Our week of rehearsals in Seattle. Wow. What a challenge--to build up 12 new songs from scratch and make them presentable not only for the show at the Croc on Saturday, but for a live broadcast on
KEXP and...an album recording right after. We tore into it, and we excelled. The songs coming in were so far, ridiculously far, above the level of our previous material...maybe above ANY of our material. Lyrically, structurally, it’s an evolution in depth, complexity, and ambition that would be like the Beatles taking a little break after Please Please Me and coming back with Kid A. It will be our defining artifact, if the composition is any indication. I really believe this.
All this pretentious self-aggrandizing aside, we had a great week. We were inspired, and punctual, hard-working. Posies rehearsals back in the day had different aspects--start times that were ignored by several hours and ending times that found the band long departed to grayer pastures. Members collapsing in giggling fits, having snorted their way out of all reason and playing ability. As many etc's as I care to recall. These days, it’s a shenanigans-free affair. We rehearsed 8 or more hours a day, spent the mornings procuring all the supplies for a month’s worth of recording and touring, and the evenings rewarding ourselves with rarefied vintages, a dull sermon on nepotism given by Charlotte Gainsbourg at her sold out Seattle show; the week also contained reunions of Mother Love Bone (with my former house sitter Shawn Smith in the Landrew position) and Soundgarden--sounds like a trip to Gameworks and a perusal of back issues of the Rocket are in order to complete the pastiche.
My bandmates were in good shape and good energy, despite Matt's recent bike accident that left him with some large swatches of scabby territory and a major shiner. As if he wasn't a character enough...
I made my Seattle hajj's to
The Red Mill, perhaps the best burger joint on the planet?; to the cafes, music stores, etc. A lot has changed...a few things haven't. But the building up of Broadway/Pine/Pike area is pretty confusing, it's beyond unrecognizable.
Tuesday nite Darius and I had fun on "The Monkey" a big FM station which has a local music show hosted by Damon Stewart, who actually helped break the Posies into our career when he was a DJ on KJET, an alternative AM station in Seattle, back in 1988. Darius and I had the run of the place, and in between vintage Posies selections " we played a new DiSCiPLiNES track, examples of things I'd produced, my solo stuff ("You Drew" has Darius on drums), and a track from
the Spiral Stairs album that Jon produced that Darius played on...we were planning on being there for half an hour--we spent 2 hours there and had a blast. Giving enough shit to the Long Winters for not telling Darius if they planned to use him for more shows or not on air that they finally acknowledged via Twitter their search for a drummer continues...
On Friday morning we loaded into KEXP and I was quite nervous--this was amplified by the absolutely lethal caffeine they brew there. I felt like the guys onstage at The Last Waltz, I was so jacked up. We brought down tiny amps (and the Long Winters bass amp) so we could leave most of our stuff set up in the rehearsal place. Now, I was nervous but I think our host and interviewer Cheryl Waters was even MORE nervous, she could hardly get the q's out, bless her. So, we let the music do the talking, playing two songs from FOTB interspersed with 2 new songs, and they were great. REALLY great. Powerful, emotional, abstract, thoughtful, moody...oh yeahrrrr. We had some encouragement from our buddy
Chris Xefos who dropped by to hang.
You can hear the sessions
hereWith that accomplished we went back to rehearsals and learned two more amazing songs.
SEATTLE, 4/17
It was probably for the better that the weather was moody that morning, and my proposed tennis match with my host Brian was canceled. I needed to rest for the big event, and also, my showing on the court earlier that week was less than stellar. Need to get back into it a bit more. So, I slept in, and my mom and stepdad came by and we went to lunch, along with my son and his new girlfriend. Headed back to Brian's and then he took me up to the hill (note: he has been a lifesaver this week, driving me around and being my partner in winecrime as well as letting me soak up a lot of real estate in his and his fiancee's Meggean's house). We loaded up the gear, and headed to the Crocodile. We'd already cased the joint (as well as the newly-installed Via Tribunali pizzeria+) at the Charlotte show. It has loft-like feel now, almost like a barn. I will say, the staff there--Nathan, the manager for the night, our old friend Sean who's now GM, the security, the sound and lights, the loaders. Wow. What a tight effin' ship. Cheerful, helpful, totally pro and WAY beyond competent. That was a delight. We felt very welcome, and very at home. We needed a long soundcheck, running most of the new stuff and a little FOTB. No problems there. It was great to see our friends in
the Tripwires--vets of so many great bands we've known forever, and to meet
Curtains For You. We then proceeded to hold court at the back booth in
Via Tribunali for most of the night, which was a great place to have friends come by but the socializing did mean that I missed CFY's set, which was a bummer. But, it was like the one night that friends knew where to find me, and I'd been pretty busy during the week, so I had to prioritize. But it was great to see folks like Terry Morgan, who was manager of the Posies in the early days; and Modou from the band WaFlash who is married to my friend Michele (and who have a beautiful little girl) came by, which was great. Lucy Suzuki, who was my g.f. ten years ago and a dear friend today was there. I really needed that.
