FEEL LIKE MAAAAKIN’ LOVE…TOO L’OUSE!
It was a festive week, one that included Mardi Gras (we made a mess with confetti and silly string, much to Aden’s trepidatious delight) and Chinese New Year (all of which landed on my personal favorite holiday, Justine Bateman’s birthday! Quelle “Satisfaction”, indeed!). This week the bar Motel opened very near to my place—an indie rock bar par excellence. The previous establishment at that address, the bar Amadeus, was a place shrouded in mystery—not once did I see anyone enter or exit the place, and the windows were obscured by heavy curtains and outward facing mirrors. Whorehouse? Hardcore S&M? The name ‘Amadeus’ conjures little more than images of
Tom Hulce. Whatever it was, it’s gone. Welcome to the neighborhood Bar Motel!
TOULOUSE 2/24
I was the guest this weekend of the Baldini family, who celebrated 20 years of marriage with a fine party, held in the Espace Congrès where Mr. (Eric) Baldini works. In other words, they had a ready-made venue, and being a technician, Eric could supply absolutely pro sound and lights (there was a breathless moment where a loosely seated cable was preventing the reverb on the Fender Twin from functioning, but other than that, smooth sailing). Plus lots of local wine and for the most part he let my Itunes run rampant over the sound system. Later in the night I had to keep people dancing—so Francis Hime singing ‘Ave Maria’ was shelved…but I mostly got it right. I knew that the folks were getting drunk when they told me that “Can I Touch You There” by Leon Ware was hard to dance to—that was your legs getting less than solid, not the groove! But, no harm done. The Baldinis were extremely kind, and I wish them lots of joy.
Preceding that in the week was the closing on my purchase of a flat in Paris—which will be rented in the coming months (please, no enquiries here, no “dude, can I stay there, for like, a month?”). Dom & I celebrated the occasion with a dinner at
Lasserre, a fantastically old school Parisian restaurant in the 8eme. I paid the most I have ever paid for a salad, to be sure—but it was generously overlaid with slices of truffle, coating a bed of lightly oiled baby lettuce. I often thought of truffle as a “fifth flavor” like that created by chefs in Japan—it’s not bitter, salty, sour or sweet. It is truffle—and in fact is a taste in two parts, the after taste being a delightful experience altogether different from the initial munch.
Some releases of note: my remix (under the nom de guerre “Klay Kortz”) of Ian McGlynn’s song “You Might Understand” from his excellent album
Tomorrow's Taken is up on
his myspace. Also via myspace you can hear some songs I produced for Parisians Cheap Star. They made a couple of the songs I did plus a couple done with Jon Auer available as a CD that they sold on a recent tour of Spain…I bet you could get them to sell you one…but you might want to wait for the full length which is comprised of songs produced by either Jon or myself! As soon as Jon’s tracks are mixed it will be available…again, watch
their myspace for developments.
And,
Devilduck Records in Germany has released a compilation called
About Songs – volume 2 featuring tracks by Rogue Wave, Grandaddy, Calla, Jon Auer, Archive and more, and with liner notes (soon to be a thing of the past?) by yours truly.
Volume 1 of the series had “Known Diamond” on it.
Other than that, I had the great pleasure to see the Decemberists in Paris this week, Thursday being the last stop on their European tour. The band are great and do a fine switch-fu on the various instruments—and the night was concluded with a cover (full band duet with support band Lavender Diamond) of “Feel Like Makin’ Love” so put that in your bagpipe and blow on it. I caught up with drummer John Moen after the show, whom I have known for frighteningly close to 20 years—he was the drummer with the Dharma Bums, labelmates and friends and touring mates of the Posies. Our first show together was an outdoor show on the riverfront in their native Portland on September 11…1988.
Believe it or not I wrote this in the back of Parisian taxi on my way home from Orly.
I’ll be announcing a bunch of European tour dates this time next week!
Love
KS
Paris
