10.30.2005 MY OWN 38TH PARALLEL As I write, I am up in the loft-style bed in our van, hurtling (am I not hurtle-y enough for you? Hurtle—hurtle) towards Bavaria. It’s a grand sunny day, and the first day of my next year on the planet. As I was born at 1.28 am, even tho’ that was 9 time zones away, I celebrated it locally and marked the time here twice, as the clocks moved back an hour at 2 this morning. OK, by the second one I was sound asleep, my present to myself was a quiet night in, a hot bath, and a full night’s rest. And calls from the girls both at night and in the morning. For a present from Aden, she took it upon herself to get up early and destroy the apartment… Today in Dresden the Frauenkirche opened it’s doors for the first time since it’s nearly total destruction in WW2. I won’t get into all the possible tangents such an event could stimulate…but, did anyone notice the eye in the pyramid that looks out from the center of the pipe organ? Woah. It’s an Egyptian symbol of omniscience, no? I would have to say it seemed a bit odd in a Christian church. The Illuminati, with their Bavarian legend, the Freemasons, who built the great cathedrals…it’s all there, it seems. BIELEFELD 10/26 Even after a weekend at home spent mostly resting, I was still recovering from what had been an incredibly demanding and intense North American tour. So it’s no surprise to me that once I boarded my flight to Amsterdam, I pretty much fell asleep immediately. I woke up to have a bit of dinner, and woke up towards the end to have a nibble of breakfast, but other than that…probably put in a good 8-9 hours in. After crossing the entire Schiphol (missing the mysterious and deadly fire by just a day—I haven’t read much about it, but I am wondering if it was an elaborate escape tactic, as if that will ever be admitted…some detainees did escape, that much is known), I got to the gate, and managed to sleep almost another hour, as our flight was delayed a bit. Yes, on our little KLM flight to Dusseldorf I slept most of that hour; and when we arrived, after claiming our bags, and meeting our tour manager, Jan, and grabbing a Turkish spinach pastry for lunch, I grabbed two more hours of sleep on a bench as we waited for Matt’s flight to arrive (he went to SF for the weekend to play with Oranger at their rec. release). Then it was into the van for the two hour drive to Bielefeld, and I…slept in the loft the whole way. Checked into the hotel…slept for 3 more hours…got up to have a very nice dinner (medallions of venison, in fact)…watched a couple of movies (the fantastic martial arts film ‘Twin Warriors’ with Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh (or Khan, as she was known then, which we watched in German; and the Alec Guinness-starring Ealing comedy “The Lavender Hill Mob”). At about 3am, I was ready to sleep more, and I did! 7 more hours. So, let’s see…that’s like 20 hours in 2 days…and I felt almost caught up on zeds. Our first real tour of Europe, in 1993, was opening for our heroes Teenage Fanclub. They were as gracious a group as I ever encountered, and helped us out immensely—both in merely inviting us as support, but also in how generous they were in their hospitality. Thus, the Posies’ first visit to Germany was on this tour. And, here we are, twelve years on, supporting them in Germany once more. And tho’ many, many things have changed since then—our band split up and reformed; I divorced and remarried, and had another child; plus the myriad of historical twists and turns since that time—I still hold the Fannies in ridiculously high esteem; they are still as friendly and hospitable as ever; and they sound like a hundred million bucks (added bonus that ‘Grand Prix’, ‘Songs From Northern Britain’ and ‘Man-Made’ are all fantastic albums that are now part of the repertoire). So, night one, in the little Uni town of Bielefeld, was a fine fine gig, in fact, I daresay that our efforts, plus the press we’ve received, has helped to nudge our profile up just enough to make it cozy for us in Germany…hard to tell til we play our own shows, but, certainly we met quite a few fans this and the subsequent nights, and not all of them are from 1993. With 3.5 months of solid touring under our belts, we are playing a pretty solid rock & roll show, and we came out of the gate tonight with flames a-roaring. We were called up for a nice little encore, thrashing out a version of ‘Definite Door’ and then we got out of the way for TFC, and got to enjoy them from the merch booth. Jon & I drank a bottle of champagne in about 2 minutes, and worked on selling our respective solo works…which has evolved into a friendly competition—hint hint, if you want to make KS feel good, and take home some great (IMNHO) tunes as part of the deal, come up and buy a copy of Soft Commands at any one of these shows… HAMBURG 10/27 Here’s where we made our German debut with TFC in 1993; although tonight we played a tinier place, the Knust; evidently some kind of abattoir from umpteen years ago, it’s now part of an arty little rethink as a cluster of shops and restaurants somewhere near a kind of Tivoli with big neon signs that say ‘Dom’ in meter-high letters; and adjacent to a Wal-Mart. A Wal-Mart? The TFC crew had passed a message to Jan—‘please stop spitting on all the gear’. It takes everything I have to hold it back…but I managed. Again, the reception was extremely warm, an encore was had… After the show we had a nightcap at our hotel, which was a cut above our usual residence (many, many thanks to Kurt!) and I had perhaps the best rest I’d had in some time…and a champagne breakfast, swim and sauna the next morning. One must strike while the iron is gilded, or something like that! BERLIN 10/28 One of my all time favorite places, and I have been lucky to visit Berlin several times in recent years, mostly with REM, but damned if my solo show here last year wasn’t a great experience as well. Tonight we had many friends, both local and coming from Holland, France, you name it. We rattled the bricks quite a bit, all by 9.30, as the show had to be done by 