Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot

Studio album by Sparklehorse

Released

August 1995

Genre

Indie rock, alternative rock, alternative country

Length

47:30

Label

Capitol

Producer

Mark Linkous, David Charles

Sparklehorse chronology

Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot
(1995)

Good Morning Spider
(1999)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
Trouser Press	favorable

Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot is the debut studio album by Sparklehorse. The album was largely recorded with musicians from Cracker, for which Mark Linkous worked at the time as guitar tech, roadie and sometimes-collaborator. Most of the album was produced and recorded with Cracker's David Lowery, under the pseudonym David Charles.

The story of Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot began in the late 1980s, when Mark Linkous, the guitarist and singer for a Los Angeles band called the Dancing Hoods, relocated to Richmond, Virginia in an attempt to kick his drug addiction and make a fresh start. At the time, Linkous had all but given up on a career in music: "I was fed up with the music scene. It was so nasty [in Los Angeles]. That was the height of glam rock. Bands like Poison were supposed to be important."

Upon arriving in Richmond, Linkous began playing music with his brother Matt, who lived in the city, and other local musicians, including a traditional Irish group. He found himself drawn to the pure sounds of old-time music, and was inspired enough by its honesty to begin a concerted effort to reinvent his songwriting. As he told Rolling Stone in 1999, "That period was about abandoning a lot of things and just starting from scratch and learning how to write again – learning how to make art out of pain or clay."

Linkous' passion for making music was also rekindled by listening to the music of Tom Waits; he once called Waits' albums Swordfishtrombones, Rain Dogs and Bone Machine the "road map" for Vivadixie. And in a 2006 interview, he even singled out a recording of Waits singing Gavin Bryars' "Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet" as the one song that "sort of saved me when I had given up [making music]."

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Wikipedia