Well, kids, Saturday is the big game. Actually they’ve all been big games for a few weeks now but, this is the playoffs.
So, I know you’re all fired up and think the ‘Skins are on a roll but I have one thing to say to you
R is for…
- The Redskins are in the playoffs
- Radiohead kicks ass:
R.I.P. Sean Taylor
Washington Redskins Safety, Father, Son and reformed bad-boy; Sean Taylor died last night from a gunshot wound that he sustained in an apparent home invasion early Monday night.
“This is just such a tragic, horrible, unnecessary death — another example of the incessant violence in this city and this country,” Richard Sharpstein, Taylor’s attorney, said early Tuesday morning.
Taylor, drafted 5th overall in 2004, had made a name for himself as a stopping force with little equal on the field. His off-field legal difficulties appeared to have been put in the past leaving behind a stronger, more mature, player.
He will be missed on the field but, even more so, our thoughts are with his family in this sad time.
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I’m not sure if I should file this under ‘Conspiratorial Artistic Genius’ or ‘Hobbyists In Need Of Hobby’ but, some intrepid Radiohead fans have begun peeling back the perceived layers surrounding the release of In Rainbows and its (supposed) relationship with 1997’s Ok Computer. From Puddlegum:
Radiohead: 01 and 10
Ten years after OK Computer shocked the world, Radiohead released In Rainbows on October 10 (10/10). Though no one was expecting the album to be released until 2008, Radiohead announced In Rainbows just ten days in advance. In Rainbows, which consists of ten letters, has ten tracks, and would be downloadable from a rumored ten servers.
That’s just the tip of the iceberg…
These guys at Puddlegum have been down this road before but, this time, they’ve expanded the theory to suggest that Ok Computer (01) and In Rainbows (10) are not merely distantly connected or companion pieces. They have, in fact, proposed that the two should actually be merged! Continue reading
Neil Young: Dreams of Future’s Past?
Neil Young’s 40th album, Chrome Dreams II, comes out today. Now, even for a serious fan, a new Neil Young album is not generally a landmark event. He’s been steadily releasing albums throughout his career and, in recent years, he’s been working at a young man’s pace churning out seven albums since 2000’s Are You Passionate? This one doubles the standard expectations by positioning itself as a sort of sequel to the famously unreleased and, according to some, utterly nonexistent 1977 album, Chrome Dreams.
Wait. Now even I’m confused. Does that say that this new album is a sequel to an album that possibly never existed? Why, yes it does. To keep the story short, I’ll quote the wikipedia:
Chrome Dreams is the name of a 1977 unreleased album by Neil Young, and also of an acetate from that period which claimed to be of that album.
Jimmy McDonough’s Shakey: Neil Young’s Biography supports the claim that Chrome Dreams is indeed a bootlegged acetate with said title. A document that accompanied the acetate (which Young’s archivist Joel Bernstein has denounced as a fake) gave the impression that Young had officially given Chrome Dreams as the title, inspired by rumors in the press of a new album with the same title. Young is quoted as saying “What Chrome Dreams really was, was a sketch that [David] Briggs drew of a grille and front of a ’55 Chrysler, and if you turned it on its end, it was this beautiful chick…I called it Chrome Dreams.” (McDonough)
Scrapped or imaginary, Chrome Dreams circulates among fans as a well complied masterpiece. Most of the songs resurfaced on later releases in some form or another. Neil’s stirring ode to composer/arranger Jack Nitzsche did not officially resurface until Unplugged in 1993. Other tracks include, “Pocahontas”, “Like A Hurricane”, “Will To Love”, and “Powderfinger.” One of the strengths of the compilation is it’s movement through a variety of sounds and tones while maintaining a connective thead, a theme of moving on in the face of loss, separation, and change.
This is something that Neil Young has cited about the new record:
“It’s an album with a form based on some of my original recordings, with a large variety of songs, rather than one specific type of song. Where Living with War and Everybody’s Rockin’ were albums focused on one subject or style, Chrome Dreams II is more like After the Gold Rush or Freedom, with different types of songs working together to form a feeling.”
Additionally, Neil has reached back into his vault to find a few older songs that suit his message. The record opens with a trio of tunes that each date back to a different segment of Neil’s 1980s output. “Beautiful Bluebird” a graceful opener with crisp dobro lines dates back to the original lineup of the Old Ways album. “Boxcar” goes back to Times Square, an album that was shelved in 1989. “Ordinary People,” the first single from this album, is an eighteen minute sprawling mural of life in the United States recorded back in 1988 with the Bluenotes. For those of you who don’t know your Neil Young backup bands, that means horns. At first listen, I wasn’t feeling the horns but, honestly, they work well.