Living with war in Burbank

When Friday started, I had no plans for the evening. Little did I know I'd end up sitting with just a handful more than a dozen people in a listening room at Reprise records in Burbank, given exclusive access to Neil Young's yet-unreleased album, Living with War. I know! Weird, eh? But, N emailed me during the day about this post, and yada yada yada, we ended up being two of the chosen.

It was a pretty cool experience, I have to say. Just being in the record company office, signing in, surrendering our cell phones, and waiting in the lobby under a giant poster of Madonna (Maverick offices were in this building too...thank you N, for allowing me to be excited about that without making fun of me. At least out loud.) was exciting. (I do have to say, though, that while we were waiting, and for a good few minutes into the album, I was fully expecting to be punked. Seriously, isn't this exactly how people get sucked into being subjects of lame-ass reality shows? But, we made it out of there without having to sign release forms of any kind, so that was good.)

Anyway, the point of this tiny listening party was to encourage some grassroots marketing and good old-fashioned word of mouth. The guy who invited and greeted us there asked us to use our blogs and emails to put the word out about the album and its message. Apparently, the album was made in record time, and will be released online sometime next week. N told me he read that after sitting back and hoping the younger generation of artists would speak out against the war in Iraq (among other things), apparently Mr. Young decided he could wait no more (I'm still holding out for the Mandy Moore protest album. Come on, Mandy!).

It was pretty cool to just sit and listen to an album in its entirety without the distraction of driving or reading or whatever you usually do while listening to music. The fancy screening room didn't hurt, either (though someone really needs to dust the bookshelf that held the sound system. What? I'm easily distracted!). The album rocks, really, and definitely sends a message. Let's just say that Mr. Bush and his Red State Posse will not be happy.

Anyway, plenty about the album can be read online, in particular on the blog that I linked to up there. You can also check out the lyrics on this site. I know that N and I will be downloading/purchasing this album as soon as its available. I think you'll like it too. (Well, maybe not you, but I'm guessing you'll appreciate the message.) Read more about others' experiences at the listening party at the blog linked above as well. (They tend to be more specific about each song's contents.)

Back to our regular programming tomorrow!