Ken Stringfellow dot calm

10.27.2007

CAMPBELL, 10/21

Scott Miller picked me up at the hotel, and drove me to San Mateo, where he lives now...we played blazing tennis in the almost blazing sun, and had a great time--and afterwards, I cleaned up at the Millers' place, and Scott and Kristine drove me and my wares to Campbell, a small (but surely growing) community in the nighborhood of San Jose. My cousin lived there for a number of years, so I've spent quite a bit of time hanging there...it's more or less a part of Silicon Valley now, but it's still kind of sleepy. We passed the garish McMansion-style HQ of NetFlix on the way.

The Padilla Party is a time-honored tradition; Jon & I first played there in 2001. Basically, it's a Sunday barbecue in a small townhouse (with very tolerant neighbors--one couple is elderly and hard of hearing, which helps) with live music. the furniture goes out, and mayhem usually ensues. The 2001 affair ended with John, uh, sort of reliving his dinner as Jon & I headed out the door to play a second show that night in SF. I played it solo in 2004 (and ended up in a jam that included electronic drums!)...Jon's played it solo, and I think Jon & I played it in 2002 or 3; he's also had Jill Sobule with John Doe, Pat Dinizio from the Smithereens; and a band featuring the drummer from Journey!!

Scott and my second set went into a tiebreaker, so i was a little late for the planned start time of 4.30. It didn't seem to matter at all, people were just digging into the barbecue (perfect timing for me, I needed to refuel after being in the direct sun running around). I opened a bottle of T-Vine Zinfandel and noshed and socialized. At last, Jon & I set up, and I think we must have played for like 2 hours. The sun went down...the people got scared...we started out playing it straight, but since a Padilla Party should, in my estimation, involve a little craziness, we started changing the words, referencing the possibility of John's cockatiels being in the chili, and inserting the word 'Padilla' into as many songs as possible. "Wasted away again in John Padilla-ville" was my big number for the night. A drummer joined us on the cocktail drum set that was behind us, and we did a version of 'Flood of Sunshine' as if we were Apollo Sunshine for like 40 minutes. I sort of felt like we should end on a musical note, so we did "You Avoid Parties" but the drummer kept on playing, so it was a first ever version with drum accompaniment.

As soon as the show was over, I went to bed. Like, immediately. I ended up waking up at 3am and working online til it was time to go to the airport.

I spent one night at home.

Wednesday Dom & I flew to Barcelona and met up with the various Posies. I had checked my email just before going to bed Tuesday night and found a message from Matt saying he had missed his flight--because the airline had entered his name as "Matt Zeekharris"--they had glued his middle name to his last, and thus, were unable to find him when he presented his ID. Still looking for his record, his flight left. The Expedia number we had on file was a dead end as well (the reservation name change, accidental as it was, had killed his legit reservation). Finally they found him, somehow, took the blame for the error, and got him rebooked. He only ended up getting into Barcelona a little later than planned. Dom & I were an hour late ourselves, our plane was short some crew members and we had to wait for them to get to Orly, stuck in a traffic jam.

Anyway, we checked into the hotel and we all met up...and that night, Matt, Darius, Darius' g.f. Christine, Dom & I had dinner at the Arola Restaurant...I felt like a family member there, everyone treated us so well. In fact...Dani, the sommelier treated us so well, I could hardly walk afterwards...I hadn't been drinking much and the great selections were too good to resist, so I was a total mess by the end of the night...I sorta don't remember getting home...evidently I was cheerful tho!

BARCELONA 10/25

First order of business was to walk to Scanner FM, where Jon & I were interviewed. They are always so thorough there, they always bring up funny stuff and ask interesting questions. I had been promising them a podcast forever, and I hadn't had time to do it at home, so I actually gave them the songs straight off my Itunes and cut the intros and outros in their production studio...guerilla indeed!

Our hotel and the club, Sidecar (where I played in 2004 solo) are on the Plaça Reial, the site of many a knock-down drag out evening, especially in the bar Karma (where we managed to lose Joseph Arthur one night). Sidecar's 25th anniversary shows, taking place all of October and November are incredible--the place holds 250 people and they have been bringing bands like the New York Dolls, the Undertones(!) etc. for shows. And us...

