Friday, April 18, 2008

What I Remember About Last Week...

If anyone's interested...

Sing Your Life

I'm holding this space. I wanted to talk about the whole "busking" thing, and who has the right to a spot.

Apparently I'm a dilettante if I don't give up my earned slot to a drug addict who needs the gig. Don't get me started. Actually, get me started later today. I'm just getting reaccustomed to being back in LA.

I'll see you guys back on here later this afternoon. Enjoy that whole "Spring" thing. Oh, and Go Habs.

Sunday, April 13, 2008

What’s on YOUR iPod?

You’re excused from examining this list closely—there won’t be a quiz— but these are bits and pieces of the Winter/Spring 2008 Montreal soundtrack, such as it was.


Across The Universe 3:45 The Beatles
The Beatles - I'll Cry Instead 1:47
Radio Nowhere
You'll Be Comin' Down
Livin' In the Future 3:55 Bruce Springsteen
All That Heaven Will Allow
Brian Ferry - More Than This
For The Movies 4:35 Buckcherry
I'll Never Fall In Love 3:19 Burt Bacharach & Elvis C.
The Beatles - I'm A Loser 2:33 The Beatles
The Beatles - I've Just Seen A Face
King Of New Orleans 4:07 Better Than Ezra
Lucky Town 3:27 Bruce Springsteen
Je Reviendrai À Montréal 3:24 Charlebois, Robert _
Four Seasons In One Day 2:54 Crowded House
Better Be Home Soon 3:10 Crowded House
4/12/08 5:23 PM
I Still Have That Other Girl 2:48 Elvis Costello With Burt Bacharach
Gymnopedie No. 3 2:35 Eric Satie
Six months in a leaky boat 2:48 Finn Brothers
Chelsea Dagger 3:24 The Fratellis

Ole Black 'n' Blue Eyes 3:16 The Fratellis
Hippy Hippy Shake 1:48 Georgia Satellites
Til I Hear It From You 3:47 Gin Blossoms
Sky Blue And Black 6:07 Jackson Browne
Pipeline 3:54 Agent Orange
School's Out 3:34 Alice Cooper
Take me to the River 5:16 Ann Likes Red
They're on to Me (Acoustic) 3:47 Ari Hest
Landslide 3:59 Ari Hest
Travelin' Boy 5:03 Art Garfunkel
Jump 2:53 Aztec Camera

Pour Le Monde 5:10 Crowded House
People Are Like Suns 3:52 Crowded House
Sister Madly 2:52 Crowded House
Can't You See That She's Mine-Dave Clark five
Two Faces 3:03 Bruce Springsteen
Brilliant Disguise 4:17
Jersey Girl 6:30 Bruce Springsteen
Radio Nowhere 3:19 Bruce Springsteen
Crawling From The Wreckage 2:55 Dave Edmunds 1
Little Sister 3:32 Dave Edmunds & Robert Plant
Babylon 4:25 David Gray
Please Forgive Me David Gray
Mercury Blues 3:35 David Lindley
O Valencia 3:45 The Decemberists
Happy Girl (Instrumental)
Elvis Costello With Nick Lowe - Baby It's You
In The Darkest Place 4:21 Elvis Costello With Burt Bacharach
Toledo 4:36 Elvis Costello With Burt Bacharach

The Next Voice You Hear - The Best of Jackson Browne
In The Shape Of A Heart 5:42 Jackson Browne
My Favorite Thing
Gunslinger 3:31 John Fogerty
Mountain Of Love 2:40 Johnny Rivers
I can do without you 3:24 Kaiser Chiefs
Asking For Flowers 5:02 Kathleen Edwards
I Make The Dough, You Get The Glory 4:37
Oh Canada 3:59 Kathleen Edwards
I Won't Take The Blame 3:54 Del Amitri
Drunk In A Band 2:44 Del Amitri

