8.26.2007
I’M OUT TO SEA I’m on Ile de Re this week. Vacation. This place provides the ultimate recharge. The air is so clean it pulverizes you, in the face of its purity you can’t stand conscious, I’m nodding out by 10pm here, my body enveloped in a furious state of inventory and repair. When the sun comes out (IDR is less affected than Paris by the roving grey of Summer 2008, but affected nonetheless) it's like the end of a movie all the time…exaggerated sweetness, a kind of summative beauty, the credits are just about to roll and order has been restored to the cosmos. I ride my bike, rain or shine, into Ste. Marie every afternoon to check my email, taking some wifi that is floating around a little nook near a supermarket. I pass thru the fields (and, this week, thru clouds of flying ants that are all leaving their nests to establish new ones—I’m covered in them when I get to my next destination), thru the illogically bent roads of the village. The fields are busy with rabbits (in about a mile of road shoulder I counted 25 last night), pheasants (as sneaky as they are, these Chinese dragons just can’t look native)…at night I lay on the back patio and watch the rush hour of nesting birds (egrets, herons, seagulls, and tiny perching birds) insects (moths, dragonflies, June bugs) going one way and the night shift (bats, and sometimes, completely silent owls—tho I haven’t seen one this year). I don’t have net access at home, so I don’t know where my last blog left off. Monday we flew home from Oslo, Aden pretty much screaming the whole flight (she even managed to get her hand stuck in the undercarriage of the seat, and we had both flight attendants on the case!). That night the three of us had dinner with my friend Brian, who is the tour manager for Devendra Banhart. They had a night off in Paris, and he and I caught up (Brian’s from Seattle, and was an assistant on the REM tours). We didn’t have a sitter, and we were pretty burnt from the travel, so we went to bed pretty much after dinner (it was late anyway) and he went to meet up with some of the DB band somewhere in Montmartre. The next day I spent with Aden in Paris, I decided to stay in Paris and see the DB show at L’Europeen, a lovely small theatre in Pigalle—Dom and I saw An Pierle there, when Dom was hugely pregnant. However, the vibe changed, and not only were we unable to get a sitter, but there may or may not have been some shenanigans in Montmartre that night that may or may not have involved short stays in le clinque, which may or may not have ended right before showtime. We thought it best to stay home, and anyway, we sort of had no choice! In late August, everyone leaves town, and this includes our usual go-to list of babysitters. Le Motel, and 75% of the restaurants and bars in Paris, is closed. In fact, it’s unusual for a band to come thru town and play a show that’s not a festival, but DB is very popular in France, so he can get away with it. The end result was that we sms’d our regrets, and spent the night in with Aden, which in light of recent events in my life, is a very good thing. Plus, the next morning we weren’t too tired to get on the early train to La Rochelle (from La Rochelle you take a bus, taxi, or private car over the bridge to Ile de Re). Dom was staying in Paris to work, so it was Aden and I on our own for the 3-hour train ride, and we managed to have lots of fun. Mostly, she entertained me, with her drawings; she’s really pretty good and makes super weird little menageries of people and animals, like a 3-year-old Paul Klee. Since arriving, I’ve been resting at home #2 with Aden, her grandmother, and grandma’s b.f., this our normal retinue on IDR. I’ve been reading the complete Hate comics (published in 2 volumes by Fantagraphics), by my old neighbor and friend in Seattle, Peter Bagge. Haha I’ve been laughing my ass off seeing so many familiar faces, esp. Stinky * really * reminds me of Matt Posie (this is not a good thing, and I hope Matt meets a better end!). I watched Orson Welles’ “F for Fake”, the Criterion DVD of which has some great supplementary material, including “One Man Band”, the documentary/explanation of Orson’s last years, put together by his hot, adoring, Croatian long time companion, Oja Kodar (I’ve already written her name into a song). I’ve been doing aquagym when the weather sucks (yes, I am in a class with old ladies sometimes but if you actually do the exercises full on it’s really strenuous!)