My parents arrived and were escorted to a reserved seating perch up in the mezzanine, which a great view of the show, I could check in with them all through our set. They stayed for the whole thing and loved it (note: my stepdad is 85).
OK so as the week progressed we decided, but did not announce, that we would START the show with 12 new songs, and THEN do FOTB. We felt that new material was so strong, it deserved to be the main attraction. It was more challenging, and it's more restrained, so we thought it made musical sense to have FOTB more like an encore. It was the right thing to do, and we played the new stuff so freaking well. I mean...this is not easy music. It's so much more sophisticated than our past material...really it's not the same musical idea at all. It totally worked. Of course the FOTB stuff was easy after that. I will say, that tho my heart was in the new material, I put plenty of effort into the FOTB material and certainly "Coming Right Along", as a guitar and piano duet between Jon & myself, was yet another indicator of how much our musicality has progressed.
We followed up with versions of "Ontario" and "Throwaway" as a final encore and that topped off the evening way beyond capacity.
It wasn't but a couple of hours later that I was heading to SeaTac in the dark. Amazingly enough, all our flights were on time. All were still flying, since Eyjafjallajoekull was belching smoke up in the flight paths of Northern Europe, as it still is, wreaking on havoc on travel schedules--but not those involving Spain, miraculously. We got all our gear on board FREE OF CHARGE-- a combo of a clerical error on one airlines part and the Ryan Bingham-like status Jon & I enjoy on multiple carriers. Jon & I landed in Washington, and it was only then that I started to wake up. The show was kind of a blur. I really had to concentrate and it went by so freaking fast...was the audience even there? Of course they were, but I was just in my own head. Not really entertaining, as such, but...executing. Like the tiny Ukrainian girls doing those floor routines in the Olympics. But for 2 hours. And then no sleep and flying across a continent, an ocean...who books this stuff? Oh: me. Ahem.
So, at IAD we boarded a re-routed Aer Lingus flight to Madrid (EI doesn't fly from Dulles, and they only fly to Ireland from the US so it was a sign of weird times in the air thanks to the volcano). Snoozed and arrived to Madrid in the wee hours, and met up with Matt and Darius, who had no problems on their flights and had slept well etc. We were on different flights as we are going in different directions after this adventure so there were deals to be had by going with different co's. We flew on to Jerez, the tarmac of this small airport crowded with stranded Finnair planes for some reason. Barajas had been full of Britons trying to get home; life was complicated by a timely SNCF rail strike that put the Eurostar on reduced capacity. Way to earn public ire, eh?
And then we arrived to Jerez, and a van and driver were there to pick us up, and take our gear to the studio. We had booked two days in a hotel for acclimation to the time zone. Needed that. I was ok in the early afternoon but by 5pm I was nodding off. We did make it to dinner that night at
Balandro, a favorite place of ours and then back to the hotel to crash.
This morning I woke up at 4am, having been dreaming of recording ideas for one Jon's new songs. I read a bit, went back to sleep and finally got up a little after 7. Feeling good tho. Put my feet in the ocean. Had a cafe. Got caught up on some work. Called Dom to wish her a happy birthday--she could have come here but had to do a big TV shooting yesterday. I called Aden, who is on spring break, and now...finally a day free from work so I have time to catch up on work. Bliss.
Love
KS
Cadiz
We wrapped the Hanggai week with a massive feast the night before my departure; the band rented a huge circular banquet hall and JB and I, after 2 hardcore days of tag team production trying to get the vocals done before we all had to leave town, joined the band and their friends and family to a rotating selection of sheep parts and other delicacies...huge circular table with huge glass lazy Susan in the center. Sheep head with all the innards diced up inside...JB & I ate one eyeball each!
Wed. morning, I was a little beaten up by epic dining and my old nemesis Jacob's Creek. Flew home, watching movies the whole way (Air France really has a nice selection).
Upon arrival, I hung out with my family, opened presents, and fell asleep promptly at nine.
CRANS-MONTANA, 4/8
Good thing, too. I was up at 6 the next morning. As I prepared to head to the train, my family was getting up towards the end of the process. I was so sad to leave them so quickly after my arrival that I overstayed my goodbyes...and ended up having to RUN to Gare de Lyon. I made my train, but all sweaty and out of breath--which is what a Disciplines show is like anyway.
Some hours later, I arrived to Lausanne, and a driver picked me up for the two-hour run to Crans-Montana. I slept, can you blame me? Up in the mountains, it was sunny, I parked myself in the backstage and got organized. My bandmates, having flown in the night before, were soon on the scene and we did our soundcheck, had a lite meal (nothing but carbs on the menu, no thanks!) and waited around for show time...the band before us were these kind of JoBro's thing, playing the absolute whitest version of Chuck Berry's "Rock & Roll Music" I think I have ever heard...crowd loved 'em, of course. There were called Pegasus which I pronounced PeggySues when I acknowledged them.