11, disco time afterwards. Our man Kurt kicked off the après-show by opening the champagne with the sword method—and the night fell into place—we sold a record number of EKOLs at the gig, and retired to the 8mm Bar for festivities with no bedtime. TFC dropped by, and things remained lively til about 4, when we took a few friends back to the hotel, and saw the sunrise. We were a little grumpy the next day, but nothing a series of healthy naps couldn’t fix. Another Berlin success. Yes, we got an encore! DRESDEN 10/29 The PA fried itself during soundcheck, plus there were many comical ‘mics set up with no cables plugged in’ bits, but after working out the bugs we managed to play pretty good set at the Star Club. The name is kinda naf, it doesn’t tell you that the club is a beautiful 18th or 19th cent. ballroom. They’ve been putting on shows in the alt-rock mode since at least 1992. We were a bit lo-key tonight, you know, the day after Berlin is gonna have some rock-lag, and we hesitated a bit about the encore, there wasn’t quite the fanfare as the previous 3 shows, but to be fair to the fans who were there trying to keep the magic we went up for an encore…a little hesitatingly, which is never a good thing in show biz. Of course, we feel sensitive about the fact it’s not our show, but…well, TFC had been OK with it the other nights, and so we figured we might as well give everyone their money’s worth. Plus, the Star Club has no curfew, so…anyway, of course the Gods can sense that I was tentative getting up there, and they let me have it. My whole rig died and was out of tune and I spent most of the song (a one time rendition of ‘Apology’) looking like a doofus. I did a full dismount at the end…hahah, joke’s on me. Back to the hotel then! And, now, I am going to put this to bed, and myself shortly thereafter. I should note that this is the 2nd birthday I’ve enjoyed on tour with TFC, my 25th in Amsterdam 1993 was pretty epic…let’s see how they do it in Munchen… Love KS on the highway...on the byway…mr. robotron… GERMANY 10.23.2005 IT'S A RAP (LITTLE INSIDE) North American tour...check! EUGENE 10/17 Dom slept in the van in the alley til we went on. I grabbed wifi on the sidewalk sitting at the tables outside some bar. People came from miles around, some as far as Exit 12. We played a short sharp set, no encore...Dom & I did see a fantastic doc. on Cocos Is. marine life on PBS in the hotel afterwards... I did have a good exchange with the server at the Italian place we had dinner with...we were tired and shaky after our 9+ hour drive from Boise that day, and needed to eat with enough urgency that soundcheck was condsidered optional. We were seated, and I started to peruse the wine list. The server arrived and asked us if we wanted anything to drink. I said I was looking over the wine list and would get back to him (it was fairly extensive). He said he could help me with a recommendation. I said, no thanks, I'll just take 5 minutes to read the list. He countered: I've tried nearly every wine on the list and can tell you what I think would be the best--now I was pissed. I said: give me five minutes to read the thing! Please! Finally, I pickled out what I guessed would be a decent bottle of Amarone. He said: "uh, could you tell me the number of that one?" And brought the wrong bottle. TACOMA 10/18 Unusual to play a seated venue, dinner-theatre-style, but Jazzbones is a well-run venue, friendly folks, fine vittles...we started the set with Jon & I sitting cross legged on the stage, and I announced "we'll stand up when you [by which I meant the audience]do!" Folks did trickle down over the course of the set. It ended up being a pretty great crowd...some military folks from the nearby fort were toasted, having just returned from Iraq; I dedicated "Fall Apart With Me" to a Posies fan and her new Jamaican husband--who was a new convert to the Posies, and damn vocal about it! And I gave Oranger a lot of shit for joining the people up in the balcony who I thought should be down in the front! PORTLAND 10/19 Ah, home in my own bed after the Tacoma show. Which means--dusty sheets on the bed that need to be washed. the pipes doing their every-other-year-backing-up thing, which means Roto-Rooter has to be called, which of course means they can't come til the *next* day as I have to leave at 1pm for Portland...more work than being on tour, in other words! Preview for our show in the Willamette Weekly was practically the worst peice of press the Posies have received in nearly 20 years of being a band. At this point I can say two things: 1) the show was great, and packed, anyway 2) Karla Starr, your facts are incorrect. FOTB is not a reference to masturbation, it's a reference to a special and sweet treat. Nothing more. It would be the same for me to just assume your name is a reference to Ringo Starr, and look no further. It was said in the article that we succumbed to a series of cliches--like putting out records, and breaking up, and releasing retrospectives afterwards. Wow, so, that means...what exactly? And, if we were more in line with standardized forms and styles of the day, wouldn't we probably have been more successful? It wouldn't surprise me if there was perhaps some personal reason for an attack as vicious as hers. Higher standards applied by her editor would have never allowed this to go through at a well-run paper. SEATTLE 10/20 Fantasitc, epic, loud, fun, sweet homecoming. Great visit to the Mountain (commercial station in Seattle KMTT). Lots of friends at the show. All you want from a Seattle rock show by the Posies. Favorite moment: Jon playing drums and singing 'At Least For Now', Nightranger-style. BELLINGHAM 10/21 The only thing questionable about this show: the use of a 1989 (!!!) photo for the flyer...please...don't...do...that.... other than that it was pretty much part two of a superb homecoming...again, many friends in the audience, and we had a great dance party onstage, spurred by the Phish-show-lysergic-twist off stage left. I was so exhausted after all this I almost drove off the road on the way to my