The Posies bloom again with new album

Seven years ago, Ken Stringfellow thought he had played his last note with Jon Auer, his longtime friend and musical collaborator in the Posies.

It was a disappointing turn of events, considering that only a few years before, the Posies’ future seemed bright.

In 1990 the band released "Dear 23," a CD that nicely showcased the pure pop songcraft of Stringfellow and Auer and prompted predictions of impending stardom.

When "Frosting on the Beater" arrived in 1993, grunge had exploded out of Seattle, and with a harderhitting sound and the strongest collection of Posies songs yet, that album seemed like a good candidate for a commercial breakthrough.

It didn’t happen, and by the late 1990s, the relationship between Stringfellow and Auer had deteriorated and the Posies broke up.

"I wasn’t really sure how it was going to work out. I certainly didn’t envision us working together again," Stringfellow says. "I sort of had gotten the impression that there wasn’t anything interesting left in there, that maybe we had done our best work and it was better to leave it at that, rather than repeat ourselves. And Jon and I weren’t really relating as friends at that point either. So any pleasure that could have been derived from the situation was nil. I figured, ‘Well, time to move on.’ "

But now, Stringfellow and Auer are back fronting a new edition of the Posies and promoting their new album, "Every Kind of Light." They’re also busier than ever with other musical pursuits.

Stringfellow plays keyboards in R.E.M.’s touring band, and both he and Auer are members of the reconstituted edition of Big Star. That group’s muchanticipated new CD, "In Space," arrives Sept. 27.

"Every Kind of Light" is another solid Posies record and well within the stylistic tradition of the group’s earlier releases.

It has songs that are somewhat dreamy and trippy, such as "It’s Great to Be Here Again!" and others that rock briskly, such as "All in a Day’s Work" and "Second Time Around."

The current live set showcases a good chunk of "Every Kind of Light," plus a cross section of older songs, Stringfellow says: "It sort of hits all the highlights of our new record, ‘Frosting on the Beater’ and ‘Amazing Disgrace.’ Then we kind of picked some stuff from the other three albums to fill it out."

The Posies With: Deathray Davies

When: 8:30 p.m. Saturday

Where: Last Exit Bar & Grille, 1425 W. Southern Ave., Tempe

Cost: $10

Information:

(480) 557-6656