Angelita - Jon Auer - Songs from the Year of Our Demise - 2006

So I hosted a party at my apartment this weekend, and made the cardinal mistake of any party host. I got drunk too fast.

See, I had started early, giving myself a little boost while I cooked and cleaned. Then my roommate was trying to perfect his Mojito recipe...and obviously that required some taste tests and few different variations. Then there was the shot of whiskey that had to be done when the party started. Then I started drinking the communal punch (the Grape Drink, the alleged purpose for the party) when the first guest arrived. Next thing I know, I realize that I'm kinda woozy and there was a very real chance that I would in fact be that drunk guy stumbling over furniture, spilling drinks, grabbing boobs that I really shouldn't grab...fortunately I was able to pull up my Irish powers to keep my shit together long enough to find my bearings, and fortunately only my closest friends noticed that I kept going to the bathroom to splash water on my face. The lesson has been learned....next time, I will be better prepared.

Anyway, this is Jon Auer doing his post-Posies thing....which is surprisingly AOR, but not necessarily in a bad way.

All U People - Jon Auer - Private Sides - 2003

This song is probably Auer's best song on this odd split EP, with three songs each from both of the primary songwriters for The Posies...as I've previously discussed, the two of them were just not the same without each other...and put on the same EP together this mutual deficiencies. Auer misses Stringfellow's bitter cynacism and clever word play, while Stringfellow in turn misses Auer's rock instrumentation.

Incidentally, has there ever been another case of a songwriting partnership in which the more bitter is also the more musically mellow?

Also, this song is almost ruined by the odd, dated and lame Austin Powers ref at the beginning. I don't understand why he'd do that.

Adios - Jon Auer - Songs from The Year of Our Demise - 2006

In my late teens/early twenties I was a giant Posies fan. This probably says more about what a callow beta-male I was as a young man than it does about The Posies, but I will still find myself rushing to their defense. Sure the "you were an idiot to get married so young" didactics of Dear 23 now seems preachy and stilted, but Frosting on the Beater remains a glistening gem of power pop.

The Posies solo careers have not been as fulfilling as some fans might have hoped. Like many successful song writing partnerships, the dissolution sheds greater insight into why the partnership worked. Ken Stringfellow, who always seemed the angrier, punkier one, has since moved to Paris and puts out 70's AM Gold records that sound basically like Todd Rundgren albums. Jon Auer, on the other hand, seems to have shelved his experimental side and puts out perfectly nice albums of sub-Big Star power pop. His albums definitely hew closer to The Posies style, but without Stringfellows acid tongue and golden harmonies, they mostly seem a bit lackluster.

This song is no different.