mom's house...dom yelled at me and I was back...and slept for 10 hours... Off to Germany tomorrow--thanks for a great US/Canada tour Love KS Bellingham WA 10.17.2005 GRITTY LITTLE TEETH I am writing now, sitting on the couch at Darius’ mom’s house in Boise. First day off in25 days. I am somewhat incredulous that I am even thinking about our musical endeavors, after what amounts to a massive overdose of travel and loud music and the regimented obligations of the touring day. Arrive at this time, play at this time. There are many, many minor tasks to attend to—count in and display the merchandise, compile and submit the guest list. Determine the nature, distribution and amounts of the hospitality items—what are we being given for dinner, drinks, etc. The rest of the day has two huge main components. Play a furious, physical rock show for two hours—that’s what the whole day is about, what all this work is for, why people are staying up late on a Monday and what they are paying twelve bucks for. That show, what it costs me—bruises, a neck that’s practically immovable by about 5 days into the tour, and the worst: deeply bruised hip bones. Where they stick out in front is the point of contact for a flat wooden surface that I happen to be slinging over the front of me as I throw myself up in the air, hurl myself back and forth to the meter. It pinches the skin there, a place where there is literally no fat to pad the impact, and it hurts like a son of a b. You might see me during the show wincing, my eyes slammed tight. That’s me recovering from a guitar slam to the hipbones. Well—all that pain, it’s all worth it. I mean it! Sometimes I can’t even tell how the audience feels about a show—are they appalled? Do they get it? Are they indifferent? –and it still doesn’t matter. Sometimes I am totally annoyed by between one and three of my bandmates—and it still doesn’t matter. I need it. Why else would I spend months away from my girls? Go without seeing a movie, drinking a decent bottle of wine, or reading the NY Times for weeks at a time? MADISON 10/10 Started the day with barbecue at our hosts’ home in the afternoon—I also called in to intro ‘Joe Dallesandro’ for Briskeby, onstage in Norway that night. They put me on speaker and I could hear the audience give me some love in the background— Ah, Madison on a Monday night. What can I say? We got to play on the bill with Some By Sea, youngsters from Seattle…perhaps leaning a bit too heavy on the Death Cab influence, but they have time to grow and find their voice as time goes on. We had two outstanding audience MVPs: the ‘Viking’, a burly, 6’ 2” fan with Iron Maiden’s 1983 hair—who, towards the end of the night, started dancing—HARD. Tables, chairs and patrons were knocked over like tenpins, and no one from the club objected…no one who got knocked over seemed to care, either. Enraptured, or en-bored? 2nd MVP: ‘Burn out the Red’. An old punker, who was a Posies fan, said to me ‘he hears the music, man—he FEELS it. We should all wish we were like him.” His name was Jep. He had red hair and a red beard, and red trucker hat, and in my memory he was wearing a red tracksuit but I think that’s my mind playing tricks on me. He is basically young Santa Claus as an acid hippie skate freak. But damn if he wasn’t having a better time than everyone else. Right up front, shaking his head like an epileptic Fraggle, and he was at the bar after everyone else had gone home, obviously the staff knew him and didn’t mind. So…maybe he is on to something. Historical note: Madison is where that classic of American Cinema, ‘Back to School’, starring Rodney Dangerfield, was filmed. In Korea the picture’s translated title translated back as ‘Back to School with Dad on my Back’. The ‘Twist & Shout’ band in the film is not, however closely they resemble them, Glass Tiger. IOWA CITY 10/11 Nobody told me Dubuque was one of the prettiest towns in the country—I always thought simply, ‘rhymes with puke’. But it’s a little gem of a town. And we drove right on thru it, and on to Iowa City. Which isn’t a bad little town. Gabe’s Oasis, the venue, is atop a toothless hunter bar, and is itself a carefully preserved second floor tarpaper outhouse, with a tetanus-infested medieval set of torture stairs as the loading access. The monitors are old milk cartons painted black that contain the speakerphones from real estate offices that went out of business in the Reagan Administration. And for most of the show I had no idea what the fuck I was doing there…but we had the best encore ever, a 20 minute Medeski Martin and Wood jam where I devastated the keys—all of which had grown out of a drum solo by Darius…and we followed that with ‘Jungle’ which hadn’t made an appearance for some time. Get some, indeed! KANSAS CITY 10/12 Sleeper of the tour. After the requisite gorging at Gates BBQ, we shlumped in to soundcheck at this tiny bar, the Hurricane. I really didn’t think 10 people were going to come to this show, but damn if we didn’t get a fantastic and populous crowd, who brought us lots of drinks and pounded the floor if we threatened to stop playing, and bought shitloads of copies of Soft Commands (hint: if you want me to write a favorable review of your city…). The area around the club seems to have lots of good stuff going on…KC, welcome back from wherever you were in my ignorance. DENVER 10/13 We drove after the show in KC, leaving there at about 3am, and heading west across Kansas. Joe Norcio wins again for driving all night. At some point he ran out of steam, and slept in the driver’s seat at a rest stop til Jon rousted him and took over for a while. Then he ran out of steam and I got behind the wheel for the first time on this tour…driving pretty fast (they don’t seem to care about the speed limit in Colorado much) thru very dramatic scenery, including the remnants of the snow that had been dumped there 36 hours previously. We stopped for about 15 minutes as rescuers arrived at and tended to a horrible accident—a van and U-Haul trailer, apparently from the opposite direction on the freeway, that had hurled