We hadn't been in the same room since September of 2006, and I had been pretty rusty on a couple of songs at the Padilla Party. However, we fell into playing together so well, it was a tremendous relief--it didn't take hours and hours of rehearsal for us to sound confident and...well...better than just competent. Lasse from Lemonator (Helsinki's beloved pop band) was in town, had already booked his travel to Spain and back to Finland before finding out about the show...well, we'll see him soon enough...but, he stayed to watch the soundcheck. Also, the Cosmopolitants (upon whose gear we were playing) and my friends Nacho, and Gemma were all there to hear the soundcheck, and I felt no hesitation to play in front of them.

After the soundcheck, I had dinner with Dom, Gemma, and our booking agent James. And suddenly it was time for me to join the Cosmopolitants on stage, I provided a guitar part that I played on the record...and also, just as quick, we were on. And I mean, ON. I knew my neck would regret it, but I exploded and threw myself into it. But, you know, it felt so good. How many Posies shows in Spain have we (I) played way to the left of inebriated, or in a state of detente between the various members...well...on the Posies v.2007, I feel like we're communicating better than ever, and the shows are benefiting immensely. All the fire and intensity is there, but, we're playing more musically. Everything was lining up correctly...it was impossible to make a mistake. After the show, (I should mention a great audience helps) Dom was grinning so widely I thought she was on drugs! And the band was enjoying each other's company enough that we were backstage having a glass of wine long after show was over, just joking and chatting.

SANTOñA, 10/26

Oh, my lord, did I hurt the next morning. But, I had expected it to be worse. Just a sore neck. Dom caught her flight early, I was devastated to have her leave so soon. Our van, and our driver Aritz, pulled up at the appointed hour of ten, and we loaded up our guitars etc. (they had spent the night backstage at Sidecar). I had to work up an invoice before we could bail, so the finances were all in order. Matt was in a cheerful mood (had he slept? doubtful) and had bought a bunch of fruit, meat, cheese, bread and basil at the local market...off we went. Across most of Spain.

Santoña is a lovely little fishing town on the north coast of Spain...I think it's the main place for anchovy fishing in Spain. To get to it you drive on a causeway across a massive lagoon, which is a national park/wildlife refuge. It's pretty small, not even 12,000 people, although apparently the population in summer is significantly larger. I know this because our hotel was on the beach, and was part of a huge parallel community of vacation homes and hotels, virtually empty when we searched for the hotel after soundcheck. In fact, we were the only guests in the hotel, except for the support band, and they hadn't bothered to turn the heat on in the building. Darius was already feverish from the travel and sweat. It was lovely to have the beach to myself the next morning. A moody gray morning, huge breakers unraveling on a virgin beach about 2 miles long. I could see a couple of black dots about 200 yards away--surfers.

Ah, the show? Well, we were tired. So we played it kind of safe--a slightly shorter set than usual. Not so many fast songs. Still, I think we played with plenty of soul, and probably rocked harder than many a band. There was a super insane bit where Solar Sister devolved into "What A Fool Believes"...uh. Yeah. We had a decent crowd considering the town was much smaller than about 75% of the REM shows I've played over the years...

Before the show we enjoyed a gift from Dani at Arola, a bottle of Celler de Capcanes Pansal del Calas from 2000, a sweet concoction made from old vines Grenache.

After the show, we loaded up and went back to our freezing hotel...I went straight to bed. In the morning, I went for a walk on the beach...looking down from our balcony, at cinder block houses, palm trees, and lush green vegetation, I felt like I could have as easily been in Laos as Cantabria. The intense gray sky was hardly threatening, even with monstrous waves rolling underneath. It just seemed...exotic and beautiful.

Soon it was time to go. We started to put our luggage in the van, and Jon noticed one of his guitars wasn't in the van. Now, I had done a thorough sweep of the club, so I knew it hadn't been in there when we left. We asked the opening band if it had migrated into their stuff. No. We drove into town to check at the club, even tho' we knew no one would be there at 10am. We couldn't get close to the club as a market had taken over the surrounding streets. Jon stopped in a cafe on the corner and asked if anybody had seen...and pretty soon they were bringing his guitar out of the back room. It had spent the night on the steps of the club, and when the owners of the cafe came to get ready to open at 5am, they picked it up and brought it in. I love small towns! In Paris it would have probably been stolen before our soundcheck was done!

