Tag Archives: Neil Finn

New Neil & Liam Finn Video: Where’s My Room

Video: Neil & Liam Finn – “Where’s My Room”

Directed by Sam Kristofski. From Lightsleeper, out now.

When your father is Neil Finn, then odds are when you make music it is going to be different. No, not in reaction to your famous(ish) father, no, not in spite of him, but it is going to be different when you are making music with him.

When your son is Liam Finn, then when you make music with him it is going to be wholly unlike what has now become your day job, which is playing with Fleetwood Mac. (Typically one might write “playing in Fleetwood Mac,” but after the Lindsay Buckingham legal dust-up with the members of that band, it makes one wonder whether Finn and Mike Campbell aren’t, perhaps, employees of Fleetwood Mac, LLC.)

Finn fils et père put out a record this past summer, Lightsleeper, which also happens to include other members of the Finn clan, including Neil’s wife, Sharon, and their other son, Elroy.

And now we have a video for “Where’s My Room,” a strange video with numerous, repeated, tracking shots in a hotel hallway that brings Kubrick to mind and another hallway that seems as though it is manor decorated by a Maori artisan.

As professional musicians, the two Finns have spent more than their share of time in hotel hallways, some less creepy, some less ornate, than those shown in the video (the hallways of which are randomly populated by rather, um, exotic individuals whom you would probably stick a chair under your room’s doorknob for additional security were you to find them in your local Hyatt).

In “Where’s My Room” there is a repetitive pulse for almost exactly the first half, at which point there is a shift that becomes more melodic and we see the family at work. Then for about the last third there is a different but similar throbbing beat.

When your family is perhaps most clearly associated with Crowded House, then odds are you’re going to make something that isn’t.

Neil and Liam Finn: web, twitter (Neil), twitter (Liam), amazon, apple, spotify, wiki.

New Neil and Liam Finn Video: Back to Life

Video: Neil & Liam Finn – “Back To Life”

Directed by Sam Kristofski. From Lightsleeper, out August 24 on Lester Records.

Eros was the Greek god who became Cupid when the Greeks gave way to the Romans. You probably associate one—or both—with the tag “the god of Love,” based primarily on the Valentine’s Day cards that you surreptitiously delivered to your secret someones in elementary school.

However, the real subtitle for Eros is “the god of Desire,” which is something wholly separate from—though it sometimes intersects with—Love, and which probably explains why the winged boy is typically shown—as in the video for Neil and Liam Finn’s “Back to Life”—with a bow and arrow. To borrow the title of a Kip Hanrahan album: Desire Develops an Edge. And the edge of Desire is arrow-sharp.

The video is shot as a pantomime which, coincidentally enough, goes back to the ancient Romans, even though in this execution (like many in this genre) it appears as a variant of a silent movie from the dawn of the motion picture age, when there were no voices, just dialog cards. “The more we sing, the less we have to say,” the duo, well, sing.

“Back to Life” is a retelling of the story of Orpheus and his wife, Eurydice. In the original telling (in which Neil wasn’t on piano and Liam on fake lyre), Eurydice died and went to the Underworld. Orpheus followed her there and by performing for Hades was able to convince the god of the Underworld to allow Eurydice to return to life, to return to the surface. Hades allowed this but made one stipulation: Orpheus was to go first and Eurydice was to follow. “Don’t look back,” Orpheus was told in no uncertain terms.

And we know how that plays out.

Chances are, the sweet harmonizing voices of Finn père et fils are such that they, too, could make the chthonic journey and bring back the light.

Neil and Liam Finn: web, twitter (Neil), twitter (Liam), amazon, apple, spotify, wiki.

Buckingham Out; Ringo Pissed

Fleetwood Mac has apparently given Lindsey Buckingham his walking papers, which is only metaphorically true as Buckingham has reportedly recently sold one of his homes in Brentwood for about $20-million and anyone who has that kind of money doesn’t walk anywhere unless (1) a red carpet is involved or (2) it has something to do with the latest cardio program and it requires a personal trainer.

And realize that while McDonalds’ may have trouble selling Big Macs (which accounts for its recent size-variant offerings of that saucy delicacy), Fleetwood Mac evidentially is sufficiently fungible to get a list of venues as long as your arm for its upcoming tour. Oddly enough, the Big Mac and Fleetwood Mac were both formed in 1967.

It seems that the other members of the band have hired Mike Campbell late of the late Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and Neil Finn of the best band that will unfairly be remembered as a one-hit wonder, Crowded House.

This has to make Buckingham feel fairly good, as it takes two to replace him. (One assumes, however, that if Campbell and Finn were “hired,” they’re going to be getting a salary, not cubic feet of cash, so the rest of the band members will make out very well, thank you.)

But here is when Ringo gets pissed.

For the past too-many years, Ringo has been touring with the All-Starr Band. (Another good reason why he changed his surname, as “All-Starkey Band” sounds like something Stormy Daniels would be in.)

Ringo’s M.O. has been to hire musicians who have had “hits” but are past their prime, such that he can use them to play their hits so as to minimize the need for an entire set to be based on his meagre catalog. People like Gary Brooker (Procol Harum), Simon Kirke (Bad Company), Colin Hay (Men at Work), Graham Gouldman (10cc). Actually, this is the proverbial double-win because Ringo gets talent and they get to play at venues where corndogs aren’t (necessarily) being sold.

But now there’s Fleetwood Mac vying for talent, hiring musicians like Campbell and Finn.

One can only imagine Ringo dropping one digit from his peace sign when talking with Fleetwood and McVie.

Continue reading Buckingham Out; Ringo Pissed

7 Worlds Collide – The Sun Came Out

7 Worlds Collide - The Sun Came Out7 Worlds CollideThe Sun Came Out (Sony)

It should be enough to say that members of Crowded House, Wilco, The Smiths and Radiohead have come together to record an album. Anyone still on the fence should be swayed by the fact that the proceeds go to a charitable organization that fights poverty around the world with real solutions. Of course, that’s not enough.

Neil Finn originally launched this project as a 2001 live album, credited to Neil Finn and Friends. The original project featured Eddie Vedder, Johnny Marr, Ed O’Brien, Tim Finn, Sebastian Steinberg, Phil Selway, Lisa Germano, and Betchadupa (featuring Neil’s son Liam Finn). Eight years later, poverty remains and Finn has again called on some friends to help.

7 Worlds Collide Promo

Stream: 7 Worlds Collide – Learn to Crawl (Neil and Tim Finn)

Continue reading 7 Worlds Collide – The Sun Came Out

7 Worlds Collide 2009 video online

YouTube playlist: Seven Worlds Collide 2009

According to Pitchfork, this documentary aired on TVNZ last month. 7 Worlds Collide is Neil Finn‘s project that raises money for Oxfam and features Radiohead‘s guitarist and drummer Ed O’Brien and Phil Selway, Johnny Marr, and most of Wilco.

Previously:

7 Worlds Collide Promo

Johnny Marr Joins Wilco for Radiohead Cover

7 Worlds Collide: iTunes, Amazon, Insound, wiki, MySpace, Facebook.

7 Worlds Collide Promo

There’s a new promo for Neil Finn’s 7 Worlds Collide project that brought Jeff Tweedy and members of Wilco, Johnny Marr, members of Radiohead, and loads of other great musicians together to benefit OXFAM.

Great clips from the recording of the album, short tour, and off-hours shenanigans. Bask in the glory of Jeff Tweedy in a bathing suit.

7 Worlds Collide Promo

Just Listen

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Generally, we write about music here on GloNo, as many people tend to do. And while one might think that writing about music takes music as its direct subject, the preposition really works more in the context of location. That is, when I write about music, generally speaking it is in the vicinity of the object, rather than about the thing in itself. Writing about music in this sense deals with the context, the surroundings. The reception. The economics. The politics. The performance vis-à-vis something else. The personality.

Writing about music is completely extrinsic. It’s not about the music. Whether it can be—in any but the most superficial sense—remains to be seen. Or written.

Continue reading Just Listen