itself across the median and came to rest in a grisly concoction of twisted frame and exploded airbags, at the edge of our side of the Interstate. We saw the passengers on stretchers, all taped up in the hopes of saving their spines, lined up waiting for evacuation, as we passed. I gave a silent prayer, what else could I do. Denver revealed itself as a bubble—69 degrees, no snow, the leaves on the trees still green. It had been 45 degrees only 20 miles out, and we were higher in elevation now. How? After a marvelous instore at Wax Trax, I paced up and down the club (earlier Jon & I had been interviewed for an online program called Mania TV, try and track that down and you’ll find us there, waxing cynically on several subjects!) in anticipation of Dominique’s arrival from France—she made it at last and I hustled her away for a superb dinner at the highly recommended rest. Potager. After such a joyful reunion, it was hard for me to get a grip on the show…in fact at one point I left the stage, unable to tell if things were going terribly (well, I knew they were for me, sound wise) and if we could deliver and connect with the audience. Things turned out OK tho. At least, when Dom & I got to the hotel, it was great! We signed our first joint tax returns, which had been fed ex’d to the hotel (we filed separately in 2003). If that’s not love… SALT LAKE CITY 10/14 You will never be able to convince me this town isn’t bizarre. And tense. It’s warm, it’s surrounded by mountains, it’s clean, and the streets are wide enough for two-way 747 traffic. But try and convince me there isn’t a taut buzz of underlying tension there. It’s like the town knows a dirty secret, and is hoping to get you out of there before you find it and they have to kill you and use you for lawn fertilizer. There are some very friendly volks there tho. I met a ton of them at the show, and about 3 of them at our very first exo-store appearance. Orion’s Music had us scheduled for an appearance. I had a contact name, and as Jon & I headed there in a cab, I called the contact to tell them we were on our way and might be a minute or two late, max. The contact number was a cell for some guy at Overstock.com...what the?? We got there, and saw 2 or 3 people milling about in the store. And we were shown to a coffee shop two doors down. The coffee shop and record store share a performance space between them—with a stage, PA, and seats for 15-20 people. There was a performance there already. We were playing in the coffee shop itself—well, let’s put it this way, somebody wanting to see our instore, which as best as I could tell, was totally unadvertised, would have had to work extremely hard to know about it and subsequently find it. Miraculously, a couple of people did. As for the show itself—well, we played well. The stage was high. There was a barricade! Total overkill. People enjoyed it. They pulled the tables right up to the barricade and got about 2 lbs. of pure rock & roll per head. BOISE 10/15 Last in the unbroken chain of 25 shows…25 cities…25 days. At this point, we were like the guys at the end of Ishtar. Kind of laughing, kind of crying. Boise is where Darius went to High School, and being not the biggest city in the world, the first person we saw when we pulled up to the club was in his first ban with him—this guy was renting the PA to the club! The guy who was our point person was in Darius’ class in H.S. as well. Jon & I spent time at a radio station called the River, where a nice little crowd was assembled in a conference room, and Jon & I played a few songs and chatted live on air. At the club, we had to deal with dismal architecture, a huge post in front of the stage, which was itself triangular but with bites taken out of it, so a misstep could send you tumbling…eek. Consolation: dinner at Darius’ mom’s house, with lots of family friends and a home cooked Anglo-Pakistani (Darius’ late father was from Pakistan and his mom is from the UK) meal…oh, yes. This was superb. Doors weren’t opening at the show until 10, so, by the time dinner was done, it was only 8. Dom & I took a nap—big mistake. When Darius woke me at 10, I was wreckage, contacts glued to my corneas, my mind already fogging over in anticipation of the impending day off…I reapplied my lenses and brushed my teeth and just prayed to the Gods of Saturday Night in Boise to guide us. Another big mistake. The moon was on the point to be full, and everybody was only dimly aware of how bizarre they were acting. Drunker, ornerier than usual…and let me tell you, the Big Easy/Bourbon St. is one of those clubs that has ‘rules’. For example—after the show, there were several fans that wanted pictures taken with us—and the security intervened, saying there was a ‘no photo’ policy, and that there were signs ‘posted all over the house’? First off, when you book my band at a club—it’s my motherfucking show, I don’t care what your house rules are (which I toned down, and said—hey, whatever the rules are, let it slide for these people, and got my way). Second of all, there are no signs posted in the Bourbon St. Lounge—just in the building’s larger venue, the Big Easy. So, how were people to know about this stupid rule anyhow? Once again, it would be better if the venue just paid for the billboard space to say: BANDS—YOU WILL HAVE A SHITTY TIME HERE, THE SECURITY IS UPTIGHT, AND THE STAGE SUCKS. SO DON’T BOTHER COMING. As for me, I will not be coming back. How was the show? After all that—how could it be that good? The fucking post in my face, the treacherous stage, the uptight security…well…we probably have too much sound for that size of club, which is kind of our fault. But, we did, once again, make the best of it. People enjoyed it, we played as punk as it gets. Did a couple of acoustic songs, also punk. And…thus… we made it to the finish line… Sunday was spent in bed, with brief forays to the fridge, the coffee shop, and the TV. I watched a football game, fer chirssakes; I haven’t done that since I was, like, 18 years old. We had leftovers to gorge on, the aforementioned TV and cable…no NY