The Posies Tour with Brendan Benson For 'Blood/Candy' Album

After a five-year break, the Posies are happy to have a new album, "Blood/Candy," out -- and hope that its next one won't take as long.

"There's no way to insure that'll happen," the group's Ken Stringfellow says, "but we would like to do something soon." Bandmate Jon Auer adds that "the last three records we made, 2010 for this one, 2005 for ('Every Kind of Light') and then 1998 for 'Success'...that's a lot of time in-between records, and we certainly are not getting any younger, either. That figures into the equation."

Auer adds that he and Stringfellow have already discussed the idea of a next Posies record and have resolved to "hopefully get right back in and do another Posies record" after touring to promote "Blood/Candy," which came out in September. "That could be a good thing. Things are feeling pretty positive. And we're such an experimental band and like to do each record differently, why don't we try to do a record as fast as we can next time instead of taking our sweet time, like we did with this one."

Before returning to the studio is considered, however, the Posies hit the road Nov. 5 on a unique double bill with Brendan Benson in which Stringfellow and Auer will play in Benson's band as well as their own set. The two parties first played together at a Big Star/Alex Chilton memorial show in Memphis earlier this year, which laid the groundwork for the collaboration.

"We had a great time in Memphis," Stringfellow recalls. "I could see [Benson] watching Jon and I as we were cramming on some of the songs we hadn't done before. We're really good at woodshedding, which maybe gave him confidence that Jon and I could be his band and make things easy for him."

Both Auer and Stringfellow continue to maintain busy creative lives outside the Posies: Stringfellow with the Disciplines, who have a new album due in 2011, and other bands; Auer with solo work; both with production. But neither is expecting Big Star to be much of a going concern in the wake of Chilton's death in March.

"I don't really see how there can be a future with Big Star," Auer says. "We've talked about it. I'm really protective of the legacy of Big Star as far as never wanting to do anything that would sully it. I know Ken feels the same way. It's tough for [drummer and lone remaining founder] Jody Stephens; I feel bad for him because in a lot of ways he was just getting going with Big Star. The shows were great to play, people were still coming to them...then suddenly Alex is gone, then months later [bassist] Andy Hummel. Jody is the last man standing. He was as much a part of Big Star as anybody. They're his songs to play, too, but I can't see how you would ever go out with the name Big Star ever again. It would not look good and wouldn't feel right to me. The tributes were good...but I don't see how you could be Big Star without Alex, you know?"