Benji is the sixth full length record by Mark Kozelek's Sun Kil Moon. The album was released February 11, 2014 and features guest musicians Steve Shelley, Will Oldham and Owen Ashworth. On August 20 of 2013, Mark Kozelek's Caldo Verde Records released Mark Kozelek & Desertshore, the third record from Mark Kozelek and Phil Carney's side project, Desertshore. 2013 also saw the release of Mark Kozelek Like Rats, 2 live albums, and the Mark Kozelek and Jimmy Lavalle's collaboration, Perils From The Sea. Both Mark Kozelek & Desertshore andPerils From The Sea made Uncut's top 100 best albums of the year. In 2012, Mark Kozelek released an 18 track album under his Sun Kil Moon moniker, entitled Among The Leaves. Mark toured solo in support of the album and made his debit TV appearance on Fallon performing with The Roots.
In August of 2011, the film Mark Kozelek: On Tour was released via Caldo Verde Records. The film follows Mark on two different tours in support of the Sun Kil Moon release, Admiral Fell Promises, released in 2010. The album was played entirely by Mark Kozelek on nylon string guitar and includes 10 original songs. A limited EP entitled I’ll Be There coincided with the release. The 4 song EP includes 1 out-take and 3 covers, including the Jackson's ‘I’ll Be There.’ On November 22, 2011, Desertshore’s second album was released. Mark Kozelek contributed vocals to 6 of the album's 10 tracks.
In May of 2009 Caldo Verde released Mark Kozelek: Lost Verses – Live. The album was recorded in intimate, seated venues throughout the US and Europe in 2007 and 2008. This 14 song ‘best of’ collection features Red House Painters classic ‘Katy Song’ as well as several picks from the Sun Kil Moon catalog including ‘Carry Me Ohio’, ‘Lucky Man,’ and ‘Lost Verses.’
A 13 song live CD entitled Mark Kozelek: Live in Spain was released simultaneously as a free bonus CD.
Mark Kozelek’s third album with Sun Kil Moon: April, was released through Caldo Verde on April 1, 2008.
A hardback edition of Nights of Passed Over, a collection of Mark's lyrics originally published in a limited edition in Portugal in 2002, was also released in 2008. The book includes a preface by Mark and a 12-song rarities CD entitled Nights LP. The book is out of print.
In December of 2008, Mark released The Finally LP, a rarities collection featuring covers of Husker Du, Stephen Sondheim, Kath Bloom, Low, and others.
Mark’s music has been licensed to numerous television shows including The O.C., The Big C,Revenge, Brothers and Sisters, Friday Night Lights,and Sons of Anarchy as well as several films including Tarnation, Against The Current, The Elephant In The Livingroom,, Excess Baggage, and Vanilla Sky. Mark scored original music for the films Farewell Bender, Last Ball, and Lorena Ochoa: el Camino a la Cima.
In 2005, Mark started his own label, Caldo Verde Records. Releases other than his own include Alan Sparhawk of Low’s self-titled Retribution Gospel Choir debut album, for which Mark worked as producer. Caldo Verde has also released albums by Jesu, Kath Bloom, and Advance Base.
Between 1992 and 1999 Mark released six full length studio albums with Red House Painters.
Little Drummer Boy – Live, released on November 28, 2006, contains live recordings from various shows in Europe and North America. The double CD covers a broad range of Mark Kozelek material, including Red House Painters, Sun Kil Moon and personalized covers of Modest Mouse, The Cars and AC/DC.
In 2007, Drummer Boy was released on vinyl as White Christmas & Little Drummer Boy Liveas a 4 LP set. The album was coupled with Mark’s 2001 release White Christmas Live, recorded in Scandinavia.
On January 23, 2007, Caldo Verde Records re-released the first Sun Kil Moon album Ghosts of the Great Highway with reworked packaging and a six song bonus CD featuring two versions of Leonard Bernstein’s ‘Somewhere’, alternate versions of ‘Carry Me Ohio’ and ‘Salvador Sanchez’, a radio performance of ‘Gentle Moon’ recorded in Portugal and the previously unreleased instrumental, ‘Arrival’, recorded for the movie The Girl Next Door. Originally released on November 3, 2003, Ghosts of the Great Highway received superlative reviews, moved quickly to the #1 on college radio and has become one of singer-songwriter Mark Kozelek’s most loved and best-selling albums of his 14 year career.
Ghosts tracks ‘Carry Me Ohio’ and ‘Lily and Parrots’ were featured in the Steve Martin filmShopgirl, in which Mark plays the role of a lead singer in a fictitious rock band. Mark also contributed several tracks to several compilations. His version of Will Oldham’s ‘New Partner’ is included on a CD entitled I Am A Cold Rock, I Am Dull Grass. Sun Kil Moon’s version of Neil Diamond’s ‘Kentucky Woman’ is featured on Songs from the Brown Hotel which also features Elvis Presley and Nancy Wilson, the original composition ‘Leo and Luna’ appears on a Canadian Compilation from Paperbag Records, and an exclusive, live version of ‘Have You Forgotten’ appears on the soundtrack to the HBO documentary film The Trials of Darryl Hunt.
Other highlights include producing Take Me Home: A Tribute to John Denver; Retrospective, a two-CD collection featuring various rarities and live tracks alongside favorite RHP material; and appearing as an actor in Cameron Crowe’s critically acclaimed Almost Famous and Vanilla Sky.
