Neon Musical Insight

The terribly missed Ryan Adams may be happily married and may have announced his retirement a little over a half a year ago, but luckily, his suggested plan isn’t sticking — the latter, that is. Thanks to Rawkblog, details regarding the current projects that Mr. Adams is currently engulfed in have been made perfectly clear.

First up, is a double LP of unreleased work with the Cardinals entitled III/IV, followed by a solo release that features material dating all the way back to 2005 — just slightly past his Love is hell sessions.

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Ryan Adams has never been the unambitious type. Just last year, Adams declared that he was retiring from music to focus more on his writing career (coincidentally, he got hitched to Mandy Moore around the same time as well.) Well, we all knew that wouldn’t last too long (the retirement at least.)

At the end of last year, Adams begin to cryptically release 7″’s on his website PAX.AM, which were limited in release and sold out pretty quickly — At the same time, the songs were actually pretty good (!)

Yet late on Friday, Adams revealed a new song that no one could exactly say they were quite ready for. Adams has always been a pretty vocal/avid fan of Metal — which has been brought to life a few times with his mock band Werewolph — but “Orion,” a new song by Adams, is about as serious as Adams could get.

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The end of 2009 marks the end of another decade, this time, the first of the 21st century. Many fortunate and not so fortunate things occurred. We lost two of the largest towers in the world, and for some of us, family members and friends who remain irreplaceable. We as Americans had to be individually resilient, especially with a barbaric nitwit representing our country. Our economy dropped to a disastrous level, and we are still digging our ways out of the metaphorical hole.

With the bad came the good though, and in 2008, we made a CHANGE that hopefully was for the better by electing our first African-American president ever. In an effort to avoid a full-on political rant, the discussion of music’s metamorphosis is a fluid and easy transition.

The closing of thousands of music retailers over the decade was single-handedly the most heartbreaking effect of the internet for many music lovers. Artists, at first, put up worthy cries of rebellion, before eventually joining in on the support of peer-to-peer services, realizing that overall, the more ears exposed =’s higher tour revenue.

It was easy to miss the assistance of a knowledgeable sales associate and the warmth felt when being surrounded by like-minded people — yet free leaked copies months ahead of time before their official release date were hard to deny. Still, vinyl made a worthy comeback, and even managed to outsell the CD format in 2008 and 2009, with sales continuously rising. For music lovers, this proved our authenticity and support. In the age of the internet, the fan became just as important as the musician.

Trends in music took unprecedented turns this past decade as well, beginning with Garage Rock-Revival bands. New York was once again the coolest place in the world for a musician to be. Art rock was making a strong comeback in the indie world, re-intellecualizing what was considered cool. The folk-rock realm stepped up as well, creating some of the most inspiring, lush, and downright bizzarre music, with a genre being penned as “Freak Folk”.

I can safely say that music remained inventive and curious throughout the decade. Sure genericness was inescapable for many, but at the core of it, creativity persevered. Sometimes, it’s hard to not feel like there cant be a more exciting time to be a music fan than right at this very moment…

Neon Musical Insight presents to you it’s “10 Finest Albums of the Past 10 Years”

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Rather upsetting news broke a few hours ago that Ryan Adams & The Cardinals bassist Chris Feinstein was found dead in his Manhattan home early this morning. Feinstein became apart of the band back in 2006 in replace of former bassist Catherine Popper. Feinstein helped record on Easy Tiger, Follow the Lights and The Cardinals’ 2008 release, Cardinology and also went by the nickname of “Space Wolf”, which was given to him by Adams himself.

No information has been provided at the moment in relation to the exact cause of his death. Buddy and Cardinals guitarist Neal Casal has posted random photos of Feinstein on his blog which can be seen here. Ryan Adams has yet to comment. R.I.P. Chris Feinstein

Ryan Adams continues to prove why he is one of, if not the most consistent, talented songwriter’s of our generation with his latest release, Cardinology.  Cardinology is Ryan Adams third full-length album to feature his backing band, The Cardinals.  Although Cardinology isn’t exactly better then 2005’s double disc delight Cold Roses, or the more personal Jacksonville City Nights, the album is his and the bands most mature work to date.  Cardinology is Ryan Adams tenth full-length album, which is an accomplishment alone for the not so old thirty three year old.

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