PDA

So I've now thrown on --065 (Goodbye Hope) and I just want to say that I am so impressed with all of us, with our commitment to each other and to this project and to music and to the record keeping and tiny details and all of it. I expected no less than what I received with the subscription project but it still leaves me blown away. The stamps and the thought and time put into not only mixing but in creating all these little artifacts that represent and contribute to our shared history (side note: Brian's handwriting really hammers it home and brings it back for me). Also, the guide that was included was super helpful and I'm excited to get a chart of all the eras that make up the K #'s.

We all created this amazing thing and we are family and we are part of each other in the sense that we have contributed the actual fibers of our beings to this thing. And I am proud, and I am emotional, and I am excited, and I am ecstatic. The kings and mixes have always been out there, and occasionally we would call out to each other across the distances. And life gets crazy, and sometimes its been desperate, and sometimes its been blissful. And as we grow and evolve so does Kings, since it is made of us.

it is 10:31pm
this is the seance

I know where we need to go.

Alright, Jack White, this I can do. I leave the past two to the Captain to parse, that doesn't belong to me in any way, shape, or form, I'm just here to absorb. This I can say, bring it back and bring it forward. I think KINGS in the format any of us are used to ended too early for Jack White solo. I remember living in Portland and Blunderbuss coming out and being super into it, and maybe Bri-Bri was mixing at the time but I have no certain memories of that playing into anything I heard. It's such a natural graduation. Continuing the lineage, letting the children go their own way.

And now, Weezer. I've become an unexpected advocate for Weezer among those who are disinterested on principle by anything after the Green Album. Which I say understanding the very original 'what the crap is this' song was a later-era Weezer offering. Sometimes you come to love things by virtue of the advocacy for them presented to you by that those you love.

I have too many and no things to say about Mark McGrath, so I'm just going to leave it at the fact that I'm very happy this is the penultimate song. 'When it's over, is it really over?'

Alright KINGS and subsequent subjects, it's time to go. We're finishing out with Blondie channeling too many things: we've got a cover of the 60s charming/creepy ballad done in island-themed Jimmy Buffet wish-we-were-on-a-boat style. I want all of the lives this could lead us to.

Goodnight, KINGS. Goodnight, mix. Goodnight, moon. Goodnight, universe.

Back to the Shack

I'm really psyched on this Nashville trip. We can really get down to business and celebrate this ten years in style. Let's go back...WE HAVE TO GO BACK

You may not notice here because my photos are infinitely darker than Coco's but I am wearing a WINTER coat. The GBV park photos have had me longing pretty hard for summer days a la "bust out the fan", busting through the door to "O, Valencia", "I found this Bob Marley poster" "from where?" "a moving truck" etc. etc.

it is 10:09 pm

this is the seance

I would never...

try to compete with Captain on commentary re: We Didn't Start the Fire so that is all I have to say.



It is 9:57pm.
This is the seance.

All these feelings, they cloud up my reasoning...

I actually can't digest everything about the package itself because I'm really focused on commenting on the music, so I assume more to come later on the actual design. I haven't actually gotten through the CAD-like note on design because I feel too distracted by the actual mix and everything I want to digest about it, like the physical guide is extremely important but moreso after the fact to figure out what all of the other mixes will comprise/mimic. Integral but not immediate. I hope that's ok. 

SMOKE BREAK for me and Captain

As I said, throwback to Capt's (and consequently for a few years early on) tendency to put cigs, phone, lighter etc in cleavage in order to have two hands free for use. It's a terribly gray, cold, rainy week in May in Boston after a relatively mild winter, really I think Feb/March were warmer and more welcoming than the weather is right now. I don't have an overhang on my stoop so I stick my umbrella in the zipper of my jacket, that way I'm able to smoke a cig and look at my phone and/or take pics of my actions.

OMG WAIT this Matchbox20 song is killing me. This is the first CD I ever bought, which I'm sure I've mentioned many times. And followed by Third Eye Blind, not this one but their first album I think is the second CD I ever bought, so we're right in line here.




It is 9:54pm.
This is the seance.

Brando, The KING and I, and the Catcher in the Rye

Betcha didn't know. . .My "Goal" in my senior yearbook was to learn all the words to "We Didn't Start the Fire". . .ROCK AND ROLL AND COLA WARS I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE

Also "We Didn't Start the Fire" and "We Built this City" have always gone together in my head so that pairing feels very Universe. Or maybe its just KINGS I (we) know you.

it is 9:51pm
this is the seance

HOLY FUCKING BBMAK

I was wondering why that "band" looked familiar....now I know.

it is 9:39pm
this is the seance

One last grisly death...

