Alex’s Blog / 02.14.09

Glen Campbell is singing “Rhinestone Cowboy” on Craig Ferguson, and he’s wearing my jacket from Urban Outfitters.  Whatever. It doesn’t fit me anymore anyway.  You can have it, Glen.  Is that The Strokes backing him up?

It hasn’t even been a week and already thousands of people have downloaded One Last Century from Paste’s website. What can I say?  To everyone out there helping to spread the word: Thank you. You are all directly responsible for getting this music to people’s ears.

A few people have asked about the liner notes, who played on what, etc. We putting it together now. It’s kind of backwards, I know. We’re still trying to find our way through this new territory. What I can tell you is the song “55 Pictures” was written and performed by the original members—me, Steven Terry, David Chernis, and Ted Hudson—with producer Freddy Wall contributing his slide expertise. This song was a last minute addition. I’m glad it’s on there. It started in Ted’s apartment in Brooklyn a few years ago. We were just hanging out. Beers were going around. Dave was making jokes and everyone was laughing, wishing they were half as funny. Steve was off in a corner playing some chords and humming a melody. “Is that for your solo record?” someone asked. “Alex,” Steve said. “Write some lyrics for it.” I took the parts home that night, added some chord changes to the verse and chorus, and penned the lyrics. At first I didn’t know what to write about. When I put the pen to paper, it came in a flood. I couldn’t get the words down fast enough. Paper, breath, bone—all of it was just in the way. I sang it for the band the next day. Dave and Ted made some more changes to the music and wrote the bridge. After practice Steve took me aside. “Thanks,” he said. “Thanks for making my song ours.” That was my one of my favorite moments with those guys.