L.A. VAMPIRE ON TITUS

This is Bob's house. Thank S. for some amazing COMS work and GBV minutiae scouring on the fly for finding out which one it was. This is the house where he lived and recorded I think basically everything up through Alien Lanes. He's since moved and some unknowing family lives here now. We wondered if we were the only indie rock pilgrims that came skulking around or if it's somewhat common for GBV nerds to cruise by and gawk. As S. pointed out, you can see the basement where it all happened from the street. Almost eerie in its surrealism.

Raising the official beer of late period GBV in toast to all that it is, in the car, parked just off Titus Ave.

 Please refer to the GBV live post for a better synopsis but, when we saw them he played some songs from the Bob solo album "The Crawling Distance". He explained the title with a story about back when he was married to his first wife, "Back when I was the VAMPIRE ON TITUS" and he said there was a bar down the street from his house he'd drink at all the time. He said there was a bridge between the bar and his house and he knew that if could make it as far as the bridge that he could crawl the rest of the way home. Hence the name "The Crawling Distance". So we decided to go searching for this bar. Based on his geographical clues and some map work and driving around our best guess is that this abandoned and boarded up storefront was the best candidate. It looks very much like it was once a neighborhood bar, it's close to his house, it's the only thing that even looks like a bar in proximity and it's just over the bridge that we're guessing he had to be talking about. As it turns out the bridge is actually right outside of this bar and still about a half mile or mile from his doorstep. Which led me to the reaction "That's impossible, no one can crawl that far". I mean it's just right there on a a main drag. The notion of someone crawling almost a mile down a main street, at night, I mean, it would take hours and surely someone would stop him or he'd be stopped by the police or something. But hey, who am I to doubt.

 Of note is this, which is the cross street to that former bar.

 As well as this auto-detailing shop, passed on the way there...

The exit to Titus Ave. as featured in "Watch Me Jumpstart" and which is also the name of Bob's publishing, "Needmore Songs".

 ...and now we're on our way up to Vandalia "which I call EVIL Vandalia..."























It is 2:34 a.m.
This is the seance




















xx

THE LAST NIGHT OF THE YEAR

It is the last night of the year.
This is the seance.
















xx

ECHOS

Had one more in the coffers from that magical show that magical night to share, kings.

I miss you guys and I miss a slightly simpler, happier time.

I'm out here, we're out here. Let's keep going, however we can. we have to just keep rowing
and rowing.







It is 12:01 am
this is the seance.

















xx

A "MORE-SICKA" MC...

I set out today, Jay-Z's b-day, to write one of my favorite kind of posts. One where we take a look at a classic KINGS canonical album which we've exhausted, used every song from across the miles of mixes. There are lots of records by lots of artists that fall in this category and today seemed like a nice time to honor Jay in said manner.

But it's one of those odd KINGS facts we come across sometimes this far down the road. Believe it or not there is only one actual, official Jay-Z album which we've used up. No not "The Blueprint". No not "The Black Album". Both still have 3 outlier songs this far down the line. As it turns out, and I guess it's actually quite fitting, the only J album applicable for this type of benchmark post is...

KINGDOM COME!

The for-no-good-reason much maligned comeback record that we all know and love and holds such a special and marked place in KINGS history. As it turns out, even more UNIVERSE-y, this record, like KINGS itself, has JUST HAD it's ten year anniversary. It was released originally, November 21st, 2006! UNIVERSE, I know you.

To be fair there was actually a little handful of extra songs on a "bonus" disc that I don't even have but we aren't going to count those. These posts are meant to commemorate only the actual album, as originally released and was meant to be heard and experienced. No reissue extras, no iTunes only add-ons, no anniversary set second CDs of unreleased material etc... Only what originally and first appeared on any given album, as released at the time of first issue.

This was obviously a massive time in KINGS history and has a lot of crossover in our lives as a group and individuals, as well as other landmark albums from this window. It's a ship long since sailed but I mean, come on, this record fucking rules, right? Fucking BEACH CHAIR???

So here we go. The format for these, going forward on THE SEANCE will be a rundown of the actual running order/track list of whatever album and then after each song the mix and K number that corresponds to it's appearance. So, to reiterate, the songs will appear as they do were you to listen to the album, and then the KINGS mix appearances appended. After that list I'll relist it all but I'll list it in chronological mix order to give an overview of what order the songs were utilized and some indication of the time span over which it took to use them all up. Make sense? 

For aesthetic/column inch reasons I'll be listing only the "bullet point" name of whatever mix, not the full-length version.

for example: --085(No Inside, No out)

as opposed to: --085(No Inside, No Out [Live At Copenhagen Huset, Denmark, 06-03-05])

I think it just reads easier and makes this more user friendly to do it like that. I can't really ee a situation right now where it would be a real necessity to have the full, proper name of whatever mix listed here.

