WHAT?

I leave for Europe tomorrow??? I have been paying no attention to my life. Too hurricane obsessed. I hope someone has been paying attention--anyone coming to these shows? I'm super psyched to be playing proper venues in all the lovely countries listed below that share a currency and a "continental perspective" but would go to war over their soccer teams. Yay! And OH, Luxemburg, I cannot wait to be with you and cuddle and bond over our shared petiteness.

I have not been disseminating information as well as I should, so here is a little update about the fall for ya'll. The Mountain Goats and Kaki King (me!) have recorded an ep entitled 'The Black Pear EP.' I think that's what it's called. Hmm, must double check before writing last minute blogs. At any rate, it will be available at our shows on the US tour Oct 13-Nov 9 on some kind of super special collectors edition vinyl so it will sound amaaaaaaaaaa . . .

zing!

It has six songs, mostly written by John Darnielle, but played as a duo, and some written together and sung by John, and one written by John and sung by me. We'll be giving you a huge sample spoonful of the music live onstage each and every night tag team style so you will be filled with love and BUY it. Even if you haven't bought your super sweet turntable(s) yet.


Here! Give yourselves a sneak peak:
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/download/145282-premiere-the-mountain-goats-and-kaki-king-thank-you-mario-but-our-princess


Last minute thoughts:

a. A big shout to the bellississima Milanese who sold out the 'house concert' in under a minute. I have been screaming to come back to Italy for years and hopefully my cries will no longer fall on deaf ears.

b. http://www.myspace.com/kakidue

c. When I get back from all this touring I'm going to go work for CNN.


With love and kisses,

kaki

Sep 19 2008 8:00P House Concert Milan
Sep 21 2008 8:00P Studio 672 Cologne
Sep 22 2008 8:00P Bang Bang Club Berlin
Sep 23 2008 8:00P Prinzenbar Hamburg
Sep 24 2008 8:00P Tivoli Utrecht
Sep 25 2008 8:00P Rotown Rotterdam
Sep 28 2008 8:00P Boule Noire Paris
Sep 29 2008 8:00P Muziek O Droom Club Hasselt
Sep 30 2008 8:00PLuxemburg Rockhal Café Esch-sur-Alzette
Oct 2 2008 8:00P Night and Day Manchester
Oct 3 2008 8:00P Institute of Contemporary Art London

5:27 AM - 36 Comments - 53 Kudos - Add Comment

achtung lieblings!

Hello Everyone!

Thanks for the happy birthday wishes. I spent my birthday on a flight from San Francisco to New York reading Cormac McCarthy's 'The Road.' Dont get me wrong, I am a HUGE fan of the apocalypse, but this takes a picture of the end of times way too fucking far. Babies on barbeque spits???? There is only pithy (and suspect) redemption at the end. In theaters this November (no joke).

I wanted to let everyone know that Dan Brantigan had surgery on his knee this morning and you should all send him messages of care and love while he is recuperating. It was his limping around and tripping over cables that caused the two power failures during Radiohead's set at the Outside Lands festival this weekend. Poor thing. We all wish him a speedy recovery so he can get back to his iron man training (again, no joke.)

Some things I wanted to mention:

A few new dates have been added for the fall tour. They are:

10/8 The Iron Horse Northampton, MA.
10/23 The Independent San Francisco, CA.
10/24 The Fillmore San Francisco, CA.

Whee!

Ameila Tovey, finest guerrilla filmmaker in all of Oz, did some fun videos with us backstage at Acer Arena. One is me doing a cover of 'Camp Out' by sky-rocketing-to-fame Brisband An Horse. Check them out and others at her space: www.shoottheplayer.com

I covered one half of the brilliant Justin Timberlake song 'Lovestoned' on prior tours and finally did a proper recording of it. MP3's of my version fell into the wrong hands and I got pitted against the man who brought sexy back in a battle of who is truly the greatest lovestoner. Thus far I'm still winning but the margin is getting smaller and smaller. Check out the feature and exercise your right to vote. For me.
http://www.spinner.com/2008/08/21/clash-of-the-cover-songs-justin-timberlake-vs-kaki-king/

Day Sleeper is playing a gig tomorrow night:
CD release party for Weller Grant and Adam Groves and the Stagecoach
The Annex, 152 Orchard St. 7:00
$10 gets you in and both records
Day Sleeper plays at the end of the eve

I have about 10 days off until I start touring again. Any suggestions as to what to do in NYC at summer's end?

love to all,
kaki

9:22 PM - 46 Comments - 57 Kudos - Add Comment

a guide to the SHOW(s)

Ladies and Gentleman,

When I look at the long list of tour dates on my MySpace at the moment, I go weak and fall flat on the floor. When I recover, I am overcome with a deep desire to find a desk job and go home at night to a stack of grad-school applications. However, this was the life I chose for myself and I'll put on every single show as if it were my first and my last. Scout's honor.

