Ken Stringfellow dot calm

12.25.2004

A BREAK IN THE ACTION, PAUSE FOR NOEL

Whether you are a Xmas celebrant or not, I find something nice about a pause in the world (at least in my world, in Paris)--all the shops closed, emails not coming in (so I could finally catch up), etc. Just some time to play with my chicken-pox encrusted daughter, not wear tight D&G threads, and...SLEEP, GLORIOUS, DEEP, UNTROUBLED SLEEP...this was the greatest.

I had another break in the action earlier this week when a worm virus that targeted web servers knocked KS.calm out of business for a few hours. Unfortunately, the forum and its archive were lost in the interruption...I hope to have it back online early next year (like, after the holidays).

Geneva, 12/19
A Bellingham-worthy rainstorm scared a few customers off, but we made a very nice night of it at Le Chat Noir. Geneva is one of those wonderful polyglot places, so, the audience had americans, south americans, spaniards, frenchies, all kinds. All listening to a guy with messed up hair tell bad jokes in English, and loving it for chrissakes!

Brussels, 12/20
Another in a string of 7am flights (I am greatly indebted to Elvira for a ride to the airport) and another bashing at the checkin for overages (I thought part of the legend of Virgin that bands could ship their gear for free...? Can anyone confirm if that was true or not at one point? So, I am off them as well. It's gonna be a long list I think. Anyway, I had a full day of radio station visits and interviews, and then did a 'KS in the round' gig, in the Rotonde of the Botanique, one of Europe's coolest community centers. It's a glorious and stately playhouse (and a greenhouse with friendly fish swimming amongst the tropical plant roots) for rock, theatre, cabaret etc. I ended up standing in the middle of the floor, with the public on the tiers of benches that line the place...anyway, you had to be there. Good one tho'. Did a couple of songs with Cristina Dona, incl. a hyped-up version of 'Christmas' by Florence Dore, that the Posies recorded at one point. As downer Christmas songs go, this one has no equal. Other special guests included Remi V. from Cheap Star, the band I had been working with in the studio this spring/summer, we did a version of one of the songs we worked on, and Dominique Stringfellow herself led a rousing chorus of 'j'entendres le loup, le renard et le bulette' then we went to a bar afterwards and I fell asleep face down on the table. Working hard.

Helsinki, 12/21
had an afternoon flight for a change, so I arrived to Helsinki (wouldn't it be cool if they had signs that said WELCOME TO HEL there?) at about 7pm, and basically went straight to soundcheck...now, I am just going to say, this show will be impossible to describe. It was one of the greatest nights of my musical life thus far...and this is on a tour that to me was all highlights, no show on the whole KS tour was less than a great experience, with audiences to die for. But, I have to admit, the night at Tavastia (where I have never had anything less than a magic time--over the course of 3 posies shows and one with White Flag) took it to another level. Guests pulled from the audience playing note-for-note guitar and piano on Posies songs, Jorgen Wall (with whom I recorded much of Soft Commands) playing a sort of drumbeat on my guitar while I played the tour(US and Europe combined)'s only version of 'You Become the Dawn'...a bona fide Stringfellow's dancer onstage during 'Here's to the Future'...I mean...this show, it was, it was, OUT OF CONTROL in the best possible way. You had to be there. Me and 500 other folks were...unreal. I don't like to compare one place to the other but Finland and the Posies have a 'special relationship', to borrow a term from diplomacy, and I benefit in turn. What an amazing night. Did anyone video it??? The next day I did press and visited my friend Markus at Radio Helsinki (where Any Love was played live on the radio 2 years before Soft Commands was released--just after I wrote it, in fact). I then spent 18 hours in a studio with Jorgen Wall mixing two songs for the upcoming Beezewax album...finished up at 6am and hopped a cab to the airport at 6.10am....the ensuing two hour flight was my only sleep...and then...

