REM is in midswing thru Seattle, which I haven’t visited since my 10 hours of suitcase emptying in August. As usual, I am confused as restaurants and landmarks come and go, stuff gets torn down, built over, etc. Someday I will come to my address and find a monorail station has replaced my residence of the last 7 years…
I have about a week here in Seattle all told, during which every minute is spoken for, with REM, KS and Posies activity…the Posies are today mastering our upcoming album, with the formidable lab-coat-wearers Rick Fisher and Ed Brooks…tomorrow (23rd) will find the us presenting ourselves in the best possible lights at Neumo’s in Seattle and the following night in Tacoma.
REM played two nights at the McCaw Hall, the refurbished opera house, the first night being moody…the second more on the exuberant side. Hometown gigs (which is now true in a sense when REM plays Seattle, LA, New York, Atlanta or Paris!) are hard to master…it’s easier to reinvent yourself, which is what an artist does, to strangers than those who know you well enough to get weird if you appear with a handlebar moustache and a boa constrictor on your arm. Hence, Calgary was one of the best REM shows of recent memory, and Seattle was a push me pull me of moods, ultimately we rose to the occasion, but it wasn’t as effortless as usual. Vancouver was, continuing the evidence to support my theory, a piece of cake (in a wedding cake of a theatre, the Orpheum).
Universal Music is releasing the collaboration I did with Senegalese musicians WaFlash (in Dakar last year) tomorrow as part of their new download-only label experiment…should be available thru Itunes and the usual outlets–but no CDs will be pressed. Really, it’s all so new that I will have to wait til tomorrow to be able to tell you what to do–but, the curious can head to Itunes tomorrow and search for Ken Stringfellow and see what you get.
Looking ahead with resolute glee to tomorrow night’s rock show, even with a treacherous hometown crowd to navigate. Thankfully, the Posies have rarely had anything but high times with the King County CompatRiots…
Love
KS
Seattle WA