Dirty Windshields: The Best and Worst of the Smugglers Tour Diaries

Buckle up for a wild, rock ’n’ roll ride that can veer sharply from hilarious to poignant to introspective. Lawrence (The Lonely End of the Rink), singer of the Canadian indie band the Smugglers, which gained popularity in the 1990s, renders his story lovingly and peppers his tale with vivid writing (he describes “orangutan bouncers” and characterizes a border guard a “milk bag of a man”). Comparisons such as “FUBAR-meets-Little-Miss-Sunshine,” and “a cross between Billy Idol and Moose from the Archie comics” reward those up on their pop culture and music history. As much as it is a diary of life on the road, Lawrence’s book is also the story of the rise and fall of a band, and readers are along on the journey, sharing in the band’s victories and suffering their disappointments over a decade. Readers should be prepared for puking, spitting, and urinating, and, of course, sex and drugs, but also for a great road trip. (Sept.)