Twenty Questions

Singers, songwriters, and guitarists Ken Stringfellow and Jon Auer met at a Bellingham music store as teenagers in the mid-'80s. They began the Posies in 1988 with bassist Rick Roberts and drummer Mike Musburger, both of whom left by the mid-'90s, playing sweet-toned pop-rock that, along with similar fare from Teenage Fanclub and Matthew Sweet, became early '90s college- radio favorites and recording five albums before splitting in 1998. They got back together two years later, and subsequent acoustic shows and brief tours have led to the new record, Every Kind of Light (Rykodisc). Recorded with bassist Matt Harris and drummer Darius Minwalla, who've worked with Stringfellow and Auer since 2001, Light is coolly sophisticated but features plenty of the hyperactive, British Invasion–inspired pop on which they've built a career. In the interim, Stringfellow and Auer have completed solo records and worked with R.E.M. and Big Star. The Jukebox took place in Stringfellow's Seattle home (he splits his time between here and France) prior to the Posies' Bumbershoot performance, and a few days before the national tour that winds up at Neumo's and the Wild Buffalo this week.

The dB's: "Black and White" (1981) from Stands for Decibels (IRS) and Flamin' Groovies: "I Can't Hide" (1976) from Shake Some Action (Sire)

Ken Stringfellow: [as dB's play] Is this the song we left off Failure? [laughs] Is that the dB's?

Jon Auer: It could be Mitch Easter– or Don Dixon–produced. It definitely has the Mitch Easter sound of the early R.E.M. recordings.

Stringfellow: [dB's drummer] Will Rigby wanted to be in the Posies. [Flamin' Groovies begins] Is that the Brian Jonestown Massacre? [laughs]

Seattle Weekly: Good guess.

Stringfellow: I think its Andrew W.K.

Auer: Or the new Glenn Danzig record. That sounds like Danzig, a little bit.

Stringfellow: Can I just ask if every song is the dB's, through the end?

Auer: I will admit I've heard the dB's, but I've never heard these songs before. So this is a first.

SW: This is the Flamin' Groovies.

Both: Ah.

Auer: I have two or three Flamin' Groovies records. I always gravitate toward "Teenage Head"—I think it's one of the greatest rock songs ever. I like their nastier stuff, to be honest. Not to mention their note-for- note cover of [the Byrds'] "I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better."

SW: I chose both bands because they appear, along with the Posies, on the new Children of Nuggets compilation.

Auer: Of which we have yet to get copies!

Stringfellow: I've only read about it.

SW: I was hoping you'd talk about your part in—

Stringfellow: The dB's reunion? [laughs]

SW: —the power-pop revival, which figures heavily into the compilation.

Auer: "Power pop," even at this point, is a term that can rub us the wrong way, because sometimes it's been limiting to us. It's interesting to get lumped with certain bands, when legitimately some of our music falls into the power-pop category, but a lot of it doesn't.

Stringfellow: Yes, it's funny how that dB's song bears quite a few similarities to Failure in terms of the dinky drums and acoustic guitar. Yes, there's some relationship [to us]. Unfortunately, what we did then has determined the category we're sent to for the rest of our lives. We were 17, it was 1988. That was a long time ago.

SW: Did bands like these make you want to start one?

Auer: I hadn't heard those bands [at the time]. Flamin' Groovies and dB's were bands that friends of mine who were older and working in record stores . . . 

Stringfellow: And still living at home . . . 

Auer: . . . told me about after the fact, saying, "Wow, I really like your Failure record. . . . "

Stringfellow: [mocking] "Jon, my mom's not gonna be home this week. Do you wanna come over late at night and listen to the dB's?"

SW: Were you big record shoppers as well?

Stringfellow: In high school.

Auer: I worked in a record store and took lots of records. Cellophane Square was the main hub for both Ken and I. For some reason, I liked to buy and sell records. I would buy one, sell it, and then Ken would buy it. I bought Hatful of Hollow by the Smiths on vinyl, for some reason went through a mood swing and decided I didn't want it anymore. Ken must've been waiting in the wings and went right in and purchased it.

R.E.M.: "Talk About the Passion" (1983) from Murmur (IRS)

Auer: Never heard this.

Stringfellow: No comment.

SW: How did you get involved with R.E.M.?

Stringfellow: I can tell you this much—we covered one of their songs in our very first show in '87.

Auer: "Sitting Still," right?

Stringfellow: Yeah. It was an acoustic show, just the two of us. Jon and I were fans of the Young Fresh Fellows and got to know Scott McCaughey around the time we started playing in a band in 1988. Scott befriended [R.E.M. guitarist] Peter Buck, staying at his house on tour with the Fellows. Scott started playing with them, and then Jon, Scott, Peter, and I played in the Minus Five. Like how Mercedes and Chrysler are owned by the same company, I ended up playing with R.E.M. through that stock exchange.