Medicine 2:50 Del Amitri
Life Is Full 3:22 Del Amitri
Start With Me 4:27 Del Amitri
Here And Now 5:30 Del Amitri
Twisting By The Pool 3:30 Dire Straits
Local Hero Dire Straits
The Kids Are Alright 2:30 The Dropkick Murphys
I'm Walking On Sunshine 3:58 Katrina & The Waves
Somewhere Only We Know 3:48 Keane
This Is The Last Time 3:29 Keane
You Really Got Me 2:14 Kinks
Waterloo Sunset 3:15 The Kinks
My Sharona 4:56 The Knack
God Give Me Strength 5:20 Kristen Vigard
Suddenly I See 3:21 KT Tunsall
Summer in the City 2:40 The Lovin' Spoonful
You're My Favorite Waste of Time 2:39 Marshall Crenshaw
Whenever You're On My Mind 3:20 Marshall Crenshaw
I Am A Town 5:05 Mary Chapin Carpenter
Irish Blood English Heart 2:44 Morissey
First of the gang to Die 3:38 Morrissey/The Smiths
Ace of spades 2:49 Motorhead
Don't Dream It's Over (acoustic)) 3:44 Neil Finn & Tim Finn
Loud Music in Cars 2:49 Nick Lowe
So It Goes 2:31 Nick Lowe
True Love Travels on a Gravel Road 3:38 Nick Lowe
Time Won't Let Me 3:02 The Outsiders
So Bad 3:16 Paul McCartney
Dyslexic Heart 4:32 Paul Westerberg
Wherever I Lay My Hat (That's My Home) 4:10 Paul Young
World Wide Suicide 3:27 Pearl Jam
Pearl Jam - Soldier of Love 2:54
Wish List 3:26 Pearl Jam
Baba O'Riley [live] 5:44 Pearl Jam -
What the World Needs Now 3:57 Pixies & Burt Bacharach
A Good Feelin To Know 3:54 Poco
Some Like It Hot 5:05 Power Station
I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man 3:40 Prince
Little Sister 2:54 Queens Of The Stone Age
I Never Came 0:00 Queens Of The Stone Age
Johnny And Mary 3:55 Robert Palmer
You Wear It Well 4:20 Rod Stewart
Avalon 4:16 Roxy Music
Dance Away 3:26 Roxy Music
Gymnopedie #1 3:36 Satie, Erik
Black Horse & The Cherry Tree-Kt Tunsall 2:51
Everything You've Done Is Wrong 3:26 Sloan
Sing Your Life 4:00 The Smiths - Morrisey
The House is a Rocking 2:23 Stevie Ray Vaughn
When The Train Comes 3:57 Sutherland Brothers & Quiver
Double Shot (Of My Baby's Love) 2:21 The Swinging Medallions
Metal Guru 2:28 T. Rex The Slider
Persuasion 4:41 Tim Finn With Richard Thompson
Love Is The Answer - Utopia 4:18 Todd Rundgren
You Wreck Me Baby 3:22 Tom Petty Wildflowers
Downtown Train 3:53 Tom Waits
Sing 3:50 Travis
Stereophonics / Have A Nice Day 3:15
The White Stripes - While My Guitar Gently Weeps
My Generation 3:16 The Who
That Thing You Do 2:52 The Wonders
Debussy - Erik Satie Gymnopedie No 3, Orchestrated by Claude Debussy 1 3:16
Let it Rock - Rockpile (Dave Edmunds, Nick Lowe & Keith Richards) 2:58
Rod Stewart - I Don't Wanna Talk About It 4:52
Crying, Waiting, Hoping - Marshall Crenshaw 2:21
The Beatles - Come Together 4:19
Tom Waits - Waltzing Matilda 6:38

A Bientôt, Montréal

ABOARD THE AMTRAK ADIRONDACK, U.S. CROSSING, CANTIQ, QUEBEC, CANADA—I meant to write to you last night.

My last day and evening in Montreal was all trolling for souvenirs and chocolate, returning movies, renting more movies, and finally gathering up a loose handful of errands that bounced and skittered across the hours like marbles on a kitchen counter.

It was snowing the day I arrived, and it snowed the day I left. It will be 89 degrees American in LA today. (Um, it was in the high 90s American today...) The temperature never rose above 11 Canadian while I was here, and it sounds funny to say, but that seemed about normal to me. Everyone eventually gets used to everything, and I got used to it being cold every. Single. Day.

I had a friend who went to college in Wisconsin and she once told me about how they would have “50 Degree Days,” in those waning days of Winter when the sun would burst through the clouds, and everyone wore a t-shirt, skipping like hippies in the afternoon warmth. I thought she was a couple of nachos short of a combo plate then, but now I can kinda see it. There was that one day about two weeks ago when I threw open my front windows and listened to the guy in the Square sing badly. It was a beautiful thing, man.

I never figured out a lot of things in Montreal. When is trash day? Why aren’t book and movie titles in quotes in the newspaper? Why is that halfwit Mike Boone allowed to write a column in the Montreal Gazette? Where oh where can I find diet Coke in six-pack cans? Where is ouest? Oh, and where is est?

I did manage to figure out how all those wretched Midwest and Canadian ‘70s bands (Triumph, Reo Speedwagon, Kansas, Rush ad nauseum, etc) sold so many damn records. Canadians bought them. I think its CHUM, maybe it’s another station, but apparently those bands have found a cozy home on Canadian radio, free from the cruelty of the calendar.

Meanwhile, let's just call it even on the whole Spring thing. Summer will be here soon. Looks like Spain and Italy for me in July, and I am thinking about Hawaii maybe in August, just to make sure it's hotter than hell there.

There's the paper to do (www.asjournal.net) every month, and this loud rock and roll band that I run with is doing something big in June (Watch this space.)

I have more on my Second-Favorite City, lots more, and I need to say something about "busking." But that's for tomorrow.

A bientôt, Montréal.