We here at Thrasher's Wheat have gone off the grid, on the beach and out beyond where the pavement turns to sand.
Just so our regular readers know, we will be offline for the next couple of weeks. Nothing to be conCERNed about.
It's been awhile since we took an extended break here at Thrasher's Wheat. As humbled as we might be by running what is now the 2nd* longest continuously running website dedicated to a single topic on the Internet, it is our long relationship with our soulmate thrashette and the unconditional love that matters the most.
So as we consciously co-create awareness of our separate realities, we'll see everyone on the other side of the Quantum Big Shift.
So we'll be back later on here in September with an update, and we will
continue to bring you wonderful folks out there only the wheat of Neil
Young news. No chaff.
peace & love,
thrasher and thrashette
Enjoy your (much deserved) break!
ReplyDeleteScotsman.
Have a great time and don’t think about this site while you two are gone. We can fend for ourselves and we’ll still be here when you guys get back.
ReplyDeletePeace 🙏
@Thrasher : Enjoy! Agreed, much deserved! Have a great time!
ReplyDelete@ Flyingscotzman : Agreed! And thanks for the great writing.
@ Dan : What Dan said!
Enjoy! Your Brother Alan in Seattle
From the dirtroads of the Cretan mountains and the beaches of the Libyan Sea: enjoy your well deserved holidays, in turbulent times they are more needed than ever.
ReplyDeleteDionysos Souvlaki Archeologides
It's always great to step away from the tyranny of the instantaneous internet and reconnect with the tides and the seasons.
ReplyDeleteCome back refreshed and ready for the September harvest.
Tony Hambone in the UK
My usual perceptive self, I thought this was a new post about the album. Enjoy time away from any technology.
ReplyDeleteListening to Barn now after the dust has settled reveals a classic NY album. It’s funny that way with NY albums. People complain about Neil Young albums, sometimes like Geffen, but hopefully later give it a fresh listen. The album mostly gives me peace and a pleasant soundtrack. I think the masterpiece of the album is Human Race. Molten fury, reckless abandon, frustration has reached the boiling point with Climate Inaction. I am blown away by that track, his heaviest ever. Cocaine Eyes competes but subject matter helps put this newer song at the top of the heap of contenders. I Got I’d had Eddie singing, so no.
ReplyDeleteYour Brother Alan in Seattle
Alan, Human Race is a great song.
ReplyDeleteAll of you!!! Check out "A History of Music in 500 songs, episode 152: For What It's Worth
Incredible podcast, I don't listen to those things so I read the transcript, it is amazing. The details are vivid. I cannot recommend highly enough, elimination of BS surrounding the Springfield and then the intricate detail about who was around influencing who?
Hambone, Richie, etc..., you guys will eat this up
ReplyDeleteAbner
ReplyDeleteOh you've hit a goldmine here. I listened to the podcast (all 1hr 50 mins) and was amazed to hear a British accent taking me through a detailed BS history. The tone of delivery is more a lecture than a chatty podcast with rather dry asides (I like this and is cultural appropriate for me), the detail extraordinary and the music excerpts, especially the more obscure tracks, fill in the detail. The format describes the events leading up to the significant song in the title, so we get the whole back story of BS and more on the LA scene at the time.
I also had a listen to episode 105 - Green Onions - Booker T & the MGS, which covered the founding of Stax which was also excellent.
If you remember the old Pete Frame rock family tree books, this is like an audio version with loads of details of session players, links between bands as well as the songs themselves.
Last Saturday I finally got to see Kurt Vile & the Violators on their UK tour and they were superb, playing a good selection of his newer albums and a few unfamiliar older cuts. Kurt's no grunge rock god like Neil, but has his own slightly hazying style of playing that just matches his lyrics. He's touring Eastern USA in October and I'd recommend you trying him out if he's playing near you.
Neil content: Did anyone else see the mention in a letters column a few weeks back of a possible live album from the "Toast" era 2001 European Tour in Vol 4? It had a title too which I can't remember. That would certainly complete the Toast set.
