In the Spring of 2003 I was at work (at the City of Logan) listening to a online NPR music station out of LA (KCRW), when a song came on the station that caused me stop everything I was doing. I remember literally stopping immediately and thinking… this is unbelievable! They did not announce who it was. I racked my mind to remember some of the lyrics so that I could track the song down… I was genuinely panicked. I remember that I ended up having to search the online playlist of the show, and I actually listened to 4 or 5 of the songs before I found “Homesick” by the Kings of Convenience. At that time they were just releasing their second album. The next two months of life were steeped in KOC tunes. There first album “Quiet is the New Loud” said it all. It was exactly what I was looking for at that time. Two voices, two guitars, pleasant anglo-norwegian harmonies…
Annie became a fan quickly. After about 6 months, KOC made their way to the US on an extremely limited tour (10 cities) One of the stops was San Francisco. I decided I couldn’t miss it. My sister Rachel was living in San Fransisco at the time, and we recruited Annie’s roommate (also Rachel) to come along. We headed out on a Friday, for a Saturday night show. Ahh Nevada…. Before we left Annie agreed to pick up a guys’ surfboard in Reno and bring it back to Logan… with my Honda Accord. I was not happy, but I was also atypically indifferent about it and maintained a “we’ll see” attitude.
The show was amazing, we got to see them up close and the show was incredible. Another great artist “Feist” opened for and played with them. It was everything I wanted it to be. We could walk to and from the venue from Rachel’s apartment in downtown SF.
The Sierras were beautiful, and as we descended into Reno, I remembered our daunting task… the surfboard. We arrived at Shane Dyer’s house nice and early. His mom was so nice and had goodies all ready for us. The surfboard challenge went from obnoxious to a closely observed and analyzed test of my manly capacity to secure this ginormous object to the top of my sedan. My testosterone levels kept me from considering that this was a stupid idea. After about 40 minutes I had the thing snug on top of the car. We started out.. everything was fine… until we started going over 50 miles per hour… then things got interesting… the board was like a big sail. I am surprised we didn’t take flight. I began having visions of the board breaking free and sailing through the windshield of a mini-van decapitating the unsuspecting family right in the middle of the chorus of Old McDonald. We stopped for a council at a truck stop about 40 miles east of Reno. The council was heated; Take the surfboard back? No way, then I will have wasted 3 hours of life; drive at 45 miles per hour across Nevada? I would rather drive the surfboard back to San Fransisco; Stuff the surfboard INTO the car? Yeah right there is no w…. wait a second .. yeah lets try that.
In an act that only prayer and brief fasting could have allowed to realize, we defied the laws of physics and stuffed that surfboard into the car. The back end was pressed “firmly” against the back corner of the trunk, and the tip was pressed firmly against the opposite corner of the windshield. Annie sat in the front seat UNDER the surfboard, while Rachel sat next to the surfboard in a fairly contorted fashion (and without a seatbelt, which she reminded us of the rest of the way home). Form the drivers seat, I could see neither one of them.
At 1:00 am as we drove near the Utah-Nevada border (near Snowville). The amusing thought came to me of the impression the officer who would pull us over would have when he saw a dude, two ladies, lots of luggage and a surfboard stuffed in an Accord… and in the middle of the Great Basin… Glad it never happened.
Had we been further removed from the high of the Kings of Convenience concert we might not have made it. Oh and Shane (my future brother-in-law… another story) was very happy to have his board to take to Mexico the next week. Anything for family right… even if you don’t know they are….
All this simply to announce that the Kings of Convenience have a new album!!! After 5 years… I am so excited…. “Declaration of Dependence” will be released October 20th, 2009. Here is a teaser:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yanODtMA7Vg
5 comments:
You know... I feel really bad about this.
But the up side to it all - is that you now get to tell the story (and its a good story)plus you can jeer me about it forever.
-Owner a 9'6" Becker.
The song made me want to wrap up in a blanket arount a campfire and stare at the flames and listen.
Good stuff
honestly jake, if you could find a way to write all your stories in "your" fashion, it would make a great best seller!!
oh, and just so you know, i have their new album...maybe i can FTP it to you ... it is really good!
Um jake, had you ever been on a road trip with annie before this? Because this just sounds like the type of adventure that seems to flock to annie. I wish i was the one all contorted in the back seat.
Post a Comment