Because so many of these gigs involve different configurations of me,
and I wouldn't want anyone to be confused by what they are getting
themselves into, allow me to present you with a guide to my mad summer
and fall.


Aug 3 2008 4:00P Newport Folk Festival- Fort Adams State Park Newport, Rhode Island

50 minute set with the full band.

Aug 4 2008 8:00P Calvin Theater Northampton, Massachusetts

Opening for KT Tunstall. Short set accompanied by the amazing Dan Brantigan.

Aug 9 2008 5:00P Trinumeral Festival- Deerfields Amphitheater Horseshoe, North Carolina

Hour-long set of solo Kaki and Dan B. (Not to be confused with Gina
B., the Hungarian porn star, although the resemblance is striking.)

Aug 16 2008 2:00P Jackson Hole Music Fest Teton Village, Wyoming

Full band set.

Aug 23 2008 2:00P Outside Lands San Francisco, California

Full band set.


The following shows I'm extremely excited about! They will be solo
acoustic guitar only. My goal is to revisit some favorites, play some
older songs that have never been played live, and play some of my more
recent material in the form that it was originally composed in. This
will take me back into the realm of serious guitar work and I'm doing
my darndest to get all of my chops back into shape.

The rooms are great intimate venues that I've played at many times
before. Due to the nature of the show I'm going to make myself as
available as possible to answer questions about guitars, playing,
whatever you want to know. Disclaimer: haters and guitar police--you
are not invited!

Sep 4 2008 8:00P Daniel Street Milford, Connecticut
Sep 5 2008 8:00P Jonathan's Restaurant Ogunquit, Maine
Sep 6 2008 8:00P Colony Cafe Woodstock, New York
Sep 7 2008 7:00P Turning Point Piermont, New York
Sep 8 2008 7:30P Rams Head Annapolis, Maryland


My EU friends! Although not exactly exhaustive, the following is what I'd consider to be my first proper "European tour." I'll be playing acoustic, electric and lap steel, and the wonderful Dantigan will cover the breathing.

Sep 21 2008 8:00P Studio 672 Cologne
Sep 22 2008 8:00P Bang Bang Club Berlin
Sep 23 2008 8:00P Prinzenbar Hamburg
Sep 24 2008 8:00P Tivoli Utrecht
Sep 25 2008 8:00P Rotown Rotterdam
Sep 28 2008 8:00P Boule Noire Paris
Sep 29 2008 8:00P Muziek O Droom Club Hasselt
Sep 30 2008 8:00P Luxemburg Rockhal Café Esch-sur-Alzette
Oct 2 2008 8:00P Night and Day Manchester
Oct 3 2008 8:00P Institute of Contemporary Art London


These shows will feature the full band for our massive 2-plus hour rockdown. Mack's dance moves! Matt Hankle's double bass! Yuval Semo!!

Oct 9 2008 8:00P Higher Ground Burlington, Vermont
Oct 10 2008 8:00P Paradise Rock Club Boston, Massachusetts

And now, as aforementioned,
The Mountain Goats and Kaki King present: THE LAST HAPPY NIGHT OF YOUR LIFE.
The band will be there! The Mountain Goats will be there! Chaos and
hilarity will surely ensue. We shall dance off the stage into the
crowd and onto the street in an orgy of happiness. After these shows
the rest of our lives will totally suck!!!

