TCP
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Posts posted by TCP
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When I got into Wilco, I remember for a lot of people my age, AM wasn't cool. It was "country" and country music was the enemy. This was in the early 00s when country music was "I love America" and rock music was anti-Bush/war. At least that's how us youths viewed it. I recall talking to other teens who liked Wilco (this is the YHF -> AGIB era) and they would always specify "but not the early country stuff". I always secretly liked it though. I'm glad the kids today can listen to MJ Lenderman get as twangy as he wants without judgement.
I still think AM is a solid album with a few clunkers. In hindsight including some of John's compositions in place of I Thought of Held You and That's Not The Issue might have made a stronger record. Those I'll Provide and Myrna Lee are good songs. I get the thought that Myrna Lee didn't exactly fit the vibe, but I would argue if you took Dash 7 on its own, it wouldn't fit the vibe either. Listen to Those I'll Provide and then Passenger Side, they sound great together.
It's an album with a lot of charm. It's a ton of fun when the band pulls out these songs live, and with Pat doing his country guitars I think the songs sound better than on record. The end sequence of Passenger Side -> Dash 7 -> Blue Eyed Soul -> Too Far Apart is a great run of tracks and stronger than anything on Trace, IMHO. But I've never really been a Son Volt fan so, sue me.
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Hello! Giant post incoming...
Winnipeg Folk Festival is great! My work flew me out to Winnipeg in 2018, in the middle of summer, before offering me a role out here. Going to Folk Festival is one of the first things I did in this city and I think it's a big part of the reason I fell in love with this city. Then when I moved out it was middle of December and that...... is a very different city.
WPG FF has a laid back atmosphere that feels very community grown.
There's a few things about it I would describe as archaic. Mostly the seating/standing rules. Most people at the festival have a low to the ground lawn chair. You can only stand at the "Big Blue @ Night" Stage (which is the party stage with a lot of indie rock acts), a tiny little sliver to the side of the mainstage at night (usually full of drunk teenagers having more fun than me), and then in front of the mainstage during the headliner ONLY. Last year we sat through a performance from Miley Cyrus' sister, who's a pop singer, so we could see Orville Peck. Security kept shouting down the youths who wanted to stand and dance, until Mikey Cyrus' sister told them to let them stand "it's a music festival!".
Otherwise, it's sitting for most of the evening performances at the main stage, and all the day time stages. Usually this is fine if you're seeing someone mellow but I saw the New Pornos a few years ago on a side stage and it was disappointing to be forced to sit. Folk Fest is a non-profit with a lot of people who have been involved for decades. I have no proof of this but I am sure there's a few old-timers who refuse to budge on this issue.
The seat of your chair can't be any taller than 2 feet. I have an extra chair you're welcome to. I also am in the market to replace my chairs as they lean too far back for this tall guy, so if I do you're welcome to borrow three of them. Otherwise Canadian Tire should have something affordable.
If you want to get upfront for the mainstage, there's this ridiculous thing called the tarp shuffle and a surprising lack of information available online about it, but if this sounds appealing to you let me know and I can go over how it works.
The workshops during the day are really great. In my experience, the performers usually stray from the theme forced on them from the organizers, but you can hear acts perform together and doing off-the-cuff performances.
Winnipeg in July can be very hot. Don't let the Winterpeg thing fool you! Bring sunscreen, shorts, etc. It can also storm. But storms won't stick around for long as there's no mountains so the clouds will just move along. So bring some rain ponchos.
Food is expensive but the dollar will be working in your favour. Lines can get long during the dinner hours, so plan strategically.
Are you going to have a vehicle? Be aware that even though it's called the Winnipeg Folk Festival, it's not actually in Winnipeg, it's about a 45 minute drive north. The good news is the park is beautiful. There's a bus you can take from downtown OR if our schedules align you're welcome to hitch a ride with me.
Winnipeg gets a lot of hate from the rest of Canada but I think it's a beautiful city with lots of character. It has its problems, yes, but what place doesn't? Summers are beautiful. I would recommend staying near The Forks.
Feel free to shoot me a message if you want to talk more!
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15 hours ago, Brian F. said:
Is there anyone here who ordered this LP set from Wilcoworld and who still has a record of it? I'm trying to figure out what I paid for this, but the only record I have of the transaction is a credit-card charge that includes both the LP set and the CD set. I'm trying to figure out the all-in price, with shipping and tax, for the LP set pre-order.
I got the 11LP set on silver vinyl and according to my e-mail the price was $235 USD before shipping.
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On 2/27/2025 at 4:11 AM, Marijn said:
Am I missing something, or is there no new Front of House this month?
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Yarrr!! Another fine review matey!!!
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So apparently they're letting me keep the extra boxset I got lol
Anyone in Canada need one for cheap?
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I basically spent most of 2016/17 listening to Dylan and then haven't listened to much since. But A Complete Unknown also put me in a Dylan mood and I've been listening to basically nothing but Dylan since Boxing Day.
Discovered this performance a few weeks ago which just got an official upload from the Letterman account:
It's so good. Punk Dylan! The wrong harmonica! I love everything about it. I can't believe it didn't make Springtime in New York (though another performance that night did).
I've decided to prioritize seeing Bob live again, as I've only seen him once in 2017. He'll be 84 in May and the fact that he's still touring is amazing. I've bought tickets to see him in some place called Mankato, MN. Let's hope Canadian and US relations haven't completely disintegrated by then 🙄
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2 hours ago, BoyWithPoetryPower said:
Kung Fu was really easy with the vinyl exchange. They said they'd send a new one right away and label it as a gift so I wouldn't have to pay duty again.
Absolutely awesome listening to the outakes so far and they are so dam good. In particular, I love the version of Spiders on Outakes 1. So good! I really thought it would just sort of sound like the early 2000's version that sounded just like a more standard rock song but it doesn't. So different. So crunchy? So good.
This is starting to feel like it might be my favorite deluxe edition, which makes sense cause while its hard to pick a best Wilco album, Ghost is usually the one I go too. (Although it does change depending on the mood.)
Just a heads up, they did the same for me but I still got fees duty fees this morning from Fedex. I think the government has cracked down on the 'gift' loophole. Friggin' Trudeau!!
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3 hours ago, rhino4evr said:
I got the black version as well. You may
have seen my post on shot in the arm.
Only listened to out takes 1 so far .. and the biggest surprise was probably Panthers. As much as love the original bside , I think I like this more percussion heavy version. Really cool outtake
Let us know what kind of response you get from Kung Fu. People on Reddit said they had to send their copies back first before new ones would get sent.
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Good news! Kung Fu is shipping me a new copy with the correct vinyl. I was ready to go full Karen but they took care of me right away, that's good customer service. I see @BoyWithPoetryPowerhas the same issue and I was tagged on a post in the Facebook group with someone else hopefully this isn't too wide spread of an issue, I'm sure it won't be a cheap fix.
A lot of really good stuff on these outtakes and alternates. Diamond Claw is great 'lost track'. There's been a few times that have made me stop and go 👀
One (small) disappointment is that two of the songs, Bob Dylan's 49th Beard, and More Like The Moon, are from the Yankee Hotel Foxtrot bonus EP, which was also pressed on the Alpha Mike Foxtrot boxset. I would imagine if you're buying this set you probably also have the Alpha Mike Foxtrot Set. Though they do note that More Like The Moon is "a mix very similar" to the previously released version, and sounded the same to my ears but I'd need to do an A B comparison. The High Heat from The Wilco Book also appears (and was also in Alpha Mike Foxtrot) but this one also appears as a "very similar mix". Not a big deal that I probably wouldn't even note but......... there's a pretty kick ass version of Spiders that isn't on the set but is on the Uncut CD, I highly recommend people seek that out, especially those with souls... if ya catch my drift wink wink. I'd gladly swap the previous mix of B.D.'s Beard for this Spiders version.
I think these alternate mixes might be new as the liner notes mention that Tom Schick did additional mixing in The Loft. All these old recordings sound pretty polished so kudos to Tom for doing a great job getting these old songs together.
Bob Mehr's linernotes are once again, awesome. Especially awesome in this case, because this era of the band isn't as well documented as the YHF-era is. I recall reading Learning How To Die when I was in college (close to 20 years ago now wtf) and being bummed that Pat and Nels were only mentioned at the very end. I for one would be interested in either an updated and expanded version of Learning How To Die from Greg Kot or a book from Bob Mehr focusing on Wilco's recording history, he already has a few chapters done with these liner note essays!
I'm looking forward to everyone else to get their copies and hear their thoughts. I'm also excited to get my downloads so I can listen closely on headphones when I'm out and about. But ultimately I'm glad Wilco continue to do these boxsets. These records and important and deserve the exhaustive deluxe treatment. I do wonder where they go from here. I imagine a Sky Blue Sky set would work, but as you get further into the bands career my impression is they spend less time actually recording. Bob Mehr notes that they spent the better part of two years working on AGIB and at the time three of the members lived within walking distance of Soma Studios. Now the band are spread out over what... 5 states? Do they have multiple LPs of outtakes from records like Schmilco or Wilco The Album? Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself but remember, the AM/Being There Deluxe editions are already 8 years old and even a 'new' record like Star Wars 10 years old which means basically it'll be due for the deluxe treatment in what feels like a few months. 👴🏻
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Good news! My copy arrived. Doing first listen to "dbpm: Outtakes/Alternates 1". If you like raw noisy Wilco like I do, you're going to be in for a treat. The records in the boxset are called "Unstitched: Outtakes/Alternates 2", "The Hook At The Wang (10/2/04) Wang Centre-Boston, MA", and "A Ghost Is Born (Original Album)", yes that's what the spine says. Listening to a version of Muzzle of Bees that sounds like nothing I've heard before.
Bad news! They sent me the black vinyl instead of the colour vinyl which hopefully they will make right as I am 1) a huge collectionist nerd and 2) spent a bunch on import fees and shipping to get the cool colour vinyl. If you also ordered the robin's egg colour vinyl, make sure you open your boxset and confirm, even if you're not going to listen right away.
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5 minutes ago, lost highway said:
Please share your impressions as they form!
It says it will arrive tomorrow now! I will.
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I got my shipping notification via Fedex today. Should get here Thursday. Super fast!!
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On 1/10/2025 at 11:59 AM, chuckrh said:
How about we trade Trump for Trudeau?
No deal. The best I can do is trade you Trudeau for Wilco.
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19 hours ago, Brian F. said:
You forgot to mention at least one show Wilco played at the Higher Ground in Winooski, Vermont, in 1999. I can still remember the smell of maple syrup and politeness in the air, so close were we to Canada.
Maybe, instead of making Canada the 51st state, we'll make Vermont the 11th province.
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Hello Wilco,
Please note I write this letter to you with love, respect, and admiration.
It's me, your fan, TCP. As you can tell by my location being "Obnoxiously Canadian", my avatar being being Johnny Canuck (unchanged since 2008), my constant talk of Canadian rock ensemble Sloan, and the fact that I remind everyone all the time that The Band are (mostly) Canadian, I reside in the country north of the border: Canada. We love you guys and I think you might love us too, if you just gave us a chance.We're the country that produced some of your favourite songwriters: Neil Young, Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell, Robbie Robertson. Without these songwriting forebearers, would their even be a Wilco as we know it? Neil Peart too? I'm guessing at least one member of Wilco enjoys Rush.
Canadiana has, at times, been an intricate part of Wilco's history. The fan-favourite videos of Wilco playing at a ski hill in the mid 90s was recorded in Newfoundland for Much Music (Canadian MTV). Wilco has been a part of Canadian television: from Jeff providing a voice on Canadian animated show Odd Job Jack (allegedly, I never actually saw this) to K. Trevor Wilson name dropping Wilco on the beloved comedy Letterkenny. Film as well, as it was the great Canadian actor Seth Rogen who repeatedly mentioned Wilco in the 2009 seminal comedy Funny People. One could even draw a parallel between certain members of Wilco's love of denim and beards to being a distinctly Canadian inspired look. Our beloved singer Feist is one of the few guests to join Wilco on vocals for an album track and guess what: she's Canadian.
Despite all of this, most cities in Canada haven't had a Wilco show in 5 to 15 years. Let's dig into those stats:
- Winnipeg, home of me, TCP, your nerdiest fan, hasn't been played in 5 years. And while, yes, that show was followed almost immediately by a global pandemic, it's probably not our fault. Probably.
- Edmonton, the fifth largest city hasn't been graced with a Wilco concert since 2010
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The entire province of Saskatchewan (home of Wilco friends Kacy & Clayton and Andy Shauf) hasn't had a show since 2010
- Saskatchewan has only ever been played twice
- Saskatoon is the only city that has been played, never the almost equally-as-large Regina
- Ottawa, the capitol city of Canada, hasn't seen Wilco in concert since 2015
- Prince Edward Island, has NEVER had a Wilco show. It's pretty small, so that's understandable
I know what you're thinking "but TCP, we've played Canada a bunch since the pandemic!!". Yes, this is true. You've played Toronto 3 times, with Calgary, Montreal, and Vancouver all receiving a single show each, three years ago in 2022. However, Canada is very large country and there's a lot of Canadians who aren't anywhere near those four cities.
I humbly request:
- Wilco tours Canada
- Do it April - September so Canadians could potentially road trip to see multiple shows and our American friends can safely come to see shows without getting too cold
- That's basically it
Failure to give into these demands will result in further polite requests. You have been warned!!
Your fan,
TCP
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Thanks for the recap!! Sounds like a great event.
Also if any VCers don't know D'Arcy Corden, she was in two of the best TV shows in recent years: The Good Place (as a main cast member) and Barry (as a recurring character). Two comedies I highly recommend. -
I always like to look at my post from last year. Usually I have a good track record but last year, well...... I'll bold the ones that did come out.
On 1/2/2024 at 1:40 PM, TCP said:Confirmed:
MJ Lenderman
Sleater-Kinney
J Mascis
Waxahatchee
Not officially confirmed but almost definitely happening:
Japanese Breakfast
Wet Leg
Foxwarren
Hopeful:
Adrienne Lenker (and or Big Thief)
Courtney Barnett
Bright Eyes
Rolling Blackouts CF
Decemberists
Kiwi Jr
Nnamdi
Mac DeMarco (with lyrics!)
Perfume Genius
Iron & Wine (third consecutive year listing Sam, it has to happen eventually right?)
Confirmed:
Sloan (they've been recording it and talking openly about it, and I heard Pat or Chris... maybe Pat on his Patreon (?), say it's coming in the fall)
Wednesday
The Weather Station
Not officially confirmed but almost definitely happening, for real this time:
Japanese Breakfast (The Needle Drop mentioned it was coming in March 2025)
Wet Leg (At the end of 2023 I heard Jenny Eliscu mention it was coming 'soon', at this point as a new band, 2 years between records seems likely)
Foxwarren (At a concert I attended in 2023 Andy Shauf mentioned it's recorded but he doesn't know when it's coming out, I have to imagine it will come out this year... right?!)
Due for a new record / I can feel it in my bones:
Courtney Barnett
Kiwi Jr
Big Thief
Jeff Tweedy (2024 was the first year in a decade not to have a new album written/recorded by Jeff, and didn't he mention a new solo LP somewhere? On Substack, maybe? He definitely has the songs for it)Geese
Kevin Morby
Alex G
The Beths
Mac Demarco
Perfume Genius
Typical overly optimistic me:
Fleet Foxes
Bob Dylan
Sufjan Stevens
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Great recaps Brian F!!! Happy New Year to you and to all my fellow VCers.
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Oh hey VC is back. Thanks admin team!
I'll echo knotgreen, these three shows really were a dream. I know the Palace shows in 2019 had a lot of the same people night after night, and I think the no repeats thing probably encouraged more people to go to two or even all three of these shows. As the band gets older I'm sure staying put longer will be more appealing, so hopefully this is the sort of thing they'll do more of. It's nice for me, as a foreign tourist from a far off distant land, to be able to travel down there and make a weekend out of it.
Really happy to hear Candyfloss, Kingpin, and Hotel Arizona on Sunday. The band was on fire and you could tell Jeff was lit up. It's too bad Kicking Television is best saved as a closer because lyrically it would have been fitting to go into during his anti-holiday-consumerism rants. Did anyone else catch Nels looking emotional after Impossible Germany? I'm guessing putting your all into a performance like that is emotionally draining.