…I get there by bike, and on the first day one of my pedals came off…it’s always like that when you try and get it together. Somebody at the Thalasso spa fixed it for me, they’re good like that. When the weather is nice, like yesterday, we go to the beach, and swim in the freezing cold (talk about life-affirming—swim or die!) Atlantic, which I love to do…Aden is starting to get on the boogie board…she’s so determined…! Dom & I walk around the harbor in St. Martin at night, I have been trying to branch out in ice cream flavors (last night I had cactus flower with ginger). Generally tho I am so healthy—no alcohol, eating only local fish, fruit, and chevre—they make an incredibly good goat cheese on IDR, sometimes sprinkled with pepper and nutmeg (in French noix de muscade, in case you need to use that). Ice cream is my only indulgence, and it’s only when the sun is out and I’ve swum all afternoon anyway. We sit on the beach at night and gaze over the water to Ile d’Oleron, a strip of orange lights with a lighthouse at the seaward end, the moon going into soft focus as the long blade of a cloudy front sweeps across it, a massive glowing radar screen in slow-motion, picking up the signals that the night has ships, but all are in order and circling as directed. Off the shore you can see a massive pile of blocky lights, this is cargo barge that’s stuck on a sandbar offshore a couple of miles, which is simply being cut up and brought in piece by piece. Yesterday in St. Martin Dom, Aden & I ran into Dom’s former coworker at V2, Anabel—she was making music in the late 90s, I was rather a fan—and her b.f. Daniel D’Arc, who is really a big name in the French music scene. He’s covered with tribal tattoos; one of his arms is basically sleeved in black (D’ark!). IDR has long been the summer hideout for politicos—gov’t helicopters occasionally swoop over, delivering a minister to some interrupting task—but slowly, it’s being discovered by movie stars and musicians—Pitt and Jolie just bought a house on the mainland by La Rochelle…it’s so lovely, so less fucked up and ParisHiltonized than St. Tropez (like, nothing makes a place uncool more quickly than being adopted by P Diddy—talk about your canary for the coal mine of good taste), so tranquil and healing, and so exclusive…you can’t build here, effectively; there are only a handful of hotels, all booked years in advance; and you have to know about the good restaurants tucked away in the woods and coastal brush—no one will tell you. Neither will I, so don’t ask! Ile de Re highlights: 1) ice cream ‘caramel fleur de sel’ from the Martinier ice cream shop in St. Martin 2) tiny lizards scurrying off the back patio 3) white peaches, exploding with summer’s fecundity 4) exploring tide pools with Aden—showing her the sticky tentacles of anemones, tiny crabs, tiny shrimps, long slinky fish, hermit crabs with bright red antennae, chitons, limpets, ‘bigourneaux’, ‘bulots’, oysters… 5) speaking of which, ‘bulots cuit’. Large whelks, more or less smoked, but just tasting of sea animal; plus fresh oysters from the specialist in La Flotte; whole cooked crabs from les halles in St. Martin. Freshly caught bar, daurade, maigre, sardines… 6) the mixing of the black night sky, and the retreating blue and pink of sunset, with a few scant planets peeking thru…all mixing like the batter for an exotic celestial cake… 7) it’s been too cold and wet this year, and in fact I haven’t seen them for 3 years now, but in the early summer you can see glowworms along the walls; they seem to prefer a grassy spot next to a vertical rise. 8) silence. At night, on the beach, the waves barely lap; the cars have stopped moving, and you can be completely alone; somehow your slice of earth, bordered by the clouds and the sea, and the dunes behind, seems impossibly huge. 9) wearing flip flops everywhere, incl. the most expensive and elegant restaurants (I wear them even with €200 trousers and crisp white shirts with silk ties) and never shaving 10) the shaggy donkeys (picture an equine Chewbacca) ‘en culotte’ (wearing a kind of trousers in gingham). Aden goes for rides on them and sings “j’aime touts les ânes” (“I love all the donkeys”) for 20 minutes afterwards! 11) doing things with Aden. 12) getting away for a bit sans Aden, just Dom & I. 13) Aym’kebono, the house band for the whole island who play “a rencontre de la funk et du Reggae”. They have their own microbus painted in bright rasta colors. On now to the petit dej Love KS La Noue FRANCE
8.19.2007
