It was 10 years ago in a field in Manchester, Tennessee that I saw the best live set I've seen thus far, and it was a night one religious experience against which the rest of Bonnaroo paled. Time lost all meaning as Neil Young and Crazy Horse laid down a super heavy groove that saw them render each song in almost epic terms while retaining a liberating looseness that kept things from getting too heavy and serious. Songs stretched out as the band inhabited every song, jamming out while building to properly dramatic and thoroughly satisfying flourishes of guitar godhood. "Cortez The Killer" seemed like it was 20 minutes long as Neil and Crazy Horse rained riffs down on us, and nobody wanted it to end. It was mind boggling, and simply the best set I've seen thus far (with Radiohead in Toronto, 2008 in 2nd). So yeah, Neil is a special artist who's touched a lot of souls over the span of his legendary career, and tonight The Good Neighborhood, Nietzsche's, and a host of Buffalo bands and special guest Astrid Young will be paying tribute to the man himself while raising money for a good cause. Tonight at 9 in the heart of Allentown, Bearhunter, Ten Cent Howl, The Mustn'ts, Folkfaces, and Tom Maynor will be joined by Neil's sister Astrid for a special night of music honoring one of North America's finest rock (and folk) heroes, with proceeds going to the Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper, an excellent organization dedicated to the protection, preservation, and celebration of the bodies of fresh water central to our way of life in Western New York. It's going to a night of non stop music (with no repeats) honoring a tireless artist and force for good and the community of souls he's affected over the decades. See you there.
There's enough evidence, circumstantial though it is, to
suggest my uncle committed suicide. I was ten, I think, or nine or eleven. I
opened the front door on a Sunday – I’d spent the weekend at Darien Lake,
determined to ride every roller coaster until my ears bled – and found my mom,
hysterical, saying into the telephone something like, "don’t they know
what happened?" My sisters, both much younger, were crying.
I tried to get my footing – I'd only come home and all I
knew was that something in my corner of the world had broken, a pulley
somewhere in the rigging had snapped and crashed on our heads, and there we
were, wading through a wreckage we couldn’t yet measure.
Mom hung up and said her brother wasn't breathing, that he
had a tube down his throat, and that's all they knew. Grandma and grandpa would
call when the doctor had more.
Then she hugged me and hugged my sisters and maybe told us
she loved us, or maybe she didn't say anything. We were all crying. Then the
phone rang.
***
I inherited two pairs of tube socks, a copy of Behind Beavis and Butt-Head: Are They “Really
Cool” or Are They Really Jerks?, which a house fire would later claim, and
a brown, faux-leather case. In it are 26 Neil Young cassettes: three are mine,
added later, and four are mix tapes that would have been mine at some point
anyway.
My uncle would record these mixes: the best Neil Young, or
the weirdest, or a whole album, and mail them to me. And I’d listen to them
until the ribbons were worn through to the clear and empty plastic.
I even kept the broken tapes.
***
It's strange that, out of the blue, I'd find myself reading
Kurt Cobain's suicide note.
Strange because I can't stand Nirvana. I don't care what you
think about that. I’ve heard it all before, so don’t bother. Ask Haggus
– I'm a real asshole about what I don't like.
But I knew, in the back of my mind, that Cobain’s note
alluded to a line from “My My, Hey Hey,” a Neil Young tune that, with “Hey Hey,
My My” (go figure), bookends the album Rust
Never Sleeps. “It’s better to burn out,” he says, “than to fade away.”
I’d been reading this note, and rattling around in my head
was a recent conversation with a friend who’d revealed he was thinking about
suicide. I didn't know what to say to him then. I don't know now. But it hit me
somewhere deep. It all came together, Cobain’s note, my friend, and Neil Young crunching
through the speakers, and it hit – scutch! – like a shovel against the tip of a
huge, ancient boulder buried in a field someplace, dropped there by a glacier
during the last ice age.
On top of all this, my wife and I had just had a son. The
thought of Cobain killing himself – or dying, anyway – before his daughter
reached her second birthday, was too much.
A hungry yowl brought me out of my funk. I wiped my eyes,
snapped to, and warmed a bottle.
And I sat there, feeding this young, helpless thing; I
looked at him and thought, “Once you're gone, you can never come back.” His
cheek is the softest thing I've ever known.
