Posies' Guitarist Tells Of Recording Woes

A few minutes after 8 a.m., Jon Auer, lead guitarist for Seattle's Posies, strolls into Julia's in Wallingford.

It's a little early to be doing the rock-star-interview thing, but Auer's got a full schedule. All day he'll be doing interviews with music writers from newspapers and magazines around the world, he's got an album release party in the evening, and the next day he and bandmate Ken Stringfellow have to fly to Missouri for a special reunion of Big Star.

So breakfast it is.

Auer's easy to spot when he walks through the door. He's got shoulder-length black hair, a couple of necklaces, some sort of casual purple shirt. Standard low-key rock star stuff.

He finds me right away. I'm wearing a rumpled button-down shirt, with a cup of coffee and a notebook on the table in front of me. Standard journalist stuff.

The purpose of the interview is to talk about "Frosting on the Beater" (Geffen), the Posies' third album, which was released last month. It was a long time in the making. The group's last album, "Dear 23," came out almost three years ago, a full year before Nirvana's "Nevermind."

In the meantime, the Posies have gone through the kind of turmoil that seems endemic to the music business. They replaced their bass player, their manager and their agent, and they struggled to come up with enough good songs for another album.

"Frosting on the Beater" had a couple of false starts. As early as June 1991, the band had recorded enough songs for an album, but the group decided against releasing it.

"It was a really detached little album," says Auer. "We didn't enjoy it while we were making it, there were a lot of hassles. It wasn't anything I wanted to play for my parents, and that's a good sign for me. It wasn't anything I was proud of."

Months went by after that first attempt. Auer did some producing for other groups, he tried to write more songs, he sat around a lot, and he got married.

"We were definitely confused, and a lot of that comes out in the songs," he says. "There's a lot of searching stuff, real apathetic, not knowing where-to-go-next kind of material."

Auer runs through the history of "Frosting on the Beater." His spiel flows easily, as if he's been thinking about this album for a long time, but his comments haven't yet had all the spontaneity squeezed out by dozens of interviews.

After that abortive attempt at recording an album, the Posies went into the studio three more times. Each time, they came out with a few more songs they liked. One more time they thought they had it finished, but they held off again.

"This was a really long, convoluted process," Auer says. "It was kind of, dare I say, a rebirthing process."

At this point, the waiter sees the CD on the table and asks what kind of music it is.

"Melodic pop, but twisted, skewed," Auer says. "It's a light, fun snack."

That strikes me as a good description. At least the first part.

Auer and Stringfellow have a knack for writing good pop songs with catchy melodies and great harmonies. Their first album has been compared to the Beatles and the Hollies.

But people who had heard only "Dear 23" were no doubt surprised when they saw the Posies in concert. Live, the Posies rock. The catchy melodies and great harmonies are still there, but they're surrounded by power guitars and feedback and lots of jumping and bobbing on stage.

For "Frosting on the Beater," the Posies were trying for a sound closer to their live performances, Auer said. The album was produced by Don Fleming, a member of Gumball and briefly a member of Dinosaur Jr., and songs were recorded with fewer overdubs.

"Stark is a word that comes to mind," Auer said. "Instead of going for the overkill on producing, we decided to let the musicianship speak for itself."

The content of the songs is different, too. Auer says he strove for a less literal meaning to his lyrics, adopting a more allusive, stream-of-consciousness approach to writing them. The songs touch on more brooding subjects on this album as well; there's a dark, decidedly un-snacklike feel to songs like "Coming Right Along," "How She Lied by Living" and the epic "Burn & Shine."

Even within the relentlessly catchy and upbeat "Dream All Day," the first single released to radio, the lyrics convey a restless, yearning mood that recalls the 10,000 Maniacs hit, "Like the Weather."

"Before, we were very concerned about being a pop band, classic pop," Auer said. "We didn't want to get too dark, too out there. Now I feel like there's a whole lot out there, and it's all fair game."

"Frosting on the Beater" won't lay to rest comparisons with the Beatles, however. And that's not a bad thing. Pop melodies and song writing just seem to run in the Posies' blood. Maybe the best way to state the comparison is to say that if the Beatles had come of age in Seattle in the early '90s, they would have written songs a lot like the Posies' "Flavor of the Month" or "Solar Sister."

At 9 a.m., Auer looks anxiously at his watch. The interview is over. He's got a busy day ahead, more interviews to do. He leaves. I pay the tab - just part of the rock-star-interview thing.