Milan, 12/23
Malpensa is a piece of crap. I mean that with no offense directed to the city it purports to attend to the needs of...but jeezus, you wait over an hour for the bags to come off the plane and then you have a 1.45 hour drive to the city...argh. But, Milan was patient and waiting for me...i visited the Radio Populare, for a fine little acoustic session...had my picture taken with dismembered mannequins and also while standing on a foosball table...and had, dare I say it...another brilliant audience, and a very cozy setting, at the Casa 139...like a speakeasy turned on its head, it's a 2nd floor salon and bar. My guitar was starting to fall apart so I borrowed an acoustic (grazie Grumpi!) and did the stand in the middle of the audience thing...anyway, I was having an out of body experience both from lack of sleep, the completion of a long string of dates wherein I faced the gaping maw of unconditional audience love...and the arrival of chirstmas eve, eating pannetone and drinking prosecco...followed by about a hundred shots of tequila...I don't even remember getting driven home (thank you Roberta!)...good night indeed OH, yes, this was my last night to play with Cristina Dona for the time being, and we did 4 songs together--Je Vous En Prie, Death of A City, Christmas and the ultimate tear jerker, Moon River...

I managed to get myself to the airport somehow thankfully it was Linate, only about 15 min. drive from the hotel...was home in Paris by about 4.30 and having lived to tell the tale, I can only give my thanks to all the promoters, Ryko folks Europe-wide, friends, and attendees for helping me have a truly...beautiful experience. And I reserve thank yous of the highest order to Marc Bernegger at Rykodisc, James Alderman at Free Trade and Barbara Mitchell for making this tour possible, comprehensible, and doable.

But wait...I have some shizz in Spain to do next week...this oughtta be good. See you there???

Love
KS
Paris

12.19.2004

THE 400 BLOOZ

Cologne, 12/16
hellish flight itinerary--leave hotel at 7.50am, fly to Oslo, pick up and recheck bags, fly miniature Lufthansa jet to Hamburg, fall asleep in waiting area, fly last leg to Cologne...no way to sleep more than 40 minutes in a row...all of that was completley forgotten by the end of the night (and not just because of the free shots). I loved the 1960s basement vibe of the MTC club...many friends in attendance, incl. Chris F. who picked me up and put me up (thank you!!), Hammi who took me to the local weasel bar, etc. etc. Cristina Dona back in the pack tonight, we love that! Also, thanks to Ullrich for lending me his keyboard and enduring Yanni jokes....

Berlin, 12/17
Cristina and I flew in to Tegel, and were picked up by Heike from the club, who, as it turns out, didn't know squat about driving. But a really nice person, anyway! There were some shenanigans in that I forgot to follow up on a loaner keyboard, and thus didn't really, uh, have one when it was time to soundcheck. Oh sheissse. Amazingly, Cristina Dona's intrepid traveling companion, Roberta, had 'met someone once who lives in Berlin that plays piano'. Really helpful, Roberta, I thought. But, incredible as it may sound, the said pianist is Sonia Brex, an Italienne musicienne living just 5 minutes from the Bastard, that being the venue of the night. So, Heike and I zipped over there after Sonia agreed to part with her rig for the evening, and loaded all 80 kilos of it incl. flight case down 6 flights of stairs, and into the car Heike had *borrowed*...the keyboard being so enormous that we couldn't close the back door. Which was OK, but when we pulled into Bastard's driveway, the door flung itself open and hit a bollard. Luckily, Heike was such a shit driver that she could never get the Opel out of first gear so we were never going more than 8 miles an hour. Furthermore, the traffic in Berlin is also so shit you can never go more than 7 miles an hour. Dirk, the sound eng., and I set up the keyboard, and found out, lo and behold, the sustain pedal didn't work...Dirk got out some very Dead Ringers-looking tools and managed to solder some things around that made it work...after a couple of tries...Dirk had to take several approaches as the solution was pretty obscure...but he managed, and for that I thank him! Also, I thank Gwendolin from Mondo Fumatore (who, being German, have supported the Posies and Saltine in Spain, natürlich) for lending me her amp, which worked with no electronic re-engineering! Other than that--show great, many drinks were had, and everybody who bought a shot was invited up on the metal stage...incl. Dieter and his friend who came 1000 km from Nuremburg...and appeared the next day in frankfurt!! After the show saw some punk band that wears rubber ducks and shit playing in some building that hadn't been cleaned since Prussia was a separate country. Thanks to Dani for accoms!

