This morning, the postman arrived with no bills - I repeat - no bills, and a copy of Charlie Sexton's Pictures for Pleasure. I had actually ordered it - he didn't just drop it off out of the goodness of his heart, but wouldn't the world be a totally brilliant place if that sort of thing happened.
I love this album. Always have and I hope I always will (no reason why I shouldn't). Check out the video clip at the bottom of the post if you're curious. I often wondered why he didn't explode in the sky off the back of this (and I can't quite accept the fact that it goes all the way back to 1985) but he seems to have followed a path that worked for him at heart. That's always more important than doing what the record company tell you to do - which I think was much the case here.
This buying vinyl lark has had much scorn poured on it by my friends (I use the plural loosely), but seriously, if you have even the slightest motivation to go down that road, the experience is so totally different from clicking a few buttons in itunes, particularly if you're old enough to remember what it was like originally. For the rest of you, maybe not so much. My kids think I have lost the plot totally, but they will learn...
Here's this weeks reading list - and next week as well probably. A little bit different from normal. Not sure I'll get through it all but the heart is willing. Whenever I talk about books with people, I normally get met with lame ass responses like "I don't have time to read anymore". Which rather begs the question, "What do you do?" I have two kids, a full on day-job, an awful TV addiction and a ton of other stuff that needs constant attention. I rather think that right here, right now, in 2012, people sleep far too much for their own good.
Rubbish in, rubbish out. Nothing in, nothing out. There's an equation for the rest of your life.
I sort of got invited to the Train show in London tomorrow night via an interview I was going to do with their support act Matt Nathanson (previously mentioned here) who is supporting. Turns out Matt got sick today - which is a big pain in the ass but if he hadn't caught it today, I would have given it to him tomorrow - I feel freaking awful. I don't think cancelling the show is on the cards (Matt not me), so don't go around saying that's what you read here. I will however say this out loud in case anybody important is listening. Despite my best attempts to get 'a somebody' to agree to Matt and myself doing a decent interview over a coffee during the day, until about three hours ago, they were still angling for me to do it in the dressing room of the Hammersmith Apollo sometime in the evening. Frankly, that's a shitty idea and a crappy way to treat somebody who actually wants to help promote your artist long term and will get behind him in every way possible. Besides which, I've been in that dressing room before to do important stuff. It's not big and it's not clever in there...
Towards the end of the Fin Costello interview in Black Dye, White Noise, there's a passage where Fin talks about exactly the same thing when he was on assignment to shoot Train back when Drops of Jupiter came out. Maybe it comes with the territory. Is nobody wanting to take a stand in the music business out there and take things back to being done the right way for all concerned? It's no wonder everybody is running scared.
The new Train album - California 37 - is excellent by the way. To wrap up, here's that Charlie Sexton video I was talking about which sums up pretty much everything I'm thinking and feeling today: