{"id":3221,"date":"2014-06-11T08:00:13","date_gmt":"2014-06-11T08:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.radio8ball.com\/archives\/?p=3221"},"modified":"2016-05-29T04:17:43","modified_gmt":"2016-05-29T04:17:43","slug":"the-radio8band-tributes-the-posies-with-jon-auer-ezra-sandzer-bell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.radio8ball.com\/archives\/the-radio8band-tributes-the-posies-with-jon-auer-ezra-sandzer-bell\/","title":{"rendered":"Season Zero – Epsiode OneThe Radio8Band tributes The Posieswith Jon Auer & Ezra Sandzer-BellJune 11, 2014"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Radio8Band-Jon,Olivia&Scott-medium\"<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\"paulsmall\"<\/a>Paul Pearson<\/a> of The Radio8Band is an accomplished music blogger<\/a>. He has documented his experience with The Posies tribute Radio8Ball Show below. To view and listen to the show, check here<\/a>.
\n<\/em><\/strong>
\n<\/em>\u201cSo I think what all the great records and great songs say is, \u2018Hey, take this and find your place in the world. Do something with it, do anything with it. Find some place to make your stand, no matter how big or small it is.\u2019 And maybe in some fashion that directs you toward some sort of honest life. That\u2019s a pretty wonderful thing for a record to do. Particularly since it only costs about ninety-nine cents.\u201d<\/em>
\n— Bruce Springsteen<\/p>\n

August 1991.<\/strong> Glen Canyon Park, San Francisco. I\u2019m in a state of mind I now wish I had more greatly appreciated at the time, or more accurately taken better advantage of. I\u2019d spent most of the previous year-plus in some agitated state between anticipation and mourning. It doesn\u2019t matter why, and if by chance it did I wouldn\u2019t know what to tell you. I was in public, beneath my most immediate self-preservation and protection device: my Sony Walkman. What it was preserving about me, and what it was protecting me from \u2013 well, whattaya got?<\/p>\n

I\u2019d begun listening to the album on the walk down to the Glen Park neighborhood. I was planning on going to late lunch, or maybe actually taking part in the softball game some buddies of mine from the local bar were playing in the park. But I couldn\u2019t, because what was playing through my Walkman had the floor, and was insisting that I spend 40 minutes or so in input mode.<\/p>\n

So instead of brunching it, I\u2019m hearing what this person has to say. I guess love had been one of my subconscious ruminations, because this guy seemed to be addressing a lot of topics I was responding to. \u201cSo you think you\u2019re in love?\u201d he asked. \u201cWell, you probably are, but you gotta be straight about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the record, I wasn\u2019t, but maybe there was a chance. I know I was feeling constricted or groundless, like very little was going my way, and at that point the voice told me \u201cNo one gives you anything. Unless, of course, you ask for it.\u201d I was emotionally stranded in a big city, and felt like I was lacking some vital substance that would refocus me. \u201cIn this city of lies,\u201d the voice said, \u201creal life is a crime.\u201d<\/p>\n

From that point forward, I knew something was going on, so I just let this album spit out its truisms, each one hitting on something I\u2019d been feeling or thinking. \u201cEverybody misses you, but nobody shoots.\u201d \u201cThey say you\u2019ve been poisoned, they say you\u2019re closed down, but I saw a light \u2018neath your door.\u201d \u201cShe doesn\u2019t exist anymore.\u201d \u201cI circle your heart like I circle the world, but I never touch down.\u201d And: \u201cBut if you don\u2019t love yourself, what\u2019s the use in someone else loving you?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PerspexIsland\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And you know what? That day in Glen Canyon Park, when Robyn Hitchcock was talking to me via his band the Egyptians and his album Perspex Island, was neither the first nor only time I sought music for counsel. In fact it was probably something like the 100,000th time, and since then there have been maybe 300,000 more. It occurred every time I didn\u2019t wait for a track to end before I rewound it to hear it again from the start. It occurred when I was among others, having a perfectly smooth conversation, but some album the host placed on the stereo suddenly grabbed my ear, and I stopped talking for two minutes to deal with it. Anytime I heard music, and the end product was not elapsed time but a newly erected benchmark I would have to pay special attention to, it occurred.<\/p>\n

I only happened to notice it as it was happening that time. Now, how many times has that happened to me? Ten, maybe.<\/p>\n

Whether they know or admit it or not, musicians make music with that intent: to carve out something you will respond to, to create a solution to effect you laughing, crying, kissing, screaming, or dancing. They don\u2019t know who\u2019s going to respond that way; they don\u2019t have a list of intended targets. They create it to cause that spontaneous reaction, in hopes that whatever they\u2019ve provided \u2013 a wise lyric, a celestial harmony, an insistent beat \u2013 will cause someone, somewhere to feel that kind of magic of recognition apart from their own music. They have no control over who hears the music or how they feel \u2013 they just send it out there hoping someone will do so to their song more than others.<\/p>\n

So you see artists are in the synchronicity business from the start, and they\u2019re successful at it in ways they usually can\u2019t confirm. Sometimes we listeners and fans are not agile enough to know when that moment is happening, when that question or need is truly being answered.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why there\u2019s this thing called Radio8Ball.<\/p>\n

Radio8Ball is one of those ideas<\/strong> that after you hear about it, you kick yourself for not having come up with it. At least I do. Its existence traces back to the nascent era of the Internet when interactivity was still only a modest aspect of our entertainment experience. And although R8B sounds like an idea born for the nervous algorithms and randomness of the cyber age, it has always worked best as a shared experience with actual people, with all gears exposed and crafted care.<\/p>\n

Andras Jones created R8B in 1998 at the studios of KAOS Olympia, a community radio station on the campus of The Evergreen State College. KAOS has often seemed confused about how to administer its own legend. These days they\u2019re almost too winded or annoyed to bother with their being the breeding ground for bands like Beat Happening, Sleater-Kinney and Nirvana. I always got the feeling they considered that legacy something they just had to deal with rather than use it to their advantage. (I can say that; I programmed a KAOS show for over six non-consecutive years.) But at one time it was accommodating to shows with the approach of R8B.<\/p>\n

\"1979<\/a><\/p>\n

Jones said his father, Richard M. Jones, was the prime inspiration for R8B. Richard, who was an ardent advocate of Freudian dream theory, was one of Evergreen\u2019s founding fathers. During the \u201870s he led dream seminars at Evergreen that served as an inspiration when Andras developed the R8B model, which interestingly draws from the Jungian concept of synchronicity.<\/p>\n

Every week Jones dragged his 100-CD shuffler into the KAOS studios, got on the air and fielded questions from callers. I can\u2019t say how seriously callers took the situation, but I expect some of them had real issues they were contending with. Jones hit the random button on his shuffler, and whatever song came up would serve as the answer to the question.<\/p>\n

R8B being very specifically defined as an oracle, not a fortune-teller, is key to understanding how the answers are processed. Oracles don\u2019t answer you with itineraries or definite events; often it seems like they may not be answering anything you might have been asking. Sometimes oracles even ask more questions on top of the ones you already had. That\u2019s how they\u2019re supposed to work. They give you another avenue to question your role and understandings about your dilemma, and your own interpretation of the oracle\u2019s revelation is every bit as important as the person behind the controls.<\/p>\n

The presentational possibilities of R8B were evident from the start, and eventually Jones restaged the forum as a live show. In shows around the U.S., live bands and celebrities served as guests and in-person oracles throughout the 2000\u2019s. The list of participants over those years is impressive: John C. Reilly, Patricia Arquette, Seth Green, Calvin Johnson, Dan Bern, Tracy Bonham and \u201cWeird Al\u201d Yankovic have all sat in the visitor\u2019s chair.<\/p>\n

Radio8Ball ran until June 2008 on KAOS, when it was cancelled. I\u2019m exempting myself from telling that story without prejudice. If you wish to read Andras\u2019 version of events you can pick up his book Accidental Initiations via Sync Book Press.<\/p>\n

From there R8B moved to an AM station in Seattle for a time, until it was revived in 2014. I got a phone call from Jones shortly after I\u2019d started a new job. R8B was being restaged as a live show and web series, and Jones asked me if I\u2019d want to participate as a band member and chronicler of events. I hadn\u2019t played a show in almost a year, and had spent a good part of that time in inconsolable frustration about where my music and career were headed. R8B sounded like a great, familiar way to either further that reconciliation or at least point somewhere else, so I pretty eagerly accepted.<\/p>\n

By the way, I believe I availed myself of the R8B oracle three times: twice (I think) when it was on KAOS, and once during the new version. I don\u2019t know what Andras thought about the spirit in which I summoned the oracle, but I can tell you my questions were dead serious. Every time.<\/p>\n

