Ken Stringfellow

UTRECHT, 5/6

This gig took place in a little farm, which is grandfathered in, surrounded by busy freeways. Just a little parcel, with an old house a couple of small barns, a tiny paddock with two horses, some goats, chickens. Mostly the house is used for small performances. In this case, we set up in the barn that adjoins the house. It looked completely ramshackle, me having to slip between loose boards to get into the space, unraveling my cables on the old concrete floor. Took a long time to set up. The show was essentially a birthday party for a friend of Sonja van Hamel’s, and thus she was hired to play. About ten minutes before we were supposed to start, in the middle of the afternoon, I was pretty sure no one was there, but exited the barn and was surprised to find thirty or so people about, including a couple of folks I knew, milling around in the mews, having coffee and cake. And turning around to head back into the barn, the visual set up of the show and the Drawclips machinery was really nice looking. Reminds me of the footage of Neil Young and co recording “Harvest” that you can see in the Archives box set. More barn! This show also sounded very good, we weren’t loud at all, and barely amplified by the minimal PA, just reinforced subtly. Very enjoyable this show was, I think my favorite of the handful of shows I played with Sonja this spring.

Packed up and they dropped me and all my crap at the train station back in Amsterdam, and rode back down to Paris. This was the day of Francois Hollande’s presidential election victory, and the celebration was taking place in Bastille not far from where I live. Mayhem. I was tired from the shows and just wanted to go home, even tho it was kind of exciting I have some feelings of…well, you know the Chinese tale. Boy gets a horse and everyone says how great that is. “We’ll see” says the wise man. Boy falls off the horse and breaks his leg and everyone says how awful that is. “We’ll see” says the wise man. War breaks out but because his leg his broken the boy misses the battle he would have otherwise died in because it went badly. Everyone says, how great. “We’ll see” says the wise man. And so on. I admit that Sarkozy’s government reduction plan was not working to stimulate the moribund French economy. But I don’t know if Hollande’s party’s ways are what’s best for France either. We’ll see.

Meanwhile, crowds have taken over, cars honking, and by my house it was especially intense. People dancing in the streets, screaming, jumping, whatever…a big release. Yikes, I got home and we were all so tired we slept thru the rest. I don’t mind crowds, but, again, I had a weird sense of foreboding. Haven’t shaken it.

The next day was my last at home for awhile, I had a lot to do, finishing up mixes for Alpha Ray, Lewis Phillips, and so on. Had a bottle of wine to share with Dom and finally a big cuddle. There was no school on the day I left, VE Day. Headed to the airport not too early. Flight: canceled. Alright. I was booked first class, and I stayed that way, just took longer to get there. On to DC, then Houston, finally getting into Seattle at almost midnite. Missed the last shuttle to Bellingham so I had, on the Houston layover, booked myself a hotel by the airport.

When I got there I fired up my laptop as someone needed a file from me, but my hard drive, with all my traveling sessions on it, wouldn’t mount. Reset the Firewire bus, reset the PRAM. No avail.

Few hours later I was up and on the shuttle to Bellingham, so early that I was in town by 8.30. My folks came to pick me up. A cafe, a drive out to the marina, and it’s there we find the Apple reseller. Found out there was nothing wrong with my computer or my drive, it mounted fine now, but I bought a drive for backup just in case.

Fetched the upright bass I was borrowing from my son’s mom’s husband Dave. Yep. They left it sitting outside in the driveway–it was a nice day and they said you can do that sort of thing where they live, outside of town. Sold some CDs and DvDs. Hit a pharmacy. Did some printing at my mom’s office. Practiced some bass, took my folks out to dinner, or rather, they took me, and by 9 I was out.

Up at 2.45 that morning. Worked a bit, slept more.

BELLINGHAM, 5/10

impromptu acoustic Posies set in a church, for charity, in Bellingham. After the performance I was having a coffee in a bar with Jon and my first bandmate Chip, who does recording engineering etc in Bellingham. Looked out the window to see a huge doe ambling down the street.

KIRKLAND, 5/11

Another impromptu charity concert in a small hall in Kirkland. A girl baked two sheets of cookies frosted with various Posies themes. Earlier during the day I was still in Bellingham, had a big lunch of crab with my folks and my aunt and uncle. I spent the morning just looking out on the lake, observing a loon, when it was attacked from below the water, torpedo style, by another loon, two males fighting over territory. I was very lucky to witness the ritual–they danced on the water, flapping wings and snaking necks at each other, and squawked in a way that you don’t hear loons usually do. As a boat approached, with a waterskiier behind, the defeated loon gave the customary loon whistle–no matter the previous combat, he went back to warning the species at a hold–the common, global enemy was more of a threat than the temporary one.

Later in the day, as we dined on the deck, we were buzzed by hummingbirds, and powder blue butterflies who settled on me now and then. A family of Canada geese approached the house to feed on our lawn, two adults and three goslings, then promptly disappeared. Ah…I see why. A massive bald eagle was soon patrolling the area and it’s likely the reason this family had three goslings and not the customary four.

You can imagine I was sad to go–drinking wine in brilliant sunshine, with my family, nature all around. Long drive to Kirkland, I passed out. Jon was kind enough to listen to my album and actually gave a few compliments. Always hard to play stuff for your bandmates. Yep, I was passing out on the way home from there too.

Saturday I worked in the studio with Scott Gagner from San Francisco, really nice fellow and great musician. I was expecting to do a ton of overdubs of different kinds but he seemed most keen on getting backing vocals out of me, so we did quite a few. Found out my favorite burger joint in North America, the Red Mill, has taken over the Totem House on the Ballard locks, so very near the studio, this is a great development. We went there for lunch, and ran into Rob Morgan, who can easily work in more stories, jokes and anecdotes per square inch than anyone I know.

Sunday I didn’t even bother to pick up a NY Times. I recorded drums for the Eric Lichter album. Tho Eric is a drummer (and so is Scott Gagner, and so is Michael Collins with whom I recorded this week–and none of them play drums on their respective albums!) we had a fellow named Mike come in, who played in bands like the Moving Parts (and in a band called the Pudz with Rob Morgan). This was a long, challenging day. The studio I work out of is small and not really set up for drums. We set them up in the control room, working with headphones. There’s not a ton of gear to work with for such a big set up, but we did it. We were doing preproduction there too, really–coming up with arrangements for each song on the fly.

Monday I worked with Michael Collins on the album by his band Victory Lap. Work on this album started a decade ago (not with me), got sidetracked, and now are heading to completion at last. Spent the day doing various overdubs–organ, guitar, vocals, percussion.

Today I worked from my accommodations, as always my friend Brian’s house, now he has a room in the basement I can use while I visit as a kind of recording and mixing suite. So did some more overdubs on Michael’s stuff and then got started on a mix. We checked out Jones BBQ and dined with Brian and also Ian Moore.