***
As my uncle was fond of telling me, Neil Young is the
Godfather of Grunge. Godfather, too, of everything that came after. The stratum
of crust and filth he lays down on “Hey Hey” launched J. Mascis, Dinosaur, Jr.,
his Fog, and a thousand other guitarists, both great and terrible.
A teenager opened that brown case one day and pulled out a
band called the Pixies, tripping through Winterlong on a tribute album. The
Pixies blew my mind wide open then, and I haven’t been able to find the pieces
to put them back together. I've since stopped looking.
Neil can jam, Neil can rock, he can croak bizarre new wave
tunes from a glorified cancer kazoo (see the infamous Trans), and it’s all been part of my brain and my guts since I knew
music could be more than Christmas carols and nursery rhymes.
Right now our son’s favorite tune is “Twinkle, Twinkle
Little Star.” But I wonder how long before “After the Gold Rush” works its way
into his tiny heart.
I sat down tonight to write about punk rock. This is a
story, I suppose, of Johnny Rotten, never far behind.
2012 was a great year for old dudes. Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, and Neil Young all released very good albums that reminded us how much they are still contributing to the modern music scene. But while Springsteen's Wrecking Ball, and Dylan's Tempest were both strong efforts that ranked among my favorites in 2012, Young may have had the most overall impressive year.
Let's take a look at what this dude managed to pull of in 2012. He released two excellent records with Crazy Horse, who he hadn't worked with in over a decade. He also released Waging Heavy Peace, a highly entertaining memoir that doesn't have too many juicy, tabloid-worthy details, but gives us a great glimpse at who Young is as a person, and was deeply satisfying for his die-hard fans. Most 67-year-old with the money that Young has would likely be content to just lie on the patio, and maybe play a little golf. Instead, Young is making some of the most ambitious work of his career.
Just look at his most impressive accomplishment of 2012, the engrossing double album Psychedelic Pill, a gloriously weird album that reminds us that Young is still experimenting with new things, and steadfastly refuses to make generic Neil Young-type albums. Instead, he's pushing every boundary that he can find. the album features a 27-minute opener in "Driftin Back," and a 16-minute long blast of heavy guitar in "Ramada Inn." What's amazing is that neither of these songs feel like they bite off more than they can chew, and the long running time breezes right by. Young manages to stretch music to its very limit, without it feeling redundant.
There are plenty of musicians who make great albums well into their 60s, but how many make stuff as groundbreaking as this. I loved Wrecking Ball, and if we're going purely on enjoy-ability it might even be a stronger record than Psychedelic Pill, but at heart, it's a Bruce Springsteen. It features the same music styles, and lyrical tendencies that have been featured in Springsteen's work for years. While I applaud Springsteen for still making entertaining relevant work, the album is completely in his wheelhouse, and doesn't really break any new ground. Young should be applauded for taking his music to new places when he doesn't really have to anymore. Most of his fans would be happy with a clone of Harvest every few years, but he wants to do more than that. Indeed, he might be the most ambitious person in music today, with the possible exception of Kanye West.
At one point in Waging Heavy Peace, Young states that he is very afraid of death, and can barely imagine the thought of it. He doesn't see his time on earth as being anywhere close to over, and he still wants to do great things, both musically, and with his environmental. He's what we need in music more than ever: a guy who never sleeps, and who always to do something we've never seen before. For his continually great music, and his unrelenting ambition, I salute him.
The latest in The Good Neighborhood’s bimonthly Tributaries series supporting Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper offers an unusual twist – the second annual Neil Young tribute concert at Nietzsche’s (248 Allen St, doors @9/show@10, $8) will feature not only five local acts performing all Young songs all night with no repeats, but the return to Buffalo and The Good Hood of Neil’s sister, Astrid, who has performed on five of her brother’s albums and will sing with multiple local acts as well as perform a set of her own takes on Neil’s tunes.
In bringing back one of the biggest nights at Nietzsche’s in 2011, the second annual Young tribute will again take up two stages – beginning on the back stage and alternating with front room performances are the male/female vocals of Americana quintet Flatbed; an acoustic set from Tom Maynor & Friends; Astrid Young’s own acoustic set and her addition to the folk-rockin’ heavenly harmonies of Ten Cent Howl; groove-folk quartet the Bad Growlers; An Astrid-infused rust-rockin’ finale from a beefed-up version of Bearhunter and a last minute addition featuring Folkfaces.
