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An Avenue Of Expression
Plu^pole Chats Telephonically With
Jon Au^er Of The Posies
T ^ the now dosed annals of '90s American
XI 1 power-pop, few if any bands amassed a
catalogue with the harmonic and emotional reso
nance of The Posies. Jon Auer and Ken
Stringfellow started making an unfashionably
tuneful noise in ihe heart of Seattle's grunge
phase in the early part of the decade. The two
went on to crank up the distortion and flesh out
their songwriting a bit more with each consecu
tive album. The pair racked their music with
more layers of contemplative sadness, agonizing
heartbreak and defiant joy than most of those
who at the time were thought of as their con
temporaries (The Greenberry Woods, anyone? The
Wondermints?) could've imagined had they stuck
it out into 2010.
The band registered only minor popular suc
cess ("Dream All Day" and "Solai Sister" were
hits on MT\fs graveyard shift, and they're appar
ently monumental rock stars in Germany), but
the Top 40 probably never deserved such rich
confections anyway. The Posies showed every
sign of cashing in by 1998: the liner notes to
that year's Success LP closed with an emphatic
"Goodnight!" As it stands, they'll no doubt be
revered by a passionate cult that continues to
burgeon over the next few decades. Hey, "Big
Star of the '90s" ain't such a bad epitaph, is it?
But hold on a second. It looks like The Posies
are still animate and playing in this very town.
Well, at least we get Auer and Stringfellow, who
are touring behind In Case You Didn't Feel Like
Plugging In, a new platter on the Casa label that
bravely and successfully resurrects the "live
acoustic" concept from its mid-'90s grave.
Fortunately, it gave this reporter an excuse to
rap with Jon Auer:
Flagpole: So, Mr. Auer, is the band back
together, or is this just the wreath on the coffin?
Jon Auer: Well, you probably don't know, Ken
and I started the band ourselves around the time
of Failure; so, not to get all new-agey, but it's
kinda full-circle. It only came about because
somebody suggested doing a show, and it ended
up being recorded. It came out really good [gen
erally speaking]. So, we had a lot of fun. It's
been wonderful.
FP: I wanted to bring up the "unplugged"
foimat, 'cause a bt of people still associate that
with MTV. It took a certain amount of balls to res
urrect that format
JA: The greatest thing is that we can fuck
around with stuff under that format. It really just
depends on whether we can follow each other
that night or not. With me and Ken, it really is,
to use a cliche, like riding a bicycle. We did an
abrupt two days rehearsal for this whole thing,
and about all we did was run through every song
we knew. The shows have all gone awesome.
FP: So you guys write the songs separately?
JA: Nope. Pretty much, whoever sung it,
that's who wrote it.
FP: It's always going to sound different after
each band member gets a hold of it anyway...
another thing I wanted to a<k: looking back on all
the records, which is the one you feel most com
fortable listening to?
JA: That would have to be Success.
FP: Which would you be least likely to pull
out?
JA: Dear 23. It's weird... at the time, I
thought Dear 23 was exactly what we wanted.
Hearing it now, it's weird that there's something
we would've wanted. I'm kind of like, "Wow, ,
where did I hear that?" at this point. I really like
the songs on it; I just don't like the way we
dressed them up, I guess.
FP: I guess that leads elliptically into the next
question: A lot of your lyrical content, that which
sets you apart from other "power pop'' bands...
In one way or another, I think most of the lyrics
deal with Emotional Starvation. Thougi.ts that
aren't really addressed in actual conversation.
Cutting off the blood in rebtionships. As someone
who's catabgued this phenomenon for a while,
you got any advice for the young folk unable to
communicate?
JA: Giving advice isn't 'me of my strong
points, but I would say that the one thing that's
really helped me, in my life, is that I have an
avenue of expression. It's an effective way to get
things out of your system and deal with things
in your own head. You've got a puzzle in your
head, and when you put it down, you figure out
where the pieces fit.
Emerson Dameron
WHO: The Posies, Shannon Wright,
Gritty Kitty
WHERE: 40 Wott Club
WHEN: Saturday, August 26
hfow MUCH* $6
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AUGUST 23, 2000 FLAGPOLE ES