 BEACON NO LONGER I flew back from Bratislava on Sunday and Monday I was on the early train (I mean *early*) to Liege, Belgium; where I was met and picked up to go to Waimes, which is an hour from Liege by car, so really out in farmland somewhere near the German border. I was brought there to work with Jul', a French band I did some work with last year. Essentially I was there do record some vocals, guitar and keyboards on new versions of the songs I did the same on last year. Then we worked at their own small studio, now they are on the Belgian label called Anorak Supersport and are re-recording the songs at a 'proper studio' (personally, I thought they were getting a great sound at their own place in Epinal, but hey!). Anyway, you should be able to hear the results in the first part of next year. In the meantime you can hear me singing with them on their myspace. I was pretty tired from my traveling and the Bratislava weekend and the early morning train so after Sergio from Anorak S. took me to the nearest building with wifi to check at few mails and then I crashed, totally, leaving the guys still working. I was up at 6 to get driven back to Liege for my train, and was back in Paris for lunch. And then Dom & I trained to La Rochelle and met her folks and Aden at the train station. I hadn't seen Aden in over 2 weeks--at least! and I was so happy to see her, give her presents, have her feed me some of the chocolates I gave her, and just generally act silly. We spent the days, just a couple of them mind you, enjoying being together. I did a bit of aquagym, as there's no pilates offered on the island and the weather wasn't nice enough to swim in the sea. I ate a ton of bulots, the large sea snails that are smoked and eaten everywhere in coastal France. And on Thursday, the three of us headed back to Paris. OSLO, 8/17 It's never that fun to get Aden up early, but we felt lucky that she was docile as we got her up at an hour long before she can actually function. And we lucked out slightly with the taxi we called--Parisian cabbies are totally insane. You call a cab, and they have the right to run the meter the minute they start heading to you, so you often get in with 8-10 Euros already on the meter. But, they are also greedy and impatient so if you're not right down when they arrive, they take off. And they can do this so quickly that you often are standing there waiting for them, thinking they have yet to arrive but in fact they left after two minutes of waiting. I hauled all our luggage downstairs and ran out to check and saw what had to be our cab pulling away. I waved at him, and he stopped. "Cab for Stringfellow?" "Oui". "OK, I get my bags and come right back" and the guy tried to take off again while I went and grabbed the bags! The moral of the story is--don't be such a greedy fuck, as by taking off he reset his meter and lost all his waiting time! Don't think I tipped. Orly wasn't very busy as most French people are already gone on vacation. Friday is a good day to leave town: the tourists don't leave on Fridays. So we had plenty of time to get to the gate. It was all fine, and even most of the flight was OK, but about an hour and fifteen minutes into it, Aden had a total meltdown, the special kind that only Aden can have--animal screaming, inconsolable, spitting like a rabid cornered raccoon. I have to admit the flight crew on Norwegian air were incredibly kind and did their best. But, in these moods, Aden is a creature that would give the Devil pause to approach. Aden did come around eventually, she almost lost it again when I helped her off an escalator (I saw she would have fallen and there were a bunch of people coming down behind her) and she had wanted to do it all by herself so I had to carry her up the stairs, wait until there was a significant pause in human traffic, and let her go down without me interfering (too much). we had lunch at OSL and took the Flytoget into the center. Then we hopped a cab and headed to the Tiger of Sweden boutique, who have been outfitting the Disciplines with wonderful stuff. Everything you see me wear onstage or in photos is ToS these days (with the band, anyway). Claus met us there and got me squared away, and we all walked over to the venue for tonight's show. It was fashion week in Oslo, and Sixty, the parent co. for the Miss Sixty brand and others, was launching their new showroom with a big party. We were the main entertainment! They had a real stage built in their courtyard. We hung our backdrop which looks dope, and Claus' bass drum now has the gothic 'a' that serves as a 'd' in our logo on it. And they hung a chandelier over us. Now, the original reason I was to be in Norway was that each year, my dad and his family vacation in the little village of Duken, part of Knarberg, outside Tonsberg (Lise from Briskeby is from here too). My stepmom is Norwegian and her parents ended up here when they retired (my stepmom's dad was a sea captain, so they lived all over the world, mostly Australia and New York). Her father passed away quite a few years ago, and her mom (who then outlived her second husband) passed away last year, in her 90s. I would always give her a call when I was in Norway. So, the family kept the little house and continue to