Seattle is seductively sunny. When Michael and I were in Ballard at the studio, we parked on the next street parallel to the one the studio is on, even tho the surrounding blocks have big businesses this block has a row of tiny houses, apparently condemned. Gnarly looking dudes were taking the appliances out, and loading them into a pickup using unprintable language as their main force of leverage. The younger of the two was a long hair, the older was just the kind of guy that beats your teeth in outside a bar for brushing by him on your way to the bathroom. Short hair, ripped up rock T shirt, disturbingly tight shorts. And even more weird, we noticed he was wearing, like, little booties, almost like Uggs. To demo a house and lift super heavy shit! Ballard is still weird. They moved the Radio Shack off Market Street tho. Still shows up in every Google Map, iPhone map, etc. Hate that.

Love Sleeping. Headed that way

Love
KS
Seattle

Spent the week mixing, mixing, mixing. Several songs for a Seattle based singer and then also for a new American bands called Alpha Ray. I also spent a day with Liisa, recording piano in the morning at Studios de la Seine, the big time studio that’s in my neighborhood. The Posies recorded a demo for “That Thing You Do” back in the 90s. Didn’t get in the film. I wrote a couple of great tunes for that…”Runaway Girl” that I ended up putting on the Chariot “I am Ben Hur” album in 1998. Personally, I think the fact those tunes didn’t make it didn’t bode well for the quality of the film and I didn’t see it pick up any prizes at Cannes that year.

So, mixing was very good, mostly working on my own. In that sense the week went by quickly. My friend JB was in town with his missus and we met up for drinks and dinner on occasions.

ALKMAAR, 5/5

I had wrapped my work up a little early on Friday so I could spend time with the girls, then on Saturday morning before anyone was up I was out the door before 7. On the train, working on emails and what not. No, no one tried to kick me off this time (my letter of complaint about the April 6 incident was received by Thalys and is in the process of being reviewed). I got to Amsterdam and took the tram to the neighborhood where ‘it all happens’, and went to JB’s place, he had some files to transfer my way.

Then met up with Sonja van Hamel and band and van, and we drove to Alkmaar. Alkmaar is north of Amsterdam. Had a great show here with THE DiSCiPLiNES a few years ago. This was the 5th of May celebration, which finds, like Queen’s Day the weekend before, bands playing, usually for free, all over the country. Queen’s Day (which is based on the Queen’s birthday but I do believe it’s actually a different day but the new Queen agreed to celebrate her birthday on the same date as the previous, to make it work out as it does on the calendar) kicks off spring break, which is punctuated by 5th May, which is Liberation Day in Holland, which leads to another week of spring break. I don’t know if Holland was actually liberated on May 5. I know there was an uprising of Georgian POWs conscripted into the German army that rebelled and caused fighting on the Dutch island of Texel as late as May 20 that marks the last combat operation of the European War.

______

Nothing like that was on anybody’s mind as we pulled into the green little park where the show was happening. A cute little outdoor bandshell, with some quaint almost Swiss kind of decor. A small expanse of grass surrounded by some of the most enormous trees…Dutch elms, I guess. There were some three to four foot diameter trunks, really impressive. A band, that sort of semi-funky British sound a la Muse, was performing. We loaded the stuff into the basement of the bandshell, made a sandwich or two. There was a cute little espresso stand, in one of those Piaggio three wheel mobile carts, I coffee’d up there. So, soon..bathroom. I didn’t know there was a toilet in the bandshell structure, so I went to the main public toilets, which were temporary trailers brought in for the festival, and cost .50 each. I thought, surely, as a performer, I get a freebie. Upon suggesting this, the woman who was serving as cashier said, OK, I have to speak to the festival organizers, etc….I said, “please do”. And went about my business. Like, the 50 cents is going to break the budget. I know, it wouldn’t break mine either, but…it’s principle, the bands should get comped for our efforts, all the way. No pay to play man!

The band finished, we set up, it’s quite a complex set up for me but I made it in our 30 minute changeover. The show kicked off with the MC, a mad scientist looking fellow who had approached me before the show when I was brushing my teeth, and asked me if I was Ken Stringfellow then went into a very friendly monologue in Dutch while I stood there waiting for the Sonicare cycle to finish so I could explain I didn’t get a word. He basically started to interview Sonja as a way of introduction. This went on for like 5 minutes (and meant that we cut our set short at the end). Hmmm. There was also a funny moment when he reappeared in mid song to bring a kid who had been separated from his mom to the front of the stage and announce that, the mom coming to fetch him. County fair vibe. The sound was crummy, the PA going completely off at some point. But we played well, showing good pro chops, keep calm carry on.

After the show I had a beer with the guys from BEP, with whom I’ll be working in studio next month, and watched the band Kayak. Kayak have been going for about 40 years, they call themselves ‘Symphonic Rock’ but to me it’s 80s Meatloaf crossed with Bon Jovi. Like Bon Jovi with longer solos. There are three old enough to be original members–a guitarist who doesn’t play that much, a bass player and singer/keyboard player. This is augmented by a younger drummer, lead guitarist, and a female singer. Evidently the original drummer just died recently, and had been the author of one of the all time great Dutch hits–’Sausalito Summer Nights’. People were eating the show up, I felt they could use an update from the 80s–they had lost any touch of what might be cool 70s retro touches, and hadn’t even acknowledged musical development post-80s, so unfortunately what could be brilliant, pompous extravagance, Rick Wakeman style, was now more or less AOR. I hate to be critical esp since the majority of the people obv. enjoyed their show more than ours, but hey…if they were asking, I’d say, update your sound…imagine where they could go with players that skilled.

So, we drove back to Amsterdam, I met up with JB and a band about possible production work in the future, and started to fall asleep at the table by 9. Gawd. But I’ve been working seriously hard and it was an early day so can you blame me?

Love
KS
Utrecht NL

Looking at Spain’s 25% unemployment stat with disbelief, I am very happy to be a working man. I worked every day this week, Sunday to Sunday, mixing. I finished mixing the Oh, Libia! album on Sunday last. I was supposed to start mixing for a Seattle artist on Monday, but the French post ate their disk. It’s never shown up. No door tag was left…weird. I moved onto mixing for Bryan Frazier on Monday and Lewis Phillips on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Michael in Seattle (he doesn’t have a music website up yet) was uploading his files and by Wednesday I was getting the tracks organized and beginning to mix. Been that way every since. Dom was out of town, working at the Printemps Bourges Festival so I worked long hours, touching up mixes that I’d done previously and working on getting the Big Star Third shows organized. I listened to demos from people I’ll be working with in the weeks to come and made notes. I occasionally, if briefly, left the house.

Dom is back and my work is pretty much done for the night. These blogs are much less interesting when I’m home and mixing. I know.