TARRAGONA 10/27

Basically, in the grand tradition of Spanish tours, we drove back the same way and same amount we had covered the day before--Tarragona is less than 50 miles from Barcelona--and guessed what we passed early in our drive today? Logroño, where we're playing tomorrow! The vines of Rioja, surrounding us on our drive today, were burning in autumnal crimson, so very striking...but they are so ubiquitous, it sort of reminded me of the 'red weed' in the War of the Worlds...not the image I want to hold alongside my beloved red beverage.

We made good time to Tarragona, and pulled up to a completely shuttered club. A couple of guys were leaning up against a wall out front. In fact, they were the guys organizing the show. The show being one of quite a few put together for the In-Somni Festival, an underground music festival that takes place in different venues and in different towns in Catalonia. Originally the show was to have been outdoors in a park, but a stretch of bad weather had spooked the promoters to move everything into some clubs. Of course, today, it was a gorgeous day, hot even, as we crossed the Monegros region of Aragon. However, I think we benefited from the move. It didn't look like much, but in fact the sound at Sala Zero was incredible, and it made our show that much more powerful. The audience had to crowd in around the architecture of the different bars and posts and things, and so, we had the opportunity to get right in everyone's proximity and deliver the goods point-blank. It really worked, and we had recovered enough strength to get up to the level of Barcelona, almost (poor Darius is still hurting). I saw at least 3 people singing along with "Terrorized", so that means real fans were in the house. And this helps...

For once I was in bed, writing this blog, when Daylight Savings Time came to an end. Typically in Spain we'd be just getting into our festivities at that hour. I am very happy with my choice. And I'm going to capitalize on it now!

Love
KS
Tarragona, SPAIN

10.23.2007

The new album by Luis Francesco Arena, Porcelain Tandem, on Fiat Lux Records, has a bonus disc which features a cover of my song "the Lover's Hymn", as heard on the split 7" vinyl we released earlier this year. I play keyboards and bass on the track as well. I believe the album is officially coming out in January, but you might be able to preorder it on the Fiat Lux website...and you can still order the split 7" we did, where I cover his song "Waterlilies and Creatures". Despite his Iberian-sounding pseudo, Luis is French, lives in Tours (hometown of Dominique) and sings in English, although there is a song in French on the bonus CD.

Love
KS
Paris

10.21.2007

Monday morning I was up at 6, and walking down to Gare de Lyon at 7. It was still dark and the streets were much less than busy. At my local supermarché, Monoprix, there was a guy unloading pallets from a refrigerated truck. As he manipulated his handtruck up on the high deck of the truck, thick white mist/fog rolled out of the bay around him. I was reminded of the Tsukiji fish market, and other early riser activities involving hard working people and ice, and I felt like I had this beautiful little scene all to myself.

I arrived to Gare de Lyon, found the quai my train was on, and met up with the Cali team. We were heading to Carpentras by way of Avignon, to oversee the recording of a string quintet on Cali's new album. The sessions are being produced by Scott Colburn, who mixed several of the songs on "Soft Commands", and also has been one of the main in-house engineers for live sessions at KEXP in Seattle since 2001, thus he engineered my live session there in 2004, as well as dozens of others. Scott recommended me as string arranger for the album, and lo and behold, just a week or so before this session became a reality, I got the call! So, as I mentioned in my last blog, I spent a few furious days composing the parts at home and got the sheet music prepared just in time for my departure.

I spent the train ride down getting to know the players in the quintet, who were musicians the A&R from the label had found. We arrived in Avignon in the late morning, and were met at the train station by several members of the staff of Studio Vega, and we were driven to the studio in a fleet of cars--5 musicians, me, plus several members of the Virgin records staff who were coming to hear the tracks. The studio is a fantastic residential studio in the countryside of Provence, and boasts among its impressive list of equipment, the vintage EMI TG Mk. Q desk from Pathé-Marconi studios in Paris, similar to the type of desk that was used in Abbey Road, more or less. This particular desk has seen a number of classic Rolling Stones tracks recorded on it, from the sprawling sessions that gave birth to the albums "Some Girls", "Emotional Rescue", and "Tattoo You".

