POSIES FAQ -- Sat, Jan 17, 1998
Still unfinished, but slightly better...

Contributions by Wendi Dunlap, Thomas Durkin, Ken Stringfellow, Gavin
Guss, and others. See credits on individual items as well.

Index:
	1.  How do I get on/off the Posies mailing list? How
		do I get the list in digest format?
	1a. Does the mailing list have a web page?
	2.  Who are the Posies?
	3.  Why the name, Posies?
	4.  Why does '23' pop up everywhere?
	5.  Is there backmasking on the _Dear 23_ track, "Suddenly Mary"?
	6.  Who sings what on _Dear 23_?
	7.  What's the address of the Posies' fan club? What is the
		address of PopLlama, their first record label?
	8.  Who played bass on _failure_ (and who played drums)?
	8a. Then why are Mike and Rick in the picture in the CD booklet?
	9.  Where are Jon and Ken originally from? 
	10. Whatever happened to all the tracks that were recorded for
		the album that became Frosting? 
	11. How did Jon and Ken end up in Big Star?
	12. Have the Posies made any videos?
	12a.How can we get these videos?
	13. Why did Rick leave?
	14. Why did Mike leave?
	15. When is the next album coming out?
	16. How do I get the Posies fan newsletter?
	17. Hey! I want to do a poll and find out what songs all of you
		like best!
	18. Questions remaining to be asked and answered.
	

1. How do I get on/off the Posies mailing list?

	Send e-mail to majordomo@slumberland.seattle.wa.us, with *one* of the 
	following commands on the first line of the body of the message:

		SUBSCRIBE  dear23   Your_FirstName   Your_LastName
    		Subscribes you to the Dear 23 list.

		UNSUBSCRIBE dear23
    		Unsubscribes you from the Dear 23 list.
    
    To get the list in digest format *once you've already subscribed*, 
    send e-mail to majordomo@citadel.slumberland.seattle.wa.us, with this 
    command on the first line of the body of the message:
	
		SET dear23 DIGEST

1a. Does the mailing list have a web page?

	Yes, at http://www.slumberland.seattle.wa.us/dear23.html you will find the 
	Posies Dear 23 web page, with tour dates, lyrics, photos, and more!

2. Who are the Posies?

	Jon Auer, born 1969, Tacoma WA (list of instruments here?)
	Ken Stringfellow, born 1968, Hollywood, CA (list of instruments
		here?)
	Rick Roberts (in band 1988-1991) (bass, occasional backing vocals)
	Mike "The Muz" Musburger, born: 1/28/68, Overlake Hospital,
		Bellevue, WA (in band 1988-1994) (drums)
	Dave "The Fox" Fox, born 3/17/64 (St. Patrick's Day), Palo Alto,
		CA Previous bands: Deaf Guy, The Pines (in band 1992-1994?) (bass)
	Joe "Bass" Howard (in band 1992, 1994-1996) (bass)
	Brian "Toolie" Young (in band 1994-present) drums
	
	(more info should be added here, such as birthdates, complete
	names, nicknames, etc.)

3. Why the name, Posies?
 
	The name "the Posies" was chosen at the last 
	minute as "a crazy joke," Ken says.  "We just thought it was a
	stupid name in a way.  It had a kind of annoying charm to it."  
	And besides, "We had to commit to something to put on the tape 
	covers, so we said,

	'Alright, let's commit to that.  That'll do...' "

	Gavin Guss says: "I'm told Posies is a pun on Posers (eg Kill
	Poseur!), as well as being flowery stuff and an archaic word for 
	poetry (poesie).  Sort of self-deprecating, I guess."

	Wendi adds, "Jon told me once that the name 'Poppies' was
	considered before they toned it down to the much less-hokey 
	name, Posies."
	
	Gavin adds this further info: "Mike sez Jon used to tell this
	story a lot: He wrote the name 'The Poppies' on a piece of paper, 
	which went through the wash in his pants pocket.  When he pulled 
	it out, he thought it read 'Posies'."
	