Oh, the UK label Lojinx announced my upcoming album release! http://www.lojinx.com/artists/ken-stringfellow My album will be out Oct. 1 in Europe. I haven’t yet found the right home for it in the US. In discussion. Mastering has been happening the last weeks with Frans Hendriks it’s sounding really good. He was busy this week so I expect to have it all done in the next week. The cover is amazing too. Almost done.

The Brendan Benson album, What Kind of World that I play on, is out this week

http://brendanbenson.com/2012/04/what-kind-of-world-now-available/

No, I haven’t got my copy yet!

But I did get copies of a couple of things I worked on.

Firstly, Ian McGlynn’s album “Now We’re Golden” which was recorded and mixed in two stages, one at his home in New Jersey, and then another where we recorded in the Netherlands and mixed at my place. This album is enormous sounding, rich, experimental, mysterious. A must have. It won’t be out til June but you can pre-order it now! at his website

Secondly, this came out a couple of months ago but I didn’t get to it in the stack til more recently, the Velvet Ants album. I mixed it and play on it a bit. They recorded it themselves, on really modest equipment at home, and without a ton of recording experience or gear the sounds were not super hi fi. I had only one, yes, one, track of drums to work with for example! And their budget necessitated we work quickly. But working within limitations is one of the golden rules of great art and the results with this album are incredible considering what I *didn’t* have to work with. But great songs have a tendency to transcend any other limitations and trump all other factors. http://thevelvetants.bandcamp.com/

Gonna fix up a few things mixwise and bedtime.

Love
KS
Paris

Been working hard this week on albums by Oh, Libia! and Cheap Star. Took Friday off to spend time with Dom on her birthday, really enjoyed our dinner at Saturne, a trendy wine-themed restaurant. What’s with the bread in a cloth bag trend? Some kind of post-Noma rusticism?

Today I listened to the master of my album, it’s so close, it’s wonderful…very excited and proud.

And also got an advance copy of Ian McGlynn’s album, it’s amazing, you should pre order one here

Love
KS
Paris

Late nights, early mornings. My days in studio were lengthy to begin with, and augmented by my two-hour practice sessions in the morning on the double bass, and the two hours (at least) spent each night after the session’s end on tour management duties. I also sequenced my album, more or less, and figured out if it was actually done or needed more mixing (it’s done at this point). Determined which mixes to use.

Meanwhile, the songs from Reveller came into shape, and turned out really really good. Monday, the day we had scheduled to mix them, began with me still playing a few parts on one of the songs, so, we didn’t get mixing the first one till mid afternoon, and the second one not until almost midnite. So, it was an epic session, finally wrapping around 6am Tuesday morning–after which, when the guys went home, I was still pretty awake from the adrenaline rush of trying to finish everything, so I practiced bass for 45 minutes before finally going to…well, sleep, sort of, on the studio couch, as my next client was coming at 10.

Or so I thought. Turns out he had a family emergency and canceled just 20 minutes before the session. How I dealt with the matter is between myself and him, but suffice to say I am being paid for the day, before you get any ideas of hiring me and then canceling at the last minute. Meanwhile, I had a day to catch up, so it was almost a blessing in disguise–I could spend more hours practicing bass, more hours doing tour manager emails. Unexpected day off so I can actually work! What a life.

I did do one personal errand–I went to the Witte Tandenwinkel, a shop specializing in toothbrushes and other dental hygiene products. Just a little tiny place by De Doffer, the bar in which I have logged countless hours, my informal reception area in Amsterdam. My Sonicare, which I bought in Seattle c. 2003, had finally given up. It’s last murmurs of life were in January, but as it had come back from the dead a couple of times, I gave it a chance to revive for all of February, March, and now it was the second week of April–almost three months since it had showed any reaction to being on the charger. Poor thing. Now, a curious fact about the Sonicare, 2003 edition: despite the fact that by then every phone, every iPod, every laptop–was able to jump to the local voltage and utilize it, the Sonicare only ran on US voltage. Ridiculous–as if a toothbrush wasn’t an essential, perhaps *the* essential, travel item. For nine years, I have been lugging a step down transformer with me everywhere I go outside the US (except Japan). I had many annoying questions for the folks at the toothbrush boutique. Why doesn’t Philips (a European company, after all) at least sell chargers separately, so I could pick up a charger that runs on 220V? Why don’t they integrate a replaceable battery, so I don’t have to throw away the whole toothbrush apparatus when the battery loses its ability to recharge?

Well, they didn’t have the answers. But they had toothbrushes and they assured me that nine years was an above average lifespan for this device, and that there were no changeable parts inside. Just time for a new one, get used to it. I examined the various models and went with the cheapest, simplest one. I asked about voltage switching and was told they don’t do that–were I to buy it in their shop, it will only run on 220V. Well, I’m in Europe more than the US, anyway, so, what the hey. I bought my toothbrush and went back to the studio, enjoying the 30 minutes of tram each way as the most free time I’ve had during daylight hours in some time. Got back to the studio and found the guy was wrong–I mean, this is the most popular electric toothbrush in the store, and this is a store that specializes in them, so….how could he get a fact that crucial wrong??

Well, I worked till the evening came down, got a decent night’s sleep–I was pretty out of it that evening as I went back to my accom’s, but I got some valuable hush-eye.

AMSTERDAM, 4/11

My son’s 26th birthday. Holy crap. Monday was my stepdad’s 87th birthday, I gave my folks a call from the studio Sunday nite as the date arrived to Europe, figuring they’d all be home on a Sunday afternoon.

The first order of business was a rehearsal for the Sonja van Hamel shows this week. Back at the Muzie-Q complex, we spent the morning and early afternoon running thru the material, me getting my tech stuff together-I have a complex program that involves a laptop and several programs within it, an iPhone and two apps within it, guitar, and guitaret. I need a table to host all the stuff. Several outlets, etc. After some run thrus I felt good about the material. We headed directly to the venue from there, and set up. Not just any venue, of course, but the venerable Paradiso. We had the upstairs room, while a popular artist named Miss Montreal had a show in the main hall. We set up and the stage was crowded by not just the 5 piece band, but Annie was supplemented by her string trio, and we also had Katarina Thomsen, one of the horn players on the album. And then Eddo running all the visuals that Sonja created, that run on various machines of his construction. It’s all mechanical, the only digital aspect to it is the video camera that feeds the shots of the visual items to the beamer that puts them on the screen. The visuals are all hand drawn or painted by Sonja. Quite clever and low tech.