Frankfurt, 12/18
My friend Carsten, who has been invaluable for all things happening in and around Germany, came to Dani's and we hopped a cab to the train station, grabbing the train with all my crap as the doors were closing...as we had boarded the car closest to the stairs leading to the platform, we had to drag my guitar, giant suitcase, computer bag, and Carsten's bag thru 6 cars full of folks. We were in a reserved compartment with 3 other people, so basically I didn't fit. So I went to the restaurant car, and had a miserable croissant...which took 20 minutes for them to have ready! Got to the very drafty Frankfurt station, and made our way to the Nachtleben. Initially finding the coolheaded Micha a bit, well, cool, we thought maybe we were unwelcome or that my pathetic show ws going to be to 2 people (me and Micha), but things warmed up. There were sandwich makings in the fridge, wifi in the house, and great sound onstage. In fact, it was another fun night, great crowd (once I separated the two chatty gals in the front). Hard to find a restaurant that could take me and my friends on a saturday night at 7 with no res., but we managed. My voice had some real killer Rod Stewart rasp going, which made me sound even more Eemoe. Thanks to Claudia, who I have been friends with since 1993 when she came to see the Posies support Teenage Fanclub in Frankfurt, for taking me in to her home in Heidelberg (sweet little mountain village, that a very cheap and noxious beer is named after, used to be the cheapest beer in Bellingham) *and* taking me to the airport the next day...above and beyond!! And a big Fork Yü to Lufthansa, who charged me 102 Euros for my overweight bag for the (empty) flight to Geneva, when they charged me nothing for it when I flew Oslo-Hamburg-Cologne. So, the necessity for taking 100 Euros out of my family's hands was what exactly? I will not be flying them again anytime soon, and I urge my readers to avoid them if possible....til they friendly up the act a bit.

On a lighter note, things look fine tonight in Geneva, see you Belgians, Finns and Italian folk soon.

Love
KS
Geneva CH

VENUE CHANGE IN VALENCIA

It appears that the spanish shuffle strikes again...the date in Valencia is the same, Dec. 28, but the venue is now Sala Matisse, C/Campoamor, 60. We welcome the French-Spanish melange a continuer. The other dates--29th at Sidecar in Barcelona, and 30th at Moby Dick in Madrid with Scott McCaughey remain (as far as I am told) in place...wicked.

Tour recap (if not recount) to follow soon

Love
KS
Geneva

12.15.2004

TOUR BLOW BY BLOW PT. 1

Paris, 12/7
There is a review in French on http://www.xsilence.net/concert-413.htm but the tour kicked off with a very quiet, Ken Stringfellow-style bang at Le Reservoir, which is a lovely cabaret just 10 minutes walk from my home in Paris. I had just mastered my recovery from jet lag and Mexican environmental concerns (read: intestinal flora) enough to feel solid. Cristina Dona opened, who more than ably commands a room with her acoustic guitar, extremely versatile voice, and ‘special trumpet’ as she calls it. I came onstage, and performed my music for the first time since playing at the Hotel Café in LA four months previous, save for a couple of brief radio appearances here and there which have nothing to do with preparing to play a full length concert in front of a paying audience. But, I managed, and not only managed, but rose to the occasion. Jet lag helps soften the edges of reality, it’s like having one shot of stiff whiskey in your blood at all times…but, as far as I know it doesn’t make you fat or talk too loudly in public.

