Brian
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Post by Brian on Nov 11, 2012 1:08:11 GMT -8
The official video of "Twisted Road" from "Psychedelic Pill," the new album by Neil Young with Crazy Horse:
When Ian Hunter and the Rant Band released their first new album in three years last September, I thought I would spend most of my time listening to their CD. It not only captured my pre-election mood -- relentlessly forward leaning and challenging -- it's just freaking wonderful. Instead, I've been caught up in Chuck Prophet's recollections of his hey daze in San Francisco -- and Neil Young's reunion with Crazy Horse, trying to spark another future for themselves while reveling in the past.
The "Americana" album that came out in June, comprised entirely of folk traditionals and Cub Scout songs, was the first step into the time machine. When Neil and Crazy Horse appeared here last month, six of the 13 songs they played were from their yet to be released "Psychedelic Pill." Thanks to the fine Hollywood Bowl sound, I heard every lyric, guitar lick and downbeat, and it was clear that Neil was deep in retrospection while somehow avoiding being retro in the company of Poncho, Ralph and Billy.
So for now, I'll join him. Let's return to those glorious days of yesteryear, listening to gems from "Zuma" like "Cortez the Killer," a seven-minute song with a three-minute intro that still feels timeless 37 years later. Then I'll sit back and crack open my copy of Neil's autobiography, another journey through the past.
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Post by Sharon W on Nov 11, 2012 9:13:45 GMT -8
I have to finish the novel I'm reading before I start "Waging Heavy Peace".
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Brian
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Post by Brian on Dec 10, 2012 0:13:46 GMT -8
If you love Neil Young as I do, you'll appreciate the man even more after reading his autobiography and wallowing in his latest album with Crazy Horse. Following his lead, the best way to address both works in as few words as possible is by keeping things personal. As a peace activist, I expected more from Neil about his role in the movement. But the book's title comes from a question he answered about whether Pono, the high-resolution music service he's trying to launch, is declaring war on iTunes, Apple's low-res music monopoly. No, he said, he's waging heavy peace. He shrugs off his "Living With War" album -- one of the few musical protests of the Bush years -- which meant so much to me back then. In the DVD version, Neil is shown talking to the band between takes early in 2006 and speculating about Barack Obama being elected president, something nobody else considered at the time. I wanted Neil to explain such astounding prescience, but as the book implies, it may just have been something he said because he was stoned and therefore forgot about it. Neil says he wrote "Waging Heavy Peace" because he needed something to do when he gave up smoking dope. Throughout the book, he wonders if he'll be able to write another song without weed. "Psychedelic Pill" was released before the book, so we already knew. The album ranks among his best of this century, with many thrilling moments and few of the sour notes strewn throughout his prolific output of the past 30 years. In the book, Neil acknowledges that he did his best work in the mid-1970's, when he completed two more albums that have yet to be released. Unlike his contemporaries Bob Dylan and Ian Hunter, he may never soar to those artistic heights again. With Crazy Horse, Neil Young can still reach for the sky.
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Brian
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Post by Brian on Jan 13, 2013 3:10:32 GMT -8
"Every Part of Me" is my favorite song on Steve Earle's wonderful new record, his first album of new material in four years. This You Tube clip from "The Late Show with David Letterman" on April 29, 2011 is for Anni: I've been a fan since he debuted with "Guitar Town" in 1986, but somehow I had never seen Steve Earle perform. Twice after my favorite album, "The Revolution Starts Now," came out in 2004, I had to skip his concerts to see artists higher up on the actuarial table, like Ian Hunter and Ray Davies, playing on the same nights during his way too infrequent visits to the Left Coast. My first Steve Earle concert was this Saturday night at the best place for live music in Southern California, Royce Hall at UCLA -- and it was Steve's first acoustic show with his wife Allison Moorer. Before the show, the guy manning the merchandise table said that Allison had a cold, and she had just flown into L.A. You couldn't see the effects of either onstage. That's Allison on keyboards in the Letterman show clip above. They played two songs from an album set for release on April 2 with a new band. Steve said he hoped his new song about burning down the Walmart would "piss some people off." And Anni and I hope to see them back here playing at another government owned and acoustically superb venue this year.
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Brian
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Post by Brian on Mar 9, 2013 23:09:11 GMT -8
David Bowie's video for "The Stars (Are Out Tonight)" has more than three million views on You Tube in its first week. All of the reviews I've read of his new album -- "The Next Day" -- are off the charts with accolades. I'm not as wild about this song or his first video in January when he came out of a ten-year retirement, "Where Are We Now?" The CD will be released next Tuesday, March 12.
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Brian
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Post by Brian on Mar 26, 2013 23:00:21 GMT -8
We'll have to wait a couple weeks longer than Steve Earle told us onstage last January for the release of his new album, "The Low Highway," now out on April 16. He played two of the new songs at Royce Hall. Meanwhile, I've found some excellent clips online, including a broadcast quality performance of "Burnin' It Down." I chose instead to embed the official video of "Invisible," which moves me more every time I listen:
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Brian
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Post by Brian on Apr 14, 2013 0:37:50 GMT -8
First of all, I'm still not sure what David Bowie is telling us in 2013 by recycling the front and back covers of his "'Heroes'" album. 1977 was his third most productive and brilliant year -- right after 1971 and, damn, 1972 -- but only because of the albums he did with Iggy Pop, "The Idiot" and "Lust for Life." In comparison, his own LP's that year, "Low" and "'Heroes,'" were cold and uneven. Why look back? Bowie worked best with two other people -- Mick Ronson from "The Man Who Sold the World" all the way through "Pin Ups," and Iggy Pop whenever they wrote songs and recorded together in the 1970's and '80's. For his first album after a ten year retirement, he called upon Tony Visconti, who has produced Bowie albums on and off since 1969 including "'Heroes,'" and inspired bass player Gail Ann Dorsey, who contributed to his last creative peak after the turn of the century. Perhaps I'll feel the glow that others report as I listen to this new record more. After all, it took me a year to get "Station to Station." Already, I'm warmed by many instrumental passages, especially by Earl Slick's guitar. For complete songs, "Love Is Lost" and "You Feel So Lonely You Could Die" stand out. Since I started writing this gibberish, it has become the next day. Looking to the past, I'm compelled to put on Mick Ronson's solo album from 1974, "Play Don't Worry," instead to find that old white light/white heat glittering. Looking to the future, I wonder what would spark if Bowie and Iggy ever collaborated again.
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Roberta
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Vigil founding member
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Post by Roberta on Apr 30, 2013 16:31:13 GMT -8
Old music by new people?
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Post by Jeanne on Apr 30, 2013 19:48:42 GMT -8
Wow, she sounds like the real deal. Is she really a junior already? Did I blink?
Thanks for sharing, Roberta.
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