The 17th Annual Bridge School Benefit Concert

The 17th Annual Bridge School Benefit Concert

The 17th Annual Bridge School Benefit Concert was held on October 25th and 26th, 2003 at the Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, CA.

Performers included Pearl Jam, Wilco, Counting Crows, Willie Nelson, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.

For more, see Bridge School Benefit Concert 2003 setlists and review page.

Elliott Smith 1969 - 2003

Sad news on the passing of Elliott Smith.

I first heard about Elliott's music from Mary Lou Lord singing his praises. I really admired his indie rock and singer-songwriter-artist temperment. After hearing his ’Miss Misery’ in Good Will Hunting during the closing credits, I started keeping an ear out for him. His 1998 Academy Award nomination performance was definitely a surreal experience for him - and the audience.

Last we saw him at the 9:30 Club a few years ago, he gave an intensely memorable performance of Figure 8. I recall the quietness of the club as he spoke between songs. Everyone silently strained to hear him mutter introductions to the next songs. And suddenly he'd be so alive.

Such a loss of an artist who tried so hard to keep it real and true and not selling out.

From Pitchfork:

"Elliott Smith has died at age 34, according to an obituary posted late Tuesday on Sweet Adeline, Smith's official website. Rumors had been circulating on the Internet yesterday afternoon about Smith's apparent suicide; by early evening, the overwhelming traffic from well-wishers and fans was crashing Sweet Adeline's discussion board. A handful of posts indicated that representatives from Smith's label, Dreamworks, were attempting to contact Charlie Ramirez, the webmaster for Sweet Adeline.

Within hours, Ramirez posted the following: 'As you probably realize, I'm pretty devastated about having to say goodbye to Elliott... it's never easy to put into words what someone means to you... Elliott was such a lovely man... I will always have his love, kindness, intelligence, humbleness, creativeness, greatness and so much more in me forever because that's what he was and i'll always love him for being who he was... I'll miss you so much. We will all miss you. See you in heaven, Elliott.'"

From Lisa G on Metafilter:

"I know this sounds corny, but for an indie star of our sarcastic and ironic era, his music was so sincere and heartfelt. Not that he didn't have a sense of humor or bite, but he totally lacked snarkiness. I predict his music will last a long time."

From Table of malContents:

"I don't know if it works this way for everyone, but when I'm depressed myself, putting on sad and depressing music makes me feel better, oddly enough, and I often retreated to Elliott's music when feeling down. It was always very well suited to depression, and, though I never got to see him as I so much wanted to, I've heard more than enough concert patter and read enough interviews to know he was struggling, with life, with fame, with heroin addiction, with loneliness, etc."

From slumberland"You were just a shooting star":

"The loss is impossible to quantify. Elliott had so much talent, so much ability to touch people through his songs, that it makes it all the more painful that he had to go so young, in stereotypical tormented rock star fashion. "

From Content Goes Here: Sounds Great When You're Dead:

"In exiting this way, though, he condemned himself to a worse fate. Mr. Smith has now entered the Pantheon of Sad Artists, enshrined next to Ian Curtis, Kurt Cobain, Nick Drake, Sylvia Plath, Karen Carpenter, and that really talented gal you knew in high school who offed herself. Generations of grimly satisfied depressives will play his music for their friends and say '...and he died young, and so tragically. He was just not made for this world.'
That's crap.

Suicide is a terrible thing for an artist. All sorts of people off themselves or O.D., every day, and it's a grim business. Most of them are ordinary people with extraordinary problems, and anyone with a heart feels bad for them. It's unromantic, inconsiderate, and depressing for everyone concerned. But when you make art and die by your own hand, you turn into a Suicide Artist and your entire body of work becomes raw material for immature angst. Every dysphoric teen in a suburban mall will wear your t-shirt, and every suicide-gesture livejournal will invoke your name in the daily goodbye to a thousand cruel worlds."

From PopMatters by Marc Hogan:

"'Say Yes', from Either/Or, portrays Smith at what, lamentably, was probably his happiest: 'I'm in love with the world / Through the eyes of a girl / Who's still around the morning after.' The narrator's expectations are so low that just maintaining happiness until the next morning are enough to bring him a tiny euphoria, which he expresses with a rhythm and descending chord progression that bring to mind, of all things, 'Our House' by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.