visit each summer. I first came here in 1992, what was my first trip to Europe. I was coming to visit them with Dom & Aden--my dad hadn't seen Aden since she was just a few months old. So, when we received the offer to play this show, I cleared it with everyone, and anyway everyone wanted to see my new band (plus there was an open bar for the kiddies!). So, my dad, stepmom, their 3 kids (18, 19, 24), my stepmom's sister, and assorted family friends and cousins all came to the gig! It was kind of amazing to have my dad & co, Dom & Aden, my Norwegian friends, my band, etc. all intersecting. great! The show was pretty outrageous--I had a lot of things pent-up in me that needed releasing. I fell flat on my ass at one point and crawled in the mud like a snake. I spit on some journalists (which they seemed to enjoy) attacked the bar, stole a hat. Etc.! Everybody loved it. I always have the feeling after a Disciplines show, as tired as I am, that I just want to do another one. But, there was no time! We had a train to catch. We got on the 11.44 train to Tonsberg, which takes about an hour and a half (and you have to be careful as Tonsberg is not the last stop, so you have to be alert and get your stuff off in like 2 minutes). Then there was a taxi SNAFU so we were left in the cold for a bit but eventually made it to the house, and calmed Aden down (you really don't want to wake her up in the middle of a sleep; it's a frightening experience). Saturday we all went out to the Fulehuk Lighthouse (pictured above). Yep, we walked down to the Knarberg harbor, and boarded a very slow water taxi which took us to a barren rock in the Oslo fjord, upon which there has been a lighthouse for almost 200 years. It's been replaced by an unmanned beacon out in the water, but the structure is completely intact. One of my stepmom's cousins, the jovial and kind Thørvald, is helping renovate it and make it a kind of retreat/b&b. Now, when I say barren rock, I mean barren rock. The wind screams by and whips foam over the surface. The water itself is punctuated with massive creamsicle-colored jellyfish, bigger than basketballs in some cases. It was treacherous getting on and off the boats that took us there and back (with Aden and a stroller!)--there are days when boats can't approach at all, the seas are so choppy. But, quite a few folks where out there for the afternoon (I should mention that the islet the lighthouse sits on is barely bigger than the lighthouse itself). It was a kind of christening of the place in its new guise, and there was a mayor (of Knarberg? of Tonsberg? it was never explained) and a guy in a toll collector's uniform (I guess all the admirals were busy) and about 40-50 folks, including some kids and a way--too-frisky Irish setter (that Aden followed everywhere). We each were given a commemorative mug (and a piece of tape to write your name on it)--not to keep of course! Norwegians are very frugal, and you would never give away a mug that could be used in the future! But they did feed us, with fresh seafood from Roar i Bua in Tonsberg. They make the best gravlax I've had yet, aged in brandy, it is sweet and delicate. There were millions of lovely shrimp, and huge crab claws (you whack it with a spoon and go to work). Everything was fresher than market fresh, and high quality. Worth freezing your ass off on an isolated rock for 5 hours for! I was told that the Viking folk used to come to this rock to do 'rituals'. Probably they assumed the place was so fucking lonely and inaccessible that God would never be looking down on their dirty deeds in that place. And they were probably right. The drama of the day was NOT Aden getting bitten by the peeved dog, as worried us all day, but a guy got his finger caught in a moving rope when one of the boats was trying to pull up and lost a big chunk of it. I didn't see it (Dom, Aden & I were up in the kitchen stealing the carrot cake that had yet to be served!) but there was some blood for sure and lots of panic. Like, by the time the news went upstairs the guy had been squished between the boat and the island and was for sure dead. This happened twenty yards away. Think about that the next time somebody whispers gossip in your ear. Today we went to downtown Tonsberg to have MORE gravlax at Roar i Bua, and to have coffee and cakes at Nøtterø Bakerei (another cousin!), and generally veg out. My dad smuggled some Costco sides of beef into the country and some wine and the BBQ, it shall ensue, even under the grey Norwegian skies. ToS gave me a beautiful winter coat, I look like a Scandinavian rock star now, my dad keeps giving me shit cuz I won't take it off. It is, however, freezing today and the coat is lovely and warm... Love KS Nøtterøy, NORWAY.
