This Is All You Will Every Be

Speaking of bands that were buried by the onslaught of grunge in the early nineties, The Posies rank near the top of my favorite bands of the last twenty years. Other than their first odd but endearing new wave-ish LP, every record since then has remained on my frequent playlist. The bass player and drummer positions were revolving doors throughout the first ten years, then the group went on several sabbaticals under the billing of a break-up. But the co-lead vocalists and songwriters Ken Stringfellow and John Auer keep drifting back together. They have a penchant for beautiful close harmonies a'la the Byrds and Hollies. Coupled with their fine guitar work and songwriting abilities, they were asked by Alex Chilton to join him and Jody Stephens for the third and last edition of Big Star.

Frosting On The Beater hit the record shelves in 1993. Unlike their pop-filled sophomore effort Dear 23, FOTB contains a definite movement towards a harder rock sound. It is filled with moments of grandeur as well as some of their finest melodies up to that time. Definite Door has a possible sci-fi premise with hints about "another dimension", but underneath it really seems to be about a life out of control. Heavenly harmonies come in with the second section of the bridge at 0:56, then around 1:24 an instrumental interlude kicks out the jams. The simple bass line alone is worth the price of admission. It knocks me in the gut every time I hear it.

Keeping track of the eyesight streaming
Isn't part of the regimen
Many hours of sleepless dreaming
Unaware of the mess you're in
And if you didn't have a clue
You probably never will
And all the things you didn't do
Will inundate you still...