The tour was at the height of the Rust list CD concert trees and checking through the collection I realise I have 5 concerts and a 3-CD "best of tour" compilation from then and fine recordings they are too, but an official release would give everyone the chance to hear clear live Toast.
Tony Hambone in the UK
and just to add the 500 songs maestro is one Andrew Hickey who has been doing this podcast since 2018 and apparently works on 3 or 4 episodes at a time, which just boggles the mind.
ReplyDeleteHambone
Hambone-
ReplyDeleteI was hoping you would validate my enthusiasm. It seemed excellent to me and for all the reasons you mentioned.
@ Ritchie :
ReplyDeleteWas it Neil on NYA saying that? I think maybe so. Maybe Poncho.
Your Bro Alan in Seattle
@ Hambone : I remember reading the live Toast in letters as well. So you’re not crazy😂
ReplyDeletePeace 🙏
I long for "eastern USA." I do like the midwest, but jesus the weather. Maybe Kurt will make it to the City of Big Shoulders?
ReplyDelete@Abner, are Indianapolis or Kalamazoo close enough? - on the tour list at the end of Oct. Forgive my ignorance of US geography.
ReplyDelete@Dan - phew that's a relief
Hambone
Live Toast will be called ‘A LONG TIME NOW’ per LttE of 8-10-22, and may appear on Vol. 4! “I’ve Been Waiting For You” is my favorite track off Noise & Flowers, and I’d be thrilled to have a proper Crazy Horse version. Recently heard the Bowie cover of it too, which absolutely rocks.
ReplyDeleteHambone, unfortunately those locations are a long way. The "midwest" is huge, we live in the very middle of the plains. Indianapolis is a full days drive southeast of here and Kalamazoo is probably ten hours northeast. Des Moines, where we live, is a few hours south of Minnesota. To my knowledge, Neil has only played here once in our thirty three years here, rock the vote in Ames Iowa- oh and Farm Aid, also in Ames. My wife and sons saw Neil at Rock the Vote, he was a surprise guest. I skipped the show thinking it was Dave Matthews (not my favorite). I saw Greendale in Quad Cities- Rock Island, Illinois.
ReplyDeleteAbner,
ReplyDeleteHow about the Admiral Theatre in Omaha which Uncle Google says is 2 hrs away? 20th October.
Hambone
Uncle Google is always right! I am going to get tickets! Thanks Hambone, I was too lazy to look it up myself!
ReplyDeleteAbner,
ReplyDeleteHope you enjoy Kurt. Happy to be an intercontinental gig guide.
Also to extend transatlantic relations further I finally got to read Barn Burning this week, but we can leave that for another day.
Neil content: there's a new message from Neil on the home page announcing that NYA now has enough subscribers to be self financing. This has been mentioned as an aim at a couple of the patron calls and it's good to see this has been achieved in these difficult economic time.
Hambone
Hey Hey.
ReplyDeleteWe're back home safely. Thrashette and thrasher are refreshed and getting ready for our Farm Aid pilgrimage down to the Carolinas.
Will have an update soon.
@Abner - your intercontinental gig guide is happy you're planning to go. Hope you like Kurt as much as I did.
ReplyDeleteAnd to further extend transatlantic understanding I read Barn Burning earlier this week, though we can leave this for another time.
@Thrasher - Welcome Back.
Neil content: There's a new message from Neil on the Contrarian home page to say that NYA now has enough subscribers to be self financing. Good to see this is possible in challenging times and it bodes well for the future.
@Abner - hope you enjoy Kurt as much as I did. Happy to be an intercontinental gig guide.
ReplyDeleteand to further transatlantic relations I also finally sat down and read Barn Burning, but that's for another time.
@Thrashers - welcome back both.
Neil content: there's a new note from Neil saying that NYA has now got enough subscribers to be self-financing. Some feat given the ongoing financial difficulties for so many and a good sign for the future of the site.
Hambone
Welcome back your two. So glad you had a great holiday.
ReplyDeletePeace 🙏