Leica M9, Summilux 50mm

Mr. Boyd — loved those early novels (and have a soft spot in our heart for the Daniel Day Lewis performance in the movie version of Stars and Bars), but it’s time to open your ears!

(Click on the picture, and maybe you can identify what countries the change comes from.)

Oh, and by the way, his tour diary from the recent Japanese shows he did of Galaxie 500 material was published in the Paris Review.

Here’s a sample:

From the stage tonight I notice three different people crying as I sing “Blue Thunder,” which is a song about the power-steering action in my old 1975 Dodge Dart and doesn’t quite seem worth crying about, though admittedly it is also a song about being alone behind the wheel, and I wail about driving “so far away,” so maybe that’s what did it.

I recently played this song in São Paulo and young Brazilians sang and smiled and danced; it’s odd that the same song evokes smiles in São Paulo and tears in Tokyo. Of course there can be joy and sadness in a song at the same moment, and when you have been waiting five or ten or twenty years to hear a song live, it can hit you with surprising force.

Read the whole thing.  It’s fun, and as we know from Black Postcards, the man can write.

Leica M9, 50mm Noctilux shot wide open, looking up from the floor as the winter sun set.

* For more artwork by Andrew Bennett go here.

These aren’t throwaways, the chafe left over when the real records are done.  This sounds like as coherent a single record as their last ‘un, the magnificent Carried To Dust.  Yes, artisanal music flows from the sandy regions, not just Brooklyn.  And given their absence these last three years, we’ve been missing them a lot.  In fact, other than the Black Keys, Calexico is the only American band that seems complete with just two permanent members.  The strange thing about Selections From Road Atlas is that these specialty lagniappes for the long-converted make as powerful a testament for Calexico’s greatness as any single album they’ve ever done.  If you’ve crawled across the desert of American pop music and are thirsty for pure refreshment, those hombres from Tucson have come through once more.  They promise a new album sometime later this year.  Until then, 13 year’s worth of specialty confections from the Saguaro badlands will tide us over.

Here’s how he describes it in the eBay pitch: “Outlandishly colorful vintage ‘Mens’ Stuff’ sports jacket from Lily Pulitzer of Palm Beach, approx size 40, worn by Peter Zaremba of The Fleshtones in the video ‘I Was A Teenage Zombie’ and on the cover of Love Delegation ‘Delegation Time’ LP. Golden buttons -well not gold really but very shiny. Get it just in time for ‘cruise season’. In very good condition. Dry Clean Only!”

He drily notes: Returns not accepted.

Move quickly before the schmatte collectors at the Rock’n’ Roll Hall Of Fame get in on the action.  Your own little piece o’ rock’n'roll history — poifect for fun summer parties drinking Rubies while doing The Gentleman’s Twist — is here:

http://www.ebay.com/sch/eggetravel/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=&_trksid=p3686