London, 12/8
Many friendly and well-loved faces were seen in my brief visit to London, although, an intense promotion schedule meant I didn’t really see my friends (hint: if you want to spend an hour with me when I’m in town, and have the tab at Nero’s Coffee picked up, create a fanzine and schedule an interview!) Highlights included playing ‘Airscape’ with Robyn Hitchcock (which I had done 3 years previous at Dingwall’s, but, due to the generous rider provided that evening, don’t remember much of!!), a fairly mangled version of ‘For Your Sake’ (only the second time I’ve performed it in public), and a fantastic, friendly and attentive audience. A few football hooligans in the back that did random cheering for some sports highlight or other (starting at about 10:45 so what was on? Australian rules, I suppose)—I wouldn’t have been surprised to see them doing the Wave in the back bar. Immediately following the set I was whisked (but not whiskied) off to the BBC for a live performance and interview, and then I made it back to my dear friend Sue Perior’s flat to do the books and hit the hay. Much love.

Glasgow, 12/9
That’s right, I am on a one-show-per-day program, this is bringing it to the people in a relentless style (and my style is relentless). Glasgow was a bit subdued, and of course the Pantera incident gave much pause for reflection. What the..? Anyway, the people were given to much enjoyment of the show, I played it a bit shy, but, judging from the thick packet of Scottish Pound notes I left with, we connected enough that most folks were curious about the contents of Soft Commands. Eugene Kelly (whose presumably brilliant LP must be out there somewhere) was ever-representin’. I affixed a pin button to my tie from the Hazey Janes. Alice, to be exact.

Amsterdam 12/10

Friday night rowdies threatened to chatter the show to death from the back row, but the majority of the folks packed into the upstairs room at the Paradiso were there for the church service, and I did provide in kind once I got my bearings. A controversy was created by my use of ancient Germanic curses that I levied at the disruptive members of the crowd, evidently the old Dutch phrase “Fokk Alf” had been long-suppressed and aroused quite a stir with the recipients, judging from the lectures I got that night at the bar. But still, ‘Moon River’ was done for the second Amsterdam appearance in a row and ‘Stairway to Heaven’ was totally circumvented, so all was well.

Rotterdam 12/11

Saturday night rowdies—and yet, a great, great, warm hearted and fun night. Cristina Dona was back in the mix, which definitely adds a level of quality and sophistication to the proceedings, and at the very least prepares the audience to deal with an acoustic evening, even in their local on get-bent-eve. Didn’t Napoleon bet Ghent, Steve? But the Rotown club feels at times like a speakeasy, at times like a rave cavern (the raw plywood walls), at times like Times Square on New Year’s NotRockin’ Eve. It got very crowded after my set with regulars danzing to Franz Ferdinand, which gave me an opportunity to mingle…I got back to the hotel (luckily across the street) at 2am and had to get up at 4:30 am to pack and prepare to get picked up and go the airport…

Stockholm 12/12

Did the arrive at 9am on 4 hours sleep to budget airline airport in the sticks, take bus for 90 minutes to the city, get to hotel and not take a nap thing again. But I can’t sit on my ass in Stockholm! I made my record here! I lunched with dear mans Melinda who was in the Pusjkins, and did interviews with thorough journos, and got to watch Cristina again, and visited the studio where much of Soft Commands was made…so, Jorgen Wall, whose studio it is and who not only engineered and realized the brilliant groundwork laid at his place, but played drums on all the stuff, really, he set the tone for what Soft Commands would be sounding and feeling like, and I can’t thank him enough…anyway, he was working with Beezewax, whose album I produced and who I was set to work with again…scheduling conflict…so I hooked ‘em up with Jorgen…all in the jam-ily, dude. Verily. But I’m mixing the single next week in Helsinki, AND I did some backing vocals in the 25 minutes I had before my show. Very polite but into-it Sunday night audience, lots of friends and more than a few true fans.
The lack of sleep and intense travel, too much coffee and cold weather has given me the vocal scruff of a young Rod Stewart! Nice! Perhaps I will take more cues from Rod the Mod over the years. After the show went with many friends to late night bar, again, all of this going down in my Soft-Commands-Sessions Hood, and ran in to Gerry and Norman from Teenage Fanclub, who had appearing as members of the Pastels this same night. Lovely to see those gentlemen again. Scots really don’t fuck it up, they are perhaps the friendliest people…

Gothenburg 12/13

So I didn’t sleep that much. Do I have to write that every day? Isn’t 5:30am as I compose this bit right now??? At the time I would have said that G-burg was the best show of the tour, somehow the connection with the audience was perfect. Cristina Dona helped me with beautiful high range singing on ‘Je Vous En Prie’…I asked nosy questions regarding the sincerity and credibility of Int’l Noise Conspiracy, no easy answers. It was a beautiful night tho’. I actually watched an episode of ‘Cagney and Lacey’ back at the hotel. I had been drinking a Welsh coffee (what you might have brought to a high school party in a Tupperware, i.e., the top half inch of every bottle in the liquor cab.).

Oslo 12/14

I have some very cherished step roots in Norway; it’s a country absolutely near and dear to my heart. A modern place (they make the bullets for US guns at war, unf.) but so village like in so many ways. You couldn’t convince me that Oslo is bigger than Everett WA, and yet it is, plus it is a world capital with a king and queen and the Nobel Prize being given to boot. And Norway has received Soft Commands very lovingly, Plan B mag, a sort of Time Out for Oslo, put it in its top 20 of 2004…imagine…that’s a huge and unique honor for me. The place I performed at, the Betong, is basically a student union for the Univ. of Oslo, which in turn seems only to exist for the purpose of operating this great cultural center. Prob. The biggest venue of the tour, it was like a real club…except no tequila. I dined with the Norwegian relations, who are wonderful, and I will still never forget my stepmom’s cousin who is (ulp hard to tell with Scandinavians) 50-ish?! when he came to see a solo show of mine in Oslo in 99 and stayed for the whole 3-hour set! Great people. The Betong gig was further uplifted by a big, friendly and respectful crowd, Kenneth Ishak from Beezewax’s support set, and the amazing group of 20somethings who run the venue…they also have a neat little hangout place for after hours, which gave me space to dance on the bar, drink some beer chased with champagne, and catch up with Lise from Briskeby, whose album ‘Tonight Captain’ I highly recommend. Top-notch songwriting produced in that English full-on way, with fantastic vocals and lyrics. She furthered the rumor that claims Snow Patrol is in the pro-Posies camp, and has experimented with covering Solar Sister…second time I have heard that…hey, why not just sign off on that…has anyone heard them do it? Er, you know what I mean. Also, did you ever hear Bad Astronaut (led by Lagwagon’s Joey Cape) do Solar Sister on their album, ‘Houston We Have A Drinking Problem’ on Fat Wreck Chords? It’s magnificent, perhaps the most beautiful compliment to a song I’ve written (next to the muzak versions). BTW Brit: AWESOME!

Bergen 12/15

My second visit to Norway’s lovely second city. Where you can eat un-p.c. animals. I am going to be brutally honest, and I love nature, I am not a mindless consumer of, well, anything really, but I eat with the bushmen every time, and I tasted whale meat. And moose.
Tonight’s show was potentially dodgy—like playing solo at the Khyber in Philly, by playing the Garage in Bergen you are treading upon the vibe of everyone’s local. But, in Philly when I played I lost out to the chatter and indifference of the locals…but the Bergies parted the seas for me and paid full attention for two hours, even as the room started to fill up with party seekers. It was a wonderful show, with again a close and warm connection with strangers, that always blows me away, that people who I have never met, who might speak my language as a second one, who might have heard of what I do but not heard it, can donate 2 hours of intense attention to me. People of the KS audience, you have no idea how deeply that is appreciated. The people of Talent Farm and the Garage are also very special—good vibe in this town…and once again Kenneth Ishak supported, we even got to spend some time together hanging out after the show…now, I gotta get it together and head to Germany, my wake up call is in 50 minutes…who knows what Cologne is gonna get. All I have, I suspect.

Love
KS
Bergen, Norway

12.04.2004

KS TOUR DATES WITH URLs ON KS.CALM TOUR PAGE

the Moby Dick Club homepage is especially handsome....

