (Indigo Girls, Mark Lanegan) add their talents and personalities to my songs gives the material a dimension and an element of mystery and intrigue that I could never produce on my own.

How would you describe the Ellensburg landscape, musically speaking - past and present?

I find the terrain of this landscape so inspiring, and I can credit the old Yakima Canyon Highway alone with inspiring as many as five or six songs over the years. During my younger years, I didn’t see the beauty in most of my surroundings, save for maybe the obvious majesty of the Cascades towering over the fields of hay. The beauty of the sagebrush and basalt rock was far too subtle for me to capture my attention. I was preoccupied with a world on the other side of the Cascade Curtains, man-made architectural triumphs and street culture. I would have eagerly traded this tumbleweed terrain for a concrete jungle. But now I am awake to what it has to offer, and I like to think that some of the subtle beauty makes its way into my own songs, and much like nature, I’m willing to wait for someone to appreciate something I’ve created. Subtlety is a rare artform that I have become more acutely in tune with or on the search for, not just in art and music but in cooking (another hobby), fashion, interior design, lyrics, literature etc.

Alongside your music career, you have been in the retail business since leaving the Screaming Trees in the early 90s. Mostly dealing in music and cultural ephemera you seem passionate about. Does the love of one gig trump the other these days?

Not at all. While it’s true that sometimes I have to focus more attention on commerce than on creating music, it’s not for any lack of creative inspiration or loss of interest in performing but simply that it’s sometimes easier for me to see the immediate results of a day curating recent acquisitions, flipping thrift finds, etc., than to spend the days working on songs while bills pile up. At the end of the day, I feel that these two

worlds that provide my livelihood are often informing each other. I listen to a lot of the music I sell. I also study the album art, designs, and careers of the bands whose product I handle, I contemplate the arch or trajectories of their individual careers, and I find myself doing a lot of casual analysis that goes on to inform my own creative process.

Tell us a little about Road Trip Records for the uninitiated.

Well, it’s pretty simple — I look for things I love that I can find for an affordable price, and then I sell them back to the public for a profit. Not just any old thing, of course, I look for things that may not appear very attractive on their own, but merchandised within the context of similar treasures, they start to tell a story or make a statement. The success of Roadtrip Records really came from a desire to survive and to provide for my family. I was lucky that a recent resurgence in an interest in vintage vinyl came along when it did, and I was able to quickly put about 40 years of experience as a vinyl vendor to use.

I don’t sell new products, so my inventory changes a lot based on what’s available to me. Sometimes there might be an emphasis on western wear, other times it’s the vintage vinyl selection that dominates our floor space, then when those sell down, next thing you know, I’m moving in some modern art that I picked up at an estate sale. Sometimes it can be a challenge to find the things that I’m especially interested in, but often I find something worthy of repurposing.

I started Roadtrip Records out of necessity. When I moved back to the Ellensburg area, I was financially destitute, and I was actually applying for every imaginable job. I couldn’t even get an interview. I thought I might be able to sell a little bit of the inventory I still had in storage from my previous retail shops (Rodeo Records, Damaged Goods). I had almost no money to play with, but whenever I came home from my busking gig at SeaTac airport with a few extra dollars, I would go out on a search for anything cool that I thought I might be able to flip. One day it might be a pair of underpriced Frye boots at a thrift shop, the next week it might be a small but rare collection of records from an estate sale. Maybe I’d get lucky one weekend and pick up an entire vintage wardrobe from a sale that none of the other antique dealers saw the value in. I just kept at it, and after two or three years, I found that I was starting to experience some flow, and was in a position to start making handsome offers on more valuable treasures. We’ve managed to expand four times in the last six years, and now we’re selling records out of Jerrol’s bookstore and we also sell direct to other record and vintage dealers out of a little warehouse space in downtown Ellensburg.

How many times a year would you guess someone asks you about a Screaming Trees reunion?

A few times a week. Maybe it’s not always in a question or comment directed at me, but because I was a member of the band, and many of my Facebook followers were fans, I’m often privy to conversations and comments suggesting that we put our differences aside and get back together. NOT. GONNA. HAPPEN. And for the first time in twenty plus years, I might be more opposed to the idea than any of us.

We don’t need numbers of course, but… I love asking musicians about the actual business of music because there is a lot of mystery surrounding how things work. And only tacky people like me will ever ask. You are on a few tracks of the Nirvana box set With The Lights Out - curious how those royalties compare to those of the Screaming Trees? Is one decidedly paying more bills than the other?

