3.30.2008
IN FACT IT’S A GAS Another relatively quiet week, no travel to speak of, which enabled me to be truly caught up on the many tiny projects that were causing the sides of my inbox to distend. I finished up my mixes for ‘The Purringtones’, and went into adding backing vocals—in Spanish—to two tracks for Argentina’s The Super Ratones (who contributed vocals and other things to the Disciplines’ album). I always thought of Spanish as it’s spoken, in, say Spain, or Mexico, as being fairly phonetic—if you can read it, you know how to pronounce it—vowels are consistent, consonants too. None of the fake letters that hang around in English or French, with rules changing from word to word. However, Spanish as it’s spoken in Argentina seems to have some very French kind of ‘bridges’ between words, and unimportant consonants. In that sense, I could relate—and reading the lyrics and listening to the guide vocals it all made sense…and I *think* I did a pretty good job—the band seems happy, anyway! With that completed, and files shipped off to South America via yousendit.com, I didn’t really have much to do…so I could spend time trolling for exotic recording gear on Ebay (I also went out to Funky Junk France, and spent an afternoon auditioning gear), and also in hot pursuit of a 1905 Pedro Ximenez. REM’s caterers, specifically Steve and Kate, turned me on to PX on the 2005 tour, and I haven’t been the same since. The good people at the Spanish Table in Seattle actually delivered a lovely organic PX to me when Jon Auer & I played the Triple Door last year; they are part of the team that’s trying to source me a bottle of the 1905 Perez Barquero. I think it was Wednesday (the calendar on this computer is missing some entries—my iBook was in the shop for a week, getting its power connection replaced) that we al as family went to the Nouveau Casino, the Parisian rock venue where Dom works (no, she can’t book your band). The Posies kicked off the Every Kind of Light tour here in 2005, and I’ve seen tons of shows here over the years—Fiery Furnaces, Gossip, Asian Dub Foundation, The Singles, The Waxwings, etc etc. This night we went to cheer on Laytitia, who occasionally babysits Aden...she has an album coming out on Universal this year, and she was performing her first real live show, supporting I Am Kloot. Just her and her acoustic guitar, and amazingly, her sound guy, who is also her producer, was able to slide beats in, at tempo. She did a great job—she’s a tiny thing, looks like she’s 15, and has a squeaky little voice, and it’s great. Aden was up in the balcony behind the sound desk, shaking her teddy bear and yelling ‘Laytitia!’ like it was a stadium gig! The kind of stadium gig where you bring your nounours. After the show, I chatted with Laytitia, her team, her family…and some local musicians that Dom had introduced her to as a potential band. And Laytitia’s A&R, who is an old old friend of Dom’s, was there too—he slipped me a copy of the new Rolling Stones’ live album, which is our Sunday morning music—until the inevitable re-screening of ‘Garfield 2—a Tale of Two Kitties’ thanks to Aden… Dom & Aden went to have frites at the café next door, and I stayed to watch 5 songs of I Am Kloot—they’re great, if quite mellow—they were all sitting down. These guys look like 100 miles of bad road, tho'—they make Keith Richards look like Denise Richards. On Friday I went to the Transmusicales Festival’s party at La Maroquinerie (also a stop on the Posies 2005 tour), to see Tunng and drink free champagne. Tunng are super shaggy, electrofolk, really good they are. They are a breed of hippie that I would normally think wouldn’t accomplish much beyond acquiring too many dogs and not enough bath products (including the ultimate bath product—the bath itself), but lest ye continue to judge books by their covers (or their originals, for that matter), see the evidence presented, and you will find Tunng to be very clever, very peasant--I mean, pleasant, and very charming. Last night I tried to go see DJ Shadow & Cut Chemist at Le Grand Rex, a venue I had never been to before. It’s just few stops down the Metro from my place. I had tried to buy advance tix online, tried to buy them at FNAC, tried to get in for free. No avail. So, I was hardly surprised that when I emerged from the Metro, there were signs in front of the door saying the concert was canceled for ‘technical reasons’. Yeah, like, technically, it was impossible to buy tickets for, so I guess nobody did. Also this week the Disciplines album went to mastering—we spent a lot of time in deep discussion over philosophical principles of why this obscure detail was more important than that obscure detail. One last minute track list change and we went to master. I had CDs UPS’d overnight to my place, and made comments, we’re very close now…very close indeed… Yesterday when Aden and Dom went to the park, they discovered on the way home that a family was giving away a Barbie Castle. Yep, taller than Aden and bulkier than my home studio, it came home with them, and honestly it’s so fun to see Aden freaking out over her new…well, you can hardly call something that big a toy, but it is one, technically. Funny that Aden keeps cleaning it, too… After many weeks of enjoyment, I finished reading Pynchon’s Against the Day, which was, honestly, one of the most enjoyable, stimulating books I’ve spent time with, ever. I was so sad to see it come to an end! However, the completion allowed me to start the extraordinary Ludlow, a novel written in verse, by friend of the family David Mason. This is vital, accessible, and simply beautiful work. Set in 1910s Colorado mining country (like huge and important swaths of Against the Day, so it was oddly familiar ground—some of the same historical figures /archetypes and landscapes). The fact that it’s set in verse doesn’t make it lofty or academic. In fact, it reads very much like the novels you know, but structure of verse grounds it, and gives it a passionate, human rhythm. I couldn’t recommend both books more strongly. Great review in the Washington Post here. You can read more and order it here. OK, I am going to try and shake off the ass-kicking that losing one of my favorite hours of sleep last night—with Europe moving their clocks forward—combined with yesterday’s Cheap Star-Posies tennis Davis Cup dealt me, and pursue my homebound Sunday’s delight. Love KS Paris