But in contrast with that song's blithe optimism, Smith's joy is only transitory: 'Situations get fucked up / And turned around sooner or later,' he admits. 'Crooked spin, can't come to rest / I'm damaged, bad at best.' The upbeat guitars cloak his grim self-assessment, and the result is a heart-wrenchingly complex listening experience. "

From RobotJohnny.com - Mister Misery:

"With song titles like “Everything Means Nothing to Me” and “Bottle Up and Explode” and lyrics so sad they’d put Morrissey to shame, he was definitely one of my favourite songwriters. Whenever I was having a bad day I could always put in one of his CDs and know that at least I didn’t have it as bad as this guy."

From MTVNews.com, Catherine, 18, Gainesville, FL :

"Elliott was one of the most sensitive artists I have ever listened to and he is also one of the bravest. His lyrics reflect a vulnerability that is universal, a pain that cannot be soothed."

From grabbingsand :

"his voice had an earnestness. it wasn't bombastic, made for love themes perched on the bow of a ship, but sincere and sad, full of rain and grey mornings, loss and only just so much hope. "

Shawn Colvin covers 'Tell Me Why'

"The Singer/ Songwriter Tour" features Mary Chapin Carpenter, Shawn Colvin, Patty Griffin and Dar Williams. In Chicago on 10/13/03 according to
Chicago Sun Times:

"Singer-songwriters let their hair down in a rambling show. With a choice selection of covers, these artists tipped their hats to older songwriters who had influenced them. Carpenter opened the show with a haunting arrangement of Johnny Cash's "I Still Miss Someone," and Colvin sang "Tell Me Why" better than Neil Young ever could. Griffin gave an austere, gripping reading of Bruce Springsteen's "Stolen Car."

"DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS - Decoration Day

Over on Freight Train Boogie a review of DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS new Decoration Day (New West):

"After totally wearing out their Skynyrd-inspired sound of their earlier albums, the Drive-By Truckers have made a giant artistic leap forward without cutting off their proud Alabama 'balls'. They've got a little more Neil Young in 'em this time, incorporating some wryly-intelligent commentaries on contemporary Southern 'working class and trailer trash' lifestyles. Their ragged, sloppy three-guitar rock songs have been toned down some and they mix in some fine mid-tempo songs and ballads. "

For more on the Drive-By Truckers, see Lynyrd Skynyrd and Neil Young page.

Josh Rouse on "1972 "

An interview with Josh Rouse on his new album 1972 from Miles of Music :

"A funny thing happened to Josh Rouse on the way to indie-pop cult status -- he found his soul. There it was, waiting for him in the form of songs inspired by the era of his youth. It was 1972, to be precise, that the Nashville singer-songwriter used as his launching point for an album that goes where none of his three previous efforts had. The year Rouse was born. The year of his main instrument of choice, a Telecaster. The year in which the fabric of popular music and AM radio ranged from Marvin Gaye and Al Green to Neil Young, Steely Dan, and Carole King. "

MoMZine: Was there a particular moment when you decided that 1972 was the proper inspiration for an album?

ROUSE: I had always said, "I'm gonna make a record that sounds like 1972," like Neil Young's After The Gold Rush or something like that. I had the song "1972" written and a couple other ones. So, I got together with producer Brad Jones and started playing him songs, and we were just talking about how we were gonna keep the production really raw, really dry, kinda soulful, kind of a blue-eyed soul thing. That's what I was going for. The early-'70s is my favorite period in music.

MoMZine: What it is about that music that appeals to you?

ROUSE: Just the quality of songs and artists, it was just better, to me. There's been good stuff throughout the '80s and '90s but the sheer amount of talent that was around then, even in commercial music, it was so much more sincere, better. Even the mainstream stuff, if you look at the charts from the '70s, it's just astounding really. You got Neil Young and Carole King, things like that. At that time you could make a record without too much pressure to have a single and it could do well. There were artists that were actually doing career development then, which doesn't seem to go on much these days.

Also, see more on Neil Young's sound and music.