8.11.2007
THE LOW LOWS Well, I certainly was a smug little bastid wasn't I? I got home Monday morning, and went, on only the sleep I caught on the flight, straight to the studio and did rough mixes for Mateo for 2 hours. Calm before the storm. Tuesday morning not so good Al. Let's have the good news first: 1. the Disciplines' single 'Best Mistake' is NUMBER ONE on Kanal 24, one of Norway's biggest commercial radios. Number fucking one! 2. I finally got my hands on the album by Athens GA based band Producto that I worked on last year. I produced 4 of the songs, and they sound really good! I started to wonder if they used my rough mixes as the final mixes...wouldn't be the first time! Go to their website for more info or to myspace.com/productoBRATISLAVA, 8/11 the circumstances of my arrival (flight was an hour late), or more precisely the vibe, were totally overwhelmed by this week's drama at home. I can't really talk about this here. Suffice to say that in the last week I have been to the shrinks (I have two!) 3 times, I went to an AA meeting, and I spent a lot of time curled up in a ball knowing nothing was going away until I faced it. Recently I quit drinking completely, and I have left drugs far behind. On my way to a better view, more clarity, PLEASE. Let's just say that anything unresolved or ambivalent in my life isn't going to be allowed to stay that way, and I have to really tackle all the big issues right now. Or I will probably find myself very lost and confused. When I arrived to Bratislava's tiny airport, I met Cubby, the promoter, and after dropping my stuff at the hotel we went to a diner and I unloaded over green tea. Talking and walking with her made me feel a lot better. Plus I could talk at length with Dom which I really needed to survive this dark night of the soul. Dark week, dark month. J'ai peur. Today Cubby took me to brunch, to her favorite cafe, which was being turned into a movie set that afternoon. But it was still operational so we had food and coffee and then spent some time exploring Devin Castle not to be confused with the castle that sits overlooking Bratislava itself, Devin is a short drive out of town, and has incredible views of the surrounding land, you can see far into Austria and to the Czech Republic. We went to the top and watched the coal barges and hydrofoils on the Danube, and saw the tiny fishermen below us (we were about 600 feet high!) putting lines in the Morava. I'm so tired now! As the show was about 3 hours long, it was actually a bit more! The crowd wouldn't let me go, and I was so into it after my hard week. I played tons of stuff, and was strangely calm--I didn't get discouraged when a bad cable made the piano during my opening song, "Known Diamond", all distorted. I was funny, and a bit sad--and I actually spoke completely openly about my problems. What goes down in Slovakia, stays in Slovakia. Highlights included an impromptu piano version of "Stayin' Alive"; me running after a girl--who was telling her mom to keep waiting for her in the car a little longer--while still playing acoustic guitar and singing; the first-ever public performance of a Disciplines' song called "Shadow of Your Doubt". I played 3 new songs. Lots of covers. People were so into it! I really have to commend their patience. Bratislavans are good peeps! Cubby and I had dinner in a courtyard terrace, with DJ spinning--78s! of old-timey swing and popular song/folk from Czechoslovakia. I didn't know they still made turntables with the 78 speed. These were brand new looking turntables, and they did the business with the old scratchies. OK, that's it, I have to go to bed. Really! Love KS Bratislava SLOVAKIA
8.06.2007
DOWN ON THE FIRM GROUND Most of the week my labor at Studio Question de Son continued; studio days are kind of a myth, really when you work in the studio it’s like one long day punctuated by meals and sleep. We had a lot to accomplish, and I think we did some high quality work. When I was making rough mixes I was really pleased with the drum sounds etc. that I got—for most of the tracks, I selected and placed the mics and the input chain (EQ, compression) and set all the levels—Fred plugged in the cables. For the most pop song on the album, I had Fred totally dial me up some sounds as he would do them, like I wanted to see how he got a good drum sound in their tiny room. And, for sure, Fred is quicker, he’s been to school and has loads of experience working in top studios, and he got wonderful sounds—but in the end I felt the sounds I got were holding their own, more than that, I felt