After a long soundcheck, quick meal, it was already showtime–there was quite a line out the door, of course the bigger show had a bigger proportion of those aspiring attendees, but the people coming to our show had to wait in the same long line. So, ten minutes before showtime, the room was totally empty. We were thinking about coping strategies, since our show was actually the first of *two* shows that night in the small room. So we had an early stage time (19.30) and an absolute curfew. As we discussed, for about nine minutes, different possibilities, I peeked around the corner again and lo and behold the room was looking about 2/3 full all of a sudden. OK, we could work with that. Even in the 5 minutes it took us to actually start the show it filled up further and was very full by the end of the show. And we played extremely well, there was really an up energy to this show. Considering how many different responsibilities I have musically, I made very few errors, of course I have a music stand with my notes onstage with me for backup. I can’t really interact with the audience too much as I’m always deep down in singing some very parts (I sing many parts originally sung by Sonja’s sister, higher than Sonja’s lead vocals), or playing something or switching programs on the laptop or iPhone or tuning my guitar to a new tuning. But it’s cool to be musically useful. After the show the bulk of us were at De Doffer, yep. Laurens from Avant La Lettre was tending bar, and Jonathan “Dusty Stray” and Jejse who sings live with him came by after their gig in the Hague. Jesje had just sung on Lewis Phillips’ record, so I had a little money for her from him! Other Amsterdam friends came and there was Love (pronounced Low-veh), with whom I was to work in the studio the next day–you might remember him as the Swedish guy living in Paris with whom I recorded for a day last year. We drank wine and we left so much money on the table for it that a bottle was sent clandestinely with Trevor our sound engineer for our benefit later that week.

I hadn’t drank so much that I felt crappy the next day, and was able to guide Love thru his session–we recorded a new song of his, me playing standup bass, electric bass, piano, percussions, and Love playing guitar and layers of percussion and starting to work on the vocals, when the day was done. He has some lyrical work to do on the tune, but it’s going to be amazing. He went to his hotel, I stayed at the studio and did some work, and slept on the couch again…ugh.

EDE, 4/13

Friday the 13th. I had gone to bed around 3, up at 8 or so to work on bass playing, and then left the studio–I’m sure I’ll be back but despite the fact that I probably have black lung disease from breathing that dank air, I was kind of sad to leave the nest. I had a busy morning of tidying up the studio, packing up my stuff, returning my rented bass bow to the labyrinthine Palm Guitars shop, getting myself some herring, getting to JB’s to return the studio keys, and finally RDVing with Sonja and band for the drive to Ede, a small town in central NL with a pretty deluxe little theatre.

I watched Tom Waits’ hard-to-find concert film “Big Time” which is just so incredible, I’d love to know the story as to why this has never been available as home video and is almost never shown on screen. It concluded exactly as we pulled up to the loading bay of the theatre. We put our gear on the freight elevator and dragged it directly onto the stage. This time we had the flight case for the Wurlitzer that when gaffer taped to a keyboard stand, made a fine and very rock & roll looking table for my set up.

This show was a bit nerve wracking–it was a small, quiet audience, and definitely none of the vibrant energy of Amsterdam. They loved it, but it was hard to tell at the time. As I’ve said before, I’m much more nervous playing for ten people than to 10,000. When it’s small, the rush of energy doesn’t happen, you can see everyone’s eyes, and there isn’t enough anonymity to spread out the awkwardness of the performer/viewer dichotomy. Yikes. I made way more mistakes tonite than the night before, and felt them harder. I felt so bad that it really put me in a funk afterwards. But I couldn’t tell why it put me in *such* a funk.

Til I got to Annie’s after the drive back to Amsterdam, during which I fell sound asleep, and then slept for almost nine hours and woke up the next day *still* exhausted. Of course–I’d been working 20+ hour days for days n days…and mostly sleeping on a studio couch. I was totally depleted, and it had affected my emotional state.

GRONINGEN, 4/14

So, I took my time to get ready, nice long shower–Annie had already gone to a rehearsal somewhere early that morning. We assembled at Mark, the drummer’s place, which is near the studio actually, near enough that I duly noted the very good Italian deli in the area. We hit the road, the rental van had slept in Mark’s garage fully loaded the previous night. Groningen is a long way away but I had an acoustic guitar and entertained everyone (well, I assume I did…they didn’t say stop!) on the way up. As soon as we got to Vera, the ancient (by indie rock standards) iconic venue that I’ve played maybe half a dozen times with the Posies, most recently in 2010, we loaded in the stuff and then Sonja and I went to Elpee Records down the street for a very well attended in store. We traded off tunes, I was pleased to announce that my songs are from my upcoming EU release…Oct 1….I will make an official announcement about this in the next couple of weeks. So, I played all new tunes, and backed up Sonja, and we managed to move a fair amount of product in this little instore, then we headed next door to Vera to set up–an elaborate set up, with all the draw clip machines, and our gear, my big table covered in widgets. We had a long soundcheck, that included working up “Shadows on My Wall” the Poppy Family cover that we worked up for a small festival with Annie and her trio last summer, and “The India Song” the Big Star song that Sonja performed with Jody, Jon, JB & myself last year. I did a kind of soundcheck, and we went up for some incredible Chinese food in the dining room, took an evening stroll for a cafe, then came back and spent time with my friend Carsten who happens to be the finest rock journalist in all of Germany, he came to Groningen to speak to me about the new album.

Then I had to jump up, run thru some things with Annie then it was…almost…showtime…they pushed it back ten minutes. OK…hold on….and…OK, we can go! So, I hopped up onstage and went thru tons of new stuff, standing at the edge of the stage, no mic. The stage is high tho, and with Sonja there’s all the machinery in front of it, but I managed to connect very well. For piano songs I played Sonja’s Wurlitzer, and she joined me for a few songs, on guitaret, or just singing. The audience was very receptive, they didn’t make a peep during the songs. I did manage to hop down on the floor, carefully, thru the machinery, and got to sing with the audience.

We didn’t take much of a changeover for the Sonja set, just went straight into it, and this was a very good show, too. Vera has something magic about it. I think it’s the casualness of it, it’s pro but has a homemade feel in many ways, and just cannot intimidate the performer or audience, but also since the stage is big and tall it sort of gives literal and figurative elevation to every artist. It works. It worked for us. The cover tunes we learned that afternoon were fun, and, again, I count a good Sonja show the one with the least errors, since what I do in that band is so complex.

After the set we sold a bunch of merch, and Trevor, the engineer, bless him, packed up all my stuff. I selected what I’d need for the next three weeks in Paris–some cables, my computer stuff, the guitaret–and packed the rest in the van, which would sleep in the loading bay downstairs, and the big heavy bag with all my gear (and now, merch) and my guitar could stay in Amsterdam till the next Sonja shows in May.

I hung out with Carsten having some wine, until I started to droop, not long after midnite. Everyone else was in a bit of a party mood, but was still exhausted and had an early train the next morning. So I called it a night.