I was introduced to Cali, and the studio staff, and as the label team listened to the tracks in progress, I printed out the sheet music. It was great to see Scott again, and his lovely wife J. Then it was lunch time (the studio has a chef, Patrique, who is marvellous), and we all ate outdoors in the cool sunshine of the Cote D'Azur autumn. The first activity we pursued was a group vocal on one of the songs, with me, some of the string players, and some of the staff from Virgin all singing along with a refrain. Eventually we set up for the strings, and tried a few passes of one of the songs. We soon decided to set up the quintet in a less reflective part of the studio, to get a, shall we say, less reverberant sound. Then we started to cut the pieces. In general, the parts I wrote sounded quite good--but, not having really written for strings before, some of the parts were difficult to play. But these were really good players, and they were able to pull it off, with all the nuances I suggested! Cali and Scott liked the parts, too; there was just one section of one song (of the three I orchestrated) that didn't seem to fit. Anyway, it was pretty soon time to have dinner, and after dinner, we didn't really work. Cali and I stayed up til the wee hours drinking wine from a box, and talking about our respective histories, musical and otherwise. He is a Posies fan from way back in the day, and a really nice, humble person. He sort of kicked around in bands for about a decade before hitting the success he has found as a solo artist, so he was able to engage his popularity with some maturity and perspective.

The next day, soothed by some headache powder, I got back to work. We worked on the other songs, and did some doubling/tripling of the parts. We worked on a fourth song that I didn't orchestrate, but it wasn't quite working so that was abandoned in favor of making sure the three songs I worked on were OK and we could say that all was complete before putting the players on a train back to Paris that night. After dinner that night Scott, Cali and I shared YouTube moments--we watched some of his stuff, some old Posies stuff (somehow the very rocking vid of me in my underwear in Madrid has disappeared), the Disciplines stuff (I think I have to edit this down, as some of the stuff is old, and kind of not super exciting), and footage of Scott's band Wizard Prison. And of course, the Russian robot body builder!

The next morning I was up early and Manfred, the owner of the studio, drove me to the train. By midday I was back in Paris having lunch with Dom. I spent the evening playing tennis with my long time tennis partner Remi (first time in months, on a beautiful crisp autumn night) and that night Dom, Aden & I met friends from the states, Ed from Urge Overkill, his wife Beth who used to manage the band, and their son Soren, age 4, for dinner. They were checking out Paris for a week or so. Aden and Soren fell in love right away! Evidently they all were at our flat the other day and when Aden kissed him goodbye she said "we're married now!".

Thursday I was back in the studio with Mateo, there were some hastily recorded horn parts on one song that were out of tune and out of time, and I edited them for like *seven hours*. Ouch! Sounds good now, tho'! It was a gorgeous day, and as I walked to the studio, I was loving the peacefulness of Paris, stilled by the transportation workers' strike. Many people had decided to not go to work--like Dom, for example. She could have made it to the office, but...it was more difficult to know if the metro or bus would be running, or there could be 20-30 minutes between connections, so a 40 minute commute could turn into 2 hours; taxis of course were all busy, so no guarantees you could find one free; Velib was sold out; and of course, once you got to the office, what was there to do? Whoever you might be calling was probably in the same situation and had not bothered to come in, and meetings were just about impossible. So everybody pretty much stayed home, so walking around you had the illusion that Paris was largely empty. I love Paris in these moments, like in August when it really is empty.

I got back from the studio that night at about 10.30, and still had to pack for the states. My suitcase was up in the attic, which has no light, and I couldn't be bothered to creep around up there in the dust and pigeon shit in the pitch black, even with the mighty roar of Aden's Glowin' Lion Flashlight at my side. So I emptied one of the numerous suitcases with to be sold/donated baby clothes in the flat, and packed and went to bed to get an hour or two of sleep.

