Neil Young at the “Rock am Ring” festival in Germany on May 18, 2002. Good quality with very good sound. Enjoy two and a half hours of Mr. Young. And Booker T. and The MGs!

Neil Young—vocals, guitar, harmonica
Frank ‘Poncho’ Sampedro—guitar, backing vocals, piano on “Helpless”
Donald ‘Duck’ Dunn—bass guitar
Booker T. Jones—hammond organ
Steve ‘Smokey’ Potts—drums
Astrid Young—backing vocals, piano on “Quit” and “She’s a Healer”
Pegi Young—backing vocals
Larry Cragg*—additional bass guitar on “Let’s Roll”

 
Part two after the jump…

 
How far would you go for love? Would you give up all your possessions? Renounce this world and all its cruelty? Would you die for love? Would you kill for love?

Kill For Love is the new album by Chromatics, a band from Portland, Orgeon led by the producer Johnny Jewel of Italians Do It Better renown. I’ve written about the Italians Do It Better label before, drawing a comparison between the IDIB roster’s sound, and the lo-fi, tripped-out, “haunted retro” aesthetic of acts like Ariel Pink and John Maus.

The Italians Do It Better sound is rooted very firmly in late 70s and early 80s disco music, particularly the more soundtrack-oriented work of Giorgio Moroder, Claudio Simonetti and Patrick Cowley. As those names would also suggest, Johnny Jewel (who produces practically everything on the label) LOVES the sound of analog synthesizers. Jewel was the original choice to compose the soundtrack to last year’s 80s-noir sleeper hit Drive, and with his trademark throbbing, moody sound, it’s not hard to see why.

Chromatics are one of Italians Do It Better’s flagship acts, and one of its most popular, so expectations for this new album are high (particularly as it was originally due for release in 2010.) Thank god then that it doesn’t disappoint. It goes without saying that there’s nothing radically new here, no re-invention of the wheel, but when a form and function are just so perfect, why would you want to reinvent them?
 

 
Having said that, there is less of a reliance on arpeggiated synth lines on Kill For Love as there has been on past Chromatics releases. Of all the IDIB acts, Chromatics seem most like a “real” band, in that they aren’t afraid to adopt the “traditional” band roles of bassist, guitarist and drummer. In fact, the addition of live electric guitar on a lot of Kill For Love is perhaps one of the most surprising aspects of the album.

Still, that chilly John Carpenter-vibe is present and correct, like a sliver of ice through a beating heart, as are the hauntingly distant female vocals of singer Ruth Radelet. The opening cover of Neil Young’s “Into The Black” is simply stunning, one of the musical highlights of the year so far for me, and as an opener it sets up the rest of the album perfectly. In a recent interview with Pitchfork, Jewel explained the rationale behind that particular cover version:

It was very, very intentional in terms of rock mythology. You can’t underestimate the power of the guitar for an American audience. It’s a really strong symbol—just everything the guitar and Western culture represent—and Chromatics is part of that fantasy. The Neil Young song was recorded in 2009, and I knew I wanted to open the album with it, for multiple reasons. Part of it was a challenge to us as beatmakers or mood-makers, to see if we could actually write songs that could stand up in a pop sense. Because if you cover a song like that, you’re biting off a lot. You can’t touch Neil Young, but I wanted to challenge us to go beyond the loop and think about songs more. 

The rest of that interview is well worth a read.

You can hear (and download) the Chromatics cover of “Into The Black” right here:
 

 
 
Here’s another free download from the album, the single “Kill For Love”:
 

 
And here’s the “Kill For Love” album in full:
 

 
For LOTS more great music, visit Johnny Jewel’s Soundcloud page.

To order Kill For Love, and for more info on Italians Do It Better, visit Viva Italians. 

 
Personally, I think this is punk as fuck. Neil Young and Crazy Horse (Billy Talbot, Ralph Molina and Frank “Poncho” Sampedro) rock the garage with “Oh Susannah”—the first video from the new album Americana —coming June 5th.

The vintage film footage in the video is quite striking and may cause a bit of a stir. There’s a kid smoking in it. YouTube busted one of my videos (“88 Lines About 44 Women”) that had a kid smoking in it…but I’m not Neil Young.
 

