The Posies on KEXP, and Ken Stringfellow on The Current

The Posies played a set on KEXP in Seattle last week, and it is available for streaming at their website. They were joined by Rachel Flotard on “Licenses to Hide.”

While in Minneapolis, Ken performed on The Current, and you can listen to it (and an interview) here, including a new song, “Savior’s Hands.”

Also on KEXP, check out Brittney Bush Bollay’s photos from the Capitol Hill Block Party. More photos from the Seattle Times here.

New classes teach lyrical approach to penning songs

By Joanna Horowitz

Seattle Times staff reporter

There is a giant board on the north side of the Songcraft room, one of Experience Music Project’s newest exhibits. Words haphazardly cover the surface like a blown-up version of the magnetic poetry seen on dorm-room fridges all over the country.

The mission here: Make lyrics from the jumble. Visitors have left snapshots of songs, “I got a light in a deep well/it’s about to deny me of longer soul” or “Rock away the tears.”

If these are the start of a great new song, who knows, but what’s good or bad is subjective, said Jon Auer, former frontman of The Posies. Auer, along with Seattle musicians Sean Nelson of Harvey Danger and Christy McWilson from country-rock band The Picketts, will teach part of a six-month EMP/University of Washington songwriting-certificate program, which starts in October.

Anyone who can play an instrument well enough to record a song, UW student or not, can apply for the program.

“There’s really no one correct way to do anything,” Auer said. “All I can really hope is they’ll find something in there that is of use to them.”

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