	Believe whichever story you prefer.

4. Why does '23' pop up everywhere?

From Thomas Durkin's Posie bio:

	There is one question, however, that is on the minds of almost 
	all Posies fans:  the name of their second album is _Dear 23_,
	the catalogue number of their first album was PL2323, they named
	their song-publishing arm Twenty-three Songs Music--what is the 
	significance of the number 23?!  "I'll never tell," Ken says 
	with a devilish chuckle.
 
	Pressed further, he says, "You'll have to read the Illuminatus!
	trilogy. It was this kind of theme that we became obsessed with, 
	that started taking on larger-than-life proportions."  So why 
	did it mean so much to the Posies?  "We didn't mean for it to," 
	Ken almost apologized, "it was suddenly just everywhere, and we 
	couldn't get away from it.  But I think it's okay now; it's run 
	its course."    
	
Further info about Illuminatus!, contributed by Bob Cannard via
Henry Yu:

	"23 is partly a long running joke and partly an observation of
	a mental phenomenon. All the way through Illuminatus!, that
	number keeps popping up: important people get killed on the
	23rd of the month and so on. The idea that there's something
	special about 23 is hammered home at every possible
	opportunity. It's all because of this global conspiracy
	that's running the world behind the scenes and finding ways
	to make people paranoid... such as putting 23's everywhere.

	"By the time you get to the end of the story, you're looking
	for 23's in real life. And the thing is, you find them
	because you're looking for them, and because you find them,
	you look harder, and you begin to wonder about the
	Illuminati, so you research them, and you find that the
	Bavarian Illuminati are (or rather were) real, as was Adam
	Weishaupt (mentioned often in the books), and you start
	greeting people with phrases like "Ewige Blumenkraft" and
	"Hail Eris!--All hail Discordia!" (note the latter has 2
	words followed by 3 words), and you start putting 23's in
	your own life so you can confuse other people with them... In
	my case, at the time I read Illuminatus! many of my friends
	had also read it so we were tossing the joke back and forth
	and building it up as much as we could.

	"If you're a really sick puppy you start searching national
	newspapers for fnords.

	"And that's basically it. 23 is one of the world's craziest,
	longest-running, self-propagating hoaxes. You could almost call it
	a wetware virus."
	
Steve Schermerhorn  adds:

	"Here is a bibliographic reference to the "illuminatus trilogy". Go ask
	you library to Interlibrary Loan you a copy! Have fun!"
	               
	           AUTHOR: Shea, Robert. 

                TITLE: The illuminatus! trilogy / Robert Shea & Robert Anton
                           Wilson. 
            PUBLISHED: New York, N.Y. : Dell Pub. Co., [1984], c1975. 
               PAGING: 805 p. : ill. ; 21 cm. 

             CONTENTS: The eye in the pyramid -- The golden apple --
                           Leviathan. 

             SUBJECTS: Science fiction, American. 
          OTHER ENTRY: Wilson, Robert Anton, 1932- 
                 LCCN:    84109680 //r95 
                 ISBN: 0440539811 (pbk.) : $9.95 ($12.50 Can.) 
                 

5. Is there backmasking on the _Dear 23_ track, "Suddenly Mary"?               

John Walker  says:

	"It is after the projector track and before the counting, during the
	humming sequence. The masking appears to be entirely in the right
	track but is seriously overpowered by the humming.

	"The person counting sounds like Jon whispering not a woman (IMHO)."

6. Who sings what on _Dear 23_?

Wendi says:

	My Big Mouth: Ken
	Golden Blunders: Jon
	Apology: Jon
	Any Other Way: Ken
	You Avoid Parties: Ken
	Suddenly Mary: Jon
	Help Yourself: Ken
	Mrs. Green: Jon
	Everyone Moves Away: Jon
	Flood of Sunshine: Ken

7. What's the address of the Posies and their fan club? What is the 
address of PopLlama, their first label, from whom copies of 
_Failure_ can be ordered?