I got some beautiful, unique, but carefully crafted sounds. The last night, as I mentioned I was working on rough mixes until about 3am, then Mateo called me a cab (Mateo gave everyone gifts for their hard work, which was super nice—he gave me a copy of Serge Gainsbourg’s “Histoire de Melodie Nelson” album which is a weird masterpiece, and one of the only classic SG albums I didn’t have already! You have to check out this record, it’s essentially one long piece broken in to half a dozen movements…and it’s so off the cuff, stuff is out of time, the mix is insane, but where they threw in abrupt chunks of orchestra and choir, the effect is so intense…really special! He also gave me a picture book on Madagascar, which is where his g.f.’s family is from, and in the course of the week I got to know both of them much better! I have been talking about organizing a show there sometime with Randianne, his lovely lady!) and I loaded up all my stuff and went home—I was up early to go to a new shrink (trust me, I need it) and then to a phone interview for a Norwegian national daily newspaper (more on that later) and then go to Pilates, then do a few errands and it was time to go the airport. Orly was so busy that evening, lines snaking up and down, doubling themselves over, including for Norwegian Air. Eventually I checked in and then I had to take my bass to special handling, and as I was waiting there, they cleared the area due to some kind of bomb scare, prob. some abandoned luggage. I really barely made the flight, as I had to wait til the all clear to check my bass and then run up to security. Luckily the gate was right by security and I boarded. My luggage took forever to come off the belt (as did all the luggage for that flight) and I finally got to Claus’ around midnight, I guess. Claus & I had more to catch up on than we could fit in that drive home! When we got home we were both tired and had to get up early so it was bed time. Jon Auer had my usual room, so I was on the couch. Fine by me! HALDEN, 8/3 Claus & I got up early and dropped by the Tiger of Sweden offices to get some new clothes. Then back to Claus’ and where our driver was waiting to take Jon & I to the Down on the Farm festival. We picked up Bjorn from the Disciplines, who was out guitar tech for the weekend, at the Disciplines’ rehearsal spot. I was using Bjorn’s telecaster, and Jon had to borrow tonnes of stuff as his luggage didn’t show up (he’s going home today and I’m * still * not sure his suitcase came). Then we were off. We got to Halden, a little town with a paper mill on the Swedish side of the Oslo fjord. Evidently Halden had a good music scene in the 80s, anyway, an American musician moved to the area then, and started a barbecue with live music that has now blossomed into an eclectic, boutique festival with a focus on rootsy Americana-style music. Emmylou has played there, Son Volt…in the last 2 years more rock & roll has crept in (the Flaming Lips headlined this year) but still there was a decidedly noncommercial vibe to the lineup which was wonderful. So for this acoustic Posies set, which was 30 minutes, we were well paid, had our own little catered tent backstage, and got to hang with all the bands, which is the big bonus of playing festivals. Playing with Jon was totally natural, and tho I sang really hard (“Fucking Liar” was really good! And “Solar Sister” too) I was also very relaxed. People really responded, too. After we were done, life was easy, I was glad to see Jon & Bjorn bonding, like, bringing two separate parts of my life together in a nice way (of course, Briskeby supported the Posies in Copenhagen in 2005 so they met then, but there was lots of hang time this weekend). I spent a little time hanging with Grant Lee Philips, and watched his set (I know Grant from sharing several festival bills in the 90s plus I auditioned to be their keyboard player in the late 90s—my nerves prob. cost me the gig, which, had I landed it, would have prob. cost me the REM gig as I would have been already committed to something—so, it worked out for the best, but Grant is always a lovely guy to run into). I was so burnt out from my studio week that by then I just wanted to go back to my room and burn up some internet minutes! The festival folks really wanted me to join the campfire hootenanny that night, but I just couldn’t go there. We went back to the hotel and in the lobby I ran into Robyn Hitchcock and his lovely Michelle, and John Paul Jones and his wife Mo. I know Robyn and Michelle well, and had met JPJ one night over drinks at the Milestone