 
Neil Young sitting on a sidewalk in Glasgow back in 1976 singing the “Old Laughing Lady” and playing his banjo as people file past him with little clue as to who this longhaired hippie is.

When Dangerous Minds’ contributor Paul Gallagher shared a shorter version of this video last year, he wrote…

[...] Hoots mon! Rare film of Neil Young busking in Glasgow city center, April 1 1976, prior to headlining at the city’s legendary Apollo Theater later that night.

Mr Young performed outside Glasgow’s Central Station, on Gordon Street, where he sang “Old Laughing Lady”. Because of the date - All Fool’s Day - it has been suggested that Mr Young was carrying out his own practical joke for the benefit of those lucky denizens of the Dear Green Place.”

Neil’s gear.
 
Neil Young appearing at last week’s Dive Into Media conference expressed his distaste for MP3’s in no uncertain terms.

Young, the perennial music purist, said that while modern music formats like MP3 are convenient, they sound lousy.

“My goal is to try and rescue the art form that I’ve been practicing for the past 50 years,” Young said. “We live in the digital age and, unfortunately, it’s degrading our music, not improving it.”

It’s not that digital is bad or inferior, it’s that the way it’s being used isn’t doing justice to the art,” Young said. “The MP3 only has 5 percent of the data present in the original recording. … The convenience of the digital age has forced people to choose between quality and convenience, but they shouldn’t have to make that choice.”

Young proposed that fans stage a grassroots movement to demand higher-quality audio. “Occupy audio!” he urged.

Here’s Young talking about digital recording with The Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg and All Things Digital’s Peter Kafka.
 

 
There is lots and lots of great film and video footage of Neil Young throughout his long career, but one of the very best performances is the intimate 30 minute acoustic set he taped in 1971 for the BBC at the height of his powers right before Harvest came out. Part of their In Concert series, the full title was “Neil Young Sings Neil Young.”

The set list includes “Out on the Weekend,” “Old Man,” “Journey Thru the Past,” “Heart of Gold,” “Don’t Let It Bring You Down,” “A Man Needs A Maid,” “Love in Mind,” and “Dance, Dance, Dance.”
 

 
Nearly a half-hour of pro-shot footage from Neil Young’s Bridge School benefit concert including the finale with Arcade Fire, Mumford & Sons, Dave Matthews, Devendra Banhart, Eddie Vedder and Beck.
 

 
Via Exile on Moan Street

 
Scottish folk musician, Bert Jansch, one of the most influential and revered acoustic guitar players in the world, has died from cancer at the age of 67.

Jansch passed away in the early hours of October 5 at a hospice in Hampstead, north London. Though he had been ill for some time, Jansch continued to tour and perform, most recently appearing at Glastonbury earlier this year.

Born in Glasgow in 1943, Jansch was a leading figure in sixties folk music, releasing his first album, the self-titled, Bert Jansch, in 1965, which has been hailed as one of the greatest folk albums ever recorded. Jansch’s influence as a musician has streched across several musical genres and generations, from Paul Simon to Graham Coxon.

The Smiths’ guitarist Johnny Marr has said that “You hear him in Nick Drake, Pete Townshend, Donovan, The Beatles, Jimmy Page and Neil Young.”

While Neil Young called Jansch “As much of a great guitar player as Jimi Hendrix.”

Between 1967 and 1973, Jansch co-founder and guitarist with the legendary folk group Pentangle, playing alongside John Renbourn, Jacqui McShee, Danny Thompson and Terry Cox. Pentangle were known for their innovative mix of folk, rock and jazz, as seen through their seminal albums, The Pentangle, Sweet Child and Basket of Light. Their biggest hit single was “Light Flight”, which was used as the theme to the hit TV series Take Three Girls.

In 2007, Pentangle received a Life-time Achievement Award at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, where producer John Leonard said

“Pentangle were one of the most influential groups of the late 20th century and it would be wrong for the awards not to recognise what an impact they had on the music scene.”