	Posies, P.O. Box 45656, Seattle, WA 98145-0656.
	PopLlama Products, P.O. Box 95364, Seattle, WA 98145-2364.
 
8. Who played bass on _failure_ (and who played drums)?
     
    Says Ken: "Also, for the record, Jon played drums, I played
	bass, we split the rest. Jon played the piano on 'Paint Me'."
	
8a.Then why are Mike and Rick in the picture in the (older pressing) CD
booklet?

	At the time of the first cd release, Mike and Rick were in the Posies,
	though they joined Jon and Ken after the recording of _Failure_. So
	they were included in the band photo. This is not an uncommon practice, 
	incidentally.

9. Where are Jon and Ken originally from?  

	Says Ken: "Although one Bellinghamster correctly identified B'ham
	as our main hangout for many years, Jon & I both have several
	'hometowns'. I was born in Hollywood (1968), moved to Westchester 
	Cty. NY, then to Glenview IL, Grosse Pointe MI, Darien CT, & 
	Lake Forest IL before moving to Bellingham in 1978. I moved to 
	Seattle in 1986, and have lived there permanently since 1987. 
	Jon was born on an Air Force base in Tacoma (1969), grew up 
	mostly in Bellingham & Seattle, but also lived in Billings MT for 
	a couple years. He also lived in a VW bus for a summmer traveling
	to folk festivals with his family. He moved to Bellingham again 
	in 1981 or 1982, and moved to Seattle in 1988. My mom & his dad 
	still live in Bellingham (not together), his mom lives in 
	Seattle, and my dad lives in New Canaan CT."

10. Whatever happened to all the tracks that were recorded for the
album that became Frosting? I heard somewhere that nearly a whole 
album's worth of material was recorded but not used.  Why wasn't it 
used and will any of it appear on the new album?

	Says Ken: "Prior to the FOTB sessions (9.91) we did a bunch of
	songs w/the D23 lineup, that were all scrapped. Only 'Open Every
	Window' has surfaced, on the DGC rarities comp. 'Going Going 
	Gone', another song from those sessions, was re-recorded for 
	the 'Reality Bites' soundtrack. Other tunes: 'Grow', 'Will You 
	Ever Ease Your Mind',  'Sullen Waistcoat' (which became 'Definite 
	Door'), 'When You Dance I Can Really Love' (by Neil Young), 'My 
	Lonely Friend' (by Rick Roberts), 'This One's Taken', 'Farewell, 
	Typewriter' (which has surfaced on a bootleg 7" in Spain), 'As 
	Good As Yours' (by Rick), '21', 'Magnifying Mirror'and 'Joy 
	Pulls Us Down' (by Rick).

	"Next, during the actual FOTB sessions (2.-11.92) we recorded
	some extra tunes: 'Grow' (which was released on the _Ask_the_
	Sky_ comp. in Japan), '21', 'Start A Life' (released as a 
	B-side), 'Fall Song', 'Looking Lost' and 'Throwaway' (which 
	we've done again for this album). We also recorded a couple of 
	really demented tracks, called 'Do the Muzz', and a version 
	of 'The Velvet Monkeys Theme' (the Velvet Monkeys being a band
	FOTB producer Don Fleming was in).

	"Why weren't they used? Well, because you can't use 'em all, and
	some songs are better than others. The Rick stuff wasn't used 
	because Jon & I didn't think it was appropriate to our album, 
	and subsequently (12.91) we asked him to leave."
	
	Some of these older tracks will be included on the newest album, 
	_Success_.
	