To recap:
Who: Bad Growlers, Bearhunter, Flatbed, Folk Faces, Ten Cent Howl, Tom Maynor, and special guest Astrid Young What: 2nd annual Neil Young tribute, part of Tributaries series supporting Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper When: Friday, December 7th, doors@9/showtime 10pm Where: Nietzsche’s, 248 Allen St, Buffalo ($8 cover) Why: Supporting Riverkeeper’s work to promote and protect our waterways How: Portion of door proceeds and special raffle donated to Riverkeeper
There’s a tendency to romanticize the artists who make a few great albums, or even just one perfect release, and then disappear. They never have a chance to release a bad album, and leave behind approachable and easily digestible discographies. So what do we make of Neil Young’s cluttered career? Young’s been steadily releasing albums in his many different incarnations since the 60’s, which allows for many classics and a handful of missteps. Psychedelic Pill, recorded with Crazy Horse and his first album containing original material this year, is a heavy slab of furious guitar rock. He may be a dinosaur, but he’s not a boring one.
Seeping through the grungy amplifier worship of Psychedelic Pill is cynicism. Young avoids the complacency that infiltrates new material by his peers Dylan and McCartney and replaces it with anger. First song “Driftin’ Back” is an almost half-hour trek through guitar snarl and barely connected missives. There’s a thread between the murderous narrator of On The Beach’s “Revolution Blues” and the one on “Driftin’ Back.” Instead of “famous stars” this enemy is an unnamed “big tech giant” filtering his music into bite-less computer files and Picasso’s art into “wallpaper.” Young is content to lay his complaints and passions bare, instead of hiding behind metaphor. It’s that lack of tact that gives his lyrics weight, trading in cleverness for blunt thoughts and desires. The best tracks on Psychedelic Pill are when Crazy Horse are given time to stretch out. “Ramada Inn,” clocking in at little over fifteen-minutes, is the heart of the album. It’s Young’s softest vocal take which revolves and turns on a repeated lyric, “She loves him so/she does what she has to.” As he frequently does on the album, when his vocals drop out in favor of sludgy guitar, Young lets his guitar mirror his just past singing lines. If “Driftin’ Back” contains the righteous vengefulness of “Revolution Blues,” then “Ramada Inn” is Pill's “Cortez The Killer.” It’s searching and wondrous, yet morbid beneath it’s soaring grungy exterior. The other monster track, the appropriately titled “Walk Like A Giant,” is a eulogy for an idealistic baby-boomer generation. Crazy Horse is at it’s most stormy, stomping around a mindless whistling that gets doomier as the song moves along. Young sounds strained as he sings, “think about how close we came." There are misses on Psychedelic Pill, like the title track’s Guitar Center flanger or the old man honky-tonk of “Twisted Pill” which has the unfortunate chorus of “if I ever get home/let the good times roll.” But on an hour and half(!) hour album, these mistakes get buried quickly in favor of greater and better-executed ideas. That Young is still making sonically adventurous albums at his age is amazing enough, that he avoids the pitfalls of preaching to an already converted fan base keeps his releases interesting. Grade: B
I expected the show to be good, I expected to be entertained... In the end, I was thoroughly impressed and, quite honestly, blown away.
Several months ago, my sister had asked me if I wanted to go see City and Colour in Toronto. I agreed to go to the show despite knowing nothing of the band besides the fact that Dallas Green (the man who started/is City and Colour) is one of my sister's favorite musicians... that was enough for me.
I casually listened through CC's material and was drawn in by the stripped down, raw sound of a man with an acoustic guitar. I was a little apprehensive about how the show would go over, however. The show was being held at the Molson Amphitheatre, the same place I had seen rock artists such as Robert Plant and Iron Maiden. I thought to myself, "how is a solo acoustic show going to work at a huge venue like that?"
Well, I'll tell you how.
Dallas was accompanied by several extremely talented musicians for most of the set. Sure there were the obligatory lone-man-with-an-acoustic songs, which were performed with oodles of heart and soul, but where the concert really shined (for me) was when the band accompanied many of the songs.
3 and 4 minute album tracks turned into 6+ minute jams featuring twangy guitar licks, dirty organs, and pedal steel bliss, all kept in harmony by a steady rhythm section of bass and drums. It was incredible how much the band filled out the songs and gave the material a differnt feel. I got a pronounced My Morning Jacket vibe from a few songs, which I greatly enjoyed.
