Musical Career
His association with R.E.M. extends to the mid-90s Seattle scene, where he first met guitarist Peter Buck, with whom he also plays in Scott McCaughey's The Minus 5. Ken also spent time recording and touring with Lagwagon in the late-1990s, during which he helped craft 1997's Double Plaidinum, adding a unique flair to the band's high-paced melodic brand of punk rock. He has also formed a new band with three Norwegian musicians from the band Briskeby, called The Disciplines.
He has released three solo albums: This Sounds Like Goodbye (1997, on the Hidden Agenda label), Touched (2001, on Manifesto Records), and Soft Commands (2004, on Yep Roc Records) as well as an EP with covers by other artists, The Sellout Cover Sessions Vol. 1 (2008, on Sellout Records). Touched was also released outside the United States by Pop Tones with different cover artwork; the Japanese release contains a bonus track (a cover of Robyn Hitchcock's "Airscape"). An international version of Soft Commands was released by Rykodisc; it has the same cover artwork, but contains four bonus tracks (covers of "Never My Love" by The Association, "Down to the Wire" by Neil Young, "New Test Leper" by R.E.M., and "Knocks Me Off My Feet" by Stevie Wonder). In 2003, Stringfellow and Jon Auer released Private Sides, a six-song split EP (Arena Rock Recording Co./Rykodisc).
On December 22, 2007, Stringfellow revealed, via his blog, that he would not be part of R.E.M.'s 2008 tour in support of Accelerate. On mid-2008, Stringfellow visited Serbia and, during his visit, appeared as guest on most of the tracks of the album Nikadjekraj (Neveristheend) by the Serbian rock band Veliki Prezir.
On March 3, 2009 Second Motion Records is set to release the first single from The Disciplines as a digital-only single and limited-edition blue vinyl 7", entitled "Yours For The Taking". The label will release the band's debut album "Smoking Kills" on April 28, 2009 in North America, which will also see the first Worldwide release of the album on Vinyl. In 2010, he worked with Can Can, an Ecuadorian electro-rock band, by producing their third album, Caos. During his stay in Ecuador, he premiered a new song by The Posies called "Licenses to Hide". In 2011 Thick Syrup Records released the compilation album '78 LTD. This album features the track "36 Perfect Ways I Ching of Love" Stringfellow made with Jad Fair of Half Japanese.
He has recently been working in Queanbeyan, Australia, on Hannah Gillespie's follow up to her debut album Growing Up Stupid.
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