We have a free download for you today, here is ‘Mercy’, a track Saint John recorded with Peter Buck (R.E.M.), Scott McCaughey (R.E.M., Robyn Hitchcock), and Bill Rieflin (R.E.M., Ministry, KMFDM), and produced by Paul Fox (Bjork, Wallflowers, XTC). Enjoy!
For more news and updates on Saint John’s work with the R.E.M. boys, “like” him on Facebook:
I now own gloves. I know you may think to yourselves, “yes, and?”, well, I admit it’s not really that monumental of a statement. Doesn’t everybody own gloves? My hands have accepted some very hot cups of tea in my life and perhaps I’ve cursed myself for not having some sort of hand protection for the occasional lava-hot brew. But I have lived in southern California for so long now I can’t even remember needing gloves for cold weather. I haven’t even owned a heavy coat since I was very young. I wear standard issue t-shirts of varying colours and flip-flop sandals almost all year round in the nearly endless sunshine of Venice Beach. But at the moment, I am more northerly than our species should probably permanently inhabit. This Canadian southern California boy is in Seattle, Washington.
Maybe I’m not mushing sled dogs through the arctic, but fekk, it’s damn cold here, especially for my SoCal thinned blood. So I bought gloves (and a scarf, and a heavy wool jacket) to survive my stay here. I didn’t want future humans to discover my frozen carcass in some archaeological dig and be designated ‘Wallingford Man’ (Wallingford is a Seattle neighbourhood, in case you needed a guide). I have my own personal mental challenge to not lose the gloves, but their loss is just as inevitable as my eventual return to the easy weather of Venice Beach.
Seattle also has its treasures that I’m starting to discover and appreciate. I’ve met so many lovely folks this time around, I’m starting to think of Seattle as a second home. I have some family here, and my legendary guitar-wielding collaborator Peter Buck records with me here, and now that I’m out exploring Seattle’s unique neighbourhoods and playing shows here, it’s becoming much more familiar to me. And I have to say it is a lovely city, with some great music talent and venues, and some very interesting people.
I just slid my new gloves off to go on the trusty laptop and look for some flights back to California, but I’ll be back to Seattle soon, and hopefully I won’t lose my gloves in the meantime.
Love,
SJ
PS. Please have a listen to our newly minted version of Make A Fuss, it’s been one of the songs I’ve played most here in Seattle, I guess it’s just been on my mind:
http://www.reverbnation.com/play_now/song_11068526
This is another new track, it’s called Polar Bear Suit. Peter Buck (R.E.M.) plays some guitars on this one too, his Rickenbacker sounds super lovely.
http://www.reverbnation.com/play_now/song_9297321
Love,
SJ
PS. I have some shows coming up soon: http://www.sjatr.com/shows
Here is a song we recorded with Peter Buck (R.E.M.), it’s called ‘Hear Me Now’, and it’s one of my favourites:
We’ll post some more songs in the coming weeks, but this should give you a taste of what we’ve been up to. Let me know what you think.
Cheers,
SJ
PS. I hope to see you at my House of Blues on Sunset show on 12 May at 11PM, get your tix here: http://www.sjatr.com/hob
We finally posted an album of the photos of my sessions with Peter Buck (R.E.M.), Scott McCaughey (R.E.M., Baseball Project) and Bill Rieflin (R.E.M., Ministry). They’re a legendary team to have in the studio, I am blessed beyond comprehension.
We went in and recorded the songs together in Seattle, Washington. The sessions were a lot of fun, we had tons of freedom to record the songs how we wanted them to sound and we just fell in to a groove and recorded very quickly and easily. I can’t wait for you guys to hear the songs, I’ll see if I can find some videos to post of the sessions also.
Love,
SJ
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