Times, no internet (except a brief log on at the coffee shop), and Dom wasn’t feeling well enough to go to a movie, so—I took the directive to veg as a divine order and obeyed with total sincerity. Fine Seattleites: I urge you to be at the Neumo’s show on Thursday. We want to come home to a hearty welcome, and you get to see a band with it’s full tour-honed edge cut a stage, a club and an audience (and themselves) to shreds. I finished this post in the van…couldn’t keep my eyes open last night. When we get to Eugene, 500 miles from now, I’ll post ASAP. Love KS I-84, 6 miles from the Idaho-Oregon state line 10.10.2005 DETROIT 10/4 We bade farewell to Canada but not without listening to plenty of Rush (guess what’s on the stereo now, as we drive out of Minnesota, which is essentially a fat capitalist lost limb of Canada). Said hello to the US, with a friendly stop at the US border patrol at the Ambassador Bridge. They didn’t find any reason not to let us enter (or to let us enter in shackles) so we proceeded via a hilarious series of curb jumps, U Turns etc. to the Magic Stick, which is part of a huge complex of venues, restaurants, and a bowling alley (used to be two)—basically a mall from 1915. Jon & I had do an instore about 500 miles away in Ferndale, which we did, and luckily, got a ride back to the club from some fans from Kalamazoo…saw Leslie, former Seattle muso, i.e. Juned and other bands…she’s always been a favorite, friendly face to see. Sellin’ real estate in Michigan, she is! Still punk in my book. Jon’s in-laws were at the gig, and patiently waited for us to conclude, load out, wolf down some cheese chili dog’s at Lafayette afterwards (they had one each) and lead us up to their hood, near Port Huron, where they got us hotel rooms—birthday present for Jon. Thanks folks! COLUMBUS 10/5 Teat jerker of the tour…a lovely young couple were engaged onstage prior to our set…the young man, a local musician, got onstage and read a little speech, citing the fact that among many others, his gal having a copy of FOTB in her collection was a sign that compatibility was a high probability…of course we made ‘em get up and slow dance during ‘Beautiful One’ later, and had a few shots in their honor…heheh. That morning I had done a phoner with CD101, a commercial station there, at like 8…oof. Hope it brought a person or two down…other funny stuff: me sitting on a chair on the sidewalk catching wifi out in front of the club, and all the homeless dudes and perhaps a few ne’er do wells that passed by. One really sweet guy named Larry, the throat cancer guy. I bet a lot of Columbus folks know him. I gave him a few bucks. Think he kept an eye on me…there was the guy yelling death threats to his rival about a foot from me…Then there was the hotel, with a guy checking us in, cool fella, looked like a cross between Hunter S Thompson and Jimmy Buffet…mirrored shades, at 2.30 a.m. Coke nails. You never know with those kinda guys, they could just as easily be a moonlighting cop. CLEVELAND 10/6 Love those short drives. Love those venerable rock clubs. Love those homemade-tasting cheeseburgers at Tommy’s. Love friendly and generous promoters. Love crowds that ROCK. Love leaping like a deer for two hours, guitar in hand. Love guitars hung from the ceiling, by the neck, squealing feedback. Jon smashed his Epiphone guitar to bits…where did that come from? Didn’t see it coming. Well. Matt, Darius and I drank a bottle of Sailor Jerry’s rum between 7 and 9 the next morning. You gotta kinda build up to Chicago. CHICAGO 10/7 Just pulling up to this city makes me feel higher in spirits. We actually got to town early, could park in the loading zone without fear of a ticket, had a slice around the corner. I was back to normal and feeling ready for a big night of fun, which is always gonna happen in Chicago. No disappointments here. I would like to point out that our instore at Reckless Rec. was the most feedback-laden instore in the history of acoustic instores…love it. I saw tons of friends, all my favorites. Dodged being in a White Flag video by that much (I think I’ve been in 4 different video sessions for the damn thing on this tour). I would have been happy to do it, in fact, 3 of us crashed at Stacey G’s loft, who was to be doing the filming, and quite a few of our friends came over, it could have been a great setting, but somehow it didn’t happen. My very lovely friend Rachel made a little collage/painting for Aden, which was very kind…yeah, I was up pretty late, but, heck, it was loads of fun and I knew we had a long drive to MSP the next day. Ah, yes, the show—well, it was fantastic. I felt totally relaxed and natural up there, and it seemed that everything fell into place—no bad notes, lots of lucky accidents, I felt effortless and a great Chicago crowd never hurts. MINNEAPOLIS 10/8 Also another ‘can’t go wrong’ kind of town. Another killer show, however, I am starting to get so banged up, I have bruises on my hips that look like life size iron-on eggplants. And my legs look like Elvis’ jungle room upholstery. Also something curious is happening—my hair is starting to bug the shit out of me. It keeps tickling my nose and making me feel like I am having a histamine reaction for the entire set. Plus I did get a tiny allergy reaction to the cats at Dmitri and Geralyn’s place (tho I do adore them, their place and their cats, I just got a tiny but sneezy the next morning) so in Milwaukee it was ten times worse, I even had some snot shoot out of my nose when I was rocking out, it blobbed out onto my upper and lip. I mean, ew. Anyway, Jon & I taped a nice session for Radio K that should run this week…I got to play their beautiful (if tuned slightly weepy) Steinway for a version of ‘That Don’t Fly’. Had dinner with the Slocums (thanks guys) at an establishment called Grandma’s…I was thinkin’ Pre-Chew Charlie’s but damn if they didn’t have a fine T-Bone. Our show at the 400 Bar was another good one…our roll seems to be following us for this 25 show run. Nothing like a common cause to unify a group. Super weird phenom: we pulled up to a gas