At this point I should probably tell you<\/strong> something about Andras Jones. I think that\u2019s a great idea. But I don\u2019t really know that much about Andras Jones. We met a little over ten years ago, but I can\u2019t recall for sure the exact reason. It might have been to start work on My Brave Face, our tribute band that focused exclusively on compositions by Paul McCartney and Elvis Costello.<\/p>\n

MY BRAVE FACE DEMO
\n“Back On My Feet” by Costello & McCartney<\/strong><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.radio8ball.com\/archives\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/07-Back-On-My-Feet-Edit-For-Web.mp3<\/a><\/audio>
\nI know he\u2019s a complete music freak. When we start talking music, forget it: We\u2019re occupied for 30 minutes minimum, 60 if neither of us have a plane to catch. I know he\u2019s acted in films,<\/a> written his own songs<\/a>, has a rich vibrato I\u2019m jealous of, and is probably a Red Sox guy. I know he\u2019s great at executing somewhat complex ideas like Radio8Ball and Accidental Initiations. But my grasp of his tale of the tape isn\u2019t that strong.<\/p>\n

\"smushkin-small\"<\/a>
\nAnd he\u2019s also not here. Well, he is. When he has to be. He\u2019s here in spirit for sure. But the public reins of R8B have been handed over to Andy Shmushkin<\/a>, something of an agit-folk provocateur. A very genteel, somewhat charming one, but a shit disturber at heart. He\u2019s been pretty reserved in my experience so far. To be honest everything I heard about Shmushkin was third- or fourth-hand and couldn\u2019t be backed up by real reporting from sources like TMZ. So I really didn\u2019t know what to expect. But he\u2019s fine so far, and fairly tidy for a, you know, shit disturber.<\/p>\n

After it was clear Andras wouldn\u2019t be running the show in Olympia I sent him a note asking what the deal was. I didn\u2019t get an answer until an email in July that first went to my spam folder three times. That\u2019s how scarce Andras has made himself.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cShmushkin doesn\u2019t have any of my baggage in this town. If I\u2019m hosting Radio8Ball in Olympia all I\u2019m going to want to ask are questions about KAOS, but that\u2019s a bummer. Unfortunately it\u2019s the truth, and a Radio8Ball host has to be truthful. So we have Shmushkin as host, and he can keep it positive and funny and sexy, which is his thing, while I produce the show from behind the scenes and continue to work for justice which, I guess, is mine.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know. I haven\u2019t lived in Olympia for nine years now. Maybe it\u2019s a small pond sort of town, but I can confirm the fishbowl exists. It helps to develop gills. In Seattle the pressure\u2019s off, but the line is longer.<\/p>\n

The Posies<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"501475-the-posies-617-409\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Andras couldn\u2019t have picked a better band to open the rejuvenated Radio8Ball tribute series than the Posies. Remember that whole business with me and Robyn Hitchcock in the park? Right around that time the Posies released Dear 23, their second proper album, and another one that wore out the capstans on my cassette player.<\/p>\n

Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow were always precocious as lyricists. Their earliest albums found them trying to navigate themselves through churning waters we all tend to face when we\u2019re newly post-graduate. These weren\u2019t songs full of unobstructed bliss, untested love or unchecked rowdiness. The Posies talked about the layers beneath those surface-level placards we wear for easy identification. True, they may have interrupted your conveyor belt, but The Posies sang about stuff that needed to be dealt with.<\/p>\n

On Dear 23 it was an endearing but serious process. On their most recent album Blood\/Candy it loaned itself to some scary, unsettling moments. Through the years in between, the Posies sang stories with ideas, real chains of education, with just enough vulnerability that you knew they were trying to uncover something deeper about themselves, as they were trying to key the locks of their followers.<\/p>\n

None of what the Posies sing is easy. The way it goes down is easy, for sure, but even with a song as straightforward as \u201cDream All Day\u201d there\u2019s an undercutting menace, a context of minor-key power chords and looming voices that might constitute an unwanted side-effect of said all-day dreaming. Their songs are going to elicit a lot of stuff to just come out that they may not have realized were there when they were writing them.<\/p>\n

So for Radio8Ball, where the answers come from unexpected places, Jon and Ken\u2019s songs were ideal divining rods. The audience heard ideas they didn\u2019t see coming, from songs most of them had probably never heard before. They are deliberate, wordy, cave-resonant truths, near-truths and dream sequences, and there are a surprising amount of ways those specific words, phrases and emotions can be taken. Many of them will be brought into existence by accident or chance.<\/p>\n

