don't wanna end up a cartoon in a cartoon graveyard

Good morning from a hotel in South Beach. The air is hot and thick with the kind of humidity that makes some people want to die but makes me feel so alive. I’m tired and sunburned and beautifully depleted in a way one only can be after a few days of being knocked around by the ocean and eating delicious, heavy food. We spent Kevin’s 37th birthday here. One great thing about being with Kevin is that we’re basically the same age but he turns older first so I always get to take our new age for a little 9 month test drive before facing it head on. Miami is a special place and I’m thrilled I got to come here for no other reason than to just enjoy what it has to offer.

I went to Big Ears last week and did a performance with my bandmate Cole Berggren. The set was robust, the setup was minimal. We did an old song, a new song, everything in between. I really love Knoxville so much. We ate at Potchke which is an experience all its own. I didn’t get as much time as I would like to walk around and see other shows but I really do think Big Ears is one of the best American festivals right now. I said it on stage, I’ll say it now. I flew home and saw the cow pastures out next to the landing strip as we touched down and thought about how I see all these incredible places and my return is always so sweet and cinematic.

What else is there to talk about? My tour with Wilco is transforming from a distant mirage into a beautiful oasis within reach. I’m so excited for so many reasons. It's our first proper tour of 2025 which may seem insignificant but last year molded us into these happy, habitual creatures of the road. We miss our routines, we miss each other, we miss the metal firecracker. We miss you, too. I know we’re deep into this year but I have felt this transition in the last couple weeks that I’m thinking of as a reset. Why is that? Astrology? A tear in space and time? Whatever the reason, I feel like the year is finally cookin’. When I’m on my own, quiet and unseen, I really do a lot to busy myself and yet sometimes doing nothing at all even feels like it’s holistically contributing so much to the greater cause of my existence. I’m ready to busy myself and do nothing with the people though, and it all kicks off with a beautiful tour with Wilco.

I sang a song with Bright Eyes at the Uptown in Kansas City a couple weeks ago and I was very inspired! I loved seeing Conor in his element, in his power, one with his band and one with his audience, singing songs that moved me 20 years ago and still move me now. Hurray For the Riff Raff opened and goddamnit if Alynda Segarra isn’t the greatest songwriter of my little microgeneration of songwriters. Anyone who ever asks me that question, who’s the best, who’s my favorite - one name always pops into my head and that’s Alynda. Watching their performance catapulted me into a new wave of obsession with The Past Is Still Alive. I’m incredibly grateful to be making records at the same time, alongside them. Listening to what they’re writing makes me want to write better.

In other news I’m completely addicted to the MJ version of “Dancing in the Club”. Brad sent it to me a few months ago and its recent release has reignited a flame. It’s one of those songs I know I’ll love forever. I love the original (and that whole album) so much and something about the molasses Jake kind of infuses into the lyrics on the new version makes them hit you in a new way. “And I know it’s only cards / But love I feel your heart in spades / While you were dancing in the club / I gave my diamonds all away” - if I’d written that I’d do a backflip and high five strangers in the street.

I’ve been rewatching Enlightened because I, like everyone else, am enthralled by the current season of White Lotus. By the time you read this we may all know how it ends. Anyways, Laura Dern really did something totally unique on that show (Enlightened, that is.) I highly recommend it to anyone who hasn’t seen it and I also recommend the rewatch. It’s so challenging and incendiary in a way that feels sort of singular to Mike White. Similarly nostalgic, I listened to In the Aeroplane Over the Sea on one of my many recent flights and was sprung suddenly to a long-buried but forever-cherished memory of hearing it for the very first time. I was 17, I was at some college-aged friends’ house on the southside of Birmingham. We were all sitting on the floor in an endearingly under-furnished room. My friend put the record on his turntable and I was just instantly connected to the music from the second the first song came on. I remember feeling like I couldn’t totally comprehend what I was hearing, computing the blend of straight-forward and off-centered-ness in real time, unable to focus on conversations happening over the music. I spent the next few months processing it, listening to it constantly, hoping to someday make anything that made me feel even an ounce as excited as that album made me, dreaming about what they had gotten up to about 10 years prior, about 200 miles east of where I was. It’s a classic I always feel like I choose to revisit in the absolute right moment.

That’s about all I got for you. I’m in my last glorious week of what has felt like an ambient pseudo-hibernation. Very soon I’ll leave Kansas City with dogs, clothes and a few new songs in tow, back to work, ready to thaw out under the Southeastern sun. I tell you about all my plans every time I write so I don’t feel the need to give the rundown. Come see a show if you wish.

Until next time,

KC