3.23.2008
EASTER LIKE MITCH My second favorite holiday after Xmas…it’s all about rabbits, newborn chicks, eggs…mating season! The spring rut! Ah, and it has been assigned the task of representing the death of the messiah. So, the feast days, when the sun returns, have been given by the Church to represent death—remember what has been given up by one so that you can enjoy this present time. And in the lean months, at the ebb of light in winter’s darkest hours, a birth story. But, the placement of these holidays underscores that we are always subject to the same planetary rhythms—at least 50% of us at any one time—the 50% of us on the opposite side of the equator experience the same but in reverse polarity—so for Australians, many Africans, most South Americans, Christmas would be a festival that heralds the arrival of summer, and Easter would be autumn’s last hurrah. If you think that the southern region is only tropical…remember this zone includes the blustery Cape of Good Hope, Tierra Del Fuego and the southern island of New Zealand. I used the week to my advantage, since we didn’t have the Copenhagen show, I was able to catch up on mixing the Brian Olson project, a friend of mine from Seattle, who has a band, and sent me some songs to mix—there was no deadline, but the stuff has been sitting around for awhile waiting for me to have time to get to it. So, I got to got to it! I had fun with the stuff, re-editing the song structure, re-amping guitars, drums, vocals, and adding my own keyboard/percussion/vocal parts. REM was in town, promoting their new album Accelerate. I met Bill Rieflin, Scott McCaughey and Mike Mills for an epic dinner in the 8eme, with Dom. It was great to see everyone, and really, we picked up the good humor, good company, and warmth right where we left it. It had been three years since I’d seen Michael or Peter, or Scott for that matter! The next day I was suffering a little—I’m out of practice on my high-end wine consumption! But I managed to get to my voice lesson, and continue my mixing work. That night I went to see the Wombats, the current NME all-the-rage, and they were excellent. Lots of energy, in a kind of Superchunk way, with a chunky, mop-headed singer who has a Robert Smith-like whine, and some singalong moments straight outta Weezer—but, in a weird way, they’re more scrappy and punky than those groups. The show was at La Trabendo (erh, it’s kind of long haul from anywhere in Paris) and it was sold out. Bravo to the lads. On Friday Dom, Aden & I (with help from Aden’s rockstar babysitter Laytitia) trucked out to the Canal+ studios, outside of Paris, to see REM tape a live set for broadcast this weekend. I thought the band sounded fantastic—Dom asked me if I felt strange watching them, but it was quite the opposite. I felt like I was rooting for friends of mine, and they were nailing it. If they’d sounded lacking because I wasn’t there, I would have felt bad. But, they sounded great, and I was happy to be there. We had dinner afterwards, and spent more quality time together. Everybody marveled at Aden, who, by their last account, had been small, bald, neckless and drooling. Listened to this week, and can recommend: Man Ray Sky—from the UK, they sent me just under an album’s worth of material. Superb indie rock! The name itself an REM reference?? Wild Mountain Nation, by Blitzen Trapper. Funky country junk (not to be confused with Junkie Funk Country). And the EP preceeding the Posies tribute album—including Dominique’s version of ‘Will You Ever Ease Your Mind’ and Jim Protectors’ freak-take of ‘Coming Right Along’. I will register that I myself thought the artwork for the tribute was maybe too literal to the title, and could have been more Posie-ish, but, the tracks…wow! Every track on this EP is a novel, extremely well thought out and great sounding take on a Posies song, from ‘Dream All Day’ (by an LA band called the Meadows, but with 3 current or former Posies contributing) to ‘I Guess You’re Right’ (by some New Yorkers of some stripe. You can buy the EP for $7, so, same price as Itunes, and you get CD quality audio. One of the partners in making the Posies tribute is Steve Turnidge, who I have to say is an extremely talented mastering engineer, so the sonic quality of the tracks makes the physical disk worth having. Dom’s and Jim Protector’s tracks are exclusive to the EP. The 3-CD Posies tribute album itself will be released at the Posies 20th Anniversary show at Neumo’s in Seattle, May 17. We will have lots of special guests at the show, and sharing the bill with us is Scott Kanberg (aka Spiral Stairs of Pavement) ‘s band Preston School of Industry—in which Posies Matt Harris (whose birthday was Monday) and Darius Minwalla play. In Disciplines news, we announced that we will play the Metropolis Festival in Rotterdam this summer, which is a great, free festival for new bands. We agreed on the track listing and running order for the Norwegian version of our album, and have been working steadily on the cover artwork. And, now, I will help Aden’s chocolate rabbit o.d.—we will head to Place des Vosges and stash some eggs around. The sun is out—we have had torrential rain, blazing sun, and pea-sized hail this weekend, often in 15-minute shifts! Love KS Paris
3.16.2008