So, our show: KM flown to get there: 10,000. Hours of travel from home: nearly 6. Hours of sleep: not enough. Elevation (this is a real killer when you are out of shape, and I am out of shape if we don't play a show every weekend): 1000m!!! Weeks since last show: 6. So, the fact this show was pretty damn good...well, it was a miracle we could do it at all. I can't say I had my all to give, I really tried, but just breathing was hard, let alone being 100% in control and feeling good. I was feeling fat and old, that's for sure. I probably WAS fat and old. But people loved it, and we made some real fans...and then the place filled up with Amy McDonald fans and we were history, haha.
Amy's show ended at 1, and we took the last shuttle to our hotel, some 20 min. drive away. The guys came back to my room, and much like the last nite in Beijing-- where JB, Jerome and I went to JB's room after the big dinner with a bottle of Great Wall, and in 5 minutes I was asleep during the conversation--same thing here. The guys respectfully left me there, passed out, not from drinking, just from pure exhaustion. The bottle we brought back to the room was barely consumed.
And at 4.30 that morning, I was out the door, for the 2-hour drive to Lausanne. 7.30am train. ooooooh. Got back to Paris and started right away on mixing Hannah Gillespie. Finishing up one song, and starting another, and then I went to bed.
Jet lag had me up Saturday morning at 6. So, I did a little more work on Hannah's stuff til my family woke up, so could say bye bye. And out the door at 8.
Flew to Seattle. LONG day. Long flight to New York, some 5-6 hours at JFK, nothing to do. Flight to Seattle took forever, too. I slept for like 2 hours, woke up and realized with horror that we weren't even a third of the way through. Fuuuuuck. Had a nice chat with the guy in the middle seat next to mine, a finance guy who had just been on a quick dash to DC to check out an Aston Martin in hopes of buying it. I love the Astons, and he was happy to talk about them--being quite the enthusiast--this would be his second. The time passed a little quickly too.
Landed, at 11.30--by the time I was at Brian's house, it had been some 25 hours since I left my flat in Paris. We had a celebratory bottle of Napa claret....
First day back in Seattle, Darius picked me up and we caught up and picked up tons of supplies for the recording and shows upcoming--different music stores, batteries at Fred Meyer. Always surreal to be back. Running into friends around town. And getting set up in our nice little practice room on Capitol Hill. Matt is looking wrecked--he wiped out on his bike in Palm Springs just before coming here, so he's got a big shiner and gouges all over...poor bastid. Jon looks good, we're sounding good--by now we've already worked up 4 excellent new songs. Had some incredible wine with Brian, in fact yesterday we visited my storage space and my wine storage, just down the road from Brian's place--I did some Navy SEAL worthy moves to get in and across the ocean of debris--my possessions--in my storage to wrestle out a guitar that I'm trading to Brian, and a big fluffy coat another friend wanted. We pulled out some treasures to enjoy from my wine collection this week.
Last nite we all went to see Beach House, they were excellent in their sold out show at Neumo's. Kind of a one trick pony but it's a great trick. Beautiful voice--very Band of Horses (I called them the Fleet Furnaces at one point). Enjoyable, then back to Brian's for a little dessert wine, and some bed.
It's grey and drizzly today. I need WARMTH.
Love
KS
Seattle
I posted a ton of new photos to the
photos sectionI continued my week, recording with
Hanggai in Beijing. We spent most of the week tracking the band live (sometimes with live vocal), and then the last couple of days doing overdubs--although I have to say, the basic tracks (hardly basic, really, when you consider there are 6 musicians playing at once) turned out wonderfully. They sound already mixed, just the perfect dynamics, interaction and diverse tonalities of the players and their unique blend of instrumentation. I've been getting to know them better, and building a great relationship with Travis, the engineer of the studio. So far, it's been a drama free session (touch wood). I get up in the morning--I've been waking up early--have a great breakfast at the hotel (steamed buns with green vegetable), go BACK to bed for an hour or so, get up/ready, bike the 7 minutes to the studio (most of Beijing seems to be quite flat, so it's a great biking city--oh, they have bike lanes too), dismount and immediately search out some midday vittles, usually a tiny sandwich of chopped up lamb guts in some kind of chewy, herbed bread; stroll into the studio and make music all day, with a break around 6 or 7 for a HUGE meal from the restaurant on the alley that the studio is on--there's quite a few little eateries there to choose from but generally our evening meal comes from the place that does a great crispy duck...there's a dish of meat, and for the truly indulgent experience, a dish that's just the duck's oily skin. Yummmm. Sea cucumber, spicy noodles, chicken feet soaked in white pepper oil. It goes on and on.
Last Sunday I woke up early, my body finally not feeling like I'd been on the Long March, and biked at 8.30 over to the Forbidden City, and was amongst the first people there, beating the rush for the most part. It's there that I detected the first hint of spring, tho it's still a bit brisk in general...and the winter was so hard this year that the trees seem scared shitless, there's not even a *hint* of green buds on the branches. But the former Emperor's Garden had cultivated cherry blossoms, and the scent of the junipers reminded me of the approach to certain Spanish beaches I love.
I did a little shopping for Aden's birthday, did lots of interviews--the Seattle Weekly is doing a feature on the Posies the week we're in town...and China Daily and other papers here are talking to me this week. And now...bed time.
Love
KS
Beijing