Well actually, enough years have passed since cashing my first sizable Nirvana check that I don’t really mind discussing specifics. Within the first year or two of the Nirvana release, I cashed about 75K or more worth of checks, a lot of money considering I only played drums on a couple of songs that only represented two or three days of rehearsals and recordings. By comparison, the Screaming Trees’ entire catalog has probably only netted me around

1990 Screaming Trees promo shot taken by Charles Peterson. Truly promo shot taken by Charles Peterson.

Pickerel on the skins with The Tripwires. Photo by Anders Carlson. “Hey kids, y’all like Leadbelly?” A young Pickerel behind the counter at Ace Records in 1986. Photo by Caroline Rosevear.

A portrait of Pickerel’s beloved Rodeo Records, painted by artist Tom Pickerel - Mark’s father.

100k over thirty years. (Totally guesstimating here.)

Mark Lanegan’s 1990 solo album The Winding Sheet features a cover of Leadbelly’s “Where Did You Sleep Last Night?” performed by you, Lanegan and Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic of Nirvana. This ultimately (in a roundabout way) led to Nirvana’s well-known performance of the song on MTV Unplugged in 1993. What do you recall of these early recording sessions?

Well, it was a pretty exciting collaboration that almost led to me playing on even more Nirvana releases, but due to Kurt’s untimely exit, I was not able to enjoy what could have led to a career on the scale of that other drummer that spent a few years in Nirvana.

Lanegan and Cobain discovered through their friendship that they both had a fascination with Leadbelly. I was also a fan, having been turned onto him through Ace Records, a store in Ellensburg that I worked at while in high school. toire. Lanegan, knowing I was also a big fan, enlisted myself and Krist Novoselic. But you know, with two talented vocalists who were so used to leading their own bands, it seemed that neither Cobain or Lanegan wanted to appear to be stepping on each other’s toes, and it led to a lot of indecision as to who should do what. And next thing I knew, the two of them seemed to lose interest. A couple of years later though, on a plane ride I shared with Cobain to LA, he expressed how much he loved my drumming on that session and would love to have me contribute some playing on what would have been the next Nirvana release. We exchanged our new contact info, and talked about carving out some time to rehearse after he got back from the In Utero tour, but I suppose I don’t need to tell you how the story ends. It’s called The LHI Years: Singles, Nudes and Backsides. It’s a great compilation, showcasing the versatility of his talents. The Cowboy in Sweden is another good place to start.

Are you pushing people to your Bandcamp page to grab the new album?

I sure am. Bandcamp takes less of a percentage of sales than most platforms and literally distributes your share of sales, almost in real time, while tracking your customers.

Bandcamp has made a major impact on the music industry on all levels but for indie musicians it’s a total game changer. Has it been a big part of your latter music distribution?

You have made it well known that Lee Hazlewood is a favorite artist of yours. His discography is quite eclectic and maybe a bit daunting to some. Where would you tell someone to start if you wanted to get them hooked?

I actually helped Light In The Attic (the label that owns most of Hazlewood’s catalog) with the curation and content of one of the best Hazlewood groupings of songs. Absolutely, for several years I really resented the trend towards online streaming, listening, downloading, mostly because it was just so difficult to track the results, or to make very much money. Bandcamp has really created a model that is much more generous to its artists than most platforms and has actually created an environment that is fun to operate within. It’s the first encouraging online opportunity I can think of in a long time.

Everyone always wants to know if the LP will come out on vinyl, myself included. Plans for that, or any other mechanical release?

It’s just a little ironic that a guy who is so interested in buying, selling, and collecting vinyl has become almost indifferent to whether his own releases become something that you can hold in your hands. But I have a few reasons to be skeptical or cynical about physical products in this day and age. For starters, without the opportunity to tour, it’s unlikely that I’ll sell enough copies to justify the expense of producing vinyl or cds.

And furthermore, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve worked my own merch booth and fielded numerous questions concerning whether or not a particular title was available on the one format that they don’t see in front of them. I do love vinyl, and I actually like cds as well, but because I handle so many thousands of titles every year through my second-hand business, I see how disposable it can all become, and considering how much garbage our society already creates on a daily basis, I sometimes have to ask myself, does the world really need another thousand copies of