DISASTER STRIKES! COPENHAGEN CANCELED! On Thursday, when I got home from London, I found out that our drummer in the Disciplines, Claus, had crashed his bike and sustained a small fracture on his wrist. My first thought was “since when does Claus ride a bike??” Evidently, not often, and for good reason! It soon became apparent that Claus’ life would be drum-free for a few weeks. It’s not a big injury, but he could aggravate it very easily by playing a show, and at the very least that show would be extremely painful if not impossible. Our show this week in Copenhagen was more or less expendable in the grand scheme of things—it could wait for another time. Sorry to everyone who had purchased tickets—Loppen will refund them. Due to our busy schedule this year, we couldn’t find a date to reschedule. Disaster also struck our little neighborhood in Paris yet again—our local shwarma place burned. The rest of the building seems OK, but the shop is totaled. I’m very sad, the owners are extremely friendly and the place was very good quality. I hope they can rebuild. So, my week in London was fun, and I accomplished a little business there; but mostly, it was a kind of vacation. On Monday night Henrik and I went to see Josh Weller play in Shoreditch, at the ‘Scottish Pub’—I guess I’m not supposed to say the name since I’m in the performing biz! Anyway, his band is extremely good, their show was short and superb. I ran into Toph from Trouble Over Tokyo –we’re touring together in May, and we’d never met in person. Turns out he’s not Austrian at all! He’s just popular there—but he’s as English as beans on toast. Dom came to town, and we had a couple of days getaway—popquiz at the Boogaloo one night (Shane McGowan is the local resident, and it’s been a Pete Doherty hangout), and dinner at the Hospital Club one night. The Hospital Club is a private club with bars, restaurants, recording suites, a full TV production studio, etc etc.. It’s a place for TV and music biz folks to work and socialize; evidently it’s owned an operated by Paul Allen. On Thursday we came back to town, and I went to see Grand Pianoramax at the Divan du Monde. GP is the project of a young Swiss keyboard virtuoso—playing in jazz and funk idiom, but it’s in done in very good taste, and with unbelievable skills. He plays piano, Rhodes, a couple of synths—he loops himself with delay pedals and plays along with himself, and is accompanied by a drummer with equally formidable abilities. On top of that, three vocalists were brought out in all the possible combinations to improvise on top—Mike Ladd, of whom I’ve been a fan for some time; Celena Glenn, and Spleen. Spleen is French and in addition to rhyming skillz he has a great ability to make all kinds of instrumental noises, one minute he’s a squeaking trumpet, one minute he’s a gospel choir. In general it was a complete musical diet, and I was glad to have seen it—attendance was quite light, but the performers gave all their available energies. Over the weekend I watched ‘Rock & Roll Wolf’ with Aden—I had seen it on TV in Norway, and gotten the people at NRK to make me a copy! I’m not sure it’s available on DVD, unfortunately. It’s a kind of musical for children, with Russian ballet dancers dressed as various animals, but thru suggestion, not masks. Their faces are visible, and their characters indicated by wigs and makeup, mostly (the make up artist was a top artist at Max Factor). The director is a Bulgarian woman, and the voices were done in English, but they were done as ADR, and I have read that they simultaneously did a version in Russian, and one in Bulgarian, which is quite impressive, considering the songs had to be in rhythm and make sense. It’s a wonderful eastern bloc oddity from the late 70s. Rock & roll! Aden had her first sleepover last night, at her friend’s place. Her friend has two older sisters, and they all adore Aden! So Dom & I had dinner on our own, at Chez Paul, which is in our neighborhood—in fact, Dom used to live upstairs. I always have the same thing: “Le tentation de Saint Antoine’—which is panned and fried pig bits: snout, ear, tail and foot. So good! Dom & I, sharing a bottle of wine, of course got completely drunk, we have no business drinking that much on our own. So, we had no choice but to sleep in til the last possible minute before picking up Aden. We spent about 3 hours having brunch. ENGLISH OBSERVATIONS Merry Olde. Well. We know this: it’s cold there, and it rains, and it’s windy. And people don’t seem to mind. They just work harder, and watch their currency and property values ascend in skyrocket fashion, and then they leverage into property markets in sunnier climes, and drive the local prices up into a zone that only British can afford. It’s re-colonialism, and it’s a brilliant strategy for this soggy little island. In general, if you are European or from the Commonwealth, you can come take a shot at the game. It gets trickier if you are from a nation of less than equal footing on the global chessboard. In fact, it was my observation the other day that Europeans all want to buy homes in Cape Verde, Morocco, etc., and Moroccans and Cape Verdeans are always looking to come to Europe and work. So, I thought, why not trade? Why the barriers? We establish the European Nations in tropical/equatorial latitudes, and we reestablish Africa in a new home in less a less grueling climate. Sounds fair to me. Food: there is nothing in cuisine that an English chef can’t find a way to overcook. Even in the nicest places, even with fresh local produce, they will reduce via baking meat to a mangled shadow of its former self, and vegetables are forced to surrender to superior firepower. Even in the nicest places this holds true. I am impressed how much better the average French eatery is than even the highest echelon of British restaurant. Yes, there are bad meals possible in France. And yes, there are Michelin stars on over 100 places in the UK and Ireland. But, for example, I have never tucked into a gigot in France to find that the center is ice cold—the whole thing being a pre-made, frozen item reheated when I ordered it. And this happened recently in London, when I was paying the equivalent of €2o for it. Architecture: London is no Rotterdam. In fact, London to me is a series of brown brick boxes, replicated. Many of them are so plain, or even ugly…one wonders how an architect got them green light-ed—let alone OK’d for replication…it’s like looking at a squirming mass of larval rats…all the same, all kind of icky. When someone does take the initiative to paint over the brick in a more appealing hue than porridge, the effect is obvious---it puts a smile on the neighborhood’s face. So you think—why doesn’t everybody do it? Do people really like living in an identical box to their neighbor’s, each the color of crappy industrial