Jansch continued to record, tour (supporting Neil Young in 2010) and producing solo material, which led to a major resurgence in his popularity over the past decade. His most recent album Black Swan was released in 2006, of which All Music said:

For the past ten years Jansch has been undergoing a creative renaissance akin to Bob Dylan’s and people are slowly but surely finding what he has on offer. Black Swan proves that the guitarist and songwriter has a bounty at his disposal. He is writing and recording music that is profound, funny, topical, worldly, and ultimately, necessary.

R.I.P. Bert Jansch 1943-2011
 

Pentangle - “Light Flight”
 

 
Hoots mon! Rare film of Neil Young busking in Glasgow city center, April 1 1976, prior to headlining at the city’s legendary Apollo Theater later that night.

Mr Young performed outside Glasgow’s Central Station, on Gordon Street, where he sang “Old Laughing Lady”. Because of the date - All Fool’s Day - it has been suggested that Mr Young was carrying out his own practical joke for the benefit of those lucky denizens of the Dear Green Place.
 

 
With thanks to Neil McDonald
 

 
This video from Tim Baker and The Kleptones combines music by Neil Young, Pearl Jam, Planets, Ian Dury and Rush with clips from El Topo, Zabriskie Point, Walkabout, Enter The Void and more to create something beautiful, mysterious and evocative—a mystical desert noir.
 

 
Released only on VHS and Laserdisc in 1995, Neil Young’s film Human Highway, filmed in 1978, contains this marvelous footage of Young and Devo having their way with Hey Hey My My. Match made in heaven sez I ! Enjoy this excellent quality clip before the corporate music police take it down.
 

 
With thanks to Brian Turner and Clint Simonson!

 
A intimate solo performance by Neil Young filmed during his ‘Journey Through The Past’ tour. It was broadcast on BBC television in February of 1971.

For some odd reason (of which I’m not aware), this is not available on video or DVD.

Set list:

1. Out On The Weekend
2. Old Man
3. Journey Through The Past
4. Heart Of Gold
5. Don’t Let It Bring You Down
6. A Man Needs A Maid
7. Love In Mind
8. Dance, Dance, Dance
 

 
It’s official. Neil Young has been come a senior citizen as of today. Born November 12, 1945. Young’s been around for 65 years now.

Below, an amazing solo acoustic performance of his classic, “Old Man” on an episode of BBC In Concert, from 1971.
 

 

 
These are just stunning! Stunning! I certainly wouldn’t mind owning one of those fantastic Zappas. From the artist Lisa Brawn:

I have been experimenting with figurative woodcuts for almost twenty years since being introduced to the medium by printmakers at the Alberta College of Art and Design. Recently, I have been wrestling with a new challenge: five truckloads of salvaged century-old rough Douglas fir beams from the restoration of the Alberta Block in Calgary and from the dismantling of grain elevators. This wood is very interesting in its history and also in that it is oddly shaped. Unlike traditional woodcut material such as cherry or walnut, the material is ornery. There are holes and knots and gouges and rusty nails sticking out the sides.

To find suitably rustic and rugged subjects, I have been referencing popular culture personas and archetypes from 1920s silent film cowboys to 1970s tough guys. I have also been through the Glenbow Museum archives for horse rustlers, bootleggers, informants, and loiterers in turn-of-the-century RCMP mug shots for my Quién es más macho series. Cowgirl trick riders and cowboy yodelers in their spectacular ensembles from the 1940s led to my Honky-Tonkin, Honey, Baby series. Inspired by a recent trip to Coney Island, I have been exploring vintage circus culture and am currently working on a series of sideshow portraits including Zip the Pinhead and JoJo the Dog-faced Boy. There is also an ongoing series of iconic gender archetypes, antiheroes and divas, which includes such portraits as Sophia Loren, Maria Callas, Edith Piaf, Jackie Onassis, Steve McQueen, and Clint Eastwood.

Please visit Lisa Brawn’s website to view hundreds of amazing woodcuts.

(via Everlasting Blort)

 
Two of my favorite musical artists, Neil Young and Daniel Lanois, have collaborated on Neil’s new album Le Noise. Daniel discusses the process of making the record.
 

 
Le Noise is being released on September 28. It’s just Neil, some guitars, some amps and a mixing board. I dig it, but I can’t help but wonder what it might have sounded like with Crazy Horse in the mix. Still, pretty powerful. SImple yet epic. Zen metalism.

Here’s a track: