Music: Voluntary Butler Scheme

I realize it's bad karma to drive a regular, internal combustion engine car just for the hell of it. But I have to be honest and say there's nothing like cruising on empty city streets on a Sunday night and listening to the radio. If we have grandkids someday, they'll probably look at me like some kind of war criminal when I tell them I used to just drive around for fun on a foreign-imported tank of disintegrated dinosaur juice. Sorry, kids, in advance.

At any rate, songs like this fresh track from Voluntary Butler Scheme (great name), a one-man Brit band that features gratuitous use of the kazoo (which is, by the way, a great Scrabble word), make it even more fun to drive around during one of those rare hours when L.A. freeways and back streets can be a straight shot.

It's got all that indie quirk I love so much: an irresistible acoustic hook, dry dual-tracked vocals, a simple catchy drumbeat, and a $#$-eating grin of a melody.

Sunday nights have always been good for radio, in my book: I crank up 89.9 KCRW, and Gary Kalamar comes on around 9 p.m. (I used to work the graveyard shift and would be heading into work around this time, usually late: Sorry, boss!)

Now that Jason Bentley has usurped the Music Director post from Nic Harcourt, Nic is also relegated to Sunday nights just before Gary, but he's still churning out the best tunes anywhere, in my book.

He spun this track just before Gary took over last night, as I was rolling out to Burbank to pick up Mom and Dad T.

I love being a Dad, and I love living as green as I can, but sometimes it is just fun to burn a little gas and roll the windows down. I live in Los Angeles, after all.