ANTIPODEANAMERICAN SENTIMENTS
Evidently I raised a bit of a stir with my commentary about the state of culture and music in the US and Australia in my interview with the Sydney Morning Herald. Good. Evidently many members of murmus.com, an REM fan site, took offense at my statements or laughed them off as uninformed, or worse, frivolous. However, I meant what I said. I was not edited to look more controversial or contrarian than I am. Funny that REM, Bright Eyes, et al can visibly agitate against the current US Gov. admin. without taking flak, but, I, apparently, don't have the credentials to allow myself an opinion. An opinion that I thought would be shared by many music fans, who I would think would lean more left than right.
And, to respond further:
1)The capacity of REM's show in Perth was nowhere near 20,000, in the configuration for that evening's concert. Even the biggest venues we played indoors in Europe earlier this year topped out roughly between 12,000 and 15,000 capacity.
2) U2's bulletproof popularity would be difficult to compare to REM's. Musically, U2 is much more straightforward and far less experimental (at least in recent years), and Bono tends to do his politicizing offstage rather than on, and about humanitarian issues rather than say, the Iraq war, for example. Do they have a 2 song segment in their set that was written 'in protest of the the current US administration and the actions of the US government?' I don't think so.
3) Yes, there was a republican in the white house when REM began their career. Many bands spent the 80s fully devoting themselves to protesting the cultural vanillafication policies and megabusiness-friendly excesses of the Reagan and Bush 1 govt's. --the Dead Kennedys, and, oh, nearly every US punk band, and...oh yeah, REM.
Moving on...the KS/Even tour is underway, with last night's kickoff in Brisbane a success, considering how long it had been since i had played a KS show--almost a month. REM's last show was festive, to say the least, I broke my code of no drinking before the show and appeared onstage hoisting a bottle of french vin blanc...details get hazy from there but by 4 the following morning I was on a plane across Australia to switch over to an entirely different...approach, shall we say...from sideman to front man, from keyboard rattler to, at one point, lead screecher...much fun ahead and kudos to the Even gents for organizing a great tour and learning some Posies songs to boot!
And, lastly, but most significant to me, I send out lots of love to my stepdad, G. Dewey Huston, who turned 80 yesterday...he'll be rockin' at the Annandale in Sydney tonight...
Love
KS
Sydney AU