Summer Hymns has Neil Young shadow

Summer Hymns new Present Clemency is reviewed in Americana UK :

This is the record The Thrills would have made if they were American and had real talent, here the songs flow, you can't hear them straining for authenticity because they are authentic. Instead you get that relaxed offhand naturalness that Royal City seem to have, whereby even if it sounds at times like they're making it up as they go along, it doesn't matter because it follows it's own internal logic. Not that it's all seemingly shambolically accidentally wonderful, "Wet Mess" boasts a tight structure a chorus catchier than herpes and a great growling guitar sound like a bear bellowing in the woods. Neil Young as usual casts his shadow over some tracks, "I Erase" one minute of After the Goldrush 21st century style. "

Allison Moorer's "Show" covers 'Don't Cry No Tears'

From Americana UK Reviews - :

"Recorded at Music City's famed 12th & Porter at the start of the year we have material from her previous three studio albums as well as a perfunctory cover of Neil Young's 'Don't Cry No Tears' and a new track 'I'll Break before I Bend' which musically is a stodgy blues rocker with lumpen drumming (which afflicts much of the album) but the lyrics are bitter, bitter, bitter; 'Hell yeah I'd love to make it but I suck at playing games, I'd rather starve than fake it for a little taste of fame, it's wrong to be a doggone pawn singing songs that make you yawn for payments on a long Mercedes Benz, lean on me all you want to, I'll break before I bend'. Hmmm, that's telling them but will it make any difference?"

Clear Channel Loses

According to today's washingtonpost.com Columbia, MD's Merriweather Post Pavilion will get a new promoter:

"The Rouse Co., which owns Merriweather, says it has decided not to renew its contract with Clear Channel Entertainment, the giant San Antonio-based radio broadcaster that owns Nissan Pavilion in Bristow, VA and scores of other concert venues across the country.

Instead, the concert-promotion firm IMP will book and promote shows at Merriweather. IMP's owners, Seth Hurwitz and Rich Heinecke, have been promoting concerts at their own 9:30 club and other Washington area locations for more than two decades.

In recent months, some longtime fans of Merriweather have accused Clear Channel of steering acts away from it and toward the larger and more modern Nissan Pavilion.

'There was a pretty obvious conflict of interest there, and I think the Rouse Company figured that out,' said Hurwitz, who next month will begin planning next year's summer-long season. 'I don't have another amphitheater, so this is going to be the focus of my summer.' "

And speaking of Clear Channel, that recalls after 9-11 when Clear Channel circulated a list of songs deemed "inappropriate" after the terror attacks. Included on the list was John Lennon's song "Imagine". What an absurdity. For more, see John Lennon and Neil Young page on Clear Channel and "Imagine".

Three Indie-Pop Performers Sizzle at the Black Cat, Washington, DC

From (washingtonpost.com): on October 15, 2003:

"The Black Cat put on a three-course feast for indie-pop lovers Monday night, and the offerings from Matt Suggs, John Vanderslice and headliners Beulah added up to a varied and tasty evening.

'How did you get so big? Did you eat too much?' asked Beulah's 'Fooled With the Wrong Guy,' and that song from the San Francisco sextet's brooding new album, 'Yoko,' distilled their onstage approach: whereas the recorded version tiptoes around a relaxed banjo hook, Monday's live incarnation strutted like Neil Young circa 1969. So it went for most of the band's songs, rather roughly dragged from their lush California pop casings and given a proper smacking about, led by Bill Swan's trumpet, Miles Kurosky's grainy vocals and the exuberant thump of drummer Danny Sullivan. Rumors that this would be Beulah's final tour have floated around the band this year, but the unit that rambled through established pop epiphanies 'Emma Blowgun's Last Stand' and 'Gravity's Bringing Us Down' and new gems like 'Hovering' seemed to be having way too much fun to pack it in anytime soon. "

Bottom Line Petition

As mentioned previously on 9/24, it might be the end of the line for the Bottom Line, the famous Greenwich Village club in New York City where numerous musical legends performed including Neil Young, Patti Smith, Bruce Springsteen, The Ramones, and many others.

Help save the Bottom Line by signing the petition at Save The Bottom Line!

Johnny Cash Tribute

From Ananova report that Dylan, Springsteen and Bono in talks about performing at Johnny Cash tribute in Nashville, TN in November.

Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Steve Earle, and Sheryl Crow are already signed on.

Slobberbone Covers "Like A Hurricane"

Over on Postcard, a report that Slobberbone covered Neil Young's "Like A Hurricane" in Denton, TX on 10/10/03.

