Adam: Neil Young's politics are, if anything, attention worthy in that he's humble enough to re-evaluate his stances as he's presented with new information. That seems like a pretty obvious description of the way we learn, but in a divisive culture of loud mouth ideologues it's rare to see in a public figure. As the veteran rocker's moved from record to record you can hear his views and opinions changing with time and circumstance. Now we've arrived at Living With War -- and the good Mr. Young is pissed. It's fascinating to read knee-jerk reactions to the work from firmly biased places like FOX News. In John Gibson's indictment of the latest wave of anti-Bush protest music, he thumps his chest and fumbles to reclaim the language of patriotism from the administration's opponents: "When I think of the war, I think of Flight 93. I wonder if Neil Young and Pink are going to go see that. I wonder if they would accept free tickets from me." He makes claims like this ignorant of the fact that Young penned a song a few years back called "Let's Roll," a song of heroism and defiance inspired by Flight 93 passenger Todd Beamer. Watching the views of a person who can synthesize new facts and reason through his art butting up against the media's unyielding apologists is quite a study in mismatched perspectives.
Young recorded Living With War in three days, calling the work "a metal version of Phil Ochs and Bob Dylan." He muses over the label "metal folk protest," but it would fit right in with much of his grungy Crazy Horse work from the early punk era. The record features Young on guitar, Rick Rosas on bass and Chad Cromwell on drums, accompanied at times by Tommy Brea on trumpet and backed by a hundred-piece vocal choir. News of the record, recorded in secret, broke last week and things have moved so quickly that Reprise has yet to even figure out a concrete release date. I know that protest music of this slant is nothing new to us in the punk sphere, but there's something quite different about it when comes from someone with ability to reach millions; someone the mainstream media has to react to, and can't simply ignore like the Anti-Flags and Propagandhis of the world.
Stream Living With War from neilyoung.com Aubin: On June 6th, the Methadones will be releasing 21st Century Power Pop Riot on Red Scare, which has the pop-punk band setting their sights on a collection of power pop classics from the likes of Cheap Trick, Gary Glitter, Joe Jackson and Elvis Costello. The three-chord punk rock sound of the Methadones meshes beautifully with these sugary hits and really highlights some lesser known but decidedly great slabs of power pop.
If you're not familiar with the band, it includes Dan Schafer (Danny Vapid) of Screeching Weasel/The Riverdales, Mike Byrne of the Vindictives and plays decidedly snot-free Ramones-influenced punk rock. Their last album, Not Economically Viable is a great testament to the great songwriting that can still be accomplished with a few simple chords.
You can check out "Full Moon" on their myspace page.