The next morning I was up at 6.30, enjoying my little walk to the station, a bit drizzly but the sun also doing its best despite the fact its generally not welcome in Holland. I tripped out on an absolutely shocking burst of cherry blossom along the canal that faces the station. Got on the train, and found out that the ‘change of trains’ in Zwolle an hour later was merely moving to the *front* of the same train–which would break off and and head one way, eventually. So, why didn’t my ticket just say “get in cars 1-5″ or whatever? As that was added stress. So of course I moved forward in the one-minute stop in Zwolle, but it was still confusing–the signs inside the train said “Utrecht”. So in Amersfort, I went up to the very front of the train. Still said Utrecht there. So, in Utrecht, I knew I had 5-7 minutes, so I ran along the parked train till I found a car that definitively said “Rotterdam”. They don’t make it easy for a literalist like me. Got to Rotterdam, whose station is totally torn up with expansion work, with time spare–which was a bummer cuz I really needed to pee. Oh well.

Got on the Thalys and they didn’t try and throw me off this time, things seemed back to normal. Good! Paris, back home. Empty house. That’s a big bummer. Sure, I could call the girls, but…still…they’re at our summer place, and I’m here. I got to work. A little behind on my mixing, and I wanted to work all night to catch up, but by 11pm I just couldn’t. I have an early appointment this morning, so…couldn’t push it too hard. Today, I will tho! Mixing Oh, Libia!’s album, which is sounding really really good.

I got Ian McGlynn‘s album in the mail-advance copy, it’s coming in June. Holy mother that sounds good!

Love
KS
Paris

I’m in Amsterdam working, this weekend with a great band called Reveller.

But first, how I got here.

I bought my ticket for this week’s Amsterdam ticket when I was in Brussels recording in February. I was in the train station and thought, I could pick this up here. Great. Got the ticket to come up for this session. Done. The band would reimburse me when I got here.

A few weeks later some things came up: JB wanted me to come up the day before to work with him on something, and Reveller was going to use a session drummer, a friend, Rob from the popular Dutch band Moke. He was only available on Friday–the day before I was scheduled to come up. Now, my ticket was a changeable ticket, not an online ticket. But…it was a paper ticket. When this new date came up, I was in the states, in LA, mixing my album. I called the Thalys help line and they said the the ticket was changeable. They found the record locator of the reservation no problem when I told them over the phone. However, they recommended I call B Rail, the Belgian National rail, as they could change the ticket without charging me a change fee, and Thalys was obligated to charge me to change it. OK, called B Rail. They found the record locator no problem, and made the change. They said I may or may not receive an email with the details, so best to write it down: new train number, new date, new time, new seat.

I asked them if I needed to do something more–this ticket would have the old info on it, so how would the conductor know it was changed? “Oh, they can find it. They just have to call us”. Well. Folks, guess who doesn’t answer the phone at 6am when you’re on board a train to Amsterdam? B Rail. Their help desk doesn’t open til much later.

So…got on the train, and of course, my ticket was refused, and I had to buy another one on spot. This is after basically being accused of fraud by the conductor. And she even said I would probably get a refund. Which was her way of being nice, as I think she started to realize I wasn’t lying about my experience. But then I was thinking…”so you know that I’ve just been put thru this whole experience for no reason”…if you are sure i’m getting a refund, why put me thru all this? It was truly awful way to start the trip. But, it’s only money, and I *will* get it back, one way or another.

Meanwhile, there was music to do–Reveller. I had only a few demos to go on, and they were not super indicative of what they did or could sound like, they were really basic. And what’s nice is that those songs have blossomed as we worked together, we did two songs and they’ve definitely become something full of vibe. Sven, the singer, is really incredible, he has that perfect rasp in his voice, and as far as I can see he doesn’t even smoke.

The way it worked out with the drums I had an early nite last nite, visited Palm Guitars (woah) to pick up a bass bow for the week that I’m renting from them. Met up with Tim from the band Clueless and talked to him about his upcoming album. Drank some wine with Annie, my cello-playing host. And was up at 8am on Easter Sunday, practicing bass by 9 at the studio.

Before Amsterdam I was home, working on the Lewis Phillips mixes and then the new album by Oh, Libia!

A lot of great music coming past me these days.

Now, sequencing my album before bed

Love
KS
Amsterdam

Velib’d to the bank today. Breathing in crisp spring air. Ahh. Done with my April Fool’s joshing.

So, for the last couple of weeks I have been working with Lewis Phillips, on what will either be an EP or half of an album (or both). Same crew as my album, more or less–Joost Kroon on drums, Pim Kops on keyboards/accordion, the West Side Trio doing strings, and JB Meijers popped in to blast a guitar solo. Jesje de Schepper, who sang on Dusty Stray’s album, came in for some duettin’, and we also received tracks by mail from the great BJ Cole, pedal steel player of great renown and modest bearing. We worked in Paris and then he & I drove to Paris and I commenced mixing, I’m still working on that today, later today I will switch over to mixing a song from the new Oh, Libia! album. So, not much time for socializin’. In Amsterdam I was rehearsing double bass parts for the upcoming Big Star Third show in Spain (June 1, Primavera Sound Festival) from 7-9am, then doing a 12 hour studio day with Lewis, then working on tour mangling, I mean, managing, at night til about 1 or 2am. Most nites is was easier to crash on the studio couch than go to my accommodations. In Paris we have to keep more reasonable hours, but still up at 7 to get Aden to school. So working long hours as well, just cutting it off around midnite when possible–the girls already asleep, I work on headphones for a bit.

Lewis’ tunes have turned out quite majestic–pretty unbelievable interplay between BJ’s parts and the string trio parts.

Meanwhile, the mixes for my album have been coming in from TheLAB, I think it’s done, just need to take some time this weekend to listen thru and make sure. Then start looking into mastering.

Love
KS
Paris

I’m never writing this blog again.

KS

PS: Pd’A

From Menlo Park last Monday I flew up to Seattle, rented a car and drove in the lashing rain out to Monroe. I have a family member in prison, and I went to visit him. I had forgotten how awful driving in the rain in Seattle could be–almost zero visibility, especically around the big trucks. Prison was prision, sitting around card tables and chatting, avoiding eye contact with the other tables. Eventually, I had to hit the road. Awful traffic to get to Seattle, I had also forgotten how awful the traffic was in Seattle. Good reminder–no regrets. Got to my friend Brian’s house, but I didn’t even get to see him, I just let myself in and collected my mail, and met up with Bud Reichard, whose album I produced a couple of years ago. I had an old hard drive of his and we’d agreed to meet up for the handoff. Then I ate quinoa salad at the Thriftway (I know, it sounds sadder than it was) and drove to Portland. That’s a hell of a drive. Boring, wet. Trying to find Christine Taylor’s house in the rain. I was just exhausted when I got in, and tho it was great to see her, I basically pulled up my couch accommodations and went to sleep.

Fresh in the morning, but it was photo shoot time–I had a model’s breakfast of like 1.5 strawberries, two pieces of steamed asparagus and coffee. It was freezing in Portland, rain flying sideways. Our first stop was Duchess tailoring, for some high class threads. Then we parked ourselves in a little empty retail space that was to be our studio for the day. Concrete space and all glass front. Luckily, a bathroom so I could change. I tried to move a lot to keep my nose from turning blue or fall off. Christine led me thru the shapes she wanted me to throw. We managed to do everything we wanted to do by about 3pm. I needed a nap, so she put me back at her place and got to editing. I had enough energy for a short dinner after that, but after the intense Tucson sessions, the 5am flight to Monterey, the drive to Portland…I was devastated. Photos look good tho.

