THE THORNS 05 - Release Etc

Label politics! Schmoozing! Late night tv! Royal Albert Hall bootleg & much more!

Here is the final installment of my story of The Thorns, my harmony-rich side project with Matthew Sweet and Shawn Mullins. Our album came out 20 years ago this month on Aware/Columbia Records.

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Shortly after the record’s completion, our producer Brendan O’Brien flew to New York City to play it for Columbia Records president Donny Ienner. Ienner immediately called all the department heads into his office to share his excitement about the project. He was super passionate and declared that The Thorns would be a top priority for the company in the New Year. This was big news. The word on the street was that without Ienner’s support, a record at Columbia stood very little chance of getting any traction.

By this point in my career, I had released three major label records. While my debut, Necktie Second, received steady support from American Recordings, I had never had a big label like Columbia put its full force behind me. It looked as though Columbia was going to spray the money hose and really give The Thorns record a shot. I was told to brace myself for big things. While this was encouraging, I remained cautiously optimistic. I’d been around the block enough times to know just how fickle the music business could be. It would not be long before that fickleness reared its head.

In January 2003, the label flew the band to New York to make the rounds and kiss the ring. We were scheduled to visit Ienner in his office for a brief acoustic performance followed by a fancy dinner. We were gathered in a room at our hotel, about to head to the offices when our product manager, Greg Linn, received a message. He was shocked at the news. The message read:

“Tommy Mottola is leaving Sony.”

Mottola was the head of Sony Music Entertainment, Columbia’s parent company. Ienner came up under Mottola, so Mottola’s departure raised questions about whether Ienner would stay in his position at Columbia. These power shifts cause great uncertainty, and the fate of our record was at stake. If Ienner was out, our champion was too. When new brass comes in, it’s very common for them to neglect the priorities of their predecessors and focus on projects they can call their own and take credit for. It’s a music business cliche for an album to get ignored or shelved after a regime change. (My third album, Spacey and Shakin’ suffered this fate when Polly Anthony replaced Richard Griffiths as president at Epic Records.)

As luck would have it, Ienner did not get the boot. Instead, he moved up the food chain and became the head of Sony North America. We’ll never know how things might have been different if he’s stayed at Columbia. I really liked his replacement, Will Botwin, and thankfully, Botwin did not squash our record.

The first sign that our record would not get neglected came with the news that they wanted us to make a music video for our first single, “I Can’t Remember.” I suggested my good friend Martyn Atkins to direct, and he got the gig. See the video in part one HERE.

Over two days, we shot the video and still photos for album art and publicity. Photographer Doug Menuez shot the stills. The location was the Santa Ynez Ranch, the very place where we wrote a demoed the previous Summer. It was a grueling shoot, but the results turned out great.

Magic hour with The Thorns. Santa Ynez, CA. 2002. Photo by Doug Menuez.

With our video in the can and our album art/publicity shoot completed, it was time to fire up the schmoozing machinery. Our first gig was on the big island of Hawaii at a resort called The Orchid. We were invited to perform at Michele Clark’s Sunset Sessions, a music business convention that puts artists in front of radio programmers and other industry taste-makers. Not a bad first gig!

Our first promo tour began at South by Southwest in March of 2003. We played as an acoustic trio in a large ballroom at The Driskill Hotel. There was quite the buzz around our little group, and we enjoyed performing for a packed house. After our show, we hopped on the bus with our excellent crew and drove to our next gig just a hop, skip and a jump away in Florida where we performed at a record retailer’s convention.

As for the rest of this tour, my memory is hazy. I remember playing a groovy little performing arts center in New York City. And we may have played Toronto on this leg as well. Other than that, I don’t recall.

In April, we embarked on a quick tour of the West. The highlight of this run was our show at The Alladin Theater in my second hometown of Portland, Oregon. Again, we performed as an acoustic trio, shooting lightning bolts from our fingertips and chopping down mountains with the palms of our hands. We had a great night.

In May, we assembled a crack band consisting of drummer Rob Brill, bassist Tony Marsico, and keyboardist Buck Johnson. Rob played with me in the Sinners, Tony had toured with Matthew, and Buck had played with both Matthew and Shawn. Rehearsals took place at The Alley, a legendary complex in North Hollywood. Once we had our act together, we debuted the band during a two-night run at the legendary Los Angeles club, The Troubadour.