There's a solid chance that is not what that lyric actually is, but I like it this way.

OK, we've got some weird lineups here, just looking at the artist listing on the inside of the package. John Cougar ('our hearts were really pumpin yeah yeah') feeding into Misfits seguing to GBV and then lo and behold we've got a Scott Weiland....I haven't gotten to the latter yet, obviously, but I was not aware he had a solo act. This should be interesting.

It is 9:19pm.

This is the seance.

One Last Caress Again

I definitely just had a few minutes of thinking that I wasn't going to figure out the pictures thing....which would be kind of typical.

But yeah the country song, Tennessee has been getting under Bri Bri's skin. Also that Crooked Fingers doing Jimmy Buffet song worked as a perfect transition. Good job mixmaster. Also I was recently telling someone about "fly away on my cellphone" and the fact that I feel like I had a major RHCP misunderstanding though I can't recall right now. Anyways I was driving to work the other day and realized for the first time, after 15 years of pretty regular rotation, that in the Le Tigre song "Eau D'Bedroom Dancing" they are talking about sex smell. It blew my mind. And then made me think about all the song misunderstanding/alternate understandings we would discuss. Mirror facing mirror style. Or like how "between the bars" was something totally different for us all. THE CAPTAIN IS OUT HERE!

The Tide is High! but not too high.

And here we are with the classic throwback entry, I'm not talking 80s and 90s, I mean the Sleepwalkin' and Runaway era. Always love the stalker-y message of these songs laid out in sugarsweet I'm Your Man style. 

Then we get to Crooked Fingers. Maybe it's just some recent influences/fascination in my life (which I can explain later, but let me just say "Boat Drinks" is a song everyone needs to embrace as a lifestyle, I have many times on kayaks), but I genuinely thought we were getting a Jimmy Buffett song here. I realize it would have been out of character but REALLY you never know, particularly with Bri-Bri's earlier caveat that these wouldn't be exactly traditional. Sorry, but this is 100% Crooked Fingers channeling Jimmy Buffett.


Uh oh. What do we have here now. I do not know this man's name, Eric Church. And I will for old times give you a strong 'what the CRAP song is this....'. Oh god I'm so sorry, but no. Just gonna kiss this guy and retreat into it.

It is 9:04pm.
This is the seance.

Last Caress

So, the stamps are baffling. They're perfectly aligned in a way that would take a human many person-hours to perfect if we are indeed talking about using individual letter stamps. Part of me wants to ask Bri-Bri right now how he did it but the majority of me wants it to remain a mystery never to be discovered. It's like those incredible artists who make microcosmic versions of stage sets or murder scenes, or like a ship in a bottle. How could a human have such precision. How could I ever truly want to know the answer to that and ruin the magic (but I do).

Just a quick note that I have received a lot of packages of clothes lately because I went on a bit of a shopping spree, and holy the juxtaposition of a Target bag full of dresses and a generic packing list vs. everything in this bubble mailer. Not to put too much of a philosophical point on it.

'I got something to say: I killed your baby today. Doesn't matter much to me, as long as it's dead.' [is absolutely the last sentiment applicable today, the best babe was born and all that matters is that's alive. KINGS.]



It is 8:51 pm.
This is the seance.

All the People That I Love the Most

So. Tonight is the Night. To finally throw myself back into the Kings-i-verse as a fully active participant, moving this thing forward as opposed to simply looking back at it. This feels so much like the true continuation of Kings we have all envisioned, not simply reminiscences and nostalgia, but Kings as a living, breathing beast--forever. It has been ten.fucking.years.

In recent months, since we have really been back on top of this thing, since I have allowed myself to marinate in all of my feelings surrounding Kings and to ruminate on all that we've done and all thats happened and all that is to come I have felt such an enormous sense of coming home. To who I am. And no to belabor the point, but what we have created is so representative of all of us and is so special and my heart is so so so full.

Starting Books now. . .



it is 8:49 pm.
this is the seance

Here's to a New Library

Here we go, KINGS. Embarking on the first of the subscription new kings era mixes. --307 (Books). COCO is out here.

It is 8:43pm.
This is the Seance.