Friday I was up at 5.30 and the shuttle picked me up at 6.40. Long boring flight to New York; easy and friendly customs clearance (JFK is my favorite port of entry to the US). In the airport I picked up a magazine called Good, a magazine about activism, progressivism, altruism, high art, high and lo tech...it's marvelous. Subscriptions are matched by a donation to charity of your choice. The writing covers a fascinatingly diverse set of subjects. Highly recommended!

My flight from JFK took off a bit late and I arrived to SFO at about 7pm. My friend Tanya picked me up. Tanya is a masseuse, I've been getting work done by her everytime I'm in the Bay Area since 2001. She's a great person, and has given me her spare room to crash in a few times too, I stayed at her place on the Soft Commands tour, for example. So, we pretty much went straight to work, which is about the best thing you can do coming off an international flight. She took me to my hotel, and I was in my room by about 10.30. I had lots of packages and messages to sort thru, and I was relaxed, and didn't really feel like going out, so I just stayed up til about 1am doing some work, to adjust to the west coast time, and then slept til 8am.

SAN FRANCISCO, 10/20

The 25th anniversary of the first time I went to a real rock show, to see the Who and the Clash in the Kingdome in Seattle. I always think of that night every October 20. Being a kid in Bellingham, WA, and being amazed that you could just go down to the mall and buy a ticket to be in the same room as Pete Townshend--it seemed too easy! My stepdad, Dewey, drove myself, my bandmate and friend Chip, and his dad down to the show. My stepdad, now 82, had become a fan of the Who upon the release of "Tommy". Even tho' I was already in a band at this time, being 13 and just starting high school, seeing that show and all the accompanying Who-mania that year (like the broadcast of their 'farewell' show at the Maple Leaf Gardens in December) drove me into a fever pitch of wanting to be Pete Townshend that pushed over all the dominoes that led me into music...all that thrashing around and intensity that I put into the Posies live show is direct from Pete, and equal parts Black Flag, who I followed intensely during high school, and finally got to see live in Seattle in 1986.

I woke up, breakfasted, and did some things that I can only do in the states--sell CDs & DVDs (there's no market for used music in Paris, really), and change my rate plan with Cingular (now back to being called AT&T? Cingular was just a phase it was going thru?). I never use the Blackberry service with my Nokia E62. So, I canceled it, and bumped up my texts to 400/month, and basically reduced my operating costs by $800/year. After AT&T I cabbed up to Amoeba to sell unwanted promos, DVDs I don't feel like keeping, etc. I applied the $90 credit towards purchases of

the Fiery Furnaces--Widow City
Animal Collective--Strawberry Jam
Matmos--the Civil War
Matmos--The Rose Has teeth in the Mouth of a Beast
the Cardigans--Super Extra Gravity
Gilles Peterson Digs America Vol. 2
Joanna Newsom--The Milk-Eyed Mender

plus DVDs
"Friends Forever"
"You're Gonna Miss Me: A Film About Roky Erickson"
"Blow-Up" by the late Michelangelo Antonioni
"Rashomon" by one of my favorite artists, Akira Kurosawsa

add to this the fact that I received a promo of the new Bat For Lashes album, and I would say this was a very successful weekend of getting some new music in my life.

I know, I'm old school--I still like going into record stores and browsing and buying CDs. Due to the immense size of my music collection, the CD is still a pretty good storage format, I would have to have tons of drive space to put all my music in my Itunes, e.g. --and what if it crashes? I still find record stores--good ones like Amoeba, anyway--a great place to browse and discover. With stuff online, you have to enter a keyword--you won't really stumble on something that has a wild looking cover, and make an impulse purchase (like the anthology of Rai music I picked up at the Posies Amoeba instore in 2001).