station on the way outta Chicago, I called Dom (I don’t like to be on the phone in the van, plus I can’t usually hear well anyway) and took a pee at the same time. A full on pee. And went back to the van, and lay back down on my bench, and finished my call. We pulled out and I immediately had to pee again. Badly! What the?? MILWAUKEE 10/9 We were driving along to Milwaukee when we stopped somewhere near Lacrosse to fuel up, and I went in to pee (hey, you gotta use the stops efficiently). I spied fried chicken available at the checkout and it looked pretty good…so, I got a piece and the woman at the checkout said, in the loudest voice imaginable—“THAT PIN--I CAN’T BE FUCKED!! I WANT THAT!!” I said it was the original that I had had made and I was hoping to have more made—she insisted we drive back that way again soon and bring her one. The woman at the Kinko’s in Chicago said the same thing…guess I gotta start selling them at shows. Truly insane instore at Atomic Records…fine little store…we played the first ever acoustic guitar versions of “That Don’t Fly” and “All In A Day’s Work”. Someone wanted to hear a John Lennon song. It would have been his 65th birthday that day. Just a year older than my dad. It’s odd to think of that guy being gone so long. He seems like a really distant memory. Dead at 40. In an odd way, thinking about John Lennon made me glad my dad is around and could be around for many more years…oh-oh, I can tell, the morbidity of the autumn months is creeping in…time to reassess the losses, realign the instruments, and reassess the direction…prob. I won’t change that much but it’s good to have a look and winterize a bit. Half the time I can think, oh my god, I’m doing everything wrong, I’m lost and I’ll never get back to the right way…and then I calm down and get all French—pretend to puff on a Gauloises, look off in the distance and say “it cannot, in fact, matter.” Show tonight: rippin’. How weird to put carpet in a rock venue. But, it worked out. I really enjoyed this show, except for the freaking hair tickling my nose. Dammit! This was one of those funny nights where I was trying to play with all the expertise a lengthy tour such as hours should provide me…but, I kinda kept hitting funny notes. It doesn’t matter. We’re so loud, it all sounds good. Note: When I have been referring to listening to Rush in the van, I mean the loveable, mystical, mullet-headed band from Canada; not the despicable, pill-popping, blowhard simpleton bullhorning conservative views while espousing a lifestyle not unlike a guy that used to be in Molly Hatchet, but without the comparable intellectual gifts. Love KS Madison WI 10.04.2005 HOW CAN I JOIN THE SEPARATISTS? PHILADELPHIA 9/27 Somehow we only drove like 50 miles in 2 hours or some such thing. We stayed at some Super 8 or similar hotel in Maryland, driving out of DC after the gig (and after some pretty heavy duty slices oof) for what seemed like enough time to get to Newfoundland, but we still had 80 miles to go when we got up in the morning. Hmm. Philly always feels nice don’t it? In MD we ate breakfast at a Cracker Barrel. I was already feeling weird about a restaurant that has ’cracker’ in the title, much like the now-shamed-out-of-existence Sambo’s. And I just don’t think the fare is worth much. Man, I was missing southern cooking already. This was the night of the Clash of the Alternatitans—Posies were supported by Earlimart, Oranger AND Deathray Davies…what a mess! Worked out fine tho. I got to dine with friends at my fave spot in Philly, Cuba Libre; I got to see Earlimart, who I have been near missing for a couple of years now; the tiny stage meant we ditched the keyboard, so I didn’t have to worry about bonking it over. Very punky set. The Pylant Krew took us into their abode in NJ, we had a couple o’ drinks, the McGlynns, and Triumph the ICD, and I managed to fall asleep about 1.5 minutes after arriving. Needed it! HOBOKEN 9/28 After a few wrong turns, we finally got to WFMU to tape performances of 4 songs, Jon & I on acoustics, Matt playing thru a small amp and Darius shaking that tamb. Worked our way up to Hoboken, got settled in and had dunch, that meal that I have that isn’t breakfast and sort of needs to get in there by 6. New shoes really hurting me…8 LONG blocks to walk to instore…not good. Cabbed back, yes. Maxwell’s is great—the sound is always awesome, the crowds crowd it up pretty fast, and there are always friends in the house…Suzanne S. who designs and operates lights for REM (and has worked for Nirvana, Sonic Youth etc in the past) lives in the hood and came by….Tequila Tom, who’s just an awesome guy; he and his friends are all music fans and fun dudes to have a few (hey, who’s counting?) drinks with; your Pylants and McGlynns (remember that Ian McGlynn is a fine muso who played piano with me at my Maxwell’s show last year). I remember folks hoopin and hollerin but that’s about it, as far as the show goes…I know it was good tho’ I just can’t say for sure what really happened! NEW YORK CITY 9/29 Wow. What a visit…somehow, it’s always great here tho. NYC pretty much proves it’s the greatest place in the world every time I play here. I know you can do wrong here, but damned if it just doesn’t seem to happen. I got to my friend Tina’s place (see below—I’m writing these entries backwards from the most recent show towards wherever I left off last week) at about 3am. After the Maxwell’s show, and pretty much collapsed right away. Did I sleep in til noon? No, I got up, inexplicably, as I was totally shattered, at 9.15. What the?? So, I took my time…listened to music and wrote emails and read. I eventually went out and had 2 awesome slices…that’s a real breakfast. It’s sort of like an omelet…in shape…doubled…er…anyhow, I found myself with nothing to do that day, and it rained for a bit, so I stayed in, took a nap, watched a movie, walked around the neighborhood. I knew it was a good idea to rest up as the evening was going to be busy, the night late, and the show was going to demand a lot. Right on all counts! We had the best instore of the tour so far, at my friends’ great shop NYCD (81st /Amsterdam)—cupcakes and beer in honor of…dadadadda—Jon’s 36th birthday—anyway, we quickly had to split, for a quick dinner with the Rykodisc folks (thanks, everybody!), which we had to split from quickly, as it was showtime. Turns oot we had a great crowd, which we spared no human cost in whipping like racing dogs into a frothy furor…in fact, we brought in BIG NAME TALENT in the form of Lewis, French horn blower for the Polyphonic Spree (among others) for an authentic augmentation on ‘Last Crawl’ and ‘Jungle’…Ok, I will say, we basically killed this one. We cannon’d these bastids and gripped NY like a bunny in our talons of sonic scree. Check! Bowery Ballroom folks are absolutely gracious. NORTHAMPTON 9/30 I hadn’t been to this town since the Posies played here in 1994. Lovely little spot. Just about everywhere we’ve been this week is looking its best as Indian summer is in full effect. New York was breathtaking this morning as we all met up from our various accommodations (thank you big time to my friend Tina who lent me her apt. while she was out of town and DHL’d me the keys!!!) at the band hotel. Jon paid for hot dogs from a cart which were an excellent breakfast…despite (because of?) the revelry of the night before, I felt fantastic. We pulled into town and pulled right up to the record store we were to appear at later…went down the street for a coffee and then rocked up the instore, with a great little crowd. Our former booking agent, Bob Lawton, came by and invited us to visit his cinema for free—so, after the instore was done, I ran down to the club and wolfed down our free dinner, and we all zipped over to watch ‘A History of Violence’ which I can’t recommend enough…superb performances from Viggo M. and Ed Harris... Anyway, Jon & I did an interview with WEQX (Albany NY area) for the ‘Download’ program, inside our van, and then ran back to the club and basically had to go on, and get off quick—the late start (we were the second concert event there that day) and early curfew (1am as opposed to the more typical 2) meant we basically played about 45 minutes. We were good, but it wasn’t enough to get watmed up! After the show, we pulled our van up to the curb and sold merch out of our trailer. Punk! Thanks to the Friels, who took us in for the umpteenth time, and fed us Fr. Toast and bacon in the morning! CAMBRIDGE 10/1 I can say without a doubt it was the rowdiest show of the tour…we had an emotional farewell performance for Deathray Davies’ last show with us. We joined them for some jamming/wrasslin’ onstage during their set…and they did appear onstage during our favorite number for denouement, ‘You’re the Beautiful One’…which these days typically brings our raucous encore to a gentle conclusion…but honestly, we were on FIRE for this show, and I was given an unwanted rum & coke by an audience member who had to leave early, so I sorta misjudged what the proper intake pre-show should be. It basically fuelled a bit of menace in my onstage presence…amps were tipped, I was strung up and tangled in my chords, finishing ‘Dream All Day’ holding the mic and standing on the drum riser. It was a show of fury…the folks at the Middle East were great, and we apologize for taking so long to get out of there afterwards! Thanks Dick and Kevin. MONTREAL 10/2 You can give ‘em all the shit you want. Canada rules. I remember in the 1990s thinking Canada (esp. Vancouver, where we used to play all the time) was a bit threadbare…lots of old musty carpet and guys with stubble and missing teeth sleeping on your van. What to mention you couldn’t even stop to tie your shoes without interrupting a john being serviced in some stairwell. Anyway, whatever changes that the world and North America in specific have gone thru in the last 10 years…guess who’s benefited? There’s a reason Vancouver looks more like Hong Kong than it does San Francsico. It looks like the future. I digress. Perhaps that’s ALL I do. Montreal could easily be one of my favorite cities in the world…so much is being created there…music, art…f**king VICE mag….we felt good as soon as we pulled into town. The drive from Arlington MA, where our Boston-area hotel was, to Montreal was only one jaw-dropping vista after another. My first travel in/thru New Hampshire, in fact. I had picked up a NY Times on my way out of Boston and didn’t even crack it open. I just watched the mountains, huge rock faces, cattail-lined ponds, and thick blankets of coniferous green…God’s own air freshener. Crossed into Canada without event, and drove thru equally beautiful scenery in Quebec. Got to the club right at load in time, and hauled our stuff up 2 flights of stairs to La Sala Rossa, a lovely ballroom above a Spanish Restaurant. After soundcheck and commie sandwiches, we had a last minute call from a fan, Omar, who is a DJ at a college radio station. He tracked us down via various internet sources and brought us in for a session and interview—which he was very glad to do, as, very unfortunately, his father was in hospital and thus Omar wasn’t going to be able to see our show. We hope things are OK for him & his family. Dr. Dog, a freaky mix of the Band, the O’Jays, Pavement and Camper Van Beethoven, were one of the bands playing with us…totally weird and totally cool. From Philly. Mojo described them as a mix of country and soul, but that is not even close to accurate. Kinda have to see it to believe it. Best band t-shirts I have seen in a LONG time. Just 3 big dots in a triangle pointing down…and then you realize the sleeves are like ears and you’re looking at a dog’s face…and they were selling them for 5 bucks!! Canadian!! Our show was somewhat short, we were going on after midnight on a Sunday, and we could just tell that after who knows how many days of Pop Montreal people were starting to get wobbly at the knees. So we blasted a tight hour and ten and off we went…my friends Pat and Maude were there, both great people, who took care of me when I was in town last year with REM. We went to see THE BEST LIVE BAND YOU WILL EVER