This Note’s For Neil

Warning: Neil Young Fan Entry Dead Ahead!

Spent all morning listening to the stream of Neil Young’s Living With War. What a motherfucker of an album. This is classic Neil. Imagine the joyously roaring guitars on Ragged Glory, add the grungy lyricism of Zuma, Sleeps With Angels, Mirror Ball and Greendale, throw in some lusciously direct lyrics, and you’ll get the idea. The whole album could well be the soundtrack to an imaginary protest march on the White House. Album of the year, as far as I’m concerned.

Update: downloadable mp3’s available here, until the album hits the shops.

This Note’s For You

Neil Young is set to release a new album called Living With War. The songs are — surprise! — anti-Bush / anti-war, and will be available as streaming audio on his site next Friday. There’s even a weblog:

This is about exchanging ideas… it’s about getting a message out. It’s about empowering people by giving them a voice. I know not everyone believes what I say is what they think. But like I said before.. ya know.. red and blue is not black and white.

Go Neil! But did you really need to get a myspace page?

Zappathon ’06 Post Scriptum

For those of you who missed out on last Sunday’s wusb.fm’s ’06 Zappathon, a stream of the entire show is available here. Alternatively, you can sign up for the snailmail vine over at the Uncle Beat Forum. Oh, and by popular request, the pledge soundbite Dr Sharl and I made for the show can be heard right over here.

Dark Side Of The Wizard

I had never heard about this but apparently, several years ago a rumor began to circulate about a strange connection between Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon (1973) and the MGM classic The Wizard of Oz (1939). Synchronize the film and the album, a number of coincidental events occur.

“The Great Gig in the Sky” begins as the tornado approaches Dorothy’s farm, builds as the storm worsens, and slows when Dorothy is knocked unconscious; “Brain Damage” plays as the Scarecrow sings “If I Only Had a Brain”; and the album concludes with the sound of a heartbeat as Dorothy puts her hand on the Tin Woodsman’s chest.

Want to see for yourself? YouTube has the entire synchronized version. (via)