After that I did some wine shopping, picking up a recent release of Zinfandel by my friend Greg at TVine and a bottle of Shafer cabernet.

then it was soundcheck time, I met Jon & Jody in the lobby and Jody drove us down to the Fillmore (eventually! He sorta got lost). the Fillmore as I describe it would be a world-class venue if I thought there were others in its class--but the level of production and professionalism is so high here, it's more or less unique. Even the new Fillmore, the reopened version of the original 60s venue, has been historic to me--I have seen great shows by Nancy Sinatra & the late Lee Hazelwood, Bob Mould, etc. here. Big Star has played here on two previous occasions: in 1994, with the Gigolo Aunts supporting (along with the Counting Crows under the name 'The Shatners', since Adam Duritz is a real devotee of great pop music), and in 2002 for the Noise Pop festival. The stage, the sound, the sightlines...all pretty much perfect. We set up and had a very easy soundcheck (remember my new theory that good soundcheck = good show, as opposed to my old rule of thumb that was exactly the opposite). The Oranger guys filed in as we checked and I saw Matt for the first time since, I guess a year ago when the Posies played their last show, in Spain? Matt has a big new beard...after soundcheck I had dinner with him and Trevor, who used to sound for the Meices and now works for a big studio in LA. We polished off my Shafer cab no problem! Having said that, I was sort of sick that night, I think my body is just not digging American food, which, no matter how high quality, is still on average more processed and toxic than French food. The standards in Europe (no GMOs, etc) are just higher and my body feels better eating in France. Plus when I'm working in the studio I barely eat (exception: Studio Vega!) so when in the states I am confronted with larger portions and I think my body was overwhelemed. Having said that, even after eating filet mignon last night and a gourmet chocolate bar for breakfast today (I took it from the backstage spread) I way 142 pounds/64kg today, which is light even by the standards of my too tight April of 77 jeans. I will have to put a little carb along with my protein. Anyway, I'm going on tour in Spain this week where the food is heavy--but, it's with the Posies, and those shows are like 2 hour aerobics sessions.

I was pleasantly surprised that we had a pretty big crowd for the show, I sort of had my doubts going in that anybody would be there at all...but it was reasonably full when we went on, and we played a great show. We did 'Thank You Friends' for the first time in ages. We didn't make any real mistakes, we played really well together, but efficiently. I thought this was much better than the recent outdoor shows we've done, the environment of the Fillmore is just so perfect, it really made us play better as we could hear everything so perfectly and we were translating well to the audience. Oranger was great too, sporting really scary fake moustaches.

I was really happy with the show--and afterwards, I said hello to a few folks at the after show, but went back in our limovan to the hotel. Evidently, while we were backstage, someone claiming to be Alex commandeered our van and had the driver, who hadn't seen Alex before the show, take him and a friend to a club--now, that takes a peculiar kind of balls!

This morning I was up at 7.30, looking at my view of the city from the 20th floor. I have so many connections to the Bay Area, my mom and dad are both from here. And I have had many great shows here, spent weeks here recording with Lagwagon, played my first REM shows here, etc etc.

But, having lived in Europe now for 4 years, I feel just that much more like a foreigner here. I feel like a small mouse darting between the legs of elephants as I negotiate the supersized-ness of the US and all its features. The buildings, the food, the people, the megastores...all big big big.

I have moved into smaller is better...I am for boutique living all the way.

Love
KS
San Francisco CA

10.13.2007

I came back from Oslo, flying in with Baard; we got our bags, got in a taxi, and went first to my place, where I kissed Aden, and dropped my bags; then Baard dropped me at La Cigale, and went on to where he was staying. I was there to see Feist, meeting Dominique in the lobby right before she went on. Her band is very good, she is memsmerizing, her voice fully in control. There were some surprisingly...well, moments that were barely classifiable as 'alternative'...she is accessible to a larger degree than her credibility would seem to allow; she doesn't throw a spanner in the works to keep her from being too pure or likeable--she seems to just follow where things are interesting to her, and if that happens to vibrate at a populist frequency, so be it. Her show has a lot of variety in it as well--electric and acoustic moments; a song where she plays with vocal loops, alone with her guitar. I have no criticism of this show, really; she's working at a such a high level as to be...perfect?

PARIS 10/9

I spent the day at home working on string arrangements for a French artist named Cali. More or less I was recording the parts at home with my keyboard, and these have since become scores. More on that later.

