So, it’s been a most fascinating of trips to Los Angeles and Austin, to say the very least. Lots of work-related mishigas that I can’t get into, but I can talk about all the other stuff — and there’s so much to tell. The first night we tried to go to the Bar Marmont (lobby of the Chateau Marmont hotel) but they’re still under renovation. After much discussion, we ended up back at the 101 Cafe in the lobby of the Best Western Hollywood Hills. Hollywood has really changed since the last time I was there — it seems to have cleaned up its act to some degree. The 101 Cafe was filled with hipsters and micro-celebrities galore, and I devoured the most L.A. thing I could order, the Egg White Veggie Scramble.

The two days following my arrival were meeting after meeting, the contents of which are confidential details of the trip, obvs. As I mentioned at Loudersoft, I enjoyed the great fortune of seeing Network Live’s presentation of The Futureheads and French Kicks. Both acts put on a stunning show to a sea of crowd-watchers, industry revelers and hangers-on. Chris and I left the Henry Fonda for softer digs — Spaceland on Silverlake Boulevard. We were treated to the third of four free weekly shows by Monsters Are Waiting, one of the best new live acts I’ve seen in recent memory. Great psychedelic backdrops fronted by delicious female vocals and even a cover of “I Wanna Be Adored” by The Stone Roses that closed the show and brought the house down. This band is something very, very special.

The following night, I opted to take it somewhat easy. I was, after all, in Los Angeles for work. I did have time to catch up with my friend Julie Brown who, while working at NBC/Universal these last few years, managed to come up with a great idea, patent it, and is getting ready to have it sold on QVC. The Pedi Buddy is an ingenius and simple invention for cleaning your feet and getting those darn callouses off. She gave me one and it’s a high-quality, useful, and very impressive invention. Expect to see these flying off the shelves of Walgreens before long, I now officially can’t live without mine and you won’t be able to, either.

Half a dozen meetings later, I hooked up with my friend Tucker and we mowed down the Chocolate Waffle Sundae at the 101. This dessert is not for the faint-of-heart — a rich, chocolate waffle topped with vanilla ice cream and chocolate syrup. Forget Chocolate Decadance, this rates 9 insulin shots out of 10 on the diabetic scale. Induced to food coma, I called it a night. On my way back to my room, I bumped into a delirious Johnny Knoxville and his incredibly-attractive barely-18-year-old-looking date. She said hello and wanted to talk to me. Johnny grabbed her hand and, literally, dragged her into the hotel lobby with him. When I woke up the next morning, lo and behold Johnny was the first person I saw. Apparently, he was staying in the room next to me and either he had been up all night or he actually got some decent shut-eye — turns out he was just in town for meetings himself. I learned that my snoring sounded like a “drowning cat”. Uh oh. Thanks, bud.

Wednesday should have been a slow day, but it turned out to be the furthest thing from slow. Lunch meetings, work catch-ups, best day of the week in terms of progress. I was so worn out from just being in Los Angeles, I almost didn’t make it out. I did, however, discover that Brookville were in town at the Hotel Cafe for their first show ever. I am a huge fan of the band Ivy so when my friend Ben told me he would be at the show I got to kill two birds with one stone — seeing Ben and seeing Brookville! It was a real industry showcase, wall to wall with PR and press people, and what a great show it was. Andy seemed in good spirits, and with songs like “Golden” under his belt he should be.

Thursday’s mishigas was probably the most fascinating of the week. The head of our label was cloistered away at The Boat in Silverlake mixing two records. After another day filled with work and meetings, I was invited to join some folks at The Troubador for a showcase featuring Rocco DeLuca and “some girl named Sierra who is dating Billy Corgan, Linda Perry loves her and she’s hooked up with Kiefer Sutherland’s management company” (that’s all I had to go on, folks). I show up at the Troub on Santa Monica and have my round of greetings. In the process, I’m informed that Billy, Linda, and Kiefer are all at the club that night. Sure enough, I look up and see Kiefer Sutherland poking his head over the balcony. In any event, as I’m standing in the audience talking to people, I see Sierra walk on stage.

She opens her mouth to sing, and it’s flawless — passionate, dark, and very direct. But at the same time, I have this moment of blind epiphany that says, “Oh shit, I know this girl. I know her. Wait, how do I know her?” Soon, my mind is going through the virtual rolodex of information, and I decide that she’s someone I met in Los Angeles when I lived there several years ago. That would have been true, except then I run into Gara outside the club and suddenly she connected the dots for me. Sierra Swan is the sister of Planet Swan, a phenomenal performer and songwriter in her own right who lives in Memphis. Sierra was at Planet’s house for her birthday along with Gara, Chris Swenson, and other friendlies. When this all got revealed, I breathed a sigh of relief that it was nothing weird and, at the same time, was thrilled to hear and see Sierra doing so well.

Moments later, who should step to the curb but Tara Reid, smoking a cigarette, sporting a shorter blonde coif, and looking only mildly as haggard as the pictures that I’ve seen in Star Magazine. I also realized at that moment exactly how much she looks like Mary Lou Lord and always has. But I must say, with all due deference, Mary Lou is looking way better than Tara these days. I’m sure it was just an off night. The night ended at Three Clubs (Vine & Santa Monica) where I met a diverse cross-section of the Hollywood crowd.

Last night was just for fun, after all. I spent time with former Memphians Fyfe Nelson and Glenda Pannell. We went to Wokcano on 3rd Street for some death-by-sushi indulgence. We caught up for hours and eventually ended up at Fyfe’s house in West Hollywood where we were joined by Dave Anderson and Mike something-I-cant-remember who was really cool and kicking it with a signed photograph of Larry Hagman by his side. Fyfe showed us his comic collection, and I just drooled as I cried inside at the deal he got on them. The first ever appearance of Supergirl was probably worth more than the rest of the collection combined. Fyfe’s first screenplay, Hell’s Horsemen is in pre-production right now, adding to the excitement of the visit.

