Absent friends....

Like taking your son to a baseball game to see his favorite player and discovering at the game that such player was scratched from the lineup; like a 12 year-old standing in line at a Toys R Us in 1977 for an autograph of Lee Majors (aka Steve Austin, the 6 Million Dollar Man) only to see said Majors discard his pencil and drive into the sunset two boys before it was your turn in line; like gearing up for the season's biggest soccer game and then learning that your top goal scorer was not going to make it because he and his family went away for the weekend on vacation ... such was how my friend Mark and I felt when we were effectively sucker-punched at Monday night's Dogs Die In Hot Cars' gala gig at Schuba's Tavern. Agreeing to make the trip on a late, rainy no less Monday night to the north side in substantial part because Dogs Die's song, "Celebrity Sanctum" is probably the song of the year, we waited ... and waited for these young Brits to play what we came for ... only to see our hopes and dreams crushed like those of homeowners in Fallujah. Shut out. Shut up. They played every song on the album EXCEPT "Celebrity Sanctum." We immediately rushed to confront the female keyboardist concerning such omission as she walked offstage, to which she said, smiling, "Oh, I'm afraid that's my fault. I was the one who wrote tonight's set list and I realized that I had forgotten one song from the album but couldn't remember which one it was. That's the one -- I'm sorry." Sorry? Is this your idea of a joke? Oh man, if it weren't that they played very well, and the singer (with a Big Country Stuart Adamson meets XTC Andy Partridge upper, forced range) is something of a wunderkind, bottle tossing may well have been called for.

On another note, I fondly recall my conversation with AMC's Mark Eitzel on Saturday night, during which he commented that if there is anything good that may come out of Bush's re-election it is that some pretty incredible art will be created across the world. Here here, Mark. It's an interesting point that it is often only when one feels the walls close in around one's deepest hopes and ambitions that the most genuine art, let alone any art may be spawned. Trouble is, if the apocalypse is truly nigh, then who will be around to create it, let alone appreciate it?

Finally ready to start circulating my now three - cd compilation. Anyone interested in a copy, email me or enter a request in the comment section below.

Whorehouse Desert of the Patriot’s Heart
disc one
1 Cirrus Minor … Pink Floyd
2 Goodbye South Goodbye … Readymade
3 Blessed Persistence … Sixteen Horsepower
4 (Ostrich & Chirping) … (Elliott Smith)
5 All the Wine … The National
6 Living in Space … David Kilgour
7 How to Be Dead … Snow Patrol
8 Books Written For Girls … Camera Obscura
9 Post to Wire … Richmond Fontaine
10 (Bird excerpt) … (Dead Can Dance)
11 Patriot’s Heart … American Music Club
12 Abattoir Blues … Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
13 Sense of Purpose (live in the hothouse) … The Sound
14 News at Ten … The Vapors
15 We Can Have It … The Dears
16 Peace in Our Time … The Sun and the Moon
17 Know-How … Kings of Convenience
18 (Ostrich & Chirping) … (Elliott Smith)
19 King’s Crossing … Elliott Smith
20 Goodbye South Goodbye (revisited) … Readymade
21 Roll … Richard Buckner
22 Circus … Tom Waits
(compiled november 2004 by Paul Regelbrugge … brugge19@aol.com)


Whorehouse Desert of the Patriot’s Heart
disc two
1 Winning (2 Meter Sessions acoustic) … Adrian Borland
2 Cantilever … The Church
3 Wishful Thinking … Wilco
4 Take You on a Cruise … Interpol
5 Bochum … Six By Seven
6 Broken … Grant Nicholas / Junkie X.L.
7 Rebellion … The Arcade Fire
8 Everybody Come Down … The Delgados
9 Close My Eyes … The Open
10 Robot … The Futureheads
11 C’mon C’mon … The Von Bondies
12 Fantasies Are Nice … The Rogers Sisters
13 Celebrity Sanctum … Dogs Die in Hot Cars
14 Take Me Out … Franz Ferdinand
15 Gravity … Embrace
16 The World Won’t … In-Flight Safety
17 Empty Road … Matthew Good
18 Twyla … Richmond Fontaine
19 The Seeker … Steve Earle
20 Doesn’t Have to Be This Way … Jay Farrar
(compiled november 2004 by Paul Regelbrugge … brugge19@aol.com)


Whorehouse Desert of the Patriot’s Heart
disc three
1 Motion Sickness … Damien Jurado
2 Sweetness … Lloyd Cole and the Commotions
3 Barely Losing … Richmond Fontaine
4 Down to the River to Pray … Alison Krauss
5 Watching the Wheels (acoustic) … John Lennon
6 How to Fight Loneliness (live) … Jeff Tweedy
7 Present … Doug Gillard
8 Avalanche … Wintersleep
9 The Setup … Mission of Burma
10 Not Even Jail … Interpol
11 Transcendental Suicide … The Soundtrack of our Lives
12 Going Underground (live) … The Jam
13 Decent Days and Nights … The Futureheads
14 Light’s On … Secret Machines
15 New Dark Age (BBC live) … The Sound
16 Home … American Music Club
17 Live and learn … The Cardigans
18 La Robe a Parasol … Sixteen Horsepower
19 Dent County … Jay Farrar
20 War Crime Blues … Chris Whitley
21 You’ll Have Time … William Shatner (compiled november 2004 by Paul Regelbrugge … brugge19@aol.com)