SEE, the Zoobombs from Japan. Holy fuck. Apeshit drummer, soul tinged garage gospel freakjams…basically take live footage from Elvis’ 70s band doing the jam out on ‘Suspicious Minds’ where the bass player is tearing that up…spread that guy’s vibe amongst 4 skinny Tokyo kids, dip it in glorious fuzz and let ‘er rip. Holy James Burton, batman! After that we were almost spent and it was closing time, but we persevered, fuelling up at Main’s, a source of deli style smoked meat and chopped liver and yummy stuff. Went back to Pat & Maud’s (on whose couch I crashed last time—all when I had the best hotel room of the entire REM tour at Le St. James!) and listened to records and watched live footage of the Jam, and what not. Matt and I headed back to our hotel in time to clean up and…oof…load our equipment out from the club (yes, down those stairs again) at 10.30 in the morning…naturally, I got in the van and slept all the way to TO. Thanks to Pat and Maude for hospitality, le deuxieme fois! TORONTO 10/3 ….and woke up when we pulled up to the club feeling just fine. Hopped out of the van and had an ice coffee. Read Tim Perlich’s bizarre preview for our show in Now! Mag. and wondered what the fuck he was paying for crack. This guy tracked us down thru my website, set up an interview with us, and talked to Jon for about 45 minutes while we were on the road somewhere in the south about a week and a half ago. He was knowledgeable about the Posies, appeared to be a fan, anyway. Sometimes they do the worst things tho, as they think about it too much. So, check out his piece, and tell me, does he sound like a fan? I think not. I think it’s all supposed to be tongue in cheek, but it just comes off as him basically putting us down for everything we do and have done. It’s supposed to be ironic? But this is like one of those jokes you write to your girl/boyfriend in an email that totally backfires and has you arguing for a week trying to prove you didn’t mean it that way. Tim, did you really not want people to come see us? Did you think that your piece was an enticement for anyone to come to the show? OK, over it. Lee’s Palace is a superb sounding stage, and, if it could get any better, we had Lou Barlow supporting us that night. I love crossing paths with great artists and putting our shows together—it certainly doesn’t happen enough. Lou and his lovely family arrived for soundcheck, as did a flight case I ordered from a company in Ontario, as did Darius’ 2nd cousin Michelle, who guided us to her local Indian place, Gandhi’s. Tiny little joint, just a counter and 3 tables, most people taking away. We noted that the floor of the kitchen was spotless. Good sign. Roti and curries, everything cooked to order, spectacular flavor and perfect spiciness (I suggest to order medium). And we weren’t even too full to play, we were just right. Got back to set up the merch and listen to Lou play. He does it right. Touching, funny, cool sonic textures…the crowd wouldn’t let him leave and I didn’t want him to either. Funny thing happened. We had seen such inspiring performances in the 16 hours leading up to our show, that we actually played maybe the best set we’ve done since Bumbershoot. In addition to a very warmly received set and first encore, Jon & I came back and played 5-6 songs with just the two of us standing in the crowd…and to our great pleasure, during ‘Coming Right Along’ ‘s outro, Matt and Darius appeared on the stage (which itself was nearly 6 feet high) and entered as if we did it that way every night…we jammed it out for a bit…and who could resist going on from there, everything felt so right. So, we played 3-4 more songs, including a devastating ‘Burn & Shine’…me plugged straight into my amp turned up to 10. Easily 2 hours plus of music…Lou was there thru most of the acoustic bit, which was a great compliment seeing as his family was on tour with him. And the biggest shocker of the night—after the show was done and folks were leaving, we were introduced to a beaming Don, singer of the Zoobombs! We hugged him about 500 times, we were ecstatic about him being there so we could tell him how much his band’s set inspired us. And we had a good night’s sleep. Love KS In the van, southern Ontario

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!!! Subscribe to the RSS feed to keep up to date on all things KS! older news : 8/3/2003 05/01/2004 - 06/01/2004 06/01/2004 - 07/01/2004 07/01/2004 - 08/01/2004 08/01/2004 - 09/01/2004 09/01/2004 - 10/01/2004 10/01/2004 - 11/01/2004 11/01/2004 - 12/01/2004 12/01/2004 - 01/01/2005 01/01/2005 - 02/01/2005 02/01/2005 - 03/01/2005 03/01/2005 - 04/01/2005 04/01/2005 - 05/01/2005 05/01/2005 - 06/01/2005 06/01/2005 - 07/01/2005 07/01/2005 - 08/01/2005 08/01/2005 - 09/01/2005 09/01/2005 - 10/01/2005 10/01/2005 - 11/01/2005 11/01/2005 - 12/01/2005 12/01/2005 - 01/01/2006 01/01/2006 - 02/01/2006 02/01/2006 - 03/01/2006 03/01/2006 - 04/01/2006 04/01/2006 - 05/01/2006 05/01/2006 - 06/01/2006 06/01/2006 - 07/01/2006 07/01/2006 - 08/01/2006 08/01/2006 - 09/01/2006 09/01/2006 - 10/01/2006 10/01/2006 - 11/01/2006 11/01/2006 - 12/01/2006 12/01/2006 - 01/01/2007 01/01/2007 - 02/01/2007 02/01/2007 - 03/01/2007 03/01/2007 - 04/01/2007 04/01/2007 - 05/01/2007 05/01/2007 - 06/01/2007 06/01/2007 - 07/01/2007 07/01/2007 - 08/01/2007 08/01/2007 - 09/01/2007 09/01/2007 - 10/01/2007 10/01/2007 - 11/01/2007 11/01/2007 - 12/01/2007 12/01/2007 - 01/01/2008 01/01/2008 - 02/01/2008 02/01/2008 - 03/01/2008 03/01/2008 - 04/01/2008 04/01/2008 - 05/01/2008 05/01/2008 - 06/01/2008 06/01/2008 - 07/01/2008 07/01/2008 - 08/01/2008 08/01/2008 - 09/01/2008 09/01/2008 - 10/01/2008 10/01/2008 - 11/01/2008 11/01/2008 - 12/01/2008 12/01/2008 - 01/01/2009 01/01/2009 - 02/01/2009 02/01/2009 - 03/01/2009 03/01/2009 - 04/01/2009 04/01/2009 - 05/01/2009 05/01/2009 - 06/01/2009 06/01/2009 - 07/01/2009 07/01/2009 - 08/01/2009 08/01/2009 - 09/01/2009 09/01/2009 - 10/01/2009 10/01/2009 - 11/01/2009 11/01/2009 - 12/01/2009 12/01/2009 - 01/01/2010 01/01/2010 - 02/01/2010 02/01/2010 - 03/01/2010 03/01/2010 - 04/01/2010 04/01/2010 - 05/01/2010