Hotel, with Mike Mills. They were on their way out to hang at the hootenanny, but I just couldn’t bear it, and made sure to let them know I was in on tomorrow’s action—whether they needed me or not!! Ah, yes, that day I had lunch at the only place within walking distance with an open restaurant, a mall down the hill from the hotel. I picked up the copy of the Dagsavisen, one of Norway’s main national daily newspapers, and was shocked to find my interview was a full blown, two-page article with a HUGE photo and some smaller ones, detailing my involvement with Big Star, and giving a brief history of Alex and the band, plus liberally describing the Posies, the Disciplines, and many other facts of my life. It was so big I got kinda scared!! I saw an owl on a telephone wire as we drove away from the festival… Prank: Brian Ferry was tonight’s headliner. I love (and went to see the reunion tour a few years back in NY) Roxy Music but Brian on his own was not enough to make me want to delay my visit to the hotel but I watched his valet iron Brian’s clothes for like an hour (well, I didn’t watch this for an hour, but I couldn’t help observe he was still working away every time I came back to Grant’s tent, so it may have been even longer than an hour). Next to Brian’s tents there was a portapotty, which on Saturday was for all the performers but on Friday there was a sign taped to the seat: "RESERVED FOR B. FERRY". Bjorn and I couldn't let that, uh..SIT there...hehehe...so we took sharpie in hand and the best we could come up with was to write "Avalon...g nice poo!" I thought that was hilarious. HALDEN, 3/4 I had breakfast with Jody at the hotel buffet, then went back to bed. And, as it’s the only game in town, I had lunch at the mall…again! In the late afternoon we were picked up and driven to the festival—I was a bit nervous as I really wanted to see Beasts of Bourbon (I’ve been a fan since Kim Warnick brought home a copy of “Black Milk” when it arrived as a promo to Sub Pop) so our 4.30 pick up time was cutting a bit close, plus we were about 10 minutes late—then Jody showed up, having been held up by two really long restaurant waits; then Jody forgot his passes and we had to turn around and go back just as we were leaving Halden! The festival is on an actual farm about 20-25 minutes from Halden. There’s a field next to a barn and that’s where the action is. Bands play in the barn (country, bluegrass and OMFUG) and there’s a big mainstage (if the rigging of the stage fell forward like a domino it would probably squish the whole audience) and I think a tent, and then, a few minutes walk down a path into a glade past the barn, is a tiny stage in a clearing, the campfire stage. They put up some great lighting—including bright red lights that project out behind the stage—lighting up a vast wheat field that’s behind the stage. It’s a great effect: you’re not accustomed to seeing artificial colored light shot out over the top of a wheat field, and your mind has difficulty arranging the scene in the proper perspective, so by turns it looks smaller, larger, or more two-dimensional than it would in the day. Wonderful. Meanwhile, we showed up and I saw about half the BoB set, which rocked! They were slamming! I was really into it… After that, Jody & I had a hilarious interview with NRK, Norway’s national TV; Claus and Nanna arrived; I bonded with Tex from the Beasts of Bourbon (by the end of the night I was helping their bass player, Brian, navigate as he is not only messed up by a serious back injury, he had been subjected to a serious beer injury by the late night!) and found out that Steve Wynn and Linda Pitmon were appearing, with Danny and Dusty. I am a Steve fan, for sure, and he and Linda are just about the nicest people ever. Linda ROCKS she is such a monster on drums. BTW Steve’s album "Melting in the Dark", from 1996, which is him backed by the band Come, is one of my faves. You can read about Steve at his website, it's full o' facts. Big Star: it was very cute that Cliff from the Flaming Lips was very sweet and shy and a bit nervous about getting a photo with Alex, which he got! Alex was happy Alex at this show, which is of course my favorite Alex, we made some ridiculous jokes onstage (Alex: “consistency is the hobgoblin of the small mind”. Ken: “Then we’ve been invaded by Goblins”. Alex: “Hobgoblins”. Ken: “I’m pretty sure they were whole ones, Alex”. I fucked up some bits (like getting out of the solo in Feel) but I just didn’t care…I was having such a good time…I saw Kenneth from Beezewax in the audience…and at one