11. How did Jon and Ken end up in Big Star?

	Laura Wren  says:

	"well, having worked on the reunion show, i can only tell you what i
	know from hanging around the office while the arrangements were
	being made. we were running very close to the deadline for booking a
	headlining band for KCOU's annual springfest. all of our original
	choices had canceled and we were looking for a band that would make
	a big impact. so (Jeff) Breeze and (Mike) Mulvihill the station's
	promotions director and general manager, respectively, came up with
	the idea of a big star reunion. they figured jody stephens was most
	easliy approached, so they asked him. he thought it was a fabulous
	idea, and said he'd do it if alex would. alex agreed to it. chris
	bell had died, obviously, and neither jody or alex knew how to get
	in touch with andy hummel. so breeze and mulvihill needed to find
	two others to round out the lineup. the first choices were paul
	westerberg, with mike mills of REM on bass. but westy was on tour in
	europe and millsy was on vacation in mexico at the time, and neither
	would/could do it. mills answered first, so we depended upon westy
	and then started searching out matthew sweet. but he was also on
	tour (opening up for westy in europe, so it happens) and that's when
	jody suggested jon auer of the posies. breeze had listened to the
	posies previously, but mulvihill hadn't. so i went to the stacks and
	pulled the popllama 'feel' and 'i am the cosmos' posies single and
	played it for them. that's when they decided to pursue jon, who said
	he wouldn't do the tour without ken on bass. we had a few run ins
	with their agents, and finally we got to talk to them directly and
	they both agreed to do the show. and there you have it. history."
	
12. Have the Posies made any videos?

	Those we know of include: "I May Hate You Sometimes," "Golden Blunders," 
	"Dream All Day," "Definite Door."
	
12a. How can we get those videos?

	Good question! Trading may be your only option.

13. Why did Rick leave?

	from T. Durkin's Posie bio: 

	From the beginning, Rick had plans of starting his own band, but
	when he joined the Posies and saw the subsequent success that 
	they had drawn, he decided to stay on.  "Eventually," Ken says, 
	"he just got fed up with just being 'somebody's bass player', 
	and every move he made was to protect or expand his own 
	interests.  This kinda bummed out Jon and I, because there 
	wasn't enough room for that, to be honest.  Jon and I had 
	so much that we wanted to accomplish; there wasn't room for
	another songwriter.  Plus, the material that Rick was writing 
	didn't really fit in at all.  He was trying to fit his style 
	into ours, and once you try to contrive something like that, 
	it's doomed.  We just said, 'Look, Rick, you gotta get out of 
	here.  We can't handle this. Everything we do makes you resent 
	us, whenever we accomplish what we want, you resent us; whenever 
	you try to accomplish what you want, we resent you. You 
	should get out (of the band).'  I think he'd wanted to, he just
	hadn't, for some reason.  When we said that, he said, 'Okay, I'm 
	outta here.' This made everyone happy all around."
	
14. Why did Mike leave?

	from T. Durkin's Posie bio:

	Mike was unhappy; since he didn't tell the rest of the band, it 
	created a tension that no one could really identify.  Since Jon
	and Ken had been getting so much attention, he felt slighted, as 
	if his contribution wasn't being recognized.  Things finally 
	came to a head when Mike and Ken got into a big fight, which 
	resulted in Mike's departure from the band.  "At the time," Ken 
	remembers, "he said that it was because of the fight and because 
	of me.  Later, he admitted that maybe he'd been waiting for 
	something like that for a long time."
	
15. When is the next album coming out?

	_Success_, possibly the final album, will be out in February 1998. 
	It is on PopLlama this time (see address above)

16. How do I get the Posies fan newsletter?

	It's $12 for 6 issues (which come out whenever... they're not 
	on the most regular of schedules right now). Send a check to
	The Posies, P.O. Box 45656, Seattle, WA 98145-0656, along with your
	mailing address (if it's not the same as your check.)

The editions of each issue have always been limited, so there's no
opportunity for back issues. If you subscribe between issues, you're sent
the most recent one as your first one.

17. Hey! I want to do a poll and find out what songs all of you like
best!

	Well, we did one in October 1996, so we probably don't need a
	new one until after some new material's been out for a while.