How could we have started this shindig without the Posies? Besides, none of us wanted to learn Spin Doctors songs.<\/p>\n

The Radio8Band<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"TheRadio8Band-Rehearsal\"<\/a> From Left to Right: Luke Ogden, Jon Williams, Paul Pearson, Jon Merithew, Olivia Love, Scott Taylor<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019d played with everybody in the Radio8Band at some point before except for one of them. Part of the allure of this whole gig for me was the idea that it would be something like a supergroup of people I\u2019d previously had the privilege of playing with, except for the drummer, who I just imagined was Jim Keltner.<\/p>\n

There is no opportunity to play with Scott Taylor that I will turn down. Maybe as part of the band on the Titanic. That\u2019s the only one, and that\u2019s just because of hindsight. If I didn\u2019t know about the Titanic incident I\u2019d probably take the gig. Hell, even if I knew about the Titanic, if you promised me a good rowboat for the band and me, I might take my chances.<\/p>\n

\"Scott<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 From Left to Right: Skyler Blake, Scott Taylor, Luke Ogden<\/em><\/p>\n

Scott\u2019s a lot like me when it comes to how we experience music: It\u2019s the most personal thing in the world for both of us, something we hear in our own little silos. At that point we\u2019re just taking in information and figuring out where it goes with us personally. When it comes time to turn it around and give it back to an audience, neither of us has any trepidation about taking the stage. But in performance I frequently buffer myself a little bit with humor and something just this side of aloofness. Scott doesn\u2019t. He throws himself into every song. I may mean most of it, even a healthy 80% of it, but Scott never means any less than all of it. It\u2019s a full-time job for him. And he\u2019s the loveliest guy in the world, but doesn\u2019t suffer fools when it comes to music. We have a great time, but we always get a ton of work done. Andras and I have spoken before about how much this guy means to us. If I had a type-A personality with a laconic drawl, no sense of personal barriers, and a frequent flyer card I earned through blood and malice, I would be Scott\u2019s manager in a heartbeat. In lieu of that I keep coming up with dream scenarios about projects we can play together, and sometimes they really happen.<\/p>\n

\"merithew-caverage_938X300\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Jon Merithew underplays his experience a lot, so in the interest his abiding humility I\u2019m not going to name-drop. I\u2019ll just say he\u2019s played alongside some very notable people, including a band (maybe two) who\u2019s on many people\u2019s shortlist for The Greatest Rock Band Of All Time<\/a>. He was\/is\/could be in a couple of Olympia bands who are key parts of the city\u2019s musical legacy, The Noses and C Average. He will shred if necessary. He could also be a comedy juggernaut if he so chose. I\u2019ve always liked his workability and his willingness to try anything.<\/p>\n

\"Kelsie<\/a><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve known Olivia Love for almost 15 years, since she was still a teenager and I wasn\u2019t. I believe the first thing we ever worked on was a Carpenters song (\u201cTop Of The World,\u201d no less) that our friend Jim wanted to make into a dirge. We were also in the most successful band I was ever in, although our renewed partnership in Radio8Band couldn\u2019t be a more different experience. Olivia\u2019s another one of those people who just slips into unfamiliar situations and winds up putting her own stamp on them. There\u2019s a lot of stuff she holds in reserve, and I\u2019m pretty sure it\u2019s going to come flying out at some point soon.<\/p>\n

Luke Ogden and I have played before, but it was a brief pick-up session at Hannah\u2019s after the peak of the evening had elapsed, so Scott, Luke and I just drunkenly plucked songs out of Scott\u2019s songbook. This was our first planned activity. He locked right into it. I\u2019m not sure how much he listened to the Posies before the show \u2013 whether he sat down and tried to absorb every song for hours, or whether he had it figured out in ten minutes. But you couldn\u2019t tell either way. He\u2019s what you\u2019d call a blithe spirit, and he did this whole thing in the midst of his wife\u2019s final trimester.<\/p>\n

The only person I\u2019d never played with before was Jon Williams, the drummer from Scott\u2019s group the Fond Farewells. I joked to a couple of people during this experience that it was a weird and unfamiliar feeling not to be worried about the drummer, carelessly and unintentionally maligning all the other drummers I\u2019ve worked with. But he\u2019s really that good.<\/p>\n