Weekly Neil: Ambulance Blues, With Jeff Rosenstock

A chat about On The Beach, Neil Young's horniness, and Jeff's excellent new album HELLMODE

This is Weekly Neil, a newsletter about Neil Young. This week, I couldn’t be more thrilled to share a conversation with Jeff Rosenstock, Long Island punk icon currently living in Los Angeles and making some of the best, loudest, and most potent music anywhere. Yesterday (August 31), he surprise-dropped his great new album, HELLMODE, a day early, meaning it’s available to listen (and purchase) right now. Jeff is a huge Neil fan, as he showcased on two EPs of all Neil covers that he recorded with his pal (and likewise very talented artist) Laura Stevenson. As such, he had a lot to say — and we happen to share “Ambulance Blues” as our favorite Neil song.

Jeff Rosenstock’s HELLMODE is so good and comes after such other good records of his that perhaps one day someone will run a Weekly Jeff newsletter. Maybe someone already does. What makes Jeff such a lovable artist is how mad he gets musically without ever losing the plot. It sounds like he’s lost the plot — the blast-beat sections of certain songs can trip up unsuspecting listeners — but he’s always in control. Even when he’s out of control. I tried to write about this in my review for Stereogum, but what makes Jeff’s music distinctly Jeff is his knack for anthems both assured and atypical.

I would argue “Ambulance Blues” is an anthem, written and recorded by Neil as he closed one dark chapter and entered a lighter day. It boasts the great line “You’re all just pissin’ in the wind,” which is something I can 100% hear Jeff (or, say, Craig Finn) singing. It makes sense that it’s a special one for Jeff. “Ambulance Blues” is bitter, even a little angry. But man is it ever pretty. He may have gone HELLMODE, but Jeff knows how to write a quiet, pretty song, too. He’s not just pissing in the wind.

Weekly Neil: You’ve mentioned how Laura’s husband gave you After The Gold Rush, or suggested it, as a good place for you to start or reactivate your Neil fandom. Was that a breakthrough album for you?

Jeff Rosenstock: Absolutely. That was the one that I understood because I think [Laura’s husband] Mike recommended Gold Rush and Laura recommended Comes A Time, and it took me a little while to get into Comes A Time. I think that After The Gold Rush is just such a raw sounding record. His voice just is so — I don't know, it just sounds like a person playing guitar and singing. I think that the song “After The Gold Rush in particular,” his voice and the piano and then that horn solo . I didn’t expect any of that to be happening.

WN: Where did you go from there?

Jeff: I definitely listened to Harvest and was like, nope! And then went back to After The Gold Rush. Harvest has bad songs on it. Everyone needs to open their eyes and admit that. I think “Old Man” is a bad song, so you don’t have to listen to me. Obviously people really like that song. “A Man Needs A Maid” is inarguably horrible.

I wanna say On The Beach is the next one I got into. That is just, like, the record for me. Both of those were records I sunk into for a long time. It was just like, “I don’t need another Neil Young record. I have this one.” And then I think eventually I branched out into some of the weirder stuff from the Ditch Trilogy. Around this time, I went to a record fair in Buffalo. For some reason, they had like 10 Neil Young records all priced between like $5 and $10. I got After The Gold Rush, I got Comes A Time, I got Trans, I got Time Fades Away.

I don’t know when I listened to Harvest Moon, but that record smokes. That record kicks ass. I was kind of surprised at how good that record is. My weird dark horse Neil Young record is Silver & Gold, which I think is underrated by all, and I don’t understand how Neil Young put like classic record out in the year 2000 and no one really cared? Like, you’ve fucking heard this, right?

Photo by Matt Price

WN: You and Laura really did a service by covering “Razor Love” and helping bring it to the surface.

Jeff: “Razor Love” was in that show Transparent. That’s where I heard it, and I was like, what is this? It song sounds like Neil Young. This rules. I was talking to another fan friend about, and he was like, oh yeah, Silver & Gold is the secret one.

WN: When you and Laura were figuring out what to do for the covers EPs, did you each come with some song ideas, and then you decided? I remember you talked about focusing on melodies first before getting into arrangements. You mentioned On The Beach — did you say, “We’ve gotta do ‘Ambulance Blues?’”

Jeff: We had a list, and then it was like, well, what are the ones that we can do? What are the ones that we have fun ideas for? I’ve had an idea for how to do the song “On The Beach” for a long, long time, and it just never really made sense. We kind of divided evenly. We both have a few songs that we like to do and ideas for how to do them, and then we’d just get together, like, okay, well, now that it’s just two of us in the room, what of this can we actually pull off here? We also have a cover of “Peace Of Mind” and a cover of “Birds.” Laura suggested “Peace Of Mind.” Those don’t exist anywhere. They never got finished. They never got released. They’ll be on something someday.

