Dynamo Royale's new album

By Jack Brummet

I just received the album from Dynamo Royale that I backed in Kickstarter a couple of years ago.  The album by Tiz Aramini and Jon Auer is not what I expected at all.  And I am loving it...

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Jon Auer's great cover of "Let It Snow"

Click here to go to the tune.

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Nothing Can Hurt Me Now—The Big Star Documentary

By Jack Brummet, American Music Ed.

I watched "Nothing Can Hurt Me Now" last night. It was moving, informative, and wonderful. Since I discovered them in the early 90's, they have been in my top ten bands of all time. If you love rock and roll, you should watch this documentary--buy it, stream it, do whatever it takes. I feel lucky to have seen them four times when they reformed with Ken Stringfellow AndJonathan Paul Auer a/k/a The Posies. Thank you Jody, Alex, Chris, Andy, and Jon and Ken for the great music that has fueled the soundtrack of my life for the last 20+ years. 

If you haven't heard Big Star, it's time. Probably the most moving part of this film is the number of people—across the music industry—that revered them and were inspired by them. And it wasn't about the money for once; they didn't make any, no one one made any.  It was a losing proposition all around except for the magnificent music that influenced so many great singers, bands, and songwriters. Big Star reverberates all around us now in a crazy lineage, filtered through succeeding rock generations down to current indie bands through bands like REM, Cheap Trick, Teenage Fanclub, The Replacements, The Posies, and all the rest.



And a video from The Tonight Show, not after Big Star reformed during the 1990's:

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Jonathan Auer & Tiz Aramini's Grand Royale Kickstarter project

By Jack Brummet, Music Editor


Jon Auer (singer-songwriter), producer, member of The Posies and Big Star) has a new project--Dynamo Royale, with his partner/bandmate, Tiz Aramini--up on Kickstarter.  They are looking for funding to complete an album they are working on.

This is an easy one for me to kickstart--I have been a fan of his singing and music for more than 20 years.  I look forward to hearing the fruits of this new project.  Jump here to learn more about the project, and to donate!  They take donations anywhere from one dollar to $1,250.

DYNAMO ROYALE'S QUEST FOR STRINGS & THINGS FOR NEW RECORD!

Hi All,

My name is Jon Auer and I've been a longtime musician for the last 20 plus years with varying degrees of success with The Posies, Big Star and as a solo artist as well. I've been working on a new duo project with my band mate/partner Tiz Aramini called DYNAMO ROYALE and I'm very excited with the results. Up to this point, with the exception of a few days at a small project studio, we've recorded everything in two modest domestic home recording locales, one just outside of Paris, the other in Seattle, stretching both our time and resources as far as possible. Alas, we have done all we can on our own and are hoping to enlist the aid of a seasoned session drummer to replace the loops, beats, and clicks we've recorded to and some excellent string players to bring to life the digital sketches we've made on our overworked USB keyboard. In other words: we truly want some real talented humans playing and adding life to this stuff and that is going to cost us more that our self-funded effort currently has to expend.

International travel, studio time, and musicians fees will be involved in this for a total of 12 songs-worth of high quality rhythms and nuanced bowing. In addition, in a perfect world, we'd also like to be able to pay for the mastering of our record and an initial run of 1000 CDs so we can honor the rewards we've listed to the right of this message and still have enough to promote the project in its initial stages. So, all said, Tiz and I are hoping to raise $8000 by the end of this Kickstarter 30 day time frame so we can make all of this happen and take our project to the next level artistically and then have something physical and sonic to share. If indeed we can meet our goal, we'll be enlisting the steady aid of Jeremy Stacey on drums, recording at his London studio (formerly Hans Zimmer's studio), and Phillip A. Peterson to arrange and perform strings with whoever he may require. Both are exceptional at what they do and would be amazing to have.

For those who it may apply, I have to say thank you to anyone who has supported the music I've been involved with over the years, be it The Posies, Big Star, or my solo work. In essence, you're the ones who've made it possible for me to be privileged enough to do what I do and that is certainly no small contribution. Honestly, I've wondered to myself if it's a little strange being a professional musician asking for this kind of support... but, times being what they are, it's just getting harder and harder to get financing for these kinds of things in advance, if at all. SO...Thanks for considering to help realize a new musical dream/endeavor here. It is beyond appreciated. Tiz and I have both done other musical things on our own but I really believe this is a unique collaboration and I'm looking forward to hopefully being able to share it in the near future.