	Poll results compiled by CKing99752@aol.com

	The number in parentheses is the number of #1 votes that song
	received)

	Solar Sister  (6)
	Any Other Way  (12)
	Please Return It  (6)
	Flavor of the Month  (5)
	Flood of Sunshine  (4)
	Love Letter Boxes  (1)
	Coming Right Along  (2)
	Everyone Moves Away  (6)
	Golden Blunders  (1)
	Dream All Day  (4)
	You Avoid Parties  (1)
	Burn & Shine  (2)
	Definate Door  (2)
	I May Hate You Sometimes  (2)
	Suddenly Mary  (1)
	Song #1  (1)
	Precious Moments  
	Ontario
	Throwaway
	Will You Ever Ease Your Mind?  (1)
	Grant Hart  (2)
	What Little Remains  
	Daily Mutilation  (1)
	Compliment?  (1)
	When Mute Toungues Can Speak  (2)
	Apology  (3)
	Everybody Is A Fucking Liar
	My Big Mouth  (1)
	How She Lied By Living
	Under Easy  (1)
	World
	Terrorized  (1)
	Help Yourself
	Paint Me
	Broken Record
	Like Me Too
	Hate Song
	Blind Eyes Open
	Every Bitter Drop  (1)
	Earlier Than Expected
	Going, Going, Gone
	Mrs. Green
	At Least For Now
	Open Every Window
	20 Questions
	Ironing Tuesdays
	Sad To Be Aware
	Feel
	Fight it (If You Want)
	Saying Sorry To Myself
	Ever Since I was Alone
	Lights Out
	This One's Taken
	21  (1)
	I Am the Cosmos
	The Certainty
	King Midas In Reverse
	Leave Me Be
	Song of the Baker
	The Longest Line
	Believe In Something Other
	Farewell Typewriter
	Start A Life
	Every Christian Lionhearted Man
	Spite & Malice
	Limitless Expressions
	O-o-h Child
	The River Song
	Uncombined
				



Older poll results from 2/95:

	1.  Solar Sister             140  (3)
	2.  Flood of Sunshine        120  (4)
	3.  Everyone Moves Away      111  (2)
	4.  Golden Blunders          110  (1)
	5.  Any Other Way            104  (2)
	6.  Suddenly Mary            102  (1)
	7.  Definite Door            101  (3)
	8.  I May Hate You Sometimes  77  (2)
	9.  Apology                   73  (2)
	10. You Avoid Parties         71  (1)
	11. Like Me Too               66  (2)
	12. Compliment?               60  (2)
	13. Coming Right Along        57
	14. Burn And Shine            56
	15. Flavor of the Month       53  (1)
	16. Paint Me                  50  (1)
	17. I Am The Cosmos           45  (2)
	18. Spite And Malice          42  (1)
	19. Help Yourself             40  
	20. Under Easy                37  (1)
	21. Dream All Day             36  (1)
	22. Mrs. Green                35
	23. Love Letter Boxes         34  (1)
	T.  My Big Mouth              34  
	25. Please Return It          27  (1)
	26. When Mute Tongues...      26
	27. How She Lied By Living    23  (1)
	T.  Ooh Child                 23
	29. Blind Eyes Open           21
	T.  Earlier Than Expected     21
	31. 20 Questions              20
	T.  The Longest Line          20
	33. 21                        19  (1)
	34. Open Every Window         18
	35. World                     15
	36. What Little Remains       14
	37. At Least For Now          13
	38. Start A Life              12
	39. I Can't Find My Beer      11
	40. Dueling Banshees           9
	T.  Farewell Typewriter        9 
	T.  Feel                       9 
	T.  Lights Out                 9
	44. The Last Cold...           8
	45. Hate The Christian Right   7
	T.  Reason She Lied            7
	T.  Ever Since I Was Alone     7
	49. The River                  6
	50. Wardrobe Hassle            5
	T.  Daisy Glaze                5
	T.  ...A Fucking Liar          5
	T.  This One's Taken           5
	T.  Leave Me Be                5
	55. Drug Girls                 4
	T.  Back Of A Car              4
	T.  Ironing Tuesdays           4
	58. Concrete                   3
	T.  Now They Want Your Head    3
	T.  Going Going Gone           3
	61. Drugstore                  2
	62. Song Of The Baker          1
	T.  Brief Candles              1