Hi All – This is the last blog post on this site – I’m moving on to greener pastures over on the new website www.chrisknox.co.nz

If you go there you’ll find clips from ‘Stroke – Songs For Chris Knox’ – we’ve put 1 minute edits on there to begin with. We were tempted to put the whole album up there as, obviously, it’s not gunna be hard to get a copy without paying for it anyway. But here at Knox Central we live with the hope that people will be old fashioned & buy the album. Despite all the download hoopla people must be still buying discs right – otherwise what are all those shops doing downtown!!??

By the way – the album will be released on Merge in the States in Feb next year & we’re working on an Australian deal at the moment too.

I hafta say a massive thank you on behalf of my friend Chris to Hayden, Kyle & Ange for setting up the site. They’ve worked really hard on it & it looks great. Over the coming months the site will be tweeked & added to as time allows. We have plans, oh yes, plans.

Thanks to everyone who’s been to this site & provided feedback to encourage me with the belief that I’m not just tappin’ plastic. Big thanks especially to Barry (discs will be in mail this week sir!). Putting the album together has been an amazing experience for me & …… well …….. ain’t music a beautiful thing!?

‘Some things you do for money, some things you do for fun,

But the things you do for love, are going to come back to you one by one’ – from The Mountain Goats album The Sunset Tree

Roy

Hiya Reese

Here’s the tracklisting. Will find out best point of purchase asap.

‘Stroke – Songs For Chris Knox’ – Track Listing

YELLOW DISC

Track 1 – Pull Down The Shades – Jay Reatard

Track 2 – Rebel  – The Checks

Track 3 – Ain’t It Nice  – The Bleeding Allstars

Track 4 – Don’t Catch Fire  – Peter Gutteridge

Track 5 – Luck Or Loveliness  – The Chills

Track 6 – Nothing’s Going to  Happen  – David Kilgour

Track 7 – All My Hollowness To You – The Crying Wolfs

Track 8 – Beauty – Stephin Merritt

Track 9 – Nostalgia’s No Excuse   – Portastatic

Track 10 – Crush – The Mint Chicks

Track 11 – I’ve Left Memories Behind – Jay & Sam Clarkson

Track 12 – Burning Blue  – Sky Green Leopards

Track 13 – The Slide  – Shayne Carter

Track 14 – Grand Mal – Pumice

BONUS TRACK

Track 15 – Knoxed Out – Hamish Kilgour

BLACK DISC

Track 1 – Not Given Lightly – Boh Runga

Track 2 – Bodies  – Red&Zeke featuring Bill Doss and Neil Cleary.

Track 3 – Lapse – Bill Callahan

Track 4 – Growth Spurt – Genghis Smith

Track 5 – Coloured – Yo La Tengo

Track 6 – Dunno Much about Life But I know How To Breathe – AC Newman

Track 7 – Glide  – Alec Bathgate

Track 8 – Inside Story – Don McGlashan

Track 9 – The Outer Skin  – Sean Donnelly

Track 10 – What Goes Up – Lambchop

Track 11– Brave – The Mountain Goats

Track 12 – Round These Walls  – The Tokey Tones (and friends)

Track 13 – Just Do It  – The Bats

Track 14 – My Only Friend  – Will Oldham

Track 15 – It’s Love  – The Finn Family

Track 16 – Becoming Something Other  – Jordan Luck

Track 17– Driftwood  – The Verlaines

Track 18 Song of the Tall Poppy  – Lou Barlow

BONUS TRACKS –

Track 19– Napping In Lapland – The Nothing

Track 20 – Sunday Song – Tall Dwarfs

Hiya – Chris spent the weekend working on more Tall Dwarfs stuff & hanging out with his family.

On Sunday, when we were recording, his memory & cognition struck me as improving. He wanted me to do an edit of a song loop down from 12 bars to 8 bars – not an easy thing to communicate without speech. It took a while to work out what he wanted but the result was worth the frustration and showed that his musical thinking was intact.

Hi All – Chris has been in a remarkably chipper mood all week. I don’t know why. He’s been extremely playful & energetic & is taking the lead on his recovery process.  Maybe someone is slipping him something behind our backs?

His mobility is improving & there has been some action in his right arm, and there are also occasional glimmers of more words returning.  As well as the intensive therapy he is receiving, walking really seems to have improved things – it just looks like it’s kick starting other areas.

It’s an amazing & life affirming thing to watch someone’s positive attitude towards life return such massive dividends.

All the best

PS. No we didn’t get a track from Jeff Mangum for the album & I don’t have an explanation why. Any attempt on my part would just be conjecture. It’s being mastered by Angus McNaughton as I type – I’ll join him tomorrow to finalise the disc & then it’s into production. Package looks great too – Alec did a fantastic job with the design.

Hi All – sorry for mental pain suffered by some over the last post. Weirdly it’s actually quite easy to type backwards (well ‘chocolate icecream’ was tricky & I did stuff up once ’tis true).

‘STROKE: SONGS FOR CHRIS KNOX’ is all in and sounding great. 32 covers of songs spanning Chris’ work from Jay Reatard doing ‘Pull Down The Shades’ to Lou Barlow’s ‘Song of The Tall Poppy’ – there are also 3 Bonus Tracks! We’re setting up a website so people can get more info & compare the covers to Chris’s originals – we’re even gonna feature an upload section so anyone who’s in the mood can add their own versions to the site.

We’ve got tracks from pretty much everyone we asked – but unfortunately not from Jeff Mangum, but hey he’s given the world two utterly glorious albums as Neutral Milk Hotel –  ‘On Avery Island’ & ‘In The Aeroplane Over The Sea’ so who could possibly hold anything against the man!

The album release date is 16 November & we’re having a release/benefit gig at the Kings Arms on the 20th of November. The artists who are so kindly donating their services are Dimmer (doing the back catalogue of that superb talent Mr Shayne Carter – heck they may even do She Speeds), The Pajama Party (featuring a mysterious guest from the NZ music community), the wonderful Sean Donnelly, guitar hero David Kilgour, & last-in-my-list-but-by-no-means-least the fab Don McGlashan. Tickets are available on the door (no pre-sales) – a measley $30 gets you not only into this wondrous event but also a copy of the CD! Doors will open at 7.30 pm.

Roy

Ayih – Sirhc si llew dna gnivah nuf htiw sih sdneirf. Ew tnew tuo rof etalocohc maerceci dna denetsil ot ABBA ni eht rac – Sirhc gnas gnola yllufeelg. Neht ew deyalp sdrac lit Sirhc tnew ot deb.

Tog a rehtar ciledehcysp kcart morf Hsimah in Wen Kroy hcihw sah stol fo Sirhc gnignis backwards – ti lliw eb a neddih kcart no eht mubla ni tseb Seltaeb noihsaf … ah ah ah ah.

Eyb.

Yor

Hiya – Jon has posted a comment asking for specifics about Chris’ condition. It’s great that people care so much about Chris and, having been his friend for several years, I’m well aware of the impact he’s often had on those he’s met & played music with, but I still hope that everyone appreciates the family’s request for privacy at this time. We’re also still not entirely clear where we are with Chris’ recovery – and doctor’s don’t like to make prognoses for people who have had strokes. For myself, I accept him as he is now with hopes, but no expectations, of change – that way every improvement he does make is welcomed & things that do not improve so rapidly are not so upsetting.

Chris is walking – he can manage about 500 meters at the moment but he is making improvements all the time. We’re doing all that we can to assist Chris’ recovery & to make him secure & comfortable in the future.

To me the really important thing right now is Chris’ quality of life & I’m pleased to say that, even though he tires easily, he is loving many aspects of his current lot. Music is still a huge joy for him – being in studios, hanging out & singing with muso mates, listening to Stroke (& making many good suggestions for it too!), and recording for The Nothing & Tall Dwarfs projects. He’s enjoying the odd beer, chocolate icecream, panak panners, & other totally normal stuff. He’s also surrounded by people that love him & have his best interests at heart.

Roy

PS Hi Juanita. How is winter coming on in the little pear?

Hiya – Alec is in town & we had a meeting yesterday to finalise details of the Stroke release with Peter from Rhythm Method – I have most of the tracks in and we’re going to master in a few days. Had vege burgers & chips with Chris & then Chris & Alec quaffed some Epic Armagedon (thanks Epic!). Then there was a Tall Dwarfs reunion gig in the living room. Alec played an acoustic & Chris sang & I sat there and grinned – it also gave us some good ideas of how to approach the TD album, so when Chris went to bed Alec & I opened the TD files and had a chat about how to proceed. It’s gunna be a wierd album Barry – but we liked what we heard.

Chris is thrilled with Stroke and loves hearing the tracks as they come in. Thanks everyone.

Roy

Hi All – More tracks for Stroke are rolling in by the day & I’m going to play Chris some of the latest arrivals tonight. We’ve also started work towards the release party – I should be able to confirm date, venue & acts in next few days. Alec gets to town tomorrow so we will do some Dwarfing over the weekend (that should please you Barry) ….. and yes, Chris has been drawing – lots of faces & people he knows.

Beast

Rik

Howdy – Chris had a good weekend – he had his first Epic (beer of champions) since the stroke whilst watching Frankenstein (orig. 1931 James Whale version o’course). Now unfortunately I couldn’t join him for certain reasons but if the rest of you felt like imbibbing I wouldn’t criticise.

We have also been out for several walks around the neighbourhood and it was nice to see Chris reintegrating into his community.

On Sunday we went to an art exhibition & it was a glorious Auckland day so we sat on the deck in the sun & drank tea. We even managed quite an indepth discussion of an issue to do with the album &, after some perseverance, I think I understood what Chris wanted pretty well.

It’s good to see Chris’ quality of life improving.