Up the next day and I offered to take Christine for breakfast and then dropped her off on the way to the airport. Driving around looking for a gas station near the airport so I could fill up my rental car, and there was nothing…NOTHING within miles of the airport. It was getting to the point I would be late for my flight. So, I had to bite the bullet and turn the car in…and paid over $100 for 3/4 of a tank of gas. That’s a brutal, total, ripoff. Oh well. Flew to Dallas, ate BBQ anonymously while the singer of the Hold Steady ate his. Flew to Austin, and there was rescued by my two guardian angels from my visit with Tav Falco last year, Amy & Billy. Old friends of Tav’s, they vowed to offer me the same degree of care they offered during the Tav time and they did not disappoint. Amy offered me her spare room, and rides whenever she could manage it. Billy offered to source gear and do what he could. And they were both there to pick me up at the airport and drive me to rehearsal for the Big Star Third show. This was taking place at a massive complex of soundstages out by where Austin’s old airport was, all the way across town. Everybody was there–Jody Stephens, my Big Star bandmate for 17 years. Jon Auer, my Posies bandmate for 24 years. Peter Buck, my REM bandmate for 10 years. Dewitt Burton, REM’s tech for the period. Mitch Easter, who recorded my album “Touched”. Chris Stamey, who put all of this together and is a formidable songwriter in his own right, I am an admirer of his solo work as well as his years with the dbs. Plus all the Big Star Third musicians I’d been communicating with in my role as tour manager for the European shows this spring. And musicians I was meeting for the first time. Mike Mills from REM was absent, he’d contracted a viral ear infection that made it impossible for him to fly. So I stepped into playing electric bass for much of the show, plus other roles–Mellotron playing, synth bass on “You Can’t Have Me”, etc.

We spent a couple of hours there, then Amy & Billy picked me up, by now it was almost midnite, and we went back to Amy’s where Billy pulled out his acoustic and treated me to his latest compositions, and then we called it a night.

Oh, yes in the airport at bag claim I ran into much of the cast and crew from my Spanish turn as Hedwig–Pedro & Esteban from my band, and Paco & Muni Loco, i.e. studio owners and operators of where the Posies made our last album, were there to play with Bigott, a great Spanish singer.

AUSTIN, 3/15

Up early so Amy could give me a lift into town before she went to work, she swung me by the convention center, where I got my artist wristband, and on to the Paramount theatre, where I dropped my stuff and went to search for coffee, and a sandwich for later. Noon rolled around and we all started to assemble for a rehearsal, in this gorgeous historic cinema. Two hours of that flew by, then we had a break as Chris and Mitch had a show with the dbs. I walked them to the venue, and into the venue, and eventually discovered that they were playing *outside* the venue on a small stage in the back, meanwhile we’d been waiting for the band inside the venue to hurry up and finish already. Got ‘em onstage, and watched a few songs before I had to head back to the Paramount and get in place for more rehearsing. We had a run thru of almost everything, and took a break at 4.30. I met up for dinner with Mark Newman, who used to do sound for the Posies in the 90s–he works for the Beach Boys now. Aussie friends Mary & Mel joined as well, then I got nervous and so we headed back and I managed to get Mark into the venue. We sat together and watched the premiere of the excellent documentary “Nothing Can Hurt Me: the Big Star Story”, a meticulously researched tribute to the tale of rock’s ultimate cult band. I’m proud to have my part in the film, and amazed that a band that was barely photographed or filmed was so beautifully depicted over the 90 minutes of this film.

Then, showtime–I headed backstage and we performed Big Star’s haunting “Third” album. After a spooky reading of “Nature Boy” by M. Ward, I kicked off the original songs with my as authentic-as-possible take on “Kizza Me” which I think went really well. Later returned for synth bass on “You Can’t Have Me” and in the encore set did a lot of electric bass–Jon & I singing “September Gurls” and “I am the Cosmos”, plus me playing on “Way Out West” and “There Was A Light”. In the set I played Mellotron on “Kangaroo” which has in Chris’ arrangement an extended middle instrumental section…upon conclusion of which I get up from the Mellotron and walk over and pick up the electric bass and play out the song. Jeff Crawford, who had all the double bass and some of the electric bass duties is a brilliant player, it was fun to interact with him and watch his technique. I haven’t really done a good job of explaining how beautiful the arrangements are with strings, woodwinds and percussion. Singers Brett Harris, Django Haskins, Matt (whose last name I can’t seem to dig up here) and Skylar Gudasz are all excellent. Tommy Stinson came out for a bendy version of Nighttime, and brought a guitar player to do the slide part, who I thought was superb. Local conductor Brent Baldwin and I had a good time working out cues for a couple of endings, including “Give Me Another Chance” where to end my mellotron chord with everyone I had to stand up and look around the various singers. Mention should also be given to Charles Cleaver, the pianist who also played accordion, just a youngster but with formidable chops. The youth of the North Carolinan musicians who complete the Big Star Third ensemble really does the trick, it brings the album’s timeless resonance into focus and relevance, more than just a revival of adherents from the original era. The ease with which this music is believable as contemporary with the current young generation of musicians is perhaps the greatest testament to the creative power of Alex and Jody’s vision.

Finally we wrapped, triumphant hugs all around. A late glass of wine nearby and then I went to bed–Amy had seen the show, then gone for a late nite dinner so she came and picked me up on the way back, and I even got a little sleep.

AUSTIN, 3/16

Armed with clean clothes, I was picked up at midday by Dick from Toolshed, a social media marketing company, we were to talk shop before my first show of the day. So, South by Southwest has official showcases, but an entire galaxy of annual parties, events etc has evolved outside of the official schedule, and one could argue the most interesting stuff are the unofficial parties set up by companies, both inside and outside the music business, by enthusiastic impresarios and club night organizers, and so on. These are accessible to the public, which is another nice bonus–the official events require you to be registered as a SXSW conference attendee, which costs hundreds of dollars, or you can take your chances and try and get in to the official shows, but the priority is given to attendees and almost every event is effectively at capacity long before the public has access to them. So the parties are a way to go to SXSW on the cheap (unless you get an area hotel of course) and almost all the unofficial events are free and open to all. No priority is given to wristband holders. Now, some of these parties are really, really popular, and they too sell out. Waiting in lines to get in is likely especially if they are in the downtown area.