bread? Music: you cannot compete with Britain about music. You can’t discuss it to greater detail, you will never find a country with people trying harder to make it, or a more ravenous, protectionist media. Conclusion: everybody on this island is bored shitless. It’s either this, or football, or else you’re left to contemplate the fact you live in Europe’s rain shadow, with nothing but a few turnips and brown buildings as company. Good looking men and women: as rare as a properly cooked gigot d’agneau, they do exist in Britain. Weirdly enough, the only time I saw a consistently handsome segment of the population was inside Top Shop. Suddenly every woman was tall, thin, and power shopping in between running their own law firm/movie production company/art gallery. And the guys were mostly thin and handsome, evidently they let everybody else eat their share of the turnips, chips, and Cadbury’s. Nature: the last wild animal in Britain died 30 years ago. It’s name was Keith Moon. ATMs: are all broken in the UK. Seems Northern Rock as taken away everybody’s Brighton Rock money. Public transport: I do think the two-level bus is a great invention, and I don’t know why more cities don’t have them. Are they trademarked? The tube is kind of awful, and subject to disappearances. Like, on the night of the Zombies show, there were no lines operating to Shepherds Bush. Unf. The Central Line station at Shepherds Bush is out of commission for the rest of my thirties. Cinema: to reserve tix on the British Film Institute’s website, I had to create a user ID, password, give them my home address, etc etc….and since my address wasn’t in Britain it froze the process—AFTER I had put ten minutes’ work into it. Next up: Odeon, who put me on a mailing list that I can’t seem to get off of. They did let me complete the transaction tho’, and thus I had the luxury so spend $45 for two tickets to the cinema. Scottish money: not one person complained when I paid with Scottish notes. So, there’s that settled. Wine: I kept soldiering on, ordering wine in the relentless, no-victory-in-sight slog in pursuit of acceptable wine in London. The problem is, nobody orders it—so when you have wine by the glass at a pub, the bottle was opened for the last naïve Frenchman/Septic who passed thru the doors. I did have an excellent Albarino at the Hospital Club. Also: remember that in any given neighborhood, the locals will recommend the shit restaurants and will not have noticed the cute bistros there. You mention the tiny bistro that serves great food and the locals snicker, looking at you with pity, then tell you to go someplace that microwaves frozen gigots. Also—for some reason, almost no restaurants open for lunch during the week. You go to a pub. I do like the place, however! And Archway/Highgate Village/Crouch End, where I was based this time around, is kind of a magical slice of London, far removed from the urban vibe. It’s leafy, and full of hills and valleys, and some very nice houses (and plenty of brown ones). So many thanks to Meggean and her amusing/friendly roommates Pete & Ida for housing Dom & I! And many thanks to Henrik and Caroline for being pals, and to Lydia for the invitation to the Club. Hoo! In the meantime, we’ve been debating and sculpting the Disciplines album SMOKiNG KiLLS’ running order and artwork. We’re getting there! Love KS Paris
3.10.2008
COLOGNE, 3.4 On Monday most of White Flag arrived to Paris, and we had an impromptu recording session in my flat...on Tuesday we went by train to Cologne, and a very nice/cheap ride it is. We cabbed down to the Sonic Ballroom, site of a great WF show in 2002, and Carsten was already waiting for us, having brought a bass for me to use, courtesy of Kai from Subterfuge! One of the stipulations for being a part of this tour was that I would not have to bring any equipment with me, save for 2 cables, a tuner, and my Locomofon Every Scream, which I have come to find is essential for my kind of skrunch. We entered, and there wasn't much to do--no gear had shown up yet, and our guitarist Chips hadn't arrived from Sweden yet. So, Pat and I rehearsed a bit in the dressing room (aka the bedroom--the backstage is also a three room apartment for the bands to sleep in). Eventually the local band the Porno Dolls showed up and we could use their stuff to soundcheck, and lo and behold Chips arrived too. Before the show, there was more backstage rehearsing, and Tommy from Subterfuge came in to say hello, as did Cuca, the famous Hada Quimica, with whom I worked on some music in 2002. And then, the show--well, this lineup had never played together, and there hadn't been any WF activity in my life for a couple of years, but it was fun; many, many mistakes were made and it just didn't matter. We did encore after encore, and finally put all requests for more to a definitive rest when we did our last encore--40 minutes of 'Tomorrow Never Knows'. At some point, I switched cables with Pat, so my bass was going thru his amp, and he was playing thru mine. Eventually, after 20 minutes or so, Pat and Chips left. Tracy and I kept going...mostly I was just playing one note, the endless droning 'C' of the Beatles song. At one point, a drunk guy with a ciggy hanging out of his mouth, picked up Pat's guitar, and stumbled towards the amp he *thought* he was playing thru...and started to PTB*. I played approximations of what his fingers were doing, slowly increasing the variations as time went on, so the sound coming out of the amp he was listening to was *similar* to what he was playing, but not quite right. He frowned...adjusted the amp, tried again, and I did the same thing again, but with even more elaborate variations...notes would continue for a few seconds after he stopped playing...he was scratching his head, and completely at a loss as to what was going on...GENIUS!!! I kept him going for 10 minutes til he gave up. I also did 5-8 minutes of dialog, with a big ball of gaffer tape at the end of my bass' headstock, I swung the ball over to a mic and it began to 'talk'...and I made sure to do that for WAY too long... After the show, the Porno Dolls' guitarist was complaining that I would have hurt his tubes by