I’m sitting in my office (at home, for once), listening to Ryan Adams’ Love Is Hell, Pt. 1 (purchased from the iTunes Music Store) and for the first time in quite a while I feel like sitting down to write about things.
I haven’t been much of a home body recently, and what time I have been at home has not been in front of my computer. It’s a bit unusual for me, but other priorities, some chosen and others…well, not chosen are taking up the time. [Note: If your not interested in the geeky stuff, skip down to the next paragraph]. And speaking of my computer, I picked up one of the new 15″ PowerBooks a day after they were released. I don’t really remember when that was, but I’ve been struggling with display problems that seem to be plaguing quite a few people that own them as well. So I decided to send my brand new computer back to Apple for repair, only to have it sit in their repair facility while they tested a permanent fix. Needless to say, I wasn’t happy being without computer for nearly two weeks, so I had them send it back unrepaired. To their credit, Apple has a great customer relations department that took my case and made sure I was updated every step of the way. They have recently called and said they have a fix and as soon as I send my machine back, they will make sure it is given priority and turned around quickly. We’ll see…
No matter how good my intentions are, I can’t keep the updates coming as frequently as I would like. Ever since I got my job, nearly a year ago, I haven’t been going to many shows and I haven’t been updating as much. As you’ve probably noticed (or not), I decided to lose the concert calendar. It just took too much time to comb the newsletters, LA Weekly and web sites to keep everyone posted on what shows were coming up. The trade off is that hopefully I can give some more substantial updates in place of that section. It wasn’t anything you couldn’t find somewhere else anyway.
Wow, Ryan covering Oasis…It sounds gorgeous.
I’m going to see Josh Rouse and Leona Naess at The Troubadour this weekend, which should be a damn good show. If Josh puts on a show that was anything like the last one I saw at Largo, it will be a treat. I’ve never seen Leona play a show, but I’ve been a fan of her music for quite a while. If I have time I’ll post a little review.
To answer your question about my monthly mixes, no I have not had time to compile for the last month or so. I hope to get back to that this month at some point. There’s so much great music that I want to share, but it all takes time to compile, to say nothing of posting it on my site.
‘Tis damn near the season of year-end lists, but since I’m still working on those, here’s a list of random stuff for you:
Best denim: Paper Denim
Best star sighting since I’ve lived in LA: Elton John eating at Barneys Greengrass – in a head-to-toe sweat suit, with big glasses and lots of rings on his fingers.
Best place to see a film in LA: ArcLight Hollywood
Last good movie I saw: Love Actually
Worst movie I’ve seen in a long time: Matrix Revolutions
Best movie I can’t wait for you to see: Win A Date With Tad Hamilton
Last good book I read: Silk by Alessandro Baricco
Best album of 2003: Wouldn’t you like to know?
Best album I’ve recently heard: Ryan Adams – Rock ‘N’ Roll
Another really great album I recently heard: Jay-Z – The Black Album
Best album I can’t wait for you to hear: Ray Lamontagne – Ray Lamontagne
A band that will be missed in a big way: Wild Gift
awesome post dude. you liked love actually that much? i thought it was very sweet, so i liked it, but didn’t think it was a very good movie. but i agree – revolutions sucked. i bought that ryan too – along with the rock n roll – i was so surprised to hear the oasis and i love it too! 🙂 leona opened for badly drawn boy at show i went to on wednesday but i only saw her last song and didn’t hear much of it. he on the other hand was really good.
I’ve been trying for months to get a copy of Ray Lamontagne’s music- he has two cd’s out, one a live recording of a show he opened for bb king and the other a studio album. Can you help?
thanks.
just trying to find some more info on ray lamontagne..i landed myself a copy of it from a copy of someone who had given it to someone, i didnt know the name of it or the songs names but i pluggged into my i tunes and thought id take a chance on the track names and such coming up, they did! and now i want to find this guy and freakin watch him play.this album is amazing…if you know anything let me know 🙂
tristan
I too have been trying to find anything on or by Mr. Ray Charles LaMontagne ever since I heard him on a Birmingham, AL Radio station. At one time he had a small web-site with a few Mp3s downloadable but that site has been inaccessable for months now. If anyone can help me find this wonderful missing artist.
i’m researching ray myself. haven’t been able to find anything new to download since his old site, raycharleslamontagne.com, disappeared. and that site said the two releases he does have were sold out and no longer available.
his new site, raylamontagne.com, has 3 songs you can right click and save but they’re only bits, not full songs. looks like chrysalis is keeping him under wraps pretty tight.
i did find this site, http://bulletinboard.mainetoday.com/group.html?group=167&subcat=entloc, which has 3 full streaming audio to listen to. again, can’t download, but you can listen.
plus, he’s heading out on a wider tour this summer. i’m in illinois so me and a friend are gonna catch him in louisville and nashville in july! should be a some good shows. cheers!
ray is not the person he appears to be
youll see
Chrysalis is keeping him under wraps for sure. I’m trying to find out what’s going on with his album, etc. I’ll post when I know of something. Thanks to everyone for reading.
I dont know how old this site is, but I just did a search for ray myself and found this.
He’s from my home town of Buckfield, Maine. He has two albulms that were out for a little bit. The live one from merril auditorium was never released because chrysalis didnt want it to be. He is working on a new one, but who knows when that is coming out.
And right now, he has about 10 other record labels fighting over him offering him millions of dollars (no im not exagerating, warner brothers offered him 1 million, then after he turned them down, offered him anythig he wanted). So everyone is just waiting for what evers gonna happen next.
I work for Chrysalis, and I can tell you that we are keeping him under tight wraps cos he is gonna be huge.
Bob Dylan-esque except he can sing