a few songs i like right now:

"being with you" that dog
"young adult friction" the pains of being pure at heart
"re:stacks" bon iver

I woke you up to say goodbye.

The Lucksmiths, my favorite band that's still together, have decided to break up. I've seen them play four times, and the last time I saw them, when they closed with "The Year of Driving Langourously" I knew I might never see them again.

Also, Motopizza, home of the $5 pizza on 82nd in Portland, has closed.

I'm not sure how I can carry on.

Here are the lyrics to "the year of driving langourously:"

Darling roll the window down
I can't breathe
And I want to feel the northerly down my sleeve
I love a sunburnt elbow pointing to the sea

And, darling, can't you find us something on the radio?
A song to pass the time
Sweet and slow
Conversation was forsaken long ago

It's getting worse
You've hardly said a word
Since you set eyes on the horizon
But I've seen the other side of that ocean there
And it can't compare

Has it really been a year?
How did those days just disappear?

We held our breath across each bridge
Til we were blue
But I wonder if I wished the same as you
Like a ten-year-old pretending
Summer isn't really ending

It's getting worse
You've hardly said a word
Since you set eyes on the horizon
But I've seen the other side of that ocean there
And it can't compare to this
So I'll steal another kiss
Before the sun goes down on this fibrotown
And we give chase
Like all those other days
I suppose it's no surprise
We drive, time flies

Has it really been a year?
Where the hell do we go from here?

Car of the Month: DEFENDER NINETY

Today I saw a tan Defender 90 on the street. It had no roof, padded rollbars, and four dudes living their lives riding in it. I was very jealous, and thus this month's Car of the Month is the Land Rover Defender 90. Pictured above is one of the same color of my VW Bus.

I've been spending a lot of time lately riding around in a Chevy Silverado, which just makes me love trucks. Of course, most my main ride is a 1971 VW Bus, which I consider more of a truck itself. I love the big roof rack I recently acquired for my VW Bus, and roof racks are a standard Land Rover tradition. I am a sucker for long lived industrial designs, and the Land Rover Defender (as it was finally named in the 1990s) is mostly the same as the original Land Rover designed in 1948.

I would love to drive one sometime. I love that they're all boxy. I love that all the lights are round. I love that they were designed to be completely disassembled and put together using only hand tools. I love the vents that open under the windshield and that the door hinges are on the outside.

The Defender 90 was imported in small batches to the United States in 1994 and 1995. They still sell for well over $20,000 on the used market, unlike its sibling the Land Rover Discovery, which can be had for less than a nice Vespa. There are a few of them here in Portland and I upon seeing one I always shout "THE SUN NEVER SETS ON THE LAND ROVER EMPIRE!"

I'll go mainstream without kicking nor screaming.

I played a show on Friday May 1, 2009 and this is what I played:

Intellectual Sweetie (the tennies, my old band, cover)
Syncronised Sinking (the Lucksmiths cover)
Do you love coffee? (braid cover)
Clover (newish song)
Kiss Me Thru The Phone (Soldja Boy cover, abandoned quite soonish)
Frost (newish song)


I love this song by Soulja Boy.