I’ll be playing a solo show at Green Kill in Kingston NY on Saturday October 19 with Todd Adelman.
The night is hosted by the fantastic singer/songwriter Marc Delgado who will be slinging some of his incredible songs as well. Marc wrote this very kind preview for the show (which also serves as dang decent career summary / discography… to this point…):
I'm dizzy. Not because I have done too many drugs(which I have) & not because I'm old (which I am) & not because I have an inner-ear thing (I probably do) but because I have been listening to Steve Koester's songs. There are so many, I really don't know where to begin. I have to say, after I get past being jealous - because that's how it works...@ least for me, I certainly can't speak for anyone else, but I will hear a song, a perfect little imaginative crystal of a song & I will think, "fuck...that is so cool, I wish I wrote that" - after I get past that, I marvel @ Steve's chameleon-like romp through rocknroll. His ability to change styles & pay homage to & emulate & expand on his many influences with wit & charm & melancholy. Consider "(Here Come The) Gloomtown Rockers" off of the 2006 Koester record "Losers, Weepers" A 2/12 minute gem w Steve sounding a lot like Dylan circa Blood on the Tracks... I'm just gonna say it: It's a perfect song. I wish I wrote it. &, It's not just an expertly written song, what, to me, makes it special is the beautiful Dylanesque swagger Steve injects into it. It's a staggering performance that makes the track bleed.
Since 1994, Steve Koester has been making records. Good ones. Great ones really. His first band Punchdrunk delivered three stellar post/punk labyrinths. These are not wimpy EP/Single driven releases but real records(that's right I said it so what!?) with lots of tracks...asides & meanderings that last half a minute or so, things like "Tripod Jimmy Shook". A ballsy 48 second instrumental/noise beginning to their 1996 14 track assault: "A Message from the Cockpit" Koester's vocals on "Marco Polo" & "Under the Ritalin Saddle" from 1998's "Bird Bird" a sprawling 20 track masterpiece, are desperate & straining. Pure rocknroll. Since I started listening I can't get enough. I am reminded of some of my favourite Guided by Voices records & of course the epic influence of Television...I am a pensive, pretentious stoner so I don't know how else to describe these records except like this: They are killer. Artsy, manic & weird.
After Punchdrunk dissolved, Steve signed to David Lowery's (yea...that David Lowery) label Pitch-A-Tent records. He teamed up with Alan Weatherhead (Sparklehorse, The Hotel Lights) & recorded three critically acclaimed records under the name Koester: "Oh! Turpentine" "The High Highs, The Low Lows" & the recently (& finally!!) released "Losers, Weepers" These songs are beautiful & lyric driven with Steve zeroing in on his ability to combine humour & fucking outright tragedy. Here are some of my favourite moments of "Twenty-Three" off of "Losers & Weepers" "Twenty-Three, twenty-three, findin' what it means to be, fucked up for real now..... I got a girl now, she just turned blue. I got a girl now, don't know what to do. Had a vision while she was layin' on the cold concrete. Wasn't an angel or a devil it was me there in the tops of the trees".
Gee-whiz. I wish I wrote it.
That's enough already isn't it? I'm sufficiently impressed & have plenty to listen to. No. There is more. In 2004 Steve joins Mark Rozzo(Champale), Ira Elliot(Nada Surf) & Craig Schoen, together they form Maplewood...a nod to acoustic, harmony driven bands like America, CSN & Bread. How....? The records are phenomenal. I'm not joking. Check 'em out. Maybe my favourite album title of all time: "Yeti Boombox" gives us "The Last Yeti"(penned by Rozzo) a cross between Moondance, Deja-Vu & ...I dunno, Shel Silverstein? Leonard Nimoy? "Deep in a mountain cave there lives a very brave yeti. All dressed up & I see is a very nice yeti. He is misunderstood but he is a strong & good yeti" What!? Yes...of course. Perfect. How about the track "Indian Summer"? It sounds like a better, new & improved & hipper version of "Ventura Highway" which is already kind of a perfect little number isn't it...?
All of this merely brings us to the present. From Milwaukee to Minneapolis to NYC to the Catskills. Such diverse & beautiful & edgy & smart music. Then...after all that: Two Dark Birds. Steve's most realized & lovely music to date. Exhibit A: "I'm scared to death of 'Paint it Black', scared to death 'Are You Experienced?' scared to death but hooked up into it. Umbilical cord, headphone cord, guitar cord. My music in utero, my mother the stereo." Damn. I wish I wrote that. His music w Two Dark Birds seems to be a culmination of everything he has done & learned. He takes all his favourite things & puts 'em into a big pot...quietly, expertly, patiently. Then gathers all of the most talented musicians in the area(Marco Benevento, Don Piper, Sandy Bell, Jeff Lipstein, Chris Maxwell, Josh Roy Brown to name a few)to mix it up & serve it.
Neat-o.
Steve Koester is a unique & fascinating guy. He is a husband & a father & a graphic designer & a great conversationalist & he is my age & yet I feel as if I am in the presence of a cool, older brother I never had, who is encouraging & insightful & just fucking fun to hang out with. He imparts wisdom generously & humbly. He laughs a lot & loves music as much as I do...maybe more. He has the ability to talk about himself & his art without taking himself too seriously, but then he leans in & says(about music, about songs)..."this is the thing that has always been most important to me & It's really the only thing I have ever wanted to do". He's done it. Well. He is still doing it. Recently we were swapping songs & Steve played one for me & it was kind of a perfect song...it was a perfect little crystal of a song & I told him so & he laughed & said, "Oh...I've only been working on that one for twenty years! Just found the last verse". Which in my opinion was the best one. Damn. I wish I wrote it.
We are lucky to have Steve Koester as one of the featured performers this month @ Showcase. Green Kill in Kingston, NY. Saturday, Oct 19 @ 8pm. Come check him out & see what I mean.
-Marc Delgado
*PHOTO BY CHARLIE GROSS