More on bands covering Neil Young songs.

The Cosmic Rough Riders cover Neil Young

From Americana UK Reviews of a 10/6/03 performance of The Cosmic Rough Riders at The Borderline, UK by Andy Riggs:

"The Cosmic Rough Riders are now a four piece band and were on top form tonight. No pretensions about the music, just good songs sang with great enthusiasm. Playing songs from their two albums plus one cover of Neil Young's 'Country Home' held the audience captive for 90 minutes. All the songs were of the highest order and the playing was superb; highlights were a rousing version 'Revolution in the Summertime' and 'Justify the Rain'. Let's hope that the Cosmic Rough Riders hang in there and don't disappear, under the weight of manufactured music that permeates through the airwaves. "

Ox & Americana

From Americana UK News a band called Ox to check out: "We gave the record a **** review for its fractured, broken beauty and expect the live shows to take you on an outlaw journey to the heart of Americana. Still not convinced!! go to www.oxmusic.ws where you can listen to tracks from the album. "

In an earlier reviews of Ox's Dust Bowl Revival (cinnamonsongs 2003):

(De)constructed from the corpse of country music, of AM radio, cannibalised car parts re-assembled into perfect running order. Speaking of open roads of cars of the wilderness of life and the moments of connection, the fragments that make up a biography. Partly Neil Young, Ill Lit, Jim White, Clem Snide and featuring a member of the great lo-fi country malcontents Royal City, here's another excellent band to come crashing out of Canada. "

Jayhawks cover Buffalo Springfield's "Expecting to Fly"

Over at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire in the UK, on September 17th, Tim Morris reports in
Americana UK Reviews:

"Gary Louris was in good voice and paid homage to The Jayhawks' own influences in the form of a Buffalo Springfield Cover ("Expecting to Fly") and a Neil Young style sonic guitar feedback workout for the final song of the evening 'Sister Cry'. "

Jayhawks for a Rainy Day

Apparently The Jayhawks' Gary Louris has some reservations about the band's future. From Jam!:

"'We've never made a record like this before -- a stripped-down, acoustic, live-sounding record -- which is surprising for a rootsy kind of band,' says singer/songwriter Gary Louris. 'We don't like to do the same thing twice. If we make another record -- and we never know if we will or not -- maybe we'll take a few elements from this and carry on. But we won't make Rainy Day Two.' "

Also, hear
The Jayhawks on NPR's "Live in Studio 4A".

Pearl Jam and Neil Young

Pearl Jam and Neil's collaborations go back a number of years. With PJ's upcoming appearance at The Bridge Concerts (their 5th appearance), Thrasher's Wheat has put together a page chronicling the relationship.

Links to concert and album reviews and other interesting stuff on Pearl Jam and Neil Young.

Uncle Tupelo and Neil Young

Well here's something new I came across the other day:The Covers Project: Neil Young. It has a database of artists and the songs they've covered and artists who've covered them.

It looks like about 22 groups have covered Rockin in the Free world - everyone from Pearl Jam to Slobberbone.

The Beatles have been covered the most at 1200 times and Bo Diddley's "Who do you Love" is the most covered song at 145 times.



Uncle Tupelo have covered at least seven Neil Young songs including:

Cinnamon Girl
Cortez The Killer
Down By The River
Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
Motion Pictures
Mr Soul
Powderfinger

Also, see Uncle Tupelo and Neil Young page.

Lou Reed & Neil Young

Commenting on Greendale, close your eyes had this to say:

"It is very rare that concept albums move me. The last one and probably only one ever was Lou Reed's Magic and Loss where he transformed the pain of losing several friends due to AIDS into great art. "

And more on the connection of Greendale and Lou Reed's work from Google Groups: Thread - "Young's Greendale and Reed's New York":

"In some reviews of Neil Young's Greendale there are comparisons with 1970s symphonic concept albums, but to me it seems more like Lou Reed's New York and Songs for Drella albums. Or even some Zappa stuff, looking at the weird characters.

Greendale made me play New York and Songs for Drella again, for the first time in some years. I gotta say these albums have stand the test of time remarkably well. They sound very good, great guitar playing, terrific songs, and the use of language is very concentrated, each sentence having a purpose (especially on Drella). I have to say I like Neil Young better usually, but these Reed albums are still enormously impressive."