turning up his amp too loud. Which, I didn't do--either Pat or the confused guest guitarist at the end would have done so. This foretells another situation with unhappy German support bands worrying about their gear...read on. Why am I always being lectured about music, equipment, etc. by Germans 15-20 years younger than me? What do they think they know that they think I don't? UTRECHT, 3.5 We trained over to Utrecht, the German trains for this line being superb, and were met by Ollie and Toine from S.U.C. It, (which can be pronounced As You See It, or, simply, 'Suck It'), the band accompanying us for the next gigs. They are from Den Helder, and no place on earth on loves WF more than Den Helder. Ollie is a 6 foot-pls giant, and Toine is a friendly, smiley guy with eyes like Joe Piscopo...we stuffed ourselves and our luggage into their two tiny cars, and set off in search of the venue, which we eventually found--Ollie's GPS kept sending us down streets that didn't exist--and we pulled up to the ACL. The ACL is a hangout for vegan punx--I thought it was very strange that a militantly vegan cafe would ask us 'how many of you are vegetarians?'--as if there were other options?? Was it some kind of loyalty test? After the show that night, that loyalty was shown to be lacking when Tracey and Chips brought chicken sandwiches back in from the snack shop across the street (which, oddly enough, was recommended to them by the venue)--they were chased out immediately! Now, the reason we did this whole tour is that there were two special musical events within reasonable proximity of each other, and we all wanted to go see them, and thus it made sense to play a few shows, which ended up playing all the expenses of travel to see these shows, even the two flights from the states. Tonight was event number one, a sold-out show by Dutch legends Golden Earring. Pat has been a fan of theirs for 30 years, and missed a chance to see them in California in the 70s as they were the unadvertised support for Aerosmith--Pat arrived to find out he had just missed one of his favorite bands, and was further insulted by what turned out to be a terrible Aerosmith show at the low point of their Joe Perry-less career. So, here was his chance, and he jumped on it. In fact, our traveling companion, Suzy, from Rome, who booked WF's Italian shows in 2006, wrangled an interview with the band for an Italian music mag. GE has been making music together for 47 years; the current lineup has been in place throughout the band's biggest successes--the 'new guy', drummer Cesar Zuiderwijk, has 'only' been in the band since 1970. The band consists of the extremely acrobatic and technical, humorous and brilliant Zuiderwijk; singer/guitarist/flute player Barry Hay, who joined the band before I was born, and looks like any tattooed gym rat movie star, with a smooth, boyish face; original member George Kooymans, who looks like James Coburn/Peter Graves and is an absolutely wicked guitarist, and a great singer--he sings much of the band's material; and bassist/keyboardist Rinus Gerritsen, also an incredible player. They played two sets, in an acoustic setting--no electric guitars, but a full drum kit--and it truly rocked. They had tremendous energy, and were in total control at all times, no detail was left unexplored in any song. Despite the fact they are all 60, save for Rinus who is 62, they are youthful, enthusiastic, healthy, and it seems like they are thrilled to be onstage. Very inspiring--after the show, we chatted backstage with Rinus for a bit, who told me about his clever keyboard set up--when he plays piano, his left hand is playing keys that trigger samples of his acoustic bass, and output that thru his bass amp, so there is consistent low end throughout the show. GENIUS! So, we had to play our own show after that. No soundcheck, we showed up as the middle band was still playing. S.U.C. It had gone on first. Ollie let me use his Rickenbacker bass, and we were off and running. Central-casting punx pogo'd and slammed, like it was 1984. I have to admit the best part was an epic rendition of Golden Earring's most enduring hit, 'Radar Love', which every Dutch citizen knows, so several audience members took to the stage and sang it for us. And they still wanted more--I had played in the crowd during that portion, so I was last to leave the stage, and the audience wouldn't let me go--by request from audience members I did a silly ad hoc song with the words 'Flavor of the Month' that had nothing to do with the Posies song, then I did a drums (playing with my hands, one of which was inside a plastic cup)/vocals and bass (audience member who requested the song) version of 'Down Like Me', which went, uh..*down* surprisingly well with all the assembled punx. After that, it took, as usual, forever to get the initiative to leave, and suddenly the squat we were supposed to stay at didn't sound so good. Moods were soured when the chicken-eaters were chased out, and we ended up in one of those farcical episodes that only happen when I'm *not* the tour manager--last minute, late night, scramble for accommodations. We tried one hotel, sold out. €500 later, we had rooms at a nice hotel downtown, I had my own room in fact. The tour still came out in the black. ROTTERDAM, 3.6 The next morning I was up extremely early to jet up to the small town of Naardem-Bussum, 25 minutes north by train, to have a quick meeting with the folks at Roadrunner, primarily but not always a metal label, regarding the Disciplines. I got back to the hotel just in time to check out, and then Chips and Suz wanted to go record shopping, so the rest of us chilled in the lobby, which was filling up not just with the two punk bands in our caravan, but an Albanian folk orchestra. Lively! Then we drove to Rotterdam. Now, I've been to Rotterdam many times on tour--Posies shows in 1997, 1998, and 2006; a solo show in 2004; an REM show in 2005. Somehow, it never clicked how incredible this city is in terms of architecture. We all know that the Germans bombed Rotterdam, the final blow in their 1940 invasion, thus leaving the city in need of a massive rebuilding campaign, financed in many ways