Posts Tagged ‘Americana’

Occupy audio: Wall St Journal blog on costs of upcoming release

Neil Young CD: $10. Neil Young LP: $42
Neil Young values a high-fidelity listening experience. He’s betting that his fans do, too.

When “Americana,” the rocker’s first album in nine years featuring his legendary backing band Crazy Horse, comes out June 5, the CD will be sold on Amazon.com for an iTunes-competitive $9.99. The site is offering a vinyl LP for $42.38, or $3.85 per song.

Granted, you get some vinyl bang for your buck. “Americana” will come on two discs of super-heavy, audiophile grade 180-gram vinyl—pressed in Germany, no less. Side 4, instead of featuring music, will come engraved with an etching of a Native American figure riding horseback. Liner notes will offer histories of the album’s 11 folks tunes, like “Oh Susannah” and “This Land Is Your Land,” reworked by Young and his band in their chugging, hard-rocking style.

…full article (* May 30, 2012, 9:00 AM ET):

blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2012/05/30/neil-young-cd-10-neil-young-lp-42/

… “Young summarized his feelings on the need for better sound quality with a rallying cry that might apply to his pricing strategy, too: “Occupy audio!”

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Old Weird Americana: Neil Young’s Strangest Albums

Neil Young is many things: godfather of grunge; massively influential singer-songwriter; inimitable electric guitarist; world-class oddball. For every After the Gold Rush or Ragged Glory there’s an album that makes even his most ardent admirers scratch their heads. A concept work about fuel-efficient cars? Check. Meandering improvised soundtracks? Coupla those. Kraftwerk-inspired new wave? Oh, definitely. On June 5, when Young’s new Americana comes out, you can add lumbering distorto versions of traditional folk songs to the list, too. It’s just the latest unpredictable left turn in a career full of them. So saddle up and steel yourself for the untamed wilderness of Neil Young’s strangest albums.

Why it’s strange: Young’s music has always been rooted in traditional folk. So in true Youngian fashion he paid off-beat tribute by recording gonzo electric rock versions of songs like “Oh Susannah” and “This Is Land Is Your Land,” sometimes sprinkling in his own politically aggrieved lyrics. Abetted by his long-time on-again off-again backing band Crazy Horse and a chorus of angelic singers, the album plays like sing-a-along time at the world’s kookiest lefty summer camp.

For more on some of his albums and why they’re strange, goto SPIN.com.

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“A Day at the Gallery” – new Americana footage on Neil’s page

Go to www.neilyoung.com

Shakey Pictures with Americana footage. Neil as actor. Then onto “Oh Susanna” with Crazy Horse. A man with a banjo and a smoking kid. Then it continues to walk along the Americana album stream…

Credits:

“A Day At The Gallery”
Directed By Bernard Shakey
Original Music by Neil Young and Crazy Horse – from the album “Americana”
Recorded and engineered at Audio Casa Blanca by John Hanlon with John Hausmann and Jeff Pinn
Mixed by John Hanlon at Redwood Digital’s Analog Mixing Room
Additional Music from the motion picture “The General” (1927)
Art by Shepard Fairey

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Americana – stream and videos

here is the current all-in-one, the full pre-stream of the album and also the four official videos:

at Warner Bros.

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Americana – pre-stream (Tom Dooley et al.)

not only Irish do it:

www.irishtimes.com/theticket/neil-young/

some liner notes:

“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. The lyrics reflect the same concerns and are still remarkably meaningful to a society going through economic and cultural upheaval, especially during an election year. They are just as poignant and powerful today as the day they were written.”

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