For more on the Greendale CD, see Neil Young's Greendale page.

Ashley Park's "Tell Me Why" Neil Young Cover

This is something to check out - a cover of Neil Young's Tell Me Why by Ashley Park: . The American Scene is a Mercury Rev influenced sound. More:

"Ashley Park
The American Scene
(Darling Music/Kindercore)
US release date: 12 July 2001


by Eamon P. Joyce
PopMatters Music Critic

Funny what happens when you spend too much time reading press about an artist and record and not enough time listening. The 'that wasn't supposed to happen like that' feeling is inevitable; a mild sense of betrayal needs to be overcome before you can even accept the product you hear. Such was my situation with Ashley Park (aka Vancouver native Terry Miles).

I'd read a Billboard clip asserting that Ashley Park was 'classically hewn pop' in the mold of the The Village Green Preservation Society and Abbey Road, as well as several other pieces extolling Miles' British infatuation.

However, upon listening to The American Scene, I heard something much more contemporary as the record seemed more like a natural successor to Mercury Rev's Deserter's Songs (meaning that you, the reader, should probably ignore this review as well unless you wish to face the same difficulty). While I now hear some of the Davies influences other critics have noted, the album still feels distinctly North American. At times it is almost Guided By Voices-ish but much more finished, touched by Neil Young (indeed, his 'Tell Me Why' is a featured cover) and Rev. (You'll have a difficult time convincing me that Miles' 'Rocket on a Highway' has no relation to Mercury Rev's 'Goddess on a Hiway'.) This falls well within the genre of folky, yet poppy Americana to which Mojave 3's Neil Halstead now aspires. "

Uncle Tupelo

Here's a site that has a good over view of Uncle Tupelo, who spawned the whole No Depression sound. Founders Jay Farrar and Jeff tweedy have cited the influence of Neil Young's country-rock sound on the making of No Depression.

Greendale Down Under Australia

Neil Young's Australia 2003 Tour Dates have been announced. This follow the earlier announcement of Japan Tour Dates . Get ready for a real spectacle!

Kurt Cobain and Neil Young

Got an email recently asking about the connection between Kurt Cobain and Neil Young. Young's album Sleeps With Angels was supposedly written as a response to Cobain's death. In his suicide note, Cobain quoted Young's lyrics from Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black) "it's better to burn out than to fade away". Here's a collection of Sleeps With Angels reviews.

Also, so who really is the Godfather of Grunge? See Neil Young Godfather of Grunge.

Pink Floyd and The String Cheese Incident

From The Digital Tavern Tales of the notorious Pink Floyd inflatable pig:

"Well when my friend John forwarded me an article about how the manager of String Cheese Incident purchased the Floyd Pig, I have to admit I was jealous. What if I wanted to buy it? I could fly it behind a plane along the Southern California beaches. Or, I could see if the any of the auto dealers along the 405 (San Diego Freeway) might need something different than inflated balloons, gorillas or banners. "

"Clear Channel is destroying radio"

Another article bashing Clear Channel from AlterNet. Has some good comments about one of my favorite Internet radio stations KPIG.

"Clear Channel is destroying radio. At least, that's the popular mantra these days. Radio consolidation – which shifted into high gear with the Telecommunications Act of 1996 and has been fostered by a pro-big-media majority at the Federal Communications Commission – has resulted in the Wal-Martification of radio. Across the nation, stations are being gobbled up by huge chains like Clear Channel, which then monocrop their playlists. It's the same fifty mindless cookie-cutter songs played in an endless, soul-numbing loop, the same conservative talk shows, even the same deejays doing the same shows for simultaneous broadcast in a half-dozen markets nationwide. Jockeys are losing their jobs as the big chains consolidate and centralize their work forces. There, in the distance, is the faint swan song of independent radio. Abandon all hope, ye who flip thy radio dial. "

Lucinda Williams & Jayhawks @ 9:30 Club - Update

photo by Ben Vee

Ben posted a review and photos on The Jayhawks FanPage Board of the Jayhawks concert last week at the 9:30 Club in Washington, DC.

The Washington Post has a downright goofy review of the show suggesting that Donnie & Marie Osmond influenced alt-country with their blend of country and r-n-r. Really now?! See Michael Little review at washingtonpost.com.