Oh yes - a shout out to Jason Tang for the photo above and also a reminder to click on the pic and watch a primitive but heartfelt video showing and telling you a little more...

Thanks for looking!

Jon

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Big Star's first show with The Posies in the band

In 1993, the legendary Big Star reconvened to play a show in Columbia, Missouri. They brought in The Posies Ken Stringfellow and Jon Auer to sing and play guitars. They've been together, off and on, ever since, with the Posies still pursuing their own efforts and the occasional Posies tour and record. Big Star, with Jon and Ken, released their first record in decades a few years ago. This video is from Jay Leno's show the day before that first show in Columbia. I've seen them three times since they tarted up, but not recently.


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Big Star videos: In The Street and The Ballad of El Goodo

Big Star, the legendary band from the 70's, has been comprised, since about 1992, of 50% Big Star and 50% Posies: Jody Stephens, Ken Stringfellow, Jon Auer, and the legendary Alex Chilton.



Here are videos of In The Street and The Ballad of El Goodo. In The Street served for several years as the theme of The 70'show - I hope Alex still had a chunk of the action! I have seen Big Star three times, and The Posies about eight times over the last many years...






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Another Posies Video::::Definite Door:::::::with lyrics, and, of course, with Ken Stringfellow and Jonathan Auer

An oddly dated, but good, music video of The Posies Definite Door...on their "breakout" record, Frosting On The Beater. This song is one of their tunes that sort of bridges the gap aurally and lyrically, instrumentally (is that a word!?) between the more acoustic first two albums and the power pop of Frosting and Amazing Disgrace.

The Posies played at my 50th birthday party and did a great version of Definite Door that night.



Definite Door
(By Ken Stringfellow and Jonathan Auer)

Say goodbye to your friends and family
Pack your promises silently
Leave a note on your kitchen table
This is all you will ever be

So hope for a better place for a better time for a better speed
So hope for a better use for a better word for a better need
And if you listen close enough
You might hear too much
Hard as sharp and razor-rough
You've never seen the such...

It's the definite door
To another dimension
Nothing
No more
(not even a mention...)

Keeping track of the eyesight streaming
Isn't part of the regimen
Many hours of sleepless dreaming
Unaware of the mess you're in
And if you didn't have a clue
You probably never will
And all the things you didn't do
Will inundate you still...

It's the definite door
To another dimension
Nothing
No more
(not even a mention...)

Better cross your heart, make it people-proof try to fight the fright
And have a real good trip, see you when you fall don't forget to
Write yourself back...
And if you fail to see the point
Of doubting all you do
Don't forget to blame yourself
There's nothing else for you...

Say goodbye to your friends and family
Pack your promises silently
Funny how they forget to tell you
This is all you will ever be

This is all you will ever be now
This is all you will ever be
This is all you will ever be now
This is all you will ever be...
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Video: John Auer and Ken Stringfellow/The Posies play Solar Sister at the 1994 Phoenix Festival - and they f***ing rock!!!!l

This is a great video of The Posies at one of their peaks, in their big hair phase, playing the s*** out of Solar Sister. Jon and Ken sound great, look great and the drumming is that characteristic thundering up front.


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Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow a/k/a The Posies perform "I Guess You're Right" live

This tune is from their most recent album, "Every Kind of Light." There arent't a lot of high quality videos of these guys out there...especially of their recent work. . .

Big Star video: September Gurls - with lyrics

Ken Stringfellow and Jon Auer of The Posies have been members, now, of Big Star for over a decade. Here is a video of one of Alex Chilton's greatest songs from Stockholm on a recent tour. On drums, Jody Stephens, of course.




September Gurls


September gurls do so much
I was your butch and you were touched
I loved you well never mind
I've been crying all the time
December boys got it bad.
September gurls I don't know why
how can I deny what's inside
even thought I keep away
maybe we'll love all our days.
When I get to bed
late at night
that's the time
she makes things right
ooh when she makes luv to me.
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