Tag Archives: Neil Young

News Update: Neil Young’s PonoMusic Kickstarter Campaign Rockets Past $2.8 Million

Patti Smith talks up PonoMusic’s sound.

For Neil Young, times are good. Very good.

He’s on a creative roll with amazing live concerts In New York and Canada, a new album, A Letter Home, in the bag, a second memoir, “Special Deluxe,” due out later this year and the money pouring in to fund PonoMusic.

As of about 10 p.m. PT today 8649 people had put $2,812,059 into the company.

Also, Young’s second big archives set is in the works and a source known as “Archives Guy” who claims to be involved in the project told Thrasher’s Wheat:

At this time we are still planning on physical release for NYA V2 and yes it will be available on Pono, too in full 24/192 sound quality. I’m happy to report that we are in full on production of NYA V2 right now. Maybe I’m biased, but I think V2 might be the best one. A plethora of previously unreleased tracks.

-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –

News Update: Neil Young’s PonoMusic Kickstarter Campaign Passes $2.2 Million Mark

Elvis Costello has endorsed the PonoMusic player.

This is pretty wild.

Neil Young’s Kickstarter campaign for his PonoMusic player passes the $2.2 million mark this evening.

To be exact, 6,475 people had contributed $2,112,066 when I wrote this at around 8:30 p.m. PT, but, actually, the take is now up to $2,206,538.

And 6,784 have people have now contributed.

Meanwhile, what’s up with Neil’s upcoming album, A Letter Home?

Young told Billboard it will ‘likely’ be out this spring.

“It’s not ready for prime time yet. It’s not really a release yet, but it’s a very unique record,” Young said. “It’s like a time capsule. It doesn’t sound like anything you’ve heard that was made recently. And some great songs, some beautiful music.”

For more, check out my post on A Letter Home:

Neil Young’s ‘A Letter Home’ Now Set For ‘Likely’ Spring Release

Neil Young’s ‘A Letter Home’ Now Set For ‘Likely’ Spring Release

— A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post —

Neil Young’s ‘A Letter Home’ Now Set For ‘Likely’ Spring Release

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Neil Young’s next album, A Letter Home, has been pushed back to a ‘likely’ spring release, Young told Billboard Originally, back in January, Young told Rolling Stone the album would be out in March.

As I first reported, the album is a collaboration between Young and Jack White. It was recorded at White’s Third Man studio in Nashville, is being released on Third Man Records and features Jack White on two tracks.

“It’s not ready for prime time yet. It’s not really a release yet, but it’s a very unique record,” Young said. “It’s like a time capsule. It doesn’t sound like anything you’ve heard that was made recently. And some great songs, some beautiful music.”

“They’re songs that I love, songs that changed my life, songs that made it so that I understood what someone else was saying to me, songs by greater writers.”

Although Young has not revealed which songs will be on the album, I have speculated that it will include many of the covers Young performed at Farm Aid last year and at his recent acoustic shows in New York and Canada such as Bert Jansch’s “Needle of Death,” Phil Ochs “Changes,” Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind,” Gordon Lightfoot’s “Early Morning Rain,” Ivory Joe Hunter’s “Since I Met You Baby” and Tim Hardin’s “Reason to Believe.”

Young also told Billboard that his forthcoming memoir will be called “Special Deluxe.”

He told Billboard it’s a book that focuses on his love of cars.

“So it’s a history through automobiles, and it’s a history of automobiles and it’s a history of the environmental impact of automobiles. And it’s a projection into the future of automobiles. It has its own agenda that develops over the book.

Young also said he’s working on new music, and would like to do an album with a full orchestra, live, recorded mono with one mic.

“I want to do something like that where we really record what happened, with one point of view and the musicians moved closer and farther away, the way it was done in the past. To me that’s a challenge and it’s a sound that’s unbelievable, and you can’t get it any other way. So I’m into doing that.”

— A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post —

News Update: Neil Young’s PonoMusic Kickstarter Campaign Passes $1.73 Million Mark

Bruce Springsteen endorsing PonoMusic.

Neil Young’s PonoMusic Kickstarter campaign as, in little over 24 hours, raised $1,731,296 in contributions from 5,280 people.

Wow.

Meanwhile some of the media weren’t thrilled by how Young and his CEO handled a question at SXSW yesterday about how much PonoMusic will earn from music sales.

Stereogum ran this headline:

Neil Young’s SXSW Keynote Derailed By Simple Question About Pono

And basically reprinted part of a Billboard story:

As Billboard reports, after Young’s speech, Pono CEO John Hamm (not Don Draper) took the stage for a Q&A with Young and USA Today technology reporter Mike Snider. After answering questions about the PonoPlayer’s triangular shape (they wanted something “iconic”), its file format (FLAC), and whether it can play existing digital music libraries (it can), Young and Hamm waffled awkwardly when the subject of money came up. Per Billboard, it went like this:

Taking the microphone, a young man asked: “What’s your cut?” — referring, of course, to Apple’s now-famous 30% cut of sales on the iTunes Store.

Hamm, after a flustered moment, responded that, “It surprises most people that everyone who buys music from the record labels pays exactly the same amount.” At this, several audience members shouted, “What?!”

“That’s a delicate question, isn’t it?” asked Young.

Shortly thereafter, Hamm turned to the moderator, slightly flushed at this point, and said “We can end it.”

“You can answer the question if you like,” Snider said.

Hamm shook his head slightly before Snider closed the discussion.

It’s only a delicate question if you make it one, Neil. Don’t these guys know radical transparency is all the rage?

-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –

Neil Young’s PonoMusic Kickstarter Campaign Raises Over $900,000 on Day One

Neil Young’s PonoMusic Kickstarter campaign went live today and as of this evening 2,798 people had contributed over $900,000, more than $100,00 over Young’s goal of $800,000.

Way to go Neil!

There’s a promotional video below that includes testimonials from Patti Smith, Tom Petty, Dave Grohl, Emmylou Harris, Jack White, David Crosby, Rick Rubin, Mike, D., Elton John, Bruce Springsteen and many many more.

You can check PonoMusic out and get a PonoMusic player for $300 (the $200 discount players sold out fast) right here.

Or watch the video below:

-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –

More Details of Neil Young’s PonoMusic Revealed; Audiophiles Are Skeptical

A press release announcing details of Neil Young’s audiophile quality PonoMusic system dated March 10, 2014 was posted yesterday at the Computer Audio website. Young plans a major announcement at SXSW this week, where he will be interviewed Tuesday, March 11, at the Austin Convention Center at 5 p.m. local time.

From the press release:

The PonoPlayer has 128GB of memory and can store 1000 to 2000 high-resolution digital-music albums. Memory cards can be used to store and play different playlists and additional collections of music. The PonoPlayer will be sold at PonoMusic.com for $399 MSRP and is available for pre-order at a discount on Kickstarter.com as of March 15th.

And:

“Our goal was to offer the highest quality digital music available from all the major labels with the world’s greatest sounding, user-friendly portable music player. We’ve achieved our goal and we are excited to launch our Kickstarter campaign next week to invite music lovers everywhere to join the PonoMusic community and reserve a PonoPlayer for their own enjoyment,” said John Hamm, CEO of PonoMusic.

Audiophiles who frequent the Computer Audio site were not thrilled.

Superdad posted:

Kickstarter?! Really, after all this wait–and the supposed amount of money and development behind this–they are going with a Kickstarter campaign to gauge interest and fund the project?

Goldsdad:

That’s quite an achievement since 128 GB typically stores fewer than 500 albums in 16/44.1 FLAC. What’s the Pono definition of “high-resolution”?

Vandyman:

The iPod Classic is 160 GB for $249 and it fits in your pocket ’cause it is flat, not angled. Of course, it only does 16/44.1. If you want HD, there are quite a few nice portables now that do it…

Teresa:

Neil Young has been saying that PONO will be 24 bit 192kHz PCM. If that is the case a 30 minute 24/192 FLAC music album is over 1 GB, a 1 hour 24/192 FLAC music album is over 2 GB. So that would be 60 to 120 albums depending on length. If it really holds 1,000 to 2.000 high resolution music albums that is some major compression going on.

More from Superdad:

So little official information has ever been released about Pono. Chris, can you cite anything official about where/when DRM was part of the plan and now where they say that there will not be any DRM. Except for the snippet about allowing syncing to “other high- resolution digital music devices,” I see nothing in the press release you posted that would confirm a DRM-free ecosystem. And if, as Teresa claims, Neil Young has begun saying the format will be 24/192, then there is the issue of compression (to meet the device capacity and realistic download goals), which would perhaps imply a new compression format/container needing support by s/w and h/w.

I am not negative of pessimistic about Pono, and I agree that mainstream exposure (to hi-res formats) will help everyone. Heck, it might even inspire/goad Apple into catching up a bit with higher quality iTunes offerings.

I am just bemused that they are going the crowd funding route with a KS campaign. I assume that it is the Pono player they will be trying to fund. Can’t really crowd fund an entire company/technology initiative, though who knows.

It is also odd that they put out a press release while the Pono Music – high-quality music initiative from Neil Young site is still basically blank. I signed up on it with my e-mail address months ago and have never received a single e-mail. Not even today’s press release.

If us cognoscenti are still confused and in the dark, then I think Mr. Young needs to hire a better publicist. All those appearances on TV talk shows holding up a PON prototype. What a waste of publicity! I can think of a dozen was such huge exposure could have been used to wake the world up to quality sound…

And so on.

-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –

Audio: Neil Young To Reissue ‘Time Fades Away’ On Record Store Day

Neil Young greatly dislikes his 1973 live recording, Time Fades Away.

During a 1987 interview with Dave Ferrin Young said:

My least favorite record is Time Fades Away. I think it’s the worst record I ever made—but as a documentary of what was happening to me, it was a great record. I was onstage and I was playing all these songs that nobody had heard before, recording them, and I didn’t have the right band. It was just an uncomfortable tour. It was supposed to be this big deal—I just had Harvest out, and they booked me into ninety cities. I felt like a product, and I had this band of all-star musicians that couldn’t even look at each other. It was a total joke.

So when Young’s albums started being reissued on CD, there was one that just didn’t get released.

Yep, Time Fades Away.

The album was mostly cut at a number of venues while Young toured the U. S. following the huge success of Harvest.

I saw several of shows during that tour and I thought the music was incredible. And I’ve always liked the album.

Now, finally, it’s being reissued.

The reissue will be remastered from the original analog studio recordings and pressed on 180-gram black vinyl.Problem is, it won’t be available as a stand-alone release. It’s being packaged in the Official Release Series Discs 5-8 Vinyl Box Set, which also includes On the Beach, Tonight’s the Night, and Zuma. Only 3,500 boxes will be released.

A Warner Bros. publicist told Pitchfork that there won’t be a wider reissue of the album until the second volume of the Archives box sets are released—no word on when that will be.

Young toured with the Stray Gators when the album was recorded: Tim Drummond, Johnny Barbata, Jack Nitzsche, and Ben Keith.

Check it out:

“Time Fades Away”:

“Journey Through The Past”:

“Yonder Stands the Sinner”:

“L.A.”:

“Love In Mind”:

“Don’t Be Denied”:

“The Bridge”:

“Last Dance”:

-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news —

Audio: Live Neil Young & Crazy Horse Concert from 1986 Coming to Vinyl for Record Store Day

For Record Store Day this year a live Neil Young and Crazy Horse show, Cow Palace 1986, will be released on vinyl, according to Music Times and exclaim.ca.

Record Store Day takes place April 19 this year.

The November 21, 1986 performance took place at the Cow Palace in Daily City, California, just south of San Francisco.

The show was recorded for radio broadcast by KLOS FM in LA, and has previously been released as a bootleg.

I don’t have a list of the songs being included on the Record Store Day release, but below is the track listing from one of the bootlegs.

Mr Soul (Live)

When You Dance, I Can Really Love (Live)

Down By The River (Live)

Too Lonely (Live)

Heart Of Gold (Live)

After The Goldrush (Live)

Inca Queen (Live)

Drive Back (Live)

Opera Star (Live)

Cortez The Killer (Live)

Sample And Hold (Live)

Computer Age (Live)

Violent Side (Live)

Mideast Vacation (Live)

Long Walk Home (Live)

The Needle And The Damage Done (Live)

When Your Lonely Heart Breaks (Live)

Around The World (Live)

Powderfinger (Live)

Like A Hurricane (Live)

Hey Hey, My My (Live)

Prisoners Of Rock ‘N’ Roll (Live)

Check it out.

Part One:

Part Two:

-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-

Video: Neil Young’s Many Versions of ‘All Along the Watchtower ‘

Neil Young has long been a fan of Bob Dylan. More than a fan. Neil’s whole trip is inspired by Bob Dylan.

Don’t misunderstand. Young has taken that inspiration and created his own art that is unique.

Young has performed a number of Dylan songs over the years, most recently “Blowin’ in the Wind” at Farm Aid last year and during his recent acoustic shows.

Below are a number of totally rockin’ versions of “All Along the Watchtower.”

Dylan’s 30th Anniversary Concert, Oct 16, 1992:


Neil Young – All Along the Watchtower by LeBalayeur

Tanzbrunnen, Köln, Germany, July 19, 1993 w/ Booker T And The MGs:

Neil Young, Torhout Festival, Belgium, 1993:

Neil Young, Willie Nelson and Crazy Horse at Farm Aid concert in New Orleans, Louisiana on September 18, 1994:

Neil Young with Frank “Poncho” Sampedro and Booker T & the MGs in Nürburg, Germany, on May 18, 2002.

Rock in the Ring, Germany with Poncho, Booker T. & The MGs, 2002:

Bruce Springsteen & Neil Young. Minneapolis, 2004:

Neil Young & Pearl Jam from the Vote for Change Tour 2004:

-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-

Audio: Everly Brothers Perform Awesome Cover of Neil Young’s ‘Mr. Soul’

This is too good to miss.

The Everly Brothers cut Neil Young’s “Mr. Soul” in 1968. Jack Nitzche produced!

The recording appears on an album titled, Hard Workin Man: The Jack Nitzsche Story – Vol. 2.

Thanks so much for hipping me to this Thrasher’s Wheat!

-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-