But today’s first show was at Maria’s Tacos Xpress, a bustling taqueria on South Lamar, that is, on the other side of the river from downtown, where an alternate Austin sets up shop. Downtown Austin can be fratty, esp during the event–the blocked off length of 6th St. from Red River to Congress or so is, by almost any but the most date-rape-tastic standards, nightmarish after 8pm. But down Congress and Lamar is where the ‘keep Austin weird’ movement is most effectively realized. Funky, arty shops and galleries, and Austin’s pioneering and now highly developed mobile eatery culture, are to be found in gaudy abundance here. Maria’s has a bi-level patio, so the upper level shelters the lower from the sun, making a nice place to set up a stage during SXSW. Note that there is no restaurant, coffee shop, street corner, minimart, or whatever that doesn’t find a way to set up live music during SXSW. Don’t know if Maria’s stage is used year ’round, but it was put to good use here. So, you had 20-30 outdoor tables facing the small stage, and a few tables on the upper deck, and then the restaurant itself which serves fast food style–you order at a counter, grab an available table, wait till your number is called. Shilah, the organizer of the Sin City Social Club, sponsors of today’s show, bought me lunch the dear. And you know how I love me some tacos.

When we arrived Johnny Kaplan was onstage, I sang on his mid-90s album, I chided him for not bringing me up onstage…now, for SXSW I organized four different vocalists to accompany me for the duet on my album “Doesn’t It Remind You of Something”, which is sung on my album by either Margaret Cho or Charity from the Head & the Heart, depending which version you have. Billy had hooked me up with Alana Amram, Brooklynite and vocalist extraordinaire. She and her pedal steel player were there and she and I wandered off behind the adjacent Walgreens to do a run thru, finding a patch of grass in a carefully sculpted parking lot border. I opened up my case and found that the strap locks on my strap were a different kind than on my guitar. Good thing I was checking now. I had a spare example in the case so I could change one end of the strap–the other end I just removed the strap lock from the strap and planned to gaffer tape it to the guitar. We did our run thru, and then I realized I was supposed to be on in like 2 minutes–it was almost 2.45pm. We made our way back to find that things were still running late, so I was OK. Next up: realized I had forgotten my tuner. Hey, I hadn’t played a solo show since Dubai two months ago, I was out of practice. The band before me, The Record Company, granted me access to their tuner and their amp, so I was in business. Short and sweet as it was, I got everyone’s attention by boldly proffering up a filthy, scatological joke, which got everyone to look up from their lunch, then killed ‘em with my songs. Felt good, I made people misty, then made ‘em laugh. Alana and I did our song, which was perfect, and as it was kind of a Gram-infused event, his face is on the poster, I pulled out ‘Song For You’ which I know from Cheap Star’s version, which I worked on. Got Shilah herself to jump and join me, and neither of us really new the third verse, but I had the audience from the opening line, so whatevs. OK, one audience killed. And as some fans from Dallas were in the house, they had a car, and could take me first to Amy’s where I grabbed my tuner and then on to down town for my next show. My whole live set up could be packed in the guitar case plus the Giant Sand cloth shopping bag that Howe gave me in Tucson. That includes a guitar stand and merch!

I found the Gingerman pub, site of tonite’s multi-header–a big party sponsored by Blurt Magazine (owned by Stephen Judge, who released the DiSCiPLiNES first album) and DogFishHead Brewery, one of the fastest-growing beer brands in America–their brewpub in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, was a stop on the Soft Commands tour in 2004. I sauntered up to the front and the door man said to go into the alley and to the back gate. So, smelly alley, then an alley off the alley, just a little walkway between the cyclone fence of a parking lot and the wooden fence that encloses the back patio of Gingerman pub, and this back patio is where the action is. Here we find stage manager and gatekeeper Conor, who has the size for authority and the demeanor that earns loyalty–he’s the kind of can-do person you really kill to have on your team. He made this multi band, multi guest singer, situation function as smooth as the dollop of sour cream on your burrito. He promised to watch my stuff when I left it there in by the back gate, and I had no doubt it would be safe all nite. I had to rush off to a live session at Yellow Dog Studios, a really nice facility in South Austin they came and picked me up, handed me a glass of wine when I entered, and set me up on a Steinway where I performed 4 songs, two new, two old. Having been around Howe Gelb I found my playing a little more Thelonius than in the past. Very good thing. As soon as that was done, I headed back to the Gingerman. I’d set up a possible vocalist for the duet–she called and said she couldn’t make it. What to do? You see, I’d reached out to Amy Ray, one of the two Indigo Girls, who was on the bill at Gingerman, via her publicist whom I’ve worked with before. But, never heard back. Oh well, right? Got to the venue, and Amy comes up to me: are we doin’ this or what? Big Smile on her face! Only thing…someone had swiped her lyric sheet, as it had doubled as her set list. So, I ran to the office, printed out the lyrics from my email, and we were in business. Show time! I got to see the end of Paul Collins/Peter Case doing Nerves/Beat/Plimsouls songs, Peter Buck joining for an awesome version of “Million Miles Away”. That song is a hit on any planet you want to organize, it’s like atomically structured to be a smash. A little intimidating to follow that but, you know…I’m up for anything. Now, at this point, the Gingerman pub Blurt/Dogfish Head party is basically a gathering of all my friends, I can’t imagine a more familiar audience to play to. But that can backfire, you can’t have that kind of objective thing with an audience when it’s all people who know you. Your friends come with the expectation that you’ll stay normal. Your fans come with the expectation that you’ll blow them away–that’s what each party wants. But, I ignored the friends as best I could and concentrated on the fans. The sun went down and the loud band playing outside maybe 75 feet away finished up not long after my set started. So I had the floor. The audience was ready for me. And I was able to deliver. A long “Any Love” to show where I’ve been and many new songs to show where I’m going. My voice was perfectly rough and ready, all the notes were available and the tone was edgy and emotional. It’s good when I have that flamenco thing and I don’t have to live the flamenco life to get it. I kept the jokes funny, the songs not too many, tho when I tried to wrap it up the crew said to keep going and the audience agreed. Another great set, with a great audience. I had asked to play that 7.30pm set as I knew that there would be less people hammered, or at least more people less hammered, than later and I’d be competing with less big events. It worked out so well–packed house, listening ears, a lot of love. No hecklers–even Rusty Willoughby, known expert heckler, was quiet. And the duet with Amy Ray was outstanding, god, I’m pissed that’s not youtubed but I think that’s because people were jaw dropped and for once didn’t think to pick up their phones.

After that it was time for a quick dinner with friends and then run back to the venue, Jon was onstage at this point. I went to the parking lot to start preparing my gear and showing people chords and stuff for the Big Star set, Peter Buck, and other folks…then someone came and grabbed me, saying I was needed on stage–Jon requested an impromptu version of “Solar Sister” I just sang…it was great, unexpected.