point I just started to laugh…I love playing these songs so much…I just couldn’t believe my good fortune that I play in one of my all time favorite bands, the novelty never wears off! After our set, it was all about hanging with Jon & my bandmates, and flitting amongst the different musicians. And then the “night got deadly quiet” as another Kenny might say, but not for long—first the Flaming Lips exploded in fluorescent orange and a shade of blue described only as ‘peculiar’ in the textbooks…wonderful. Then, after seeing the wobbly Beasts of Bourbon off to their van, I trudged to the campfire stage and found Robyn and John Paul Jones in progress. I did some hanging out, you know…at the ready style. Then, Chip Taylor (author of “Wild Thing”—er, not the Tone Loc one, “Angel of the Morning” and many other hits) took over for a bit, but soon her summoned Robyn onstage, who invited me to come along—I hesistated, and JPJ encouraged; nay, insisted! (flashback to JPJ playing my bass backstage and offering compliments on my tone—he really * is * a nice person) so soon I found myself on a TWIN LEAD HARMONICA jam with Robyn, on, of course “Wild Thing”…Chip even had us do a kind of solo...it was marvelous it sounded like an accordion dangling from a ceiling fan, with car horns and the occasional EEG machine beep. It was * that * good. We stayed up for another song (I think I took another solo…or two) and then Robyn, JPJ, Jackie Leven and myself did a nice set of impromptu covers—I think the best bit was “Dear Prudence” which Robyn dedicated to his love Michelle, who had just entered her birthday day—I played bass, Robyn sang and played acoustic, Jackie stomped a kick beat and played really cool open tuning guitar, and JPJ on mandolin. I have to say that the way the night turned out it was really what I wanted to have happen, I love playing with Robyn and of course having John Paul Jones along is really…well, as much as he is very much a humble and friendly guy he’s also someone who is very talented and has lived an extraordinary life in music, and uh…hey, look at Ken ramble on. Shut up Ken. Just say ‘that was fun’. It was! We got back to the hotel at like 4.30 or so and I was a very happy man, I had made lots of friends, and played some great music, and got to line my pocket with a few hundred bucks. Before we all went to our respective rooms, it was determined that Steve Wynn and co. and myself all had the same pickup time. I felt like even * more * like Posh Spice (thanks, Claus, for noticing my weight loss and Prada shades) when everybody assembled in the parking lot of the hotel by a shuttle bus and there was a lone black Mercedes with a guy holding a ‘Stringfellow’ sign. I’ll never live that one down! I got dropped off at the Oslo Sentral Station, where I knew I could get a café and wifi. Later, the Disciplines came to pick me up—Claus does drive a BMW 4x4 thingy but that wasn’t posh enough—plus I figured I’d leave that with 4 people on board. Er. We had lunch and then went to rehearse—we wrote a really cool new song, and worked on another one! We’ll play one of them at our next show—in Oslo next week. We did some more work on our existing material, recorded the new demos really rough, one mic (with our luck, that will be on NRK tomorrow, they seem to like our practice place jams!). We had dinner at a new restaurant in the same complex as our rehearsal place, which is a godsend…ah, I just remembered a funny joke I made in the van coming back from the festival on Friday—we were talking about (Mira’s favorite Scandinavian band, even more then the Disciplines) Surferosa, and Bjorn was saying how they were considered like the ‘bad little sister’ of Briskeby when they came out. And I immediately shot out: “ah, so they were like the Surferolling Stones to your Briskebeatles?” Stunned silence is its own reward!! After the rehearsal we had a meeting with a friend who is a kind of entrepreneur, marketing genius etc. about strategies for Disciplines land. Now, I did this whole day on like 3 hours sleep as I was up at about 8 this morning. And now as I write I’m in the back of another Mercedes (my taxi to the airport—normally I would walk up to the metro stop by Claus’, that takes me to the airport train, but at 5 am, which it is now, I just went for the pickup at Claus’. The metro isn’t running yet. So I didn’t sleep at all, I worked on this blog and watched the film 'Zodiac'. Long! Highlight of the week: all of it. Love KS On the way to Oslo airport.
 |
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!!!
older news :
8/3/2003
|