Last night's REM show in Mexico City was outstanding, and despite the fact that Mssrs. Buck and McOi were weathering some food blues, they soldiered on, bolstered by a wonderful audience of some 12,000-14,000 people. I saw something I had never seen an audience do before: during the song "Wanted to Be Wrong" which has a slow but steady beat, the crowd both clapped on the snare (a refreshing change when an audience can find 2 & 4 in a measure) and flicked their lighters on and off to the beat...creating a "thousand strobing fireflies" effect (previously an entree on a chinese menu, or a Magnetic Fields song)...beautiful. The roar that arose at the top of "Everybody Hurts" and "Losing My Rel." was louder than the level onstage by a fair piece, I had to count in my head and hope I came out on the beat when the noise subsided. It made the corner of my eyes squirt little tears, to feel that big surge of love and joy from so many people. Our guide during our day at Teotihuan, Gorilla, was very visible in a bright red shirt in the 5th row...he brought us some very lovely things, crytals and a kind of champagne cider...he knows there are many routes to the mystic planes, and we love him for that. After the show we were whisked out in a string of CIA-looking SUVs, with a death defying police cruiser leading the way...a couple of merges looked like somebody was going to eat concrete but there was nary a scratch all told. We had a gathering in the Hotel Habita's hipster oasis, rooftop style, I was speaking broken French and Spanish and being forgiven (rocker immunity). Finally returned from some noisy club or other at about 6 this morning--my gracious thanks to Eduardo and Laura for ferrying me around and preventing from paying for drinks!

I have the latest flight out, 9:30 tonight direct to CDG, so I am the last one at the hotel, thus when I went out in the (late) afternoon I dined at a taqueria solo, strolled thru the neighborhood a bit, doves pecking around, flower petals wilting in the gutter, forcing all that technicolor dusk to get in there, keep that memory...which is a sign I must be going on. I feel like I've been in town for a month, but it was a well-lived 4 days.

Cold World glory, be ye prepared.

Love
KS
Mexico City

12.03.2004

KS EUROPEAN TOUR BEGINS NEXT WEEK

And I hope to see you all there, since I can’t see you here…some people have written in to me about ticket availability, but I can assure you that all the shows have tickets available, and almost all the venues have tickets for sale online. I found most of them by doing a search for the venue’s name, and if that produced too many results, the venue name plus the city narrowed it down to an easily managed list.

The Posies northwest dates last week were fun and furious, perhaps the first night at Neumo’s was the most magical—the level of physical commitment required by a Posies show is very high, compared to what is required of me physically in an REM show. What a Posies show takes from me is probably similar to what Michael expends during REM’s show, he does the running, contorting, and just plain high-energy wiggling parts. And singing constantly for 2 hours is not to be underestimated as a workout. So, by the second night in Tacoma, we played well, but perhaps things were a hair more mellow. But, I really enjoyed being onstage with mssrs. Auer, Harris, and Minwalla, and working up the new songs we performed gave insight to the great promise the new album’s material has for live delivery. Jon, Matt & I also spent a day in the mastering lab assembling the Posies album, which is really where a record changes from a pile of recordings generated in the studio to something worth giving a title to. Information is still as valuable as its organization and presentation, and mastering is where those two items take shape in the audio world. Over the next few weeks the visual accompaniment will take shape…

This week REM wraps Leg 1 of their tour; we’ve been spending some days off in Mexico City—parties, pyramids, and prodigious amounts of foodstuffs. It’s one of those “I could live here” cities…and I think living at 7500 ft. above sea level makes you healthier. Dermatologists may disagree.

I really enjoyed seeing my fat butt in a paparazzi shot in one of the big Mexico City dailies, the photogs snagged us at the pyramids of Teotihuacan.

See you (the European yous) soon

Love
KS
Mexico, D.F.

The latest release by Ken Stringfellow is a split EP with Spain's Muy Fellini, featuring never-heard-before music incl. Ken's take on Bob Dylan, released by
King of Patio records
in Spain on Oct 8, 2009.

Order it directly from Muy Fellini here www.myspace.com/muyfellini
10" VINYL ONLY!!!