I still don't know many songs by name (full setlist can be found here) , but I certainly recognized all the ones that I have come to know over the past few weeks and was especially taken by the renditions of "Sleeping Sickness" and "Comin' Home."
It was clear that many in the crowd had much more tacit knowledge of the material than I did, as Dallas was joined by the thousands in attendance in singing many of the songs... The only song I knew more than the chorus to was his show ending cover of Neil Young's "Like a Hurricane." I found it entirely appropriate for Dallas to cover Neil Young, the original acoustic troubadour of Canada, in his home city. I can see a lot of Neil's influence in CC's catalog.
The entire show was recorded and I am sincerely hoping for a live album and or DVD/Blu-Ray release thanks to the impeccable performance, choice of songs, and full-band-interpretations.
All in all, I'm elated that I was able to attend the sold out performance and I am kicking myself for missing the recent performance of City and Colour at Niagara Falls' Rapids Theater; it would have been excellent to see Dallas perform in a smaller venue... oh well, I'll be there next time.
Friday marks the first day of meteorological summer (the solstice is June 20). School is out (or almost out). Memorial Day festivities have been had. It’s been in the 70s and 80s all week. The living is particularly easy. If you’ve ever spent a summer in Buffalo you know full well that this city doesn’t mess around when it comes to great weather. If there’s a sunny day, we’re taking full advantage by either cooking out or going for a bike ride. And that’s the attitude I’ve taken with this list of June releases to be psyched about. Each one of these albums has the potential to be that perfect summer day, equipped with headphones and ice cream cone. So lather on that SPF 45 and turn these beats up loud.
10. The Welcome Wagon - Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices
Imagine you’re walking through Brooklyn and you stumble upon a quaint little church tucked away in Williamsburg, the doors are open, and there’s a faint acoustic lull of folk hymnals being sung. Now imagine you’re brave enough to leave all the sunday school baggage you’ve acquired over the years at the door, and you walk in to see the thirty-something-year-old Reverend Vito Aiuto playing guitar, his wife Monique harmonizing, Sufjan Stevens on banjo, and a small chamber singing and hand-clapping along to these lovely songs. Now imagine they go from playing a Puritan hymn like “I Know That My Redeemer Lives” to a cover of “High” by The Cure. Still with me? No? That’s because The Welcome Wagon take the boring old church songs of your youth (along with some others) and make them surprisingly fun to listen to. I know it’s hard to believe, but even if you have no faith in the God they sing about, it’s hard to doubt their ability to render a catchy folk tune. Still skeptical? Read more about the record here. It’s called Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices and it’s due out June 12 via Sufjan’s label, Asthmatic Kitty.
9. Peaking Lights - Lucifer
In keeping with the theme of husband and wife duos and Biblical imagery, Peaking Lights are next on the list with their new album, Lucifer, which is to be released on june 18 via Weird World. While you wont find this couple singing child-like folk tunes, you will experience them rocking a style of lo-fi dub-pop that pleasantly bleeds out through narcoleptic speakers. A good example is their first single off the record called “Lo Hi”, which features spattered drum processions blanketed with the soft cooing vocals and unitelligable baby talk. Trippy.
8. Neil Young and Crazy Horse - Americana
Together for the first time since 1996’s Broken Arrow, Neil Young and Crazy Horse will release a concoction of old and new folk songs, fittingly entitled Americana, on June 5. The record will feature covers of traditional folk tunes like, “Oh Susannah” and “This Land Is Your Land”. In what sounds like a seemingly unnecessary explanation for the album, Neil Young likes to set the record strait saying, "What ties these songs together is the fact that while they may represent an America that may no longer exist, the emotions and scenarios behind these songs still resonate with what’s going on in the country today with equal, if not greater impact nearly 200 years later.”
7. Liars - WIXIW
Liars will release their sixth LP WIXIW (apparently pronounced “wish you”) on June 5 via Mute. Coming off their strom-cloud shrouded 2010 release Sisterworld, the New York art-rockers you’ve come to know and love haven’t changed much sonically. Have a listen to the first single "No 1. Against The Rush" below.