Oct 13 2008 8:00P Park West Chicago, Illinois
Oct 14 2008 8:00P The Pabst Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Oct 15 2008 8:00P The Slowdown Omaha, Nebraska
Oct 17 2008 8:00P The Bluebird Denver, Colorado
Oct 18 2008 8:00P In The Venue Salt Lake City, Utah
Oct 20 2008 8:00P Showbox Seattle, Washington
Oct 21 2008 8:00P Wonder Ballroom Portland, Oregon
Oct 25 2008 8:00P Troubadour Los Angeles, California
Oct 26 2008 8:00P Troubadour Los Angeles, California
Oct 28 2008 9:00P Belly Up Tavern Solana Beach, California
Oct 29 2008 8:00P Club Congress Tucson, Arizona
Oct 31 2008 8:00P Tequila Jungle Lubbock, Texas
Nov 1 2008 8:00P Antone's Austin, Texas
Nov 2 2008 8:00P Granada Theater Dallas, Texas
Nov 3 2008 8:00P Republic New Orleans, Louisiana
Nov 5 2008 8:00P Cat's Cradle Carrboro, North Carolina
Nov 6 2008 8:00P 9:30 Club WASHINGTON, Washington DC
Nov 7 2008 8:00P Theatre of Living Arts Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Nov 8 2008 8:00P Webster Hall New York, New York
Nov 9 2008 8:00P Music Hall of Williamsburg Brooklyn, New York


Please check back as more dates will be added to the schedule. See you then!

kaki

10:04 PM - 25 Comments - 43 Kudos - Add Comment

i was here the whole time . . .

Hello good peoples.

I cannot believe how long it's been since I've written a blog. Neglecting such a thing usually means that there's not a lot going on and not much to report on. In my case it was the exact opposite.

It's been almost a year since I started recording Dreaming of Revenge. That was August 2007. So many things have happened since then it's been hard to keep track. I circumnavigated the globe twice. Once in the direction of Howard Hughes, and the second time in the direction of Magellan. Last night I was in bed letting the memories float back into my head. Good, bad, totally random. These are the moments I remembered and wrote down so I could share them:


Discovering what 'confit canard' was at a quiet restaurant in Toulouse.

Throwing roses into the audience at L'Olympia in Paris on the last night of the John Butler Trio tour.

Having Dave Grohl put me on the spot and play 'Pink Noise' in front of 18,000 people in London while Jimmy Page watched my ass.

Having many near-death experiences on a bicycle in Amsterdam.

Spending almost a thousand dollars on clothes and shoes for a Golden Globe ceremony that never happened.

Watching Dan Brantigan's face light up when he saw Tokyo for the first time.

Crying myself to sleep every night on a tour bus in France.

Experiencing Cologne during carnival week, and learning the German lyrics to such polka/dance hits as "My Hair is Looking Great," "Who Put the Rose Tattoo on Your Butt," and "I Like the Fat Girl."

Eating BBQ at The Salt Lick in Austin, TX, and viewing the gigantic grill. Something that can only be described as 'meat pornography.'

Informing an Australian tv audience what a turducken is. Again, meat pornography comes to mind.

Accidentally sending my passport ahead with the luggage to Brussels from London. Having Dan "my hero for life" Brantigan cross borders twice, save the day, and actually making it through the show that night.

Seeing Ani DiFranco, Incubus, and Feist in the same week at the best venues in Paris.

Playing a show in Jackson Hole, WY with a 103 degree fever and not even being able to stand. While recovering from this flu I did discover a fondness for hot toddys.

Tripping over cables and falling 3 feet onto a concrete floor coming off stage in Chicago. Stairs were difficult to navigate for the next week.

Watching the sunset over the Bosphorus in Istanbul. Being toyed with by the sticky ice cream men and jumping out of the way of careening cab drivers.

Spilling an entire glass of red wine all over myself during crazy turbulance flying over the Atlantic. Having the beverage soak into my shirt and pants and be unable to do anything but feel cold and wet and smell like a wino for the next 7 hours.

Playing a few songs at a conference in California with Al Gore in the audience. The next day the elevator door opened at the hotel on my floor and there stood the man himself. He said, "you were great," while I barely made a sound and snuck into the back corner.

Bento boxes on a bullet train from Tokyo to Nagoya.

Spending a week in a swank apartment in a high-rise in Melbourne. Exploring that amazing city and recording Day Sleeper ep 1 there.

Having Matt Groening in the audience at the Roxy in LA. WHAT???

Getting unbelievably trashed every night on the Foo Fighter's Australian tour. DJing the 'rock box' backstage, playing air guitar, and making a fool out of myself. Dueting with Mr. Grohl each night onstage in front of thousands of Aussies and being rewarded by a sweaty hug from the man. That tour was more fun than I ever could have imagined.

Trying to hold in the laughter and smiles as Mack Price made crazy guitar faces and danced onstage every night during the US tour.

Being blown away by Matt Hankle's drum skills. Totally getting off and geeking out on his drum solo every night and feeling honored to play onstage with him.

Listening to Yuval Semo play the entire Beatles catalog and sing in his adorable accent on an overnight van drive to who knows where.

Watching Matt Sheehy open the show on the West Coast leg and singing along every night.

Having to be forcibly dragged to a late night meeting with my manager. Finding the whole thing completely unnecessary, bitching and moaning the entire way there, only to find that I had been duped and my amazing friends and people that work with me had thrown a surprise party on the eve of the record release and US tour. Even my dad was there.

Listening to German hardcore and totally wishing that I had gone down a different musical path.

Hearing my music in 'Into the Wild' for the first time ever in a movie theater in Brisbane, months after the film was released in the states.

Having no doctor be able to explain or cure what I can only describe as 'dehydrated outer right ear canal syndrome.'

Being surrounded by leaping dolphins on a boat in the Gulf of Mexico near Rockport, TX during New Years Eve.

Selling out the Paradise in Boston and Bowery Ballroom in New York. A feat your humble little guitar player did not think would ever be possible.

Dying my hair black and buying a leather jacket in Frankfurt.

Willingly letting a surgeon cut my eyes open and burn my corneas. Possibly the greatest thing i've ever done for myself.

Eating veggie samosas and sleeping on an overnight train ride from Hamburg to Brussels.

Getting a Kahuna massage in Sydney. For those who don't know, get yourself to the Hawaiian Massage Center on Oxford street. And be prepared to get greasy.

Scattering my little dog's ashes at the river in Atlanta with my sweet family there.

Being forced to get drunk by well-meaning Turks and then playing on the evening news in Istanbul.

Spending almost three very lonely weeks on tour in the Netherlands and having an existential crisis about my personal and musical self.

Last night of a two and a half month tour in London—overwhelmed by exhaustion but nevertheless playing an amazing show complete with a Day Sleeper set that was almost a half hour long. Afterwards going to the Bloomsbury Bowling Alley and dancing and laughing so hard I was sore the next day.


There are so many many more amazing and beautiful and unexpected and even tragic things that happened this year. I feel changed forever. I want to thank everyone for listening to the record, coming to the shows, bringing presents and mix cds, sending messages on myspace, and continuing to be the most incredibly supportive fans out there. Thank you Thank you Thank you.

This blog was meant to be more personal, but look out soon for another message about the rest of the summer and an amazing fall that is coming together, and coming near you hopefully.

Love love

kaki

9:43 PM - 75 Comments - 115 Kudos - Add Comment

my bday: thank you, but no.

Thank you all for the birthday wishes.  Really and truly, they meant so much to me and made me feel so special.  A new year's day baby!  How cool . . .

However, I was born on August 24, 1979.  I have no idea as to the source of the misinformation, so apologies to everyone who made the effort to wish me a happy one.  Dan "dan-like" Brantigan was born on Christmas Eve, so you can wish him a belated birthday if you feel the need.  Also, my sister Karen's bday is Jan 7.  I think she's on facebook or something . . .

alrighty then.

kk

1:39 PM - 32 Comments - 42 Kudos - Add Comment

golden globes and everything else

i've been nominated for a golden globe award for best score alongside michael brook and eddie vedder for Into the Wild.

Your favorite guitar girl with the hillary swank cheekbones (i dont see it but everyone insists!) will be tromping down the red carpet on Jan 13. I've found a dress, I'm getting my eyes lasered (finally, I have been waiting for this moment!! say goodbye to the tina fey spectacles everyone), and I might even be forced to wear heels for the first (and hopefully last) time in my life.

everything else:
it's all too much for one blog. wrapping up the last amazing three months of my life into a paragraph in this tiny font is completely unrealistic.

thank you france, and london, and belgium and the netherlands and germany. thank you australia. gotta repeat that one. thank you australia . . .

the new record is called Dreaming of Revenge. Out on March 4. Tour to follow.

Europe--i'll be seeing you again in February, dates to be announced very soon.

more updates and road memories to come soon. happy new year everyone.

love, kaki

8:21 AM - 44 Comments - 60 Kudos - Add Comment

leaving (coming)

it is off to europe! or, rather, i am off. i have become an it.

i hope you're ready. i doubled the amount of french i know. i can now say "je suis americaine, excuse moi" AND "un boutille de vin rouge, si vous plez." let the bon temps roulez.

i will be opening for the john butler trio in liverpool and london, and then off to france to do the same. then a brief string of headlining shows in belguim and the uk, then off to holland where it is said they holla a lot. my friend davis just said that and i felt it was just stupid enough to merit mentioning.

from amsterdam i'll fly east to australia--my first around the world trip! a string of fantastic shows are set up there so be psyched my aussie friends.

foo fighters album is released in a few days, watch out for "the ballad of the beaconsfield miners." Into the Wild the movie will be coming out soon as well. Go see it and try to ponder if Chris McCandless was an innocent, a visionary, or just a fucking numbskull who had bigger balls than the rest of the disenchanted.

I finished the new album. Don't get your panties in a tangle, it won't be released until next year, but it's done. And it's amazing.

This blog is dediated to Lulu, sweetest happiest most loving beagle anyone could hope for. She had a wonderful life and we'll miss her. 1998-2007.

11:30 PM - 34 Comments - 54 Kudos - Add Comment

cancelled shows and recording madness

Hello people.
I wasn't on drugs, I didn't get sick, I didn't have to go to Argentina for some secret esoterism cult comet eclipse ceremony that only happens once every 689 years. The New York Spiegeltent show was cancelled because of the venue. I don't know if it was too many pigeons crapping on their lovely tent roof or a crack in a precious pane of stained glass or if every single employee came down with scabies or croup or splurtosis or WHATEVER. I was psyched to do the gig and I'm sorry it didn't happen, but it was cancelled on their end.

When I got the news of the cancellation, my end was happily speeding down the NY thruway. Why don't they just spell it "throughway?" Or try "easy pass" instead of EZ Pass. This is me thinking like my uncle Don, thinking that life is so very tough because the world is insistent on insulting my intelligence. At any rate, had I found out sooner I would have stayed up in Kingston and kept working on the record.

Oh god, the record.

I swear, when I got back up here I listened to all the songs I had recorded so far and I couldn't believe it was my music or me or anything remotely connected to my life even. Everything sounds huge and insane. But I really like it. I felt as if I had been caring for a litter of puppies but had to leave them at a kennel for a while and when I came back they had all become gigantic slobbering handsome fun and amazing dogs. And now they all have to be trained(mixing).

My brain hurts from playing 4/4 patterns over a 5/4 beat for the entire day.

Off to lyric writing and a night of inspired music making (read: a beer and monty python vhs during the first 10 minutes of which I will surely pass out)

bye

8:04 PM - 19 Comments - 28 Kudos - Add Comment

make it so 1 chair

Making this record is absolutely ridiculous.

I came here so prepared. A cd of 11 demo songs with notes to accompany each one regarding it's direction and what I wanted to hear as a finished product. Instead of taking that as a sign of a having a highly organized goal-oriented mind, the producer, Malcolm Burn, immediately saw that I was making a thinly veiled attempt to distract myself and everyone else from the fact that I was terrified of making record 4 and had no faith in the material and was over compensating by trying to appear extremely organized.

Thus my plan was scrapped and I had to learn to be spontaneous. Malcolm thinks a little like this: forget the fact that you've even written 11 songs, just plug in this ancient amazing looking guitar into this buzzing vintage amp and play something that sounds like it happened in the 70's but not looking back on the 70's as a memory you made up because you were only born in the last 4 months of that decade. Pretend you were born in 1657 and were trying to predict what the 1970's would be like and play like that, yes that! Yes we've been recording this whole time and no that improvisation didn't suck in fact I think we can do an edit here and now go play some drums but don't use sticks here are some maracas covered in sticky honey i think they'll sound better.

This house where I'm staying is incredible. 100 years old, dark wood everywhere, parlors, sitting rooms, a piano room. An entire floor all to myself! And no signs of ghosts. I do not believe in ghosts or an afterlife or any such thing. However, I am terrified that one day I'm actually going to see a ghost and have to start believing in that nonsense. But there are no ghosts here, though you'd think there would be at least one. There is a secret staircase for goodness sakes!

The days are nicely structured. I get out of bed in the morning, brush teeth, roll into the kitchen for a cup of tea, head downstairs to the basement. Listen to Malcolm tell at least one anecdote about some obscure Canadian television comedian from his youth. Pick up guitar and start playing. Break for tea, more guitar, break for lunch, drums? keyboards?, have a swim, go to store for a cream soda, fix guitar parts, discuss song, break for tea, overdub with the exact instrument that we had already ruled out as an option for the song, bike ride through nearby cemetary, dinner, more overdubs, spend 20 minutes watching Malcolm imitate Marianne Faithfull doing a Monty Python skit, scrap everything we've done for that day and rework the song as a bluegrass duet, add halftime drums and lap steel and finish with something that sounds like AIR.

at night i write emails and journal entries and make hopeless attempts at writing lyrics that aren't about the cold war or spies. i read roberto bolano and listen to miles davis' Sketches of Spain.

Dave Treut is here. Those of you who have been paying attention for a long long time now might remember Dave from the early early knitting factory shows. Our most famous project was Kan D (for 'Kaki and Dave'), but that was only when I was on guitar and he was on drums. When I played drums and he played guitar we were DanK. He's been here on drum, keyboard, and clarinet duty. He is just as baffled by Malcolm's obscure references as I am, which is a good sign because Dave Treut thrives on life's obscure references. So I know I'm not that terrible of a philistine. Malcolm has watched one movie per night for the last six months and not a single one has had any speaking in it.

It's time to finish my song about how being american now isn't as fun as it used to seem to be.

Did i give you any clue about what this album is going to sound like? No? Good.

I will list some new tunings on the record. Maybe you can figure out something from these:

csharp gsharp csharp e b dsharp
csharp asharp csharp f asharp csharp
aacgae

9:31 PM - 25 Comments - 32 Kudos - Add Comment

RECORDS

Ok, first a list of the ones I've played on recently:

Northern State, Can I Keep This Pen. Release date Aug 14.
I played lap steel on the last song "fall apart"

Tegan and Sara, The Con. Release date July 24.
Lap steel on "knife going in" and guitar on "floorplan"

Foo Fighters, Echos, Silence, Patience, and Grace. Release date Sept 25
Guitar duet with Dave Grohl on "battle of the beaconsfield miners."

And now, the one I'm currently working on, tentatively titled "i cannot believe that bed bugs made a comeback, and I, cleanest of clean, could not escape an infestation, and now I cry everytime I walk by my tempurpedic mattress that's still laying on the sidewalk that the garbage men refuse to carry away, because they are spiteful and want to drive daggers into my heart by reminding me that the mattress was the first nice thing I ever bought for myself, and I am tempted to bring it back into the house but for the thought that I would be sleeping with hundreds of little bugs and 10,000 of their eggs and I am just not willing to share that much space or give up that much blood each night no matter how small the bites are."

I'm moving up to Kingston, NY to work on a new album with Malcolm Burn, who lives and works down the street from a bonifide nuthouse. This is insensitive so allow me a revision. . . . Malcolm Burn, who lives and works down the street from a halfway house where residents who have mental health issues are looked after in a loving and caring environment. I like nuthouse better. check out the movie on malcolmburn.com. i can't wait to meet marie.

I'm honestly more terrified than I've ever been about starting a new album. I plan on documenting the process as best i can, which won't be flattering because I turn into an emotional yo-yo when I'm recording. Expect some blogs full of tears and some full of firey arrows through the eardrums and some full of what I had for breakfast and the goodness of cold juice.

I'd like to give out more hints about what the album is going to sound like, but I don't even know that much myself. I do know that I'm going to work harder at this one and hold it up to a much higher standard than I ever have in the past.

The lead actor from the film, The Lives of Others, died yesterday. This made me cry like a fucking baby for an hour. It's like his character died to me, died after suffering and finally finding redemption for the sake of love that belonged to two other people. It's still making me feel weepy.

I'm going to read The Art of War before I go to bed. It's actually quite peaceful.

1:14 AM - 25 Comments - 39 Kudos - Add Comment