Album Review: Neil Young & Crazy Horse - F##in’ Up

The names of the songs and the players may change, but the sound of Neil Young & Crazy Horse stays essentially the same.

With guitarist Frank “Poncho” Sampedro out and guitarists/pianists Nils Lofgren and Micha “the Particle Kid” Nelson in, Young, bassist Billy Talbot and drummer Ralph Molina thrash and burn their way through eight old songs with new names and another old song - “Farmer John” - with its old name intact on F##in’ Up, the live album recorded in 2023.

On piano, when they play it, Nelson and Lofgren are deep in the mire, adding subtle textures to the onslaught of such numbers as “City Life (Country Home)” and “Walkin’ in My Place (Road of Tears) [Mansion on the Hill].”

And when they don’t, songs like “Heart of Steel (Fuckin’ Up)” and “Broken Circle (Over and Over)” hit listeners like a category three-guitar hurricane with raggedy background vocals tailing Young in the wind.

Young’s lead voice, with 78 years on it, is reedier than ever these days. But grimy electric guitar and feedback mask the diminished dexterity he’s displayed on recent acoustic recordings and in that regard F##in’ Up demonstrates Crazy Horse isn’t done fuckin’ around in the mud just yet.

Grade card: Neil Young & Crazy Horse - F##in’ Up - B-

5/29/24

2:59 AM EST February 20, 2024:

Particle Kid - "Radio Flyer" From the album Ragged Glories (December 2019)

Last song scrobbled from iTunes at Last.fm

'15 epic jams from Kurt Vile, Dinosaur Jr., Low, Big Thief, Stephen Malkmus, Ty Segall and more!'

2023 Farm Aid

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Margo Price Releases Willie Nelson Cover “Hands On the Wheel” With Particle Kid

https://music.mxdwn.com/2023/05/01/news/margo-price-releases-willie-nelson-cover-hands-on-the-wheel-with-particle-kid/

insane about her

"Leo gave Donnie an apologetic smile before he became blurred too- and dissipated in a blur of orange, red, and purple light just as Donnie's arms were about to reach him"

...pastel you evil mastermind I'm sobbing all over again this is a reference to his brothers I just realized this when I reread that chapter pastel when I catch you pastel-

hehehehehe

wanna know something else?

Leo's been teleporting in his brothers' colors since chapter 2

So, out of curiosity (AND a slight fear of messing with what you've laid out so clearly in Frequency, which I see as the most reasonable and rational explanation to Thad's character inconsistencies basically, ever), I am wondering if this version of Inertia from Flash #760 fits into the Too Many Thads AU anywhere? From what I can tell, he's the only one not mentioned in your very thorough (and impressively detailed, he was at boomerang's funeral, excuse me sir why are you here???) timeline of Thad appearances. Would you consider him one of the clones we get from the AU, like Six? Or maybe just Thad himself given he's sort of just... chilling in the Speedforce lol. Or did you just not consider him given it's yet another instance of Thad appearing, doing something wild, then disappearing as quickly as he came haha. (Also, I just noticed he says vibrational FREQUENCY, nice👏)

i did... kinda include this iteration. but admittedly it's pretty brief, and the bits of story that take place in the speed force sit in dreamy abstraction rather than solid prose

start of chapter 2 when Thad is running thru the speed force:

He thinks he sees the Flash, once or twice. Tick tock tick tock. You’re running out of time, Barry. But he often thinks he sees lots of people. Once, he thought he saw Max. But the memories exist in his mind the same way a daydream would, and he can’t be sure if it was real.

The "tick tock tick tock" line is taken directly from #760

compared to the other threads of canon that Frequency is written around, it's definitely more on the borders of believably. The "tick tock" line and the bit where Thad threatens to snap his fingers and "blast Barry's mind to pieces" harkens back to the Kid Zoom era and Rogues Revenge, which fucks with my attempt to differentiate this Inertia as a separate person from Kid Zoom. but the hiccup feels minor enough that i think it still works

(and on a tangential note the whole "i'll snap my fingers and blast your mind to pieces" line straight up doesn't make sense to me because YES Kid Zoom famously snapped his fingers and exploded a baby, but he accomplished that by fast-forwarding that baby's timeline so quick that its literal molecules shook apart under the stress. Barry is a speedster and would not respond to timeline manipulation in that way - if at all - because his molecules are already used to that kind of shit. it's a weird and out of place threat to make and i think Williamson may have gotten the impression that Kid Zoom acquired the power of spontaneous combustion which he Fucking Did Not ok rant over)

the general idea i was going for was: Thad is running on rage, sees Barry, has the brief confrontation in #760 where Barry mostly just feels bad for him, and then disappears back into the storm. Implication being that Thad has actually had a couple different interactions with people during his 5 years in the speed force (Eobard, Max, Barry, etc) who try to convince him of things or promise him things, but staying for that long in the speed force (without being dead) fucks with perception a little bit, especially perceptions of Time. so when he's out and looking back on it, Thad can't totally discern what happened, what didn't, or in what order.

also the attendance at Captain Boomerang's funeral gets a shout out near the end of chapter 8 when Bart is going through Six's collection of Four's old stuff:

Some of the items on the shelf he didn’t recognize. A shot glass. A funeral pamphlet for one Digger Harkness. Several empty syringes and auto-injectors all meticulously arranged. A variety of small gadgets and devices that Bart couldn’t place.

because the funeral is technically Inertia's return after the events of Mercury Falling, I translated that as Four's first appearance in the 21st century

Michael will probably be taller than Tubbo, it's only fitting that Mae would be taller than you (especially considering the younger ones are always the tallest)

okay to be fair- to- to be fair. a lot of people are taller than tubbo.

Lukas and Micah Nelson Salute Dad Willie with “Bloody Mary Morning”

Wishing their pa a very happy birthday and a “Bloody Mary Morning,” Lukas and Micah Nelson proved music runs in the genes and is shared by association on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”

Backed by Promise of the Real, the brothers and band recreated Willie Nelson’s loose brand of woozy country music to a T - and a J.

Lukas - who inherited his father’s voice box - and Micah (aka Particle Kid), who has one his own, trade verses as they and POTR channel the Family of the 1970s and ’80s with rustic, rock-leaning Outlaw country.

Read Sound Bites’ own salute to Nelson at 90 here.

4/29/23

My dumb ass, circa 2016, to @jeannettegray: Eh, I'm probably never going to own a Sega Saturn. I probably shouldn't get it (being "Castlevania: Symphony of the Night" for the Sega Saturn. Which I then change my mind 30 seconds later because I have a will of paper when it comes to that damn game.)

My dumb ass, circa 2023, to @jeannettegray: So I bought a set of "Lupin the Third" stuff for the Sega Saturn and decided fuck it, I'm getting a Sega Saturn.

For those curious, it's a HST-3220 model within the VA12-14 subset. It's basically the last version they made of this particular console. While it had a dry battery, it was easy enough to replace and get going again.

Also, it came with a bunch of shooting games and this sick gun.

That's the kind of light gun you can't take outside. At least, not without orange taping the shit out of it.

learning how to color with my new screen tablet. turns out people still zoom in digitally and dont put their face up to ~.3 cm from the screen

guys update on that one time yesterday i said id make my friend watch danger force

ive officially hooked them somebody pinch me i am SO happy OGMGMDKSHFMFBSNSBHDDD WAHOOOOO

You know a song is good when just the thought of it makes you feel a little bit hollow