6. Dntel - Aimlessness
Dntel is the nonsensical self-given sobriquet of electronic artist Jimmy Taberello, better known as the other half of The Postal Service, although he has released more titles under the former moniker (7 LPs, 2 EPs). On his newest project Aimlessness, Taberello has gotten some help from fellow electro-maniacs Baths and Nite Jewel. The first cut from the record, “Still”, features spoken word vocals fused with pulsating vocal samples, which all meld together with a foot-stomping metronome and soft cymbal crashes. Aimlessness is out June 5 via Pampa.
5. Pop Etc. - Pop Etc
Formerly known as The Morning Benders, POP ETC know how to write a great indie pop record. Having toured with the likes of Broken Bells and Grizzly Bear, the Berkeley trio had found a way to combine their influences to produce a sort of hazed-out, retro Cali-pop album. Their new self-titled endeavor may look to go in another direction with the lead single, “Live It Up”, sounding more R&B influenced with a thick hip hop beat layout and auto-tuned lead vocals galore. It seems that The Morning Benders have dropped their all-too obvious name for a more ambiguous alias, but all pseudonyms aside, these beats sound pretty dope and are due out June 12. Check out the video for “Live It Up” below.
4. Hot Chip - In Our Heads
Electro-pop darlings, Hot Chip, were due for an album. Although it’s only been 2 short years since the acclaimed One Life Stand, 2012 has been waiting for that awesomely dance-tastic album to hit, and Hot Chip’s latest In Our Heads has potential to be that summer doozy we've been waiting for. With groovy tracks like “Night and Day” blowing bubbles of whismsical bass and keys there’s a high chance that this album could be a party time success. The record is out June 12.
3. DIIV - Oshin
I recently saw the video for the new DIIV track, “How Long Have You Known?” and I thought it was pretty brilliant. It’s basically some dude throwing all these different elements of civilization (a light bulb, a compass, a piece of a clock, a crucifix, lava lamp) into a blender, mixing it, and stuffing it into a capsule at the end to take as a metaphoric dose of sorts. Yes, the symbolism is a bit heavy-handed. Yes, it’s sort of like a “Will It Blend?” video. Yes, it’s an awesome song. Formally known as Dive, the side project of Beach Fossils' Zachary Cole Smith will release Oshin on June 26 via Captured Tracks.
2. Japandroids - Celebration Rock
Vancouver rockers Japandroids are back with their second studio album after releasing the teen-pop favorite Post-Nothingin 2009. The group follows the same guidelines that made Post-Nothing so popular, with tracks like “Fire’s Highway” and “The House That Heaven Built” wrought in glorious summer-guilded, road-tripping, keg-tipping fashion with just a tinge of maturity in the songwriting department, which only makes this record that much better than its predecessor. The album is officially out June 5 via Polyvinyl.
1. Tallest Man On Earth - There’s No Leaving Now
Swedish folkie Kristian Matsson’s style of songwriting has left a lasting impression on me. As a Dylan devotee, it’s tempting to make comparisons, especially with The Tallest Man On Earth’s signature grunt and astute fingerpicking, but there is something still so much more innovative and interpretive about Matsson’s ability to lead even the staunchest of urbanites to the Scandinavian field and stream, that it would be an act in futility to place him prematurely beside the folk legend who has not stopped making music since 1962. Instead we need to evaluate tracks like “Troubles Will Be Gone” and “A Lion’s Heart” from 2010’s The Wild Hunt and realize that they both transcend and instill everything about folk music in the way that they take particular images and span them across an ethereal landscape. The music is sonically organic as the ideas are alive and kicking and The Tallest Man on Earth does this by sifting his ideas through a barbaric yawp-colored filter. But there’s no doubt that there would be no Tallest Man without Bob Dylan, and there would be no Dylan without Woody Guthrie, and so on and so forth; so goes the family tree of musical influence. “1904” off his latest There’s No Leaving Now is entirely prepossessing and entrancing. The record comes out June 12 via Dead Oceans. And even though you can't hear all of the music just yet, you can still check out a complete track listing accompanied with lyrics to every song here.
If you've been paying attention to our posts over the past week, then you are well aware we are fans of Charles Bradley. His performance at the Town Ballroom on Saturday was excellent and already in the running for concert of the year. At the show, Bradley performed his version of Neil Young's "Heart of Gold" and it was great. Listen to the studio version below.
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