In the case of more than one song from an album appearing on the same mix they'll be listed in the order they appear on the mix. In the end this will all only give us a partial insight into how the songs were deployed since, historically, many mixes are being worked on at the same time and sometimes later numbers are finished before earlier ones and thus songs selection may seem strange as earlier, favored choices, show up on later mixes or vice versa. But hey, all we can do is look at the best data we can compile this far down the line. I may change or refine this format as we go. You'll note, as I did, if you care to, that this is slightly more involved and different than previous attempts at same (ala "August & Everything After" from year ago). Any comments on how to make this more fun or user-friendly are greatly appreciated, KINGS. 3UNIT.

Ok. Enjoy.



01. The Prelude --082(The Pull)  K4
02. Oh My God --082(The Pull)  K4
03. Kingdom Come --085(No Inside, No Out)  K4
04. Show Me What You Got --058(Who?)  K4
05. Lost Ones --088(The Dead Of Night)  K4
06. Do U Wanna Ride --089(How?)  K4
07. 30 Something --084(Tests [Young Girl Version])  K4
08. I Made It --097(Summer Electricity)  K4
09. Anything --086(In The Bat's Mouth)  K4
10. Hollywood --096(The Breeze)  K4
11. Trouble --086(In The Bat's Mouth)  K4
12. Dig A Hole --087(Voice In Headphones)  K4
13. Minority Report --098(Samurai Sword)  K4
14. Beach Chair --092(O Little Heart)  K4


K4  --058(Who?) 04. Show Me What You Got
K4  --082(The Pull) 01. The Prelude
K4  --082(The Pull) 02. Oh My God
K4  --084(Tests) 07. 30 Something 
K4  --085(No Inside, No Out) 03. Kingdom Come
K4  --086(In The Bat's Mouth) 11. Trouble
K4  --086(In The Bat's Mouth) 09. Anything
K4  --087(Voice In Headphones)12. Dig A Hole
K4  --088(The Dead Of Night) 05. Lost Ones
K4  --089(How?) 06. Do U Wanna Ride 
K4  --092(O Little Heart) 14. Beach Chair
K4  --096(The Breeze) 10. Hollywood
K4  --097(Summer Electricity) 08. I Made It
K4  --098(Samurai Sword) 13. Minority Report




So yeah, there we have it. A little analysis of one of our most beloved "exhausted" albums on this, the day that gifted us HOVI baby. Interesting and apropos that this first stab at this would feature an album so clearly deployed mostly all in one concentrated spate, as I'm thinking many of the classics of KINGS have been. This compression of appearances makes me really wish I knew the actual span of time during which these mixes were written. Was this a couple weeks of banging them out, was this a couple months? Looking over the other tracks on these mixes this is clearly a killer fucking moment in KINGS history. I'm thinking it sits in close relation to that one Christmas trip home to Atlanta which I fondly think of as "Buzz Bin Xmas". Shortly after discovering Coco was cool with DMB and indeed all 90's hits. Coco might remember this time as the "Homework" era as well. Any and all recollections and memories, thoughts, theories about time-line and life-line placement would be much appreciated.

I know there are a few odd instances where a song or two has been abandoned or orphaned and never returned to, much like the other Jay albums. So in some instances we'll see some very disparate usage dates. In the case of this album, this spread makes total sense to me, though I'm guessing, for reasons lost to history that that first track appearing on --058 was some oddity. Perhaps just an early adopter or perhaps something retconned onto that mix when that was still a thing I did. The world may never know.



OH

MY

GOD

ZOE








It is 10:00 PM
This is the seance.

















xx

CLASS CLOWN SPOTS VAMPIRE ON TITUS

HALLOWEEN, 2016
Happy birthday Bob, Happy birthday me.
I can't express how much this means to me. Thank you to all the most loved ones in my life.

Let's go forward.











It is 1:51 p.m.
This is the seance.


























xx

DEAD KINGS RISE

From the top:

1. "Amy as a pigeon" as drawn at work at BMAX by Frederick Walter Shannon

2. Address and requested word side of the "Xiu Xiu send me a word and I'll write it on a hand drawn post card sent to you from tour" offer postcard that used to live in a plastic centerpiece on the KINGS table (RIP)

3. Drawing side of same postcard

4. An authentic vintage Burrito Max to go bag, medium size...

5. ...which turns out to be one of my employee "money" bags from the safe!

6. "Jersey Hot, Age 2" (Oh Martin where art thou?)




Surprise KINGS! And Happy Halloween GALA!
Thank you for having this night with me and this LIFETIME.







It is 8:10 pm
This is the seance.






















xx

CLASS CLOWN SPOTS HARDCORE UFOS

It is 1:21 am
this is the seance.







xx