by Rotterdam's 40-year reign as the world's busiest port (that honor has belonged to Shanghai for the last 4 years). Rotterdam chose a daring strategy, and now the town is filled with architectural marvels, whimsies, and showpieces. The old parts of the city that survived the War are stunning as well; the area near our hostel, a kind of garden district, is, simply, elegant and serene. In this visit Rotterdam became one of my favorite cities of all time. We were playing at the WaterFront, which is where the Posies ended our 2006 European tour. They have expanded the cafe to now include a small stage, which is where our show was taking place. The complex also houses rehearsal rooms and a recording studio (more on that later). All of this takes place on the quay by the river estuary that bisects the city. We were marveling at the old building, now topped by a modern glass structure that houses a gym, that rises out of the water by the club, and has huge, circular windows--halfway submerged. The building looks ancient--how did they do it? Now, this evening, a new television program on the Dutch national network was doing a piece on culture shock--the proposed concept was to take three freshly scrubbed, preppy college students, mostly into dance music, and expose them to the crusty glory of punk rock. The introduction was made by a local woman who is a political activist, clothing designer, and journalist--she hosted the program. Oh my. The thing is, WF is a complicated band--sure, they started playing punk, but, they dressed metal, or..anything really, and have done everything they can to show that the only rules in their minds are no rules. No by-the-book 1977 or hardcore rehashes here...I mean, we cover the Zombies 'Butcher's Tale', for gawd's sake...a song done on harmonium. So being the merry pranksters that we are, we pretty much made things into total chaos. We formed the kids into a band, called 'the Catalogue Models', and then made them play on the instruments set up in the studio--of course, they couldn't play. Then we all took the instruments and proceeded to play incompetently in the exact same manner--we 'covered' their 'song'! Hahah! We also made them play the first song in the set, and hailed them as the latest thing. Later, the punkest bit, we chased the TV crew away from the stage--"FUCK TV!". Oh, I bet they were sorry. Our show was pretty good, too. When it was done, the studio offered to let us record for free, so we jumped in and recorded a simple, the Jam-like song that Pat had written, I played bass. Then I had everyone there--all the WF members, the engineers, Suz, S.U.C. It, the promoter, and three Swedish fans who came to see these shows--each write one line, and then I put them in some kind of order and sang the results! The assembled crowd mentioned above put on some horrific backing vocals--see footage of that here. Job well done! Chips took the stuff home and will work on it at his studio. AMSTERDAM, 3.7 We had all day to chill out in Rotterdam, I stashed my bags at the hostel, and had a delicious lunch, read the newspaper, and checked email. Pat went to Rotterdam's art museum, and said it was an incredible collection--from Bosch to art contemporain. In the late afternoon we drove up to Amsterdam, and eventually found the squalid Baarmoder, 'The Womb' in Dutch. It's a punk squat, no heat, jerry-rigged toilets, the lot. We all decamped to a pizzeria, and were joined by friend Brendan, and we found that one of the cars had to leave--Ollie had a family emergency and had to go to Den Helder ASAP. The thing is, we had a show in Den Helder that night! It's an hour and a half away. We decided to send Suz and most of the luggage in the one car, and Toine would stuff the rest of us into his car and we'd make it. We had to scare up some gear, but some appeared, including a bass for me to use! And we ripped into our set, and 25 minutes later were ready to head to Den Helder. In fact, the people at the squat were really cool. I'm just glad I didn't have to sleep there! Craaaaaaaaaaab farm. I did see a few Amsterdam friends at this gig, which was nice. DEN HELDER, 3.7 Yep, we raced up to Den Helder ('The Clear' in Dutch) for our second gig of the night. There is a squadron of punx who have been die hard WF fans since the band's first album came out 25 years ago...our show in DH in 2002 was a highlight of the tour. They're still there, and they're still into it. We arrived and immediately began to sort out the backline with the support band Volt. "Can we borrow your backline?" "No.". Ah. well. Ok....now what? The locals went out and found some equipment. We ended up using Volt's drum kit, bass cab and guitar cab. Truth be told, the bass player, Nico, did eventually offer to let me use his amp, but he also sort of lectured me on how he had new tubes and what not...they had a bit of an attitude. Like, a lot bit. I mean, what is with the Germans lecturing me on music??? Well, ten seconds into our set, and Volt was surely unhappy--the whole place went insane--I mean, the stage lights were pulled out of their sockets, and people were slamming, and falling on our mics and, all that great stuff. Cue, unhappy support band being ignored, trying to hit on the female bartenders to no avail. Cue, unhappy support band retiring to crusty band apartment upstairs from venue (which again, seemed like a crab fest), while we went to very comfortable hotel. Victory by the attitude-free WF! We did 'Communication Breakdown' and even gave in to relentless requests for obscure song on the first album that the band hadn't played since the 80s...Pat on guitar and me on drums. This was the show that made the whole tour worth doing! After the show we took our hotel rooms, and slept for maybe an hour. got up at 6 for breakfast, and found the hotel had a bowling alley! if only we'd known! We (the band minus Chips, who had a later flight, but plus Suz) squeeeeezed into a taxi that took us, for €112, to the Amsterdam airport. It actually was not that much more than 4 train tix would have been, and with the tight schedule navigating the train could have easily resulted in us missing our flights to London. Tracy and I flew on EasyJet, and rode the train in most of the way together; I went to my friend Meggean's place, up near Crouch End. the flight was so early that I was in her flat by 11am. We had lunch, and I made sure NOT to fall asleep, no jet lag for me. I headed down to the Shepherds Bush Empire as evening fell. It was quite a journey--walk to the Tube, 15 minutes. Tube, and find that the Hammersmith and City line was terminating before Shepherd's Bush. Head for the Central Line. Guess what--the Shepherd's Bush station on the Central Line is closed until late October!! So, I got off at the stop before and walked. Anyway, I made it in plenty of time. Found my companions, and met some new ones--my friend Henrik was there, with Danish music star Tim Christensen (who mentions 'Frosting on the Beater' in one of his songs); Xavier from Tahiti 80 was there, tho' I didn't see him til I was leaving. Etc. What was all the fuss? Well, the surviving members of the Zombies were performing together for the first time in 40 years (can you *have* Zombies that *don't* survive?--Ed.)--save for a brief, two song set in London ten years ago--and performing their incredible album, Odessey and Oracle, for the first time ever, in its entirety. I have been a fan of this album for over 20 years, and have covered almost every song on it at one point. So, for me this was a landmark occasion. In fact, I was riveted, and really, very emotional, they performed the album perfectly, in my mind. So satisfying, I could forsee having few musical wishes left ungranted after seeing this. After the show, backstage with Suz and Henrik, I had nothing to say to the band members, I just soaked in the atmosphere and enjoyed the afterglow of a well performed set. I did chat with Darian Shanaja, who played some extra keyboards to help recreate the album's sound--Darian is well known as a member of the Wondermints, and as part of the incredible touring band of Brian Wilson. Very nice guy. Henrik and I caught the last metro home--only to meet two Posies fans on board! On Sunday, I took it easy, well, sort of. Late lunch with Meggean, and we took in " The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" at the cinema. Holy bejesus, I was not expecting this film's powerful effect. I was sobbing, really. I won't retell the story here, but, I can highly recommend this beautifully realized true story. I've got to finish this blog now, and go out to a show. So, my observations on England , its weather, architecture, and music obsessions will have to wait til next week! Love KS London *Play The Blues
3.02.2008
THE DiSCiPLiNES in Q MAGAZINE THIS MONTH! Or, more like 'on' Q Magazine. 'Yours for the Taking', from the DiSCiPLiNES upcoming album 'SMOKiNG KiLLS' (coming May 5 in Norway & Denmark on Voices Music and Entertainment), is featured on the covermount CD accompanying the April issue of Q, in newsstands now. On the cover this issue: R.E.M., and the free CD 'R.E.M. Jukebox' featuring their hand-picked selections: tracks from The Young Fresh Fellows, Billy Bragg, Steve Wynn, the Minus 5, Robyn Hitchcock, Grant Lee Philips, and Chris Bell are included along with the DiSCiPLiNES and many others. More info: Q4music.com. I've uploaded new photos to the photos section. ST. JEAN DE VEDAS, 2.27 How great is being a support act? I love it. It worked great for me this night, I was still feeling a bit frail from the deadly escargots that ravaged my insides that morning. But it was a great show, I gathered round the peeps and played my little lungs out. My lungs are also still scorched by the bronchitis I had a couple of weeks ago, but I'm crawling back to full steam. But after I played and sold some CDs, I was ready to sleep. In fact, I fell asleep in the car on the way back to Hugo's place--I wasn't even aware that we had stopped for gas on the way. I slept like a king and felt much better by morning. I did stay at the show long enough to watch a few shows from Radio Moscow--they are indie rockers, but they play 60s music, thru and thru they recreate the vibe of Cream, Hendrix, Blue Cheer etc. The Strat-wielding guitarist has J. Mascis' hair from 1991. They are great players, and the songs are, well, authentic... MARSEILLE, 2.28 I woke and felt the warmth of the sun coming in my window at Hugo's groovy pad. Chirping birds. The springtime vibe enhanced my sense of renewal and recovery. We strolled up to the center so I could hit the post office and then we hit the road. Marseille is completely surreal, if you're not prepared for it. Dense and sprawling, with no real center to it. Huge apartment blocks loom over the highway, but there is no steel and glass district, just rolling hills coated with the same red tile roofed building over and over again. It could easily swap places with Oran and you'd never notice (they are more or less the same size). Many would consider the Old Port the center. Fair enough. But most of the city just dribbles out with little rhyme and less reason. Behind the main train station is a massive factory that's been converted into a kind of Culture Mall, called La Friche de Belle de Mai, with a theatre, radio station, music venue, restaurant, dance studio, cybercafe...all in delightful post-industrial gothic...more or less you could film extra scenes for the movie 'Alien' here and it would edit in fine. Le Cabaret Aleatoire ('The Random Cabaret') is the music venue here. It's a spacious concrete enclosure, but in the end it was quite cozy. Some futuristic lounge chairs helped everybody feel at home, and although the stage was quite high, I was able to get down with the peeps. Before the show, up in the restaurant, which was open and had a few patrons, we did a radio broadcast--normally the radio station housed in La Friche operates out of a huge pile of contruction site trailers that also house all the offices for the comples, and the cyber cafe--but in this case they ran a cable into the restaurant, and operated using the DJ station as a base for for the music sources and to mix the mics for the interviews and the live performance. This was the first time they had attempted such a thing to there were plenty of bugs--squeals of feedback, and