Hello again,
I'm in a hotel room in Portland, Oregon. Portland is a gem, we love it here. Travelling is something I do enjoy, it's been interesting getting back into it as it's been a few years since we've been on such a long tour of the States.
New York was very cool, our shows were killer. We played two nights at Webster Hall which is a really punky theatre. While we were in town we caught the Noel Gallagher show. His new stuff sounded great and it was amazing to see him do supersonic acoustic - that was fucking epic. Anyone who was there will know what I mean, when lyrics are stripped back in that way they jump right out.
I was hanging around for a bit after and bumped into Andy Rourke. We had met a few times before, it was great to see the dude and he asked me to come down to play on his radio show the next day. Not being funny, but when I moved to Brighton all I listened to was the Smiths so I would have done just bout anything to hang out and play some tunes on the show. I got down there at about 12pm and I was hanging on the ledge over the edge, if you know what I mean. I got down there to find Andy with a vodka tonic, blasting Gilbert O'Sullivan from his studio in the Lower East Side. I enjoyed that very much.
I'm listening to this right now-
Cashier No. 9
Great new band, lovin' it. Amazing harmonica solo.
I'm living like a young American. I was always quite obsessed with America, I don't know why but I wanted to discover the place. My mum went to see a tarot card reader when I was about seven and they told her I was going to be a musician and would live in the States. Self-fulfilling prophecies maybe? It was an experience living in L.A for a few months when we did the album.
Of course there are downsides, I never understand why the American people don't stop these fucking advertisements from taking over everything. It drives me crazy, even if you don't watch television here you get bombarded. Late night binging sessions on infomercials aside. I mean, they are quite hilarious and by the end you kind of have to have whatever it is they're selling. pretty fucking funny when your off you're mash at six in the morning and you're in no state to give your credit card details.
Burgers. Man, I love the burgers here, in and out burger. To quote Julian Casablancas, it's like "a unicorn just came in my mouth." Problem is, it can all go a bit Elvis: you know there's always Dr. Robert on standby... and if he's not available you can always count on Dr. Giveyawatchawant. It's tough, man.
I've been writing quite a bit lately. I usually don't come up with much on tour, it's usually after but it's coming. Here is a tune -
Vitamin Junky
Great to hear Paul, of Beatles fame, challenging the bankers to pay back some of the £500 billion they took from the taxpayer in our country. I watched that Matt Damon film, Inside Job and it really freaked me out, we've got to do something about it. It's a complete joke, these guys get theirs, don't they? There are guys walking out of the banking system with hundreds of millions of pounds when whole nations are in debt. It's insane.
But then, where does all the money come from anyway? I mean, I'm not an accountant and I don't have a particularly astute business brain, but what the fuck?! I dont think even 'they' know. Its just numbers on a computer screen thats all it is. I could do that. Just write down a figure on my laptop and say, "oh there's 100million quid." It's crazy. And Paul McCartney giving some of his half a billion pound fortune back into the system would only be a drop in a very large ocean anyway! Love you Macca.
Let's all re-watch Fight Club, shall we? Let's actually do it. Start from naught. I'm up for it, you?
This is amazing - James Brown/Prince/Jacko:
I'm really not a fan of the new Coldplay stuff, but this is genius. One of his best songs ever, in my opinion. How could they leave this off the album?! It's like Louis Amstrong meets Pink Floyd! I met Chris Martin for the first time in Paris while we were doing Tarratata about two months ago and I mentioned this song. He looked genuinely disappointed that they'd left it off. Bound to be a bootleg classic though:
Moving To Mars -
Hope you enjoyed your stay with me on HuffPost.
Speak soon,
Luke.