Beggars Arkive in conjunction with the Estate of Mark Lanegan, are honoured to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of Mark Lanegan’s acclaimed 2004 album Bubblegum. On August 23rd, we will release Bubblegum XX – a set of releases that include a remastered double LP edition of the original album and a 4XLP/3XCD/Digital release containing 40 remastered tracks, 12 of which are previously unreleased.
Order HERE
The limited-edition Bubblegum XX 4XLP box contains a 64-page hardcover book with essays by Troy Van Leewuen, Josh Homme, Chris Goss, Alain Johannes, David Catching, Greg Dulli, Duff McKagan, and Brett Netson along with studio notes and previously unseen photographs by Steve Gullick. It includes Bubblegum XX, which has been cut as a double LP and remastered by Geoff Pesche at Abbey Road. It also includes a remastered edition of Here Comes That Weird Chill (Methamphetamine Blues, Extras & Oddities) to which three bonus tracks have been added. The fourth LP contains demos and unreleased tracks, comprised of outtakes from the Bubblegum sessions and tracks recorded, produced and mixed by Troy Van Leeuwen in various hotel rooms with Mark singing and Troy playing all the instruments. The set was executive produced by Mark’s former manager Brian Klein, who worked with him during the Bubblegum era. Full tracklisting is below.
The original Bubblegum album will also be available separately as a double LP, titled Bubblegum XX – transparent red vinyl will be available via indie retailers and our webstore, and standard black vinyl will be available everywhere.
The demos and unreleased tracks are beautiful to hear. Mark’s voice is front and center, and as Josh Homme notes in the book, “Mark’s early solo works are undeniably powerful. They’re sombre, fragile, breath-taking, beautiful and they’re more real than everyone else’s.” Of the thirteen tracks, seven of them are outtakes from the Bubblegum sessions. ‘Union Tombstone’ was a song that Mark wanted Beck to contribute to, and when it was sent to him, he was working on his own album, so it was set aside. Better late than never, Beck added backing vocals and harmonica to the track this year.
The last six tracks on the album were recorded, produced and mixed by Troy Van Leeuwen in various hotel rooms with just Mark singing and Troy playing all the instruments. About the sessions, Troy said… “So these hotel demo sessions were basically forgotten…When I heard the news of Mark’s passing, these memories started rushing back to me. I searched through my archive of drives and somehow magically was able to open up these sessions. I thought to myself, “That NEVER happens.” These ideas couldn’t be more fresh out of the tap. The original rough mixes are a real time capsule that stands up to the 20 years that have passed. It’s a true gift from Mark to those of us who love him and his unvarnished expression of beauty. With every listen, I am humbled and honored to share his gift with you.”
Mark had been demoing songs for a new album, and he was booked to record at Abbey Road. It was a long-time dream of his to record in the legendary London studio, but since he never had the chance to do that, it’s fortuitous that the remastering for this release took place there, handled by Geoff Pesche. Mark had never been satisfied with the original cut of Bubblegum, so we are honored to help make his dream come true posthumously.
When Bubblegum was released, Mark chose to let it speak for itself and didn’t have much to say about it aside from within the small handful of interviews he did at the time. In 2017, he released a book of lyrics and writings called I Am The Wolf and wrote about the album then. Shared here are his words about Bubblegum and Here Comes That Weird Chill.
