california here we come



I wonder if everyone in California will look this pretty...oh so so pretty.

MP3 Tom Waits - "Los Angeles Theme (Another Private Dick)"
As (almost) always, Wednesday means a dose of the coolest man on the planet, Tom Waits. Today's selection is an noisy, groovy, yet atmospheric instrumental track from his score of Jim Jarmusch's 1991 taxicab extravaganza Night On Earth. In the Los Angeles segment of the film, talent agent Gena Rowlands tries to convince cabbie Winona Ryder that she should "be in the pictures," but Winona prefers her steady taxi driver lifestyle to potential stardom. And despite the temptation, I am refusing to make a cheap Winona Ryder joke in order to end with a flourish. That would just be easy, low budget humor, and I simply won't stand for it.

MP3 The Decemberists - "Los Angeles, I'm Yours"
Indie rockers have issues with Los Angeles. Not all, but many. There are enough indie rock tunes out there bashing the southern California city to make this music fan sit back & say, "Damn." Portland, OR's Colin Meloy of The Decemberists is no exception, as this tune from last year's Her Majesty The Decemberists album demonstrates. "An ocean's garbled vomit on the shore"- dude, that's harsh, yo. Of course, this being The Decemberists, the song avoids being an annoying rant by taking it's biting lyrical commentary and balancing it with Meloy's pleasant vocals & sweet indie pop melodies.

MP4 Death Cab For Cutie - "Why You'd Want To Live Here" 4.26.04 (59mb)

[NOTE: This video won't play in your browser, so right/control click the link to download it to disk & then open in Quicktime version 6 or later.]

Ben Gibbard of Death Cab For Cutie expresses a similar rant towards Anthony Kiedis' favorite city, though with somewhat less success IMO. I find Gibbard's lyrics to be a bit too on the nose at times, and I think he's guity of it again in this song, which originally appeared on 2001's The Photo Album. Now you may be asking yourself, "This dude is going to LA for a week, so why is he posting songs bashing the town before even he leaves?" Frankly, I just love the irony of it, people. See you next week.

The Death Cab video is courtesy of Silence Magazine, who hosts a whole bunch of other indie rock concert videos, along with plenty of other stuff.

This entry was posted by mr gilbert at 8/25/2004 05:30:00 AM.

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Blogger mr gilbert @ 8/26/2004 12:35:00 PM:

Hey folks. Just writing everyone a quick note from the Apple store in Santa Monica. I got into LA last nite, and have several days of family-related activities ahead of me.

I sat next to two (of five) sisters named Sarah & Elana (please excuse any spelling errors) on the plane who made the flight infinitely more amusing & were willing to share their apples in exchange for my Reese's pieces (no double entondre there btw, folks). They were impressively studious gals, as they did more homework during our 4 hour plane ride than I've done in the past 3-7 years. Bravo, ladies.

Anyway, I'll try to check in when I can this week, and I anticipate JRDN & Marc's upcoming guest posts.    


Blogger mr gilbert @ 8/27/2004 01:27:00 PM:

John Kerry was at my hotel last nite. No, I didn't see him, since he was coming as we were going. I did see lots of California democrats & security people. There was also a guy in the lobby wearing a t-shirt that read:

Two Kings
don't make
a Queen

VOTE BUSH!

I have no idea what that means. Can anybody explain it to me?

It's nice & sunny here. The beach is ginormous.    


Blogger mr gilbert @ 8/28/2004 04:36:00 PM:

Lots of family stuff yesterday. Good times & plenty of pix. I had one glass of wine too many, which did not sit well with the gigantic meal I ate. Getting to sleep was kinda rough.

I stayed up for the final episode of Kilborn. Sniff. Craiggers was drinking, and Will Ferrell, Vince Vaughn, Adam West, and Jimmy Jam showed up. He got send-off messages from (model) Petra Nemcova, Dennis Farina, and of course KG (who said Craig could be a Wolves towel boy or something). It was sad but fun. Remember "Ascot Friday"? He dance-dance-danced just like he did at the end of his final Daily Show episode. I'm gonna miss him.

THAT WAS CRAIG KILBORN!    


Blogger mr gilbert @ 8/29/2004 03:20:00 PM:

The party last nite was a Warner Bros, and I saw the actual Maltese Falcon from The Maltese Falcon. Cool, no?

I thought I saw Kevin Federline at my hotel this morning. There was no sign of Brit, so I could have been imagining things. I should check in w/Scott Stereogum, since he seems to track their movement pretty closely.

I think I may hit the Channel 101 screening tomorrow. Good times.    


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