WN: I love “Birds.” That’s so exciting.

Jeff: Yeah, “Birds” is a good song. Our version of it’s weird. I think maybe that’s why we were like, well, this is a vibe. We gotta figure out the right place to put it. Doing “Hey Babe,” I was like, “Hey Laura, can you sing the horny words ‘cause I don’t want to sing the horny words.”

WN: Having that after the sweetness of “Razor Love” is funny. There’s a juxtaposition for sure.

Jeff: Neil Young gets horny. We all get horny. What can we say? It’s a horny world.

WN: “Ambulance Blues,” which is my favorite, is such a noble choice: to take on this very long song where Neil has gone through some stuff and he’s trying to close the book a little bit.

Jeff: I think it’s a cool song. I think Neil’s got a punk vibe even if he’s not playing punk music, and I think maybe especially on that first EP, those were kind of the songs I was really drawn to, you know? It’s my favorite Neil Young song, so that’s why we did it, and it was it was fun to do. It was nice that Steve [Ciolek] from The Sidekicks just happened to be in town while we were working on that. Four in the morning, we’d all been out so late. “Come into my little broom closet studio thing and just play guitar for a little bit. Let’s fuck around. Just plug in a fuzz pedal direct in, like, yeah man, just shred it out.” It’s really fun making those records with Laura. We just get to hang out for like a couple of days and talk to each other and then begrudgingly making music instead of talking to each other. I shouldn’t say “begrudgingly,” but there are definitely points, like, yeah, we should probably get to work.

WN: I was listening to the “Hey Babe” cover that you and Laura did, and I thought, this kind of sounds like it could be on the back half of HELLMODE, where there are a lot more acoustic elements, like on “HEALMODE.”

Jeff: I just wrote that song, you know? And it happened pretty quick. I would love to figure out a way to naturally, like, become an old man and still make music. It is my instinct and my impulse to write fast, loud songs. But that’s not all that I listen to. So whenever a song like [“HEALMODE”] pops in there and feels good, I’m like, cool, good, because it doesn’t happen that often. I write a lot of slow songs and I write a handful of quiet songs, but I thought that one had a good pace to it. Laura has really, really, really encouraged me to sing quietly and not to be embarrassed of what my voice sounds like when I sing quietly. I’ve started finding like my natural voice. Shit evolves, and life is evolution, man, you know? Art should be like that. Music should be like that. And I always want to be truthful to who I am at the moment.

All that is to say that it made me feel just comfortable, being able to like approach something that like. I’m like, well, you know, I want to make a pretty song, and I’m definitely not associated with such a thing. Maybe people won’t like it. I don’t know. But I think that everyone who I kept playing it for in the band and friends and stuff [all said] it sounds good. So I’m like, okay, cool. At least I know. I kind of try not to think about it too much. You know, I just try to take the songs as they come and try and see which ones all piece together nicely. I was happy that “HEALMODE” made it. I hope it opens the door to me writing more quiet, pretty songs. I don’t know that it has just yet. But who knows?

WN: This is a hard question, but do you have any tips for how people can chill out with the doubt?

Jeff: That song is me trying to get myself to do it. I don’t know if I have tips or anything, but I think maybe you could find some comfort in knowing that you’re not alone in it.

WN: You tracked HELLMODE in the same studio where System Of A Down made Toxicity. Do you have a go-to track on Toxicity?

Jeff: Probably “Prison Song,” but that’s track one, so it feels like a bit of a cop out.

WN: That’s the one that feels the most Jeff Rosenstock to me, personally.

Jeff: I will say this: The song “Chop Suey!,” if you’re ever DJing, give it a shot. Kills. Everybody loves “Chop Suey!” Everyone will freak out. It’s a weird cut to play. I played it at [bassist John DeDomenici’]s wedding. Everybody was stoked. It was the hit of the night. The bartenders were like, “Shit, man. ‘Chop Suey!’?” I was like, hell yeah!

Jeff Rosenstock’s new album, HELLMODE, is out now. It’s $8 on Bandcamp.

“Ambulance Blues,” written by Neil Young, from On The Beach (1974)

Neil Young: vocals, guitar, harmonic
Ben Keith: bass
Rusty Kershaw: fiddle
Ralph Molina: hand drums
“Joe Yankee”: electric tambourine