“Man, this is becoming like a scene out of A Beautiful Mind . . . and not in a good way,” said mix producer Rick Will, and I knew what he meant. I had been awake for days and nights, crazed from no sleep and illegal stimulants, and was sitting cross-legged on the studio floor with sheets of paper covered in handwritten lyrics, notes, and ideas strewn out around me in a ten-foot circle. While I had been out of my mind making records in the past, this was a new peak . . . or low, depending on one’s perspective. For months I had been using the off-time from my gig as an auxiliary singer with Queens of the Stone Age to try and complete a record, but as usual, my own insanity would not allow it. When it was all said and done, I recorded enough for two records, with the title of the first coming from something Greg Dulli said while shuddering involuntarily in the suddenly cold wind walking to my car after a Twilight Singers recording session, and the title for Bubblegum coming from a lyric in the song “Bombed.” Song favorites include “Skeletal History,” where I tried to channel the free-form vocalisms of SST band Saccharine Trust to chart the skewed evolution of my own damaged species, “When Your Number Isn’t Up,” and “Strange Religion,” a love song I wrote in a Tokyo hotel room. While many of the songs came from a place of dejection and ennui at the end of a tempestuous relationship, “Bombed” in particular came about when, after I had written and recorded it in just a few minutes, I put a microphone in front of Wendy Rae Fowler, my soon-to-be-ex-wife, and had her sing along while simultaneously hearing it for the first time. I loved the result as it reminded me of Royal Trux, a band I liked. When I insisted on using the first and only take of the song, it made her slightly unhappy, but to be fair, that was just one of many things I did that had that effect.
When Mark Lanegan departed this world in 2022, he left us with a stunning & wildly eclectic body of work that includes two memoirs, and a musical output of seven albums with the Screaming Trees, thirteen solo albums, and collaborative albums and singles with folks including Queens Of The Stone Age, Soulsavers, Gutter Twins & Isobel Campbell and many others. We are all thankful for what we have been left with and honored to celebrate this beautiful album.
BUBBLEGUM – 2XLP
“When he told me: ‘I’m calling it Bubblegum’, I was like you’re a sick fuck, because I knew him so that’s funny to me, ‘cause Lanegan wanted to be a new piece of bubblegum on a sunny happy day. But he was the gum underneath the desk. He was the bubblegum underneath the table. He was the dark Lord.” – JOSH HOMME
A1. When Your Number Isn’t Up
A2. Hit The City (w/PJ Harvey)
A3. Wedding Dress
A4. Methamphetamine Blues
B1. One Hundred Days
“I cry when I listen to that song. Just thinking about it gets me close. That song is so tragically beautiful; so, in denial and so aware it’s in denial. It’s so listlessly, hopefully hopeless. I hear that and I just see him wandering off into the fog until he disappears. – JOSH HOMME on “One Hundred Days”
B2. Bombed
B3. Strange Religion
B4. Sideways In Reverse
C1. Come to Me (w/PJ Harvey)
C2. Like Little Willie John
C3. Can’t Come Down
D1. Morning Glory Wine
D2. Head
D3. Driving Death Valley Blues
D4. Out of Nowhere
HERE COMES THAT WEIRD CHILL (METHAMPHETAMINE BLUES, EXTRAS & ODDITIES) – 1XLP
A1. Methamphetamine Blues
A2. On The steps of the Cathedral
A3. Clear Spot
A4. Message to Mine
A5. Lexington Slow Down
A6. Skeletal History
B1. Wish You Well
B2. Sleep With Me
B3. Sleep With Me – Version…
Bonus Tracks
B4. Sympathy (previously only available on the Has God Seen My Shadow Anthology)
B5. Mirrored (B-side from Hit The City Single)
B6. Mud Pink Skag (B-side from Hit The City Single)
DEMOS & UNRELEASED SONGS – 1XLP
A1. Heard a Train %
A2. Union Tombstone feat. Beck %
A3. Josephine %
A4. Kingdom %
A5. Soldier %
A6. Little Willie John % (Alternate version of Like Little Willie John)
A7. Blood (Crackers & Honey) %
B1. You Wild Colorado # (Johnny Cash cover)
B2. Revolver # original demo, of song eventually used on Isobel Campbell – the only track ho wrote for that album)
B3. Leaving New River Blues # (previously only available on the Has God Seen My Shadow
Anthology as Heaven Is Dry
B4. St. James Infirmary # (cover)
B5. Willie John # (Alternate version of Like Little Willie John)
B6. Pure Religion # (Alternate version of Strange Religion)
% outtake
# Troy Van Leeuwen Hotel session
