TCP

Lovely new song! Coldasgasoline, did you get it? I tried to capture it but alas my MacBook did not record audio! 

Screen Door!!!

Looking at my profile just now, it seems I joined this fine community on June 27, 2005. This is interesting because that was my 18th birthday. Apparently I had nothing better to do that day than join an internet message board for a band I had discovered earlier that year! But then I realized... that date is just over