Anyone who has read TIRBD for a while is likely aware of my conflicted relationship with Neil Young's music. I continue to hold out hope that he will shrug off whatever has so dampened his songwriting efforts over the past decade and crank out a disc worthy of inclusion with the best of his back catalog. Instead, it seems he is content to issue disc after disc of decent but uninspired songs (or is unable to do otherwise). Hope is on the horizon, however. His forthcoming disc, Living With War, has all of the hallmarks of a potentially great Young disc. It was inspired by current events (in terms of potential, think "Ohio," not "Let's Roll"), was recorded with a stripped down trio and was cut in a matter of days. The disc will begin streaming on Young's site on Friday, and will hit stores soon after. Young calls it "a metal version of Phil Ochs and Bob Dylan," and coming from anyone else, that would frighten me. From Neil, it's just goofy enough to make sense.

In other news, my review of the Ass Ponys' The Okra Years is up at PopMatters. The disc compiles what the band sees as the best tracks from its two Okra Records discs, Mr. Superlove and Grim. The Ponys were always a favorite, and this disc offers compelling evidence to explain why.

I found myself doing something last night that I thought I would never do: I yawned during a George Saunders reading. I laughed, too; several times, as a matter of fact. But I increasingly find Saunders to be too... Saundersesque.

The author read last night at the University of Iowa, promoting his new book, In Persuasion Nation. Of the 12 pieces in the book, eight previously appeared in the New Yorker, with the rest appearing in Esquire, McSweeney's and Harper's (the title story, it appears, is original to the book). So, I have read and liked, to varying degrees, nearly everything in the book. He read the title story last night, and it was simply odd. Of course, that's like saying a story by anyone else was made up of words - duh. But, as with much of what Saunders has written of late, this seemed odd for the sake of being odd.

It was yet another commentary on our consumerist culture, this time a riff on the commercialization of everything. It started funny, if a bit obvious, turned completely absurd, and then took on this strange, melancholic tone that overwhelmed the funny. I didn't dislike it, but it didn't move me the way earlier stories like "Pastoralia" and "Sea Oak" did. Perhaps Saunders is simply trying too hard to write "George Saunders" stories rather than letting the stories naturally evolve. Or, he's simply so fed up with the world and his political and social views so powerful that the best he can muster is thinly veiled satire where deep, absurdist allegory once reigned.

Saunders also read the short comic bit "Nostalgia" from the April 10 New Yorker. It too felt a bit rote. Again, it was funny, but a formula is starting to peek through. Coming on the heels of the funny but a bit too obvious Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil, it feels as if Saunders is in a bit of a slump. It's an entertaining, wish-my-worst-stuff-was-still-that-good kind of slump, but a slump nonetheless.

My interview with Scott McCaughey from the Minus 5 is up at PopMatters today. I'm showing my age, however, digging back to 1989 for what I think is some interesting historical context. McCaughey was doing press to promote the 5's great new self-titled disc, also known as "the Gun Album" because of the handgun on the cover. I was pleasantly surprised at just how good the disc is until I went back and listened to the group's previous work, which is uniformly excellent. I miss the Young Fresh Fellows (though McCaughey reports that there are rumblings of a return) but the Minus 5 is a more than worthy, um, replacement.

Frank at Chromewaves is reporting that Yo La Tengo will have a new album out in September. Meanwhile, the group has compiled a "Best-of, or Best-of-the-Worst, or Worst-of-the-Best" of its annual appearances on WFMU during the public radio station's fundraising marathons called Yo La Tengo is Murdering the Classics. The 70-minute compilation draws from the band's performances between 1996 and 2003. During each appearance, if someone makes a pledge they can request any cover and the band will attempt it. This year the group tackled "Dead Flowers," "Blister in the Sun" and "Lay Lady Lay" during one set alone.

The group's web page modestly calls the collection "dreadful," and says it won't make song titles available (whether that's on the actual disc itself or just on the site isn't clear).

Yo La Tengo's association with WFMU goes beyond the annual fundraising performance. The trio backed Daniel Johnston in a February 1990 performance -- Johnston was at his parents home in West Virginia and literally phoned-in his part in the three song set -- that became a single release as well as the spark that led filmmaker Jeff Feuerzeig to undertake what became the recently released Johnston documentary "The Devil and Daniel Johnston." WFMU, which has an amazing library of streaming audio and downloads on its site, is now making a stream of that 1990 show available.

In other film news, a documentary about Gram Parsons, "Fallen Angel," will be available this summer from Rhino Home Video. The film by Gandulf Hennig has been airing on BBC for a couple of years, it appears, and includes interviews with family, friends and associates of the late singer, as well as archival footage. Here's hoping its a better tribute to Parsons than the two most recent film projects about him, the better than expected but still pretty lousy 2003 film "Grand Theft Parsons" and the horrible tribute concert "Return to Sin City."

Worried that Robert Pollard's solo career would limit his prolificacy? That's just silly. Proof comes in the form of three new mp3s from three Pollard side projects, all three collaborations. There is "Death of the Party" from the Keene Brothers, his collaboration with power pop hero and FaCE tour guitarist Tommy Keene; "Fairly Blacking Out" from the Takeovers, his collaboration with late-period GBV bassist Chris Slusarenko; and "Hello Forever" from Psycho and the Birds, his latest collaboration with GBV and FaCE producer Todd Tobias.

The Keene Brothers - "Death of the Party"
The Takeovers - "Fairly Blacking Out"
Psycho and the Birds - "Hello Forever"

The first two are much like Pollard's projects with Tobin Sprout in Airport 5 and Superchunk's Mac McCaughn in Go Back Snowball -- the other party provides the music while Pollard cooks up lyrics and melodies. The Keene Brothers track is poppy, as expected, while the Takeovers track is more raw.

The Psycho and the Birds project, according to an interview I did with Pollard, is "stuff that I had recorded that I didn't use for various album projects because I thought either they were too weird or liked the way that they were as they were." Pollard took those tapes, which were essentially demos cut with acoustic guitar, and had Tobias layer things on top to create the finished work. The result is not unlike other Pollard-Tobias collaborations, or rather their song-based, non Circus Devils work.

The discs all are expected in May. The Keene Brothers will be Blues and Boogies Shoes, the Takeovers will be Turn to Red, and the Psycho and the Birds disc will be called All That is Holy. Looks like May is going to be a bank-buster for we the weak-willed Pollard collectors of the world.