Then time for the Big Star set. We hadn’t announced this til that morning–we didn’t want to confuse people when the Big Star Third show was established and really an important event. But word do get around. First up, Eric from Blitzen Trapper joined us, for a white hot version of “Feel”. Well, we got onstage, plugged in and found out Jody had no hi hats. Just a sec! I made jokes about the soundman’s choice of changeover music (Led Zep IV!–he was laughing…when I asked “don’t you have any Nick Drake?” he was about to put it on when the hi hats showed up!). We tore into it. After that…it went on–Markus from the Latebirds doing “In the Street”, Robert and Whit from Cotton Mather on “El Goodo”. John Doe doing “I’m in Love With a Girl”. Ian Moore: “Give me Another Chance”. I took 2nd guitar duty on “Femme Fatale” and the NC all stars did “Thirteen” and more. We closed it with “September Gurls”, everyone onstage. And that was all–nothing else to do, I could only sleep after that.

AUSTIN, 3/17

Amy works at the Yard Dog Gallery, where my first show was, so I had a ride to work. A little earlier than my show, but that’s OK…I had time to have coffee, clean the blood off my tie (I’d gashed my finger I was so into my solo set, banging on my gutiar to make it howl in protest in the reverb tank, and gotten that on the tie I’d so meticulously cared for during every meal), eat a rattlesnake and rabbit bratwurst…run thru the duet with Skylar Gudasz the female singer from the Big Star show, who also plays flute and guitar (she had a great set at Gingerman the day before). Alana was also there, and I got her to sing yet another song, we ran thru that in yet another parking lot. My turn came up quick–a lot of people around, the Yard Dog parties are long standing and well loved. I descended from the stage and let loose with an emotional burst. Also hit the duet, and Skylar is a magical singer, really. And Alana on “Superwise”. So good! I know for a fact there were some tears but that’s not the point. The point it, we connected, the audience and I. Then time to go– I hopped a cab with friends and headed all the way across town, way past downtown, to the Hole in the Wall, a humble establishment next to the campus that has been one of the original SXSW venues for years running. Nick Tangborn, our friend transplanted from SF to work for Batter Blaster, organized a company party there. When I arrived, Jon was onstage. I had a tequila shot with Nick. Then joined Jon & John Doe (and his wonderful singing partner, why can’t I Google her? She’s so good!) for “I’m in Love with A Girl”. John played his own set (excellent) and I did my own set–featuring many songs with Ian Moore, I called him up and he just stayed, and then Kaylee form Loquat sang the Duet with me…I’d had the pleasure of hooking her up with Jesus and Mary Chain Thursday night, one of her all time faves, she sang “Just Like Honey” with them, and for that–her and her husband bought me more shots. Uh oh!

I was fine. Conni! the photographer who has documented so many Posies/Big Star related shows, gave me a lift downtown, and I realized…I’m free! I could park my gear at the Gingerman, (thanks Conor!). I met up with Mike Mills and Dewitt, and Amy, and Peter and Chloe, and got us all into the Cotton Mather show, who were awesome, then zipped us over and got us into Stubbs for the Blitzen Trapper show, and found my friend Sean was tending bar, so drinks were free…uh oh! More shots (stop keeping score–I didn’t). The word came: time to get onstage. We were doing “Feel”–Peter on guitar, me on bass and backing vocals, sharing a mic with Mike. It was an incredible wrap to a fearsome SXSW, a great hang with the Blitzen guys and their wonderful manager Brady, and tour manager Sara. But I had to split…i grabbed some last minute BBQ and met up with Lori Barbiero for a quick hello, she’s always such a wonderful spirit to encounter!

like 6 hours later I’m on a plane to L.A. I was *in* L.A. by 8.30.

So for the next four days, I was in TheLAB finishing up my record. We had mostly finished mixes, and we fine tuned them together. I also had two songs to write lyrics and do vocals for. So, we worked twelve-hour, or longer days together, and I would stay on in the studio working till 5-6am doing vocals. The results? Incredible. One song “Jesus Was an Only Child, a Numbers Man” was recorded at 5am and it totally shows. My voice is wonderfully broken. The other song “Colorless Odorless Tasteless” is the follow up to another song, “4am Birds/the End of All Light/The Last Radio” which is an apocalyptic (it’s 2012 after all) song of end of the world ecstasy. If you can find all natural process beautiful…that’s true enlightenment. In “Colorless” tho, God is alone after humanity has self destructed into extinction. No one left to believe in him, he makes stars for his own pleasure but the thrill of sharing them with his wide eyed children is gone.

On the last nite we worked till 6am. 4 days of incredible work and I can’t thank TheLAB enough. They are incredibly talented and patient. We had some great meals too–we want back to the taqueria up the road that makes those wicked brain tacos. And the two neighborhood BBQ joints.

And then I was on a plane to France, after having lunch with former Posie Brian Young and my notional host in L.A., Rachel, who offered my her couch but I never had time to take her up on it.

Watched “the Artist” at last on the flight to Paris. Got home, kissed my family and had lunch with Dom, ran off TV mixes and stems for Ian McGlynn and mix updates for Kate Torralba till it was time to go to bed.

7.25 am train to Amsterdam the next day. Tour manager emails for Big Star Third shows in Europe the whole way. Get to Amsterdam and start in on recording an EP for Lewis Phillips, young songwriter from Britain, cutting drums with Joost who played on my album. Hanging with JB and getting Lewis sorted out. Yes, also sleeping on the studio couch so I could get up at 7am and practice upright bass for the Big Star shows….and finish the blog. Find someone more dedicated. Let’s touch wood and hope I don’t drop syllables from that!

Love
KS
Amsterdam

Here’s what I’ll be up to at SXSW this week in Austin. Mostly I will be debuting the songs from my upcoming album “Danzig In The Moonlight” but I will also be doing some Big Star related activity.

Thursday March 15

7.30pm Premiere of “Nothing Can Hurt Me”, a documentary on Big Star. I am featured in this film in interviews and performing live. At the Paramount Theatre.

9pm Performance of Big Star’s “Third” album — Chris Stamey has put together a program to authentically re-create note for note the music of Big Star’s haunting Third album. This show will feature Jody Stephens, Chris, Mitch Easter, Mike Mills, myself, Jon Auer, and many, many more performers including a small orchestra. At the Paramount following the film.

Friday March 16

2.45pm Sin City Social Club 10th Anniv.Party at Maria’s Tacos Xpress — KS solo

7.30pm Blurt Party at Gingerman Pub — KS solo. The dbs, Jon Auer and more also play. You can RSVP for the event here as it will be really busy.

11.30pm — something special. Watch this space Friday morning!

My shows are FREE and open to the public. You DO NOT need to be registered for SXSW to attend these events! The Blurt party will be busy tho. Get there early!

Saturday March 17

1.30pm Yard Dog Art Gallery — KS solo

3.45pm Batter Blaster Party at Hole in the Wall –KS solo. John Doe, Jon Auer and more also play

Both shows are FREE and open to the public. You DO NOT need to be registered for SXSW to attend these events!

Love
KS
Portlandia