I was running a bit late to the airport due to traffic in Los Angeles. Just my luck, I happened to run into WHHHHHHHHAT? Lil’ Jon and friends arriving in Los Angeles. I also spotted Kareem Abdul-Jabbar thanks to the friendly air marshal whom I was talking to. Bored and rife with time to kil, I decided to wander up to The Encounter, the restaurant in the middle of that giant space station at LAX, where I dined on Lemon-Pepper Garlic French Fries and some edamame before making my way to the plane. My standby flight caused me to miss my connecting flight so, as my penance, I’m stuck in Phoenix with my laptop, some memories, and now a cramp in my fingers from typing all of this. It was a great week, but I am so glad to be getting back to Memphis to relax for a second. Life is very, very good right now. Click here to see all the pictures, good and bad, courtesy of the Motorol PEBL phone.

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In case some of you were wondering, i havent just been randomly on the road. I actually had to go to Austin for business, but it turned into one of the most fun weekends of my life. It could have started out better — getting stuck in an endless loop of traffic for two hours before realizing i had overshot my exit. Once I found my way back to downtown Austin and got checked in, the weekend was anything but dull. I managed to check out Shane Bartell playing at Stubbs (that was the work part) who put on an incredibly impressive showcase of his fluid songwriting and a voice so silky it will melt you like butter. In between, I ended up at Club DeVille where I saw the interesting but not-that-great Excela, before finally ending up down at Plush. There, I hooked up with Jen Rea and Erin of Team Fabrication for a little closing-the-bar-down excitement.

Saturday was a somewhat lazy day, started by a brunch at Magnolia that was worth every penny. I knew I had ended up in the right place when I noticed that the entire kitchen staff was singing along to the radio — Joy Division’s “Love Will Tear Us Apart”. Austin, Texas is like another planet from the rest of the state of Texas, much less the united states. It is the capital of the state and the cornerstone of cool. I have never been so consistently impressed with one experience in one city as I was with Austin. Everywhere I turned, there was something that resembled lively activity — dozens of clubs, bars, and restaurants seemingly constantly packed to the gills with people. The experience of entering the Whole Foods flagship store is something I can only describe as “the highest quality of organic food porn I have ever experienced in my adult life”. I never ate a bad meal (save the one at the Star Seeds diner where they fucked up my order twice), and it never became boring or dull for one minute.

Mind you, I was staying at the “rock and roll motel”, the Super 8 Central (12th Street and I-35). It’s probably the best value for the dollar of any place you can stay, the pool is open all night, but sadly so are the people who are swimming. When I came home at 4:30am, there were a ton of people in the pool and a guy was on the roof overlooking the pool. Without a moment’s notice, he didn’t hesitate, he just dove straight into the pool! At least nobody was naked….

Saturday night found me at a video release party, and embarassingly I can’t remember the name of the band it was for! I do know it sounded fantastic enough, particularly bands Peel and For Those Who Know. I spent some time talking to Jason Callahan, owner/proprietor of I Eat Records, and he waxed poetic on the genius of Snowglobe, Dixie Dirt, and Tim Regan. I asked how he was so familiar with them, and he mentioned that he had been on tour with Okkervil River when they performed at The Hi-Tone with said previous artists. “We were really intimidated by them,” he confided in me. I was taken aback, they are some of the nicest guys I know! He explained that he meant on stage. He kept talking about “their amazing trumpet player”, and I knew he meant Nashon Bedford.

After hours of conversation, I ended up at the apparent-chain-of-cool Beauty Bar. DJ’s Ian and Gates (of the Super! Alright! Media Collective were tearing shit up when, without explanation, another guy came up and started spinning. I had no idea who he was, but he was tearing up the sound system with soul music classics that only the Memphix crew could have spit out. We danced the night away — Team Fabrication, Ian, Erik, Gates, Beth, and I, and that would have been enough. I suddenly looked up and saw Conrad Keely of Trail of Dead standing in front of me. We caught up for a few minutes, and he informed me that Jason, drummer for same Trail of Dead, was owner of the fine establishment. I also learned they were en route for LA to mix the new Trail of Dead record @ the Interscope offices.

Eventually, the bar shut down and everything became an after party of sorts, small but warm and inviting. I started chatting with these lads who were hanging out about music, as I always do, and one in particular showed an intense affection for Big Star. We must have talked about Big Star, Isaac Hayes and Memphis music in general for the better part of half an hour before he explained that he was the keyboard player for Echo & The Bunnymen. It turned out that the DJ who was cutting up the soul music was Wills, one of the original Bunnymen, and that the band had been there all night after having played at La Zona Rosa. We talked paint off of walls about music, everything from how amazing Franz Ferdinand is live to the brilliance of Jim Dickinson.

After chasing the raindrops, Ian and Gates gave collective members of E&TB a ride back to their tour bus. I was invited to join them, but fearing I would miss my flight I declined. I was, however, so exhausted that I decided to push my flight back a few hours (I wasn’t due in Los Angeles until later anyways). Gates and I ended up at Star Seeds where, for the first time in my many trips to Austin, it was empty, the service was amazing, and the food was perfect.

I ended off the whole mishigas at Trudy’s the next afternoon with Ian and Beth, wherein we indulged in the truly heart-stopping and wonderful Enchiladas Migas. I am in love with Austin, and I am counting the minutes until I can get back.

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