May 16, 2004
This week I have been in Paris, studying French and generally playing house, more or less. As I am usually on tour or in the studio, during which times I don't often have a quiet time to put on a record and really get into it. When in the studio, I get up in the morning, maybe have time to listen to half a record, drive or walk 5 minutes (this has been true in Seattle making my/the Posies rec., in Memphis making the Big Star rec., and in the Bahamas making the REM rec.) and spend at least 12 hours in the studio, take 5 minutes to get home, and generally need quiet, and more likely sleep, when I arrive. And when I am in the mode of writing music and lyrics, I don't listen to any other music at all, to clear some space for new things to arrive. So for two weeks here in Paris I have been getting around to listening to many of the things that were piling up in my office in Seattle for literally years.
Some things I have been enjoying:
Yoko ONO Season of Glass: I realize now that Steve Miller brutally absorbed and regurgitated Walking on Thin Ice to make the fairly insipid (sorry Steve and Rick!) Abracadabra. OK, maybe, A. is not the worst song in the world, it's not offensive, but, when you put it in context with the subject matter and delivery of Yoko's song, there is a feeling of injustice, not nearly as many people know Yoko's song.
Gary JULES Trading Snake Oil for Wolf Tickets: this is a very touching, beautiful gentle rec. reminiscent, superficially, of Elliott Smith, Nick Drake, Cat Stevens, Dylan: but he has his own vibe certainly and it's really approachable and soft.
Also, I had a chance to set up a decent stereo here, and thus revisited the latest Posies and Big Star things I have, and was pleasantly surprised by both; what I have here is the Posies song we recorded in Memphis last, month, which is based on some music I wrote there on the gorgeous Steinway; and a combo of rough and final mixes from the Big Star sessions. I think this rec. is more fun than the earlier works, "fun" is not what most associate Big Star with. And of course, I don't believe the original Big Star rec.'s can be bettered, or even approached, really. They are the perfect synthesis of studio, humans, mood, age, and times. The studio still exists. But the cast, times and emotions are vastly altered by the intervening 30+ years, and thus this record bears resemblance to the others in proportion.
I also came across something that had been on the floor of my office for who knows how long, an unmarked CDR that turned out to have a brilliant cover of the Posies song, "Please Return It", I asked around via internet and found it was by a French band called Paloma. They slowed it down, and turned into something gentle, acoustic, almost country.
I saw a lot of music this week, Jesse Sykes & the Sweet Hereafter on Monday in my neighborhood (I happened to be walking home with groceries when I passed the club and saw that my friends from Seattle were playing in ten minutes!), and the next night at the same club I saw Swell. Wednesday I saw the Skatalites play an excellent show at the Cabaret Sauvage, out in the ass-end of nowhere in some Logan's Run looking jive they call a park out on the edge of Paris. Saturday night I saw Liars and (Seattle-ites again) the Blood Brothers play moderne punk art rock in a little club, and closed the night getting shitty drunk with various friends and Jesse Sykes again; I have been living so clean lately that I must admit 3 drinks absolutely killed me. So imagine what I was like after five of them! (joke).
Not much news wise; my rec. Soft Commands is out in N. America in July, and a tour to follow; of course I'll post the dates when they are confirmed.
Love
KS
Paris