the like. But the hosts were really cool people, and I had a great time--in fact a few journalists from Marseille converged on the scene, and I sort of had a press conference, or round table interview session, on air. Luis Francesco Arena was playing tonight as well, and the very talented Chris Garneau opened. I used Luis' acoustic guitar for my live tracks on the radio, of course, being the guerilla situation that it was, the guitar was cutting out while I was playing, but whatever! The show was a good one, and I was able to do the Lover's Hymn with Luis, as we did on our split single. After the show, I went for a drink with Thomas, my guitar student, and his g.f., at a bar down by the harbor. I ran into Yann, one of the hosts from the radio show, and also spoke with a local club night organizer who was chewing his face off on an E binge. Yikes! The next morning, Luis, myself and Chris and his entourage--his cellist, and two travling companions of unspecified job description--were all heading to the train station at the same time--we called two cabs, and two came--a van and a station wagon. In some kind of bait and switch shell game, instead of loading Chris & co into the van, and Luis and I and our two guitars into the wagon--which had plenty of room for it, we were basically commanded to put all the gear in the van. Of course, it was now now stuffed, and the stuff all rolled out onto the ground when we lifted the hatch uipon arrival at the station. And, we had the bizarre situation of having to pay the luggage fee to one cab and the fare to the other. Hmmm. I know we lost money on the deal...except that the club had given us money for this anyway. So, Luis and I were on a later train, so we had lunch at the gare, and eventualy boarded and road together to Paris. VIENNA, 3.1 I went to bed early on Friday, to complete my recovery and also because I had to be up at dawn to ride to the airport and get my early flight to Vienna. Upon arrival, I met up with my friend Christian, who had organized the affair--the show I was playing this night was a split birthday for Christian and his friend Philip, who are friends and have birthdays one day apart (born in the same year). Our first stop was the local tennis club, next door to the arena I played with REM in 2005. We played two hours of tennis, me for the first time since October. I felt great, my body was feeling very healthy, and my mentality is much less competitive than it used to be--I can thank " Tennis, Play the Mental Game" for that--so, in effect I enjoy playing more than ever, and I actually play better. Our second set went to a tie breaker...I lost, and I was happy to do it! I was installed at Philip's flat, I was meeting him for the first time, but he and his mom made me feel right at home--and actually, more than that, he helped me work out a fairly complicated trains-action for the upcoming Posies tour, spending time with the OBB on the phone, and taking me to the station to pick up the tix. Next up, the gig. Well. i knew this birthday party was taking place within the WUK--another multifaceted cultural cluster--but I didn't realize that when we walked into the WUK's small, smoky cafe that this would be where we were spending the evening! I had said aloud upon entering 'I want to play *here*!' thinking that we would be playing more like in a small banquet hall, a more generic space, like a wedding reception. But, the cafe it was. Pothos vines growing all over, intellectuals discussing subtle nuances of Socialist Realist Theatre, espresso machine giving its extended cough. Ben Martin, who was part of my great full band solo show last year--which Christian organized--provided the backline. There was barely a PA, and ben had to run home to get a mic stand, as none could be had here...but it worked out OK. Lukas from A Life A Song A Cigarette showed up with his cello, too--so we worked on a couple of songs for the program. In the end we worked out a great evening of music--I played on my own, Lukas played along at times, Ben played along at times, and Stephan from ALASAC sang and played with me. Oh, I forgot to mention--the cafe was actually open, instead of closed for the occasion--so we had noisy cafe patrons going full steam, especially during my first set. But, I felt like I really needed to rise to the occasion, and I think I did admirably. And by the second set, it was loose and fun--Stephan and sang Beatles and Neil Young songs together (and we reprised the version of 'Love Hurts' we did at my last Vienna show); I learned the favorite songs of C & P and their respective g.f.'s--'Simple Things' by Belle & Sebastian and 'At My Most Beautiful' by REM--I did my own songs, I did whatever. Fun! A few interesting characters came in randomly--Steve from Amber and Gold, who are working on a truly fascinating musical project--time stretching a 'popular song from a well known group' in the computer to make it 24 hours long, then setting up and playing along with it, in a non-stop 24 hour improvisation, and then time stretching the recording of all of that back into a 3 or 4 minute piece. We talked about collaborating on one of these pieces later. Then there was the 'bird man'--an extremely cheerful cafe patron, who can make an incredible variety of bird sounds with his mouth, sometimes including his hands in process but mostly just chirping--often in time with the music playing, including mine some of the time. a really friendly, peaceful person...with an extraordinary and unusual talent. In fact, Vienna reminds me of a wonderful kind of freak show--but not grotesque freaks--I mean, more that it's an arty place with a lot of things going on that are far from run of the mill. I love it there. There was never really time to sleep. We stopped at Phil's place after the show, and I had a shower, but it was pretty much time to head to the airport after that. I was home by 9.30 this morning, and was able to spend a lovely, relaxing Sunday with Dominique at home. Aden is with grandma for the week on winter school break. "There Will Be Blood" and sashimi were the highlights... Love KS Paris
 |
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
|
