You probably know Ken Stringfellow as the co-leader of Northwestern power-pop all-timers the Posies or as a sideman for R.E.M. or latter-day Big Star. He’s also a solo artist (we’re particularly fond of the soft-rock American beauty that is 2001’s Touched) and is currently preparing the debut by his Norwegian garage-rock band, the DiSCiPLiNES. Each day this week, magnetmagazine.com guest editor Stringfellow will be filing reports from his home on the European continent.
Stringfellow: Last year I played the Midnattsrocken Festival, which takes place on a grassy spit of land outside of Lakselv, Norway, well above the Arctic Circle. Drawing a crowd of a couple thousand (the equivalent of the town’s entire population), the festival offers Norwegian and international bands; it seems they like serious rock for their headliners (last year: Europe; this year: Deep Purple). The DiSCiPLiNES were headlining the second stage, which was a small tent, and had a great, great show. Long after “The Final Countdown,” at about 3 a.m., I was lying on a beach about 150 yards from the stage. Lying on the sand, in full sunlight. Not quite Santorini warm, but very comfortable. Occasionally I would look back toward the still-raging festival grounds, which were washed in full daylight, so the normally nighttime actions of drunk Norwegians were unobscured: the pissing, the barfing, the very messy making out and dry humping. Fabulous. Seeing full drunken anarchy in a park setting reminds me a bit of 28 Days Later, everyone all ragged and zombie-eyed and staggering/chasing/shambling and making arhghrhghghghgh noises. I turned my face back to the tranquil bay in front of me and was really overwhelmed. The information coming in was so at odds with my inner clock and my body’s store of experiences that it sort of broke me down, in a good way. I was leaving the next day to play another festival, and thus had to turn down the offers from some of the rockers who came from Sámi families to take me way out into the country to hang with the reindeer. By the way, “Laplanders” is very un-PC; it was never the term these people used to describe themselves and, in fact, has pejorative connotations.
