Fr: Op Nocturnal

Hi Susan. What a mean, wicked guitar player you are and you make it look so easy. I'm an extremely busy individual with just one day off (and even that gets taken from me all too often) so I have yet to catch Kore LIVE, but the available audio & video speaks volumes about the band and I'm thinking you could really get down on the blues. In one of the videos, there's a small snippet of Kore performing Radiohead's "Creep" and I was wondering if you do that thing where the guitar sounds like someone trying to start up a chainsaw, kickstart a motorbike, or something like Radiohead does in that song. There's not enough audio of the song in Kore's videos, so let me know and hopefully, I'll catch Kore LIVE in the very near future to hear it for myself. May you and Jax keep smiling, as that adds so much to the band's presence as you perform. Traci, of course, is busy singing, but has an overall look that does her smiling for her. Or maybe it's me that's smiling. Somebody's smiling somewhere.

Happy Christmas!

Yes, Susan is a great guitarist. She can also write good lyrics—she wrote “What Did I Do” and most of “Telephone Breakup, ” and she has a lovely voice, though other than the great harmonies she provides, most of the time she prefers to let her guitar do her talking. When I auditioned for this band, it was easy to pick up on their great sound. A lot of the songs we play, Traci wrote and recorded pre-Kore. But the newer songs that we’ve all worked on together like “Just Go,” “Telephone Breakup,” “Forget You,” and “Easier Said Than Done” gave me a chance to see what a great composer Susan is as well. Proud to be part of such a great team. Jax

Fr: Op Nocturnal

Apparently, Susan is multi-talented. "Telephone Breakup" is very well done; especially, with the "phone effect" intro. There are some great shots of Susan in the "You Confuse Me" video. At :44 into the video there's a very brief, but very good, side view of Susan which captures how pretty she is and again at 1:51 where she's with you (Jax) and on through the sequence where Traci takes the guitar from her to hurl at... uh... "Toboggan Dude." ;) By the way, how many takes did it take to determine just how far "Toboggan Dude" would have to be to avoid actually getting hit by that flying guitar and did Traci have to buy Susan a new one? ;)

The video for "You Confuse Me" is pretty good, but I'm not sure of what to make of the short sequence which begins at :28 into the video where each of you has a close-up on your eyes. I like the concept but the look in your eyes says that you know the camera is on you, and zooming in close, very close. The twinkle in your eyes is nice, but it seems to me the director would have guided you on your expressions so as not to have your thoughts coming across the screen as, "Oh look. The camera is on me. I'm making a video." Hey. I may be wrong and the director may have gotten the shots that he wanted; especially, since all three of you have that look.

Here I am critiquing a video and I'm not even a director. I'm not even an actor, a musician and I surely can't sing. I hope to see more Kore videos in the future. Just remember you are Kore. You are the masters of your music and your videos. You hurl prop guitars at Toboggan Dudes and wear hats on bad hair days. You RoCk!! (and then let your eyes twinkle). ;)

Hey, OP.

The cool phone effect was done by Brian Merrill, who recorded Just Go, Telephone, Breakup, Hurtin' Kind, Forget You, and Easier Said Than Done. We've been really pleased with his work and highly recommend him.

You should check out the gallery. Traci has a way of capturing Susan in some of her loveliest moments.

Toboggan Dude, heehee. What would we do without him and his ability to make us laugh and loudly cheer us on from the audience? He's also mean with a flip video.

Thanks again for your great comments. They're always a pleasure to read.

Live, Love, Laugh! That's an order.

Jax

Fr: Op Nocturnal

Of course, Traci is a professional photographer. Why didn't I think of that?

Whoever played the guy wearing the toboggan did a great job. In the scene where he's giving Traci a line of s*** you can't hear what he's saying, but his appearance and manner says it all. Without one audible word you can get a sense that this guy is a snake. The dark glasses and toboggan add to the smirk that's present in his smile (and he pulls off the smirk without overkill). Yea, who could blame Traci? I'd want to throw something at this guy, too. I'd want to f*** him up with a Fender Telecaster, strangle him with a Stradacaster and decapitate him with anything from the Pink Label series of Daisy Guitars (considering that Daisy endorses the band I wanted to get that in).

During the previous post I stopped to bring up the "You Confuse Me" video to check the credits to see who played Traci's boyfriend, but he was not listed, thus, he became... Toboggan Dude. At the time, I found it rather odd that anyone would wear a toboggan in Florida, but considering the weather over the past two weeks it now appears that Toboggan Dude may have actually been severely underdressed.

Brian Merrill does, indeed, do great work. I'm currently checking out "Forget You" and "Easier Said." Keep RoCkiN' !!

Your NameTraci Your Message:
Actually, there's only one song we do that I wrote pre-KORE. All of the songs, minus the 4 new ones were written before Jax was in the band but still under KORE. The sound of KORE has been concrete for years now and continues to grow.

Fr: Op Nocturnal

This leads me to ask:

Is Jax the drummer in all of the recordings that are featured on this site?

Also, who other than Brian Merrill produced the recordings?

Please know that regardless of who produced what, or whether Jax was on the drums or not, these are very good songs and even the cover songs are done very well. I'm still not free on weekends to catch you at a club, but will eventually catch you LIVE on an odd day of the week when Kore is performing for a benefit or some other special function.

Speaking of LIVE performances:

Has Kore been inadvertently double-booked for Saturday, February 13th? The site is showing you at Treasure Island Beach for the start of Mardi Gras Weekend and at the Florida State Fair (Cafe Caribe) on the same day. Perhaps the trick is in the playing times, but even so, it sure looks extremely tight.

Best Wishes

Your Name: Susan
Your Message: Jax is on tracks 1-7.  And except for You Confuse Me, which was recorded by Chad Piche, those tracks were recorded by Brian Merrill.  8-10 were done by Charlie Parks.  12 & 13 were done at Se7ven Sounds Studios.
We will be playing back-to-back shows on 2/13.  See you there.

Your Name:
Your Message:
Who cares!  Just come to a show and enjoy the music!