I was working on the string things until it was time to heard to Le Baron; I left the house probably around 8. I packed up my Shiny Box ribbon mics to pass to my bandmates to take back to Norway, in advance of recording the Disciplines album in a couple of months. I went to the show by Metro, calmly reading a book on the way. I met Dom in a restaurant around the corner, and soon my bandmates, our bestest fan Alison, our sound engineer and his g.f., our video crew and our photographer were all waiting outside in the rain, waiting for someone to open the club. Finally Arnaud from the club showed up, and helped us put together the backline--very nice guy. Le Baron is a bit primitive sound wise, but my bandmates excel at adapting to various conditions (especially Claus, who has the hardest job--making the drums sound powerful but maintaining enough control to work with whatever sound system is--or isn't--there).

It took a long time to set up and my guys hadn't eaten to I went to get them some food--not easy in the 8eme. The restaurant around the corner had a variety of explanations why they wouldn't do take away--of course they had no extra bread to make sandwiches--they had to save it for customers to have at the table (optimistic for 10.15 on a Tuesday night) and no paper plates. Except they finally agreed to do sausage and frites.

We finally played around midnight, even tho' the place didn't really get full til about 1. But we had plenty of friends there, including the Yolks, Olivia Baum, Mateo, and many more. Le Baron has seats and tables, so it was a cabaret atmosphere, except for me of course! I swung from every rafter, jumped on every table and chair, and even managed to bang my face with the mic enough to draw blood and leave a cool looking scar.

I think the photos will be great...there's already a cool one on our myspace...

The next day I worked on the Cali arrangements for most of the day, and in the evening found myself back at La Cigale to see Cinematic Orchestra, which turned out to be an incredibly well done jazz concert. They are on an electronik-type label, but the music has a sophistication and non-danceability that works in the jazz idiom. And I had forgotten how much Parisians adore anything with a jazz sensibility. I was also amazed at the audience for this show, which was opened by art rock veterans Tuxedo Moon (to whom my experiments in the 80s with the Stinkbugs were compared) and also featured a DJ playing the sound of jackhammers on two turntables--there were dozens of school age kids there; grey haired oldsters, punk hipster girls...all digging what was in actuality rather demanding music.

I left after about an hour as I had more work to do, I took the Metro back home and worked on Cali's arrangements til I collapsed. In the morning I met LD, the keyboard player for Mateo, who helped me with the notation for the scores. We spent all day at my place going over the parts, plus all the dynamics and nuances. By the next night he was emailing me the scores! I'll get to hear them in action this week.

Friday and Saturday I was in the studio with Mateo, editing and doing a few last minute overdubs...but mostly editing...the studio we worked in on Friday, G-Point, is quite an interesting little epicenter in the 20eme. It's called the "Confluence" and it's a building that houses two studios, an art gallery, a theater...and probably more things, didn't get to look ahttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifround. The other studio next to ours was being used to mix music from Guinea.

Today I was back a Question de Son...I have to say, this has become such a comfortable place for me to work...I love it there. Everything works! And I have to keep giving kudos to Fred, the house engineer and co-owner. He has been making my life very easy there...so, here are some more kudos: <<>> that's what they look like. Merci!

Also, Alaksa-based artist Crystal Hutchens recently released a DVD about the making of her album, and her motivations and inspirations for the spiritual journey implied in her creative act; in it you can see some footage of me in the studio with her, playing drums, playing bass, and directing the viola-in player...the DVD has its own myspace here. As far as I know the album isn't released yet but she has made this film available.

Love
KS
Paris

10.07.2007

THE DISCIPLINES PLAY PARIS! TUESDAY OCTOBER 9 AT LE BARON ENTRANCE IS FREE ON A FIRST COME BASIS DOORS OPEN AT 23H, SHOW TO FOLLOW RIGHT AFTER

