by Neil Young
Neil Young Peace Trail (PBS Feature Record)
Peace Trail features all new songs that Neil Young wrote since the release of his album EARTH, and recorded within a short time span. The album is primarily acoustic and reflects an intimate, sparse approach that draws the listening into the heart of the songs in a personal way. Each song is rich with Young’s typically inviting lyrical expression of his inimitable impassioned and heartfelt life-long humanitarian concerns which remain as topical and timely as ever.
Peace Trail was recorded at Rick Rubin’s Shangri-la Studios and features Young on vocals and guitar, Jim Keltner on drums, and Paul Bushnell on bass. It was produced by Young and John Hanlon, mixed by John Hanlon. Most recently Young previewed five songs from the album during his performances during the Desert Trip Festival, in Indio, California which both Rolling Stone and Entertainment Weekly summed up as simply “explosive.”
Cosmetic NOTS (Featured on The Breakfast Spread)
Second full-length statement from Memphis' NOTS, Cosmetic fearlessly attacks the rough edges between desire, deceit, appearance and reality. Not chanting down Babylon, Natalie Hoffmann screams straight into its face. In this Game Of Death, Nots run through the maze of mirrors with sledgehammers. Oh, the sound of mirrors smashing. Let's smash some more.
Nots are still a wild guitar band, but above and below the guitar, bass and drum pound, Alexandra Eastburn's analog synth blurps melodies and nonsense, teasing squiggles of freedom which defy the false grid of modern life. Cosmetic? Emetic? "Monotone Lust" indeed. With Hoffmann on guitar & vocals, Eastburn on synth, Charlotte Watson beating drums, and Meredith Lones steering a solid path through the chaos on bass, Nots are neither content with the smug "stare at your shoes" approach of bands from both coasts, nor an Earth-hugging "we need to get back to nature" hippie copout. There might not be any answers here. That might be the point. Nots have arrived at the next level of their attack with a confidence and a music that lays waste to the wasteland without romantic attachment to a thing.
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