Music

My brand-new CD, “The Invention Of Everything Else,” will be released on Authentic Records on June 18th. The ten track collection (my first LP since 2005’s “Heartland”) is a full-band, mostly-acoustic release, featuring guitarist Chris Abad, bassist Tony Maceli and drummer Ryan Vaughn, plus The Nadas’ guitarist Ross VanderWerf, guest vocalists Jamie Leonhart, Stephanie Walsmith,…

The first time I visited Los Angeles, my friend Matt Kinney drove me up high above the Hollywood to Griffith Observatory. There, I sat in on a bench eating an In-N-Out burger as Matt gave me the lay of the land. “There’s Downtown. That’s Century City. Santa Monica is over there…” I remember feeling awed…

“That chemical smell,” the security guard said, “Is our archives burning.” We assembled in the lobby, then began down the hill. Not surprisingly, Lankershim Boulevard was strewn with orange cones and Los Angeles’ finest. Most of the Universal Studios gates were barricaded. After a short detour (and a few wrong turns) we made to Gate…

I woke to the sound of a helicopter swooping what sounded like mere feet overhead. Moving towards the window of my hotel room, a column of black smoke billowed where the mountains used to be, then flattened like an anvil just a few hundred feet overhead. The air was cast a gauzy, grayish-orange. Four helicopters…

I’m sitting next to Charlize Theron in the fifth row of The Gibson Amphitheater when the string section walks in. Coldplay, a little matchy-match in their quasi-revolutionary, epilette-laden outfits, tear into the hook: four synthy chords and a house-inspired beat. Behind them, naked, desaturated Romanesque soldiers storm an ancient gate. The stage, once cast is…

Ok, so here’s my super-glamorous life on location at the 2008 MTV Movie Awards, part two. It’s 10:27. R.E.M. — my favorite band of, like, all time — is performing exactly 2.4 miles away at The Hollywood Bowl. For a minute, I considered jogging over there (Driving in L.A.? Not so fun.). And then I…