I'll wrap this post up with a picture of Christmas-lover Jeff Tweedy:
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Oops, also, I forgot to mention I think the technical issues Pat was having was with his pedal board. That seemed to be what they were looking at and between sets Austin came out holding a few pedals, that I'm assuming he swapped in. Pedal boards can be big complicated messes. If it stops outputting sound, it can be very time consuming to diagnosis where the issue is. Has a pedal died? Or a cable between the pedals? Good on Austin for getting it sorted. I'm curious what Pat said to Jeff, I'm guessing that he can do keyboard parts on the upcoming songs, but perhaps that's why Shouldn't Be Ashamed was cut.
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Last night was fantastic. I really, really, really liked that acoustic arrangement of Spiders straight into Wishful Thinking. Absolutely sublime. Acoustic Art of Almost was great too.
Due to geographical restrictions I wasn't able to attend many Wilco shows from 2004 - 2015, I knew Let's Not Get Carried Away would be a highlight but I didn't know how hard it would hit. Glenn turned into a maniac for a few minutes there, and it was wonderful.
Seven songs again last night I hadn't heard the band play before, that's 14 total across two nights.
As for the weather, I heard someone, who was probably some incredibly tough Canadian, was walking around in a tshirt before the show, so it wasn't that cold. Night 1 got a little chilly when you were standing still in line though. The room itself felt much warmer last night but luckily the Palace security team was handing out bottles of water.
Really nice to meet a few VCers these past few nights including @nalafej and @wilcolovesyou!!
On 12/14/2024 at 10:53 AM, TCP said:But maybe we'll get Remember the Mountain Bed tonight.
......Am I... magic??.... Maybe we'll get ELT tonight, maybe we'll get ELT tonight, maybe we'll get ELT tonight.
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Great recap bbop. I saw two other shows this year at Palace Theatre and the "gap" was the same, I believe. They usually have a lot of photographers, though I felt like there was less last night and correct me if I'm wrong but they seemed to have left after two songs instead of the usual three.
Absolutely fantastic show last night and well worth the winter drive. Seven songs I've never heard live before. Seven!! Interestingly, Too Far Apart was played at my first Wilco show all the way back in 2007, which at the time was the first time it had been played in seven years, really cool to hear it again after all this time. I'm hoping for Blue Eyed Soul tonight.
Another highlight for me was hearing Venus. This was a song I've been in a big fan of for a long time, and I'm glad it's had a bit of a resurgence since the deluxe version of YHF. I still can't believe a song that good didn't get (officially) released for 20 years. I think that says a lot about the depth of their catalogue, and the amount of great songs they were turning out at that period.
I wasn't expecting Someone Else's Song to sound like that, that was interesting and very cool. It took me a second to figure out what I was hearing.
Somehow I've never heard Far, Far Away before, even at a solo show. It's a classic and I'm glad to finally hear it. An underrated part of Jeff's guitar playing was how he mixes rhythm and lead simultaneously on acoustic and FFA is a great example of that, I tried to study his technique as much as I could in the moment to middling results... But maybe we'll get Remember the Mountain Bed tonight.
I've never been the biggest fan of Country Disappeared, but hearing those lyrics after this past November, in what might be my last trip to the US for some time (let's see what that border looks like next year 🙄) really hit home.
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1 hour ago, lost highway said:
What a blast! I'm jealous. Any data heads keeping track of how many different songs they've played in the last week?
...It's my time to shine!
So, Austin had 98 unique songs played across three evenings.
Tulsa had 68, including the coda of Many Worlds.
All 68 of those songs were all played in Austin, with the possible (debatable!) exception of the coda of Many Worlds, as Austin had the full Many Worlds.
Austin had 32 songs a night, and Tulsa had 33 (night one) and 35 (night two).
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An Open Letter to Wilco: it's time for another Canada Tour (please)
in Just A Fan
Posted
New tour dates and look...!
Sometimes complaining on the internet DOES work.
Now, Wilco, please add an August 31 or September 1 date in Winnipeg. In the meanwhile I'll be buying tickets for Calgary and Edmonton.