What a great week I’ve had here in Oslo—as my visit approached, to come to Norway to play the West Coast shows last weekend; stay for the intervening week, and then spend this weekend playing and rehearsing in Oslo seemed like maybe too much time away from home, that I would be spinning my wheels a bit when I should be spending down time with my family. But, I went forward, and as it turns out, it was a really good decision. I got to know Oslo a lot better, and make some lasting biz connections; I sorted out, more or less, a label and booking for the Disciplines in Norway; an important step for what happens to us in the rest of the world-we start here and branch out. During the daytime, I worked at the Disciplines studio—I sang a demo for a proposed theme for a French TV show (!), I did some overdubs for the album I’m producing for Mateo; and I organized the computer and all the files for the Disciplines and other users (that was a big job). In the evenings, I would hang out at the Revolver bar, a great place, on Møllergata, which is the road I take to and from the studio each day. Revolver has a few bartender/owners, it’s sort of hipster bar, but a really friendly one. I haven’t been drinking much, so when I go there, I order water—and Ole, one of the bartenders, makes me a special combo of sliced fruit and other additives to dress it up. The best one was a ‘waterini’—a chilled martini glass containing nothing but water and maraschino cherry! Ole’s girlfriend, Sarah, who we met at the Down on the Farm festival, where she was press coordinator, has been a great host too: she introduced me to tons of essential Oslo-ites in the music biz etc.

I also went to see some shows, notably the New Pornographers (who are slightly less than the sum of their parts—everything is competent, intelligent, etc…but nothing really inspires a passionate response to my ears—I prefer Carl Newman’s previous band, Zumpano—they had more of a fun factor while still being witty and having brilliant melodies). Now, I swear, the current version of TNP has at *least * two, if not three, members of Zumpano in it.

I tried to bum rush the Ja Rule show at Rockefeller, but it hadn’t sold well so the guest list was being restricted and it was like NOK320 to get in. That’s over 50 bucks. They offered Sarah & I two for one, even that was too much for an artist whose reviews inside and outside the hip hop community aren't too glowing...

On Saturday there was a free concert at the club Blå to raise awareness and support for organizations promoting universal access to clean drinking water in impoverished nations. They had free live music in between speakers, including Kenneth Ishak’s new full band the Kenneth Ishak & the Skidz. Really good! Sometimes they sound like Stereolab, sometimes there’s a Neil Young vibe…great musicians involved.
Also on the bill was Samsaya, playing Indian-flavored R&B, which I enjoyed too.

OSLO 10/5

This show, I think in a weird way, was our most important yet. It wasn’t the biggest, I’m not even sure it was the best (I think Bergen last week was unbeatable). But I think we turned a corner in the general perception of our band in Oslo. As I went around town this weekend, people were talking about it, even people who weren’t there. It started with the audience being a bit stiff and shy…waiting to see what we had to offer. We just kept pushing and pushing—but not aggressively: we just got more and more into it, not giving a f**k. And as the show went on, the people had to give us their vote—it was just taking off with each song, and the people started to get more and more relaxed and therefore more open about giving us props. By the end of the show people were WAY into it. We played an encore—and to me, this is no small thing. I only do it when people REALLY want it.

Yes, the daytime’s radio visits to Kanal 24 and P3 (commercial and state, respectively) were fun and both networks were extremely generous with their time! And yes, we had some business VIPs at the show (and had another commercial radio, Radio Tango, interviewing us backstage). But in the end the vibe we made with the public I think glued us into a place in the music scene in Norway that couldn’t be contrived by using business contacts. We have Oslo’s vote…and with that, we can go forward. Forward, ho!

After the show we went to a birthday party for a local musician—he had rented out a lovely place called Pavilon, which is a free standing old house that’s a very modern bar inside, the place is hollow inside, so the second floor floats as a loft. Anyway, they had a backline set up, and we ended up playing a short set, like at 1.30 am—great! The only thing is that my voice was already tired from the Mono show (that’s a very difficult 45 minutes of singing!) and I found out that all this time we play tuned down a half step…so playing other people’s guitars puts my voice up significantly higher…but we only did like 4 songs. After that I joined some local musicians for a version of “I Am the Cosmos”…and then I just relaxed til the party wound down around 3; as I walked home I stopped at the Revolver and word was already out there that our show at Mono had been a scorcher!

Over the weekend we’ve been working on some new songs, we’ve demo’d 4 new songs at our rehearsal place…this has been a really big week! On to Paris!

Love
KS
Oslo, NORWAY

10.01.2007

I put up some new photos in the photos section, please take a gander, goslings.

Love
KS
Oslo, NORWAY

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!!!