All Mark Lanegan really needed to know, he learned from Giant Sand mainman Howe Gelb. (Except for that self-destructive drinking and drugging thing — that was more of an independent-study, Ellensburg High School achievement.) And this goes for more than just the former Screaming Trees frontman, whose solo output bears more than a passing debt to the Sand's influential brand of sun-damaged, tumbleweed-scented, tumbledown spoken-word roots-rock jive. One look at the Sand's roster of “just-passing-through players” — from fellow Tucson travelers John Convertino and Joey Burns, a.k.a. Calexico, and Green on Red's Chris Cacavas to a host of sidemen/women that have included Victoria Williams, Neko Case, Juliana Hatfield, PJ Harvey, Steve Wynn, M. Ward, Isobel Campbell and pretty much the entirety of Poi Dog Pondering, among others — is enough to populate some alt-exurb out on the interstate, somewhere. (And I haven't even mentioned Gelb's copious spinoffs yet — Band of Blacky Ranchette, Friends of Dean Martinez, OP8, etc.)

As the grand old man of post-psychedelic letters for the indie-rock nation, Gelb has faithfully churned out his loopy spaghetti-western rock for the last 25-plus years. Provisions… read more »