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Our record was released on May 20, 2003. We landed a couple of late-night tv appearances for the week of release. On release day, I could tick a box off my bucket list when we played The Tonight Show on NBC. After our performance, we were invited to chat at the desk with host, Jay Leno. Next was The Late Late Show on CBS.

Also, the week of release, we played a showcase for industry folks at Chateau Marmont. We performed in the living room of one of the famous hotel’s suites. Following our set, we shmoozed on the balcony overlooking Sunset Boulevard.

During our stay at Chateau Marmont, we shot photos with Sam Jones for Entertainment Weekly Magazine. Sam and I became fast friends, and over the years, I’ve composed music for tv projects he’s directed. I also created musical cues for his excellent podcast, Off Camera.

Our record debuted at number 62 on the Billboard album chart and was met with tons of press. Our lead single, “I Can’t Remember,” did well at AAA radio, and the video received heavy rotation at CMT and made it to the top twenty countdown on VH-1.

Speaking of VH-1, we were scheduled to perform at The Roseland in New York City with Liz Phair and Jason Mraz for a telecast called “Next Big Thing” or something like that. Unfortunately, the gig was canceled due to a blackout. It was a trip to be in New York City during a blackout. I’ll never forget standing in the middle of Times Square and looking up to see a blanket of stars in the sky between all the buildings. Emergency vehicle lights flashed everywhere to make it all the more trippy. And some hotels would not allow guests to return to their rooms, so the streets teemed with people.

In other TV news, we were cast as street musicians in the hit ABC drama American Dreams. We pre-recorded The Beach Boys’ “Warmth of the Sun” in the studio known at the time as Cello. The legendary studio was previously called United Western. The Beach Boys recorded a lot of their ‘60s classics there. It was thrilling to know that our vocals were being run through the very same echo chamber The Beach Boys had used back in the day!

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I’ll spare you all the details of the touring cycle for the album and just rattle off a few highlights.

We toured Europe and Australia with The Chicks.
They were known as The Dixie Chicks at the time. Just months prior, Natalie Maines made her famous statement about being ashamed that President Bush was from her home state of Texas. The backlash included thousands of country radio stations dropping The Chicks from their playlists and even death threats. As a result, security on the tour was extra tight.

I ticked another box on my bucket list when we played two nights at Royal Albert Hall. Here is an audience recording of the opening number from night one, “Runaway Feeling.”

We used the dressing room at Royal Abert Hall as our recording studio to record a version of “Silent Night.” The track appeared on a compilation record called Christmas Calling. More recently, it was included in the collection Christmas Cafe.

We toured the states with The Jayhawks.
They were supporting their excellent album Rainy Day Music album at the time. It was a pleasure to watch them play and a thrill to join them on stage every night.

We played Radio City Music Hall with Guster.
During our set every night, we performed “Now I Know” with just voices and a baritone ukulele. The acoustics of the hall were gorgeous. I’ll never forget how beautiful our harmonies sounded as they echoed across the famous venue.

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In the middle of our tour, we revisited Sunset Sound in Los Angeles and in one day re-recorded our entire album acoustically. This became available as a bonus disc.

Near the end of the year, we returned to Southern Tracks and re-recorded a version of The Jayhawk’s “Blue” with our producer Brendan O’Brien. The new take on the song was to be our next single.

With the new “Blue” in the can the fate of the band was in the hands of radio programmers. If the single took off, we would continue to work the album into 2004. If not, that’s it. Well, the single fizzled, and so ended the story of The Thorns.

Honestly, I was not all that bummed when “Blue” wasn’t a hit. I was exhausted and overdue for some time off. And I was more than ready to return to my solo career.

I’m grateful to Matthew and Shawn for the experience. It was a total honor to be in a band with them. And I extend my gratitude to our road crew, studio team, touring band members, management teams, booking agency and label folks who made it all happen.

And again, I extend my thanks to Gregg Latterman. Without Gregg, none of it would have been possible.

I get asked from time to time if The Thorns will ever get back together. Honestly, I’m not sure. I wouldn’t rule it out. After revisiting the music we made together, I’d be open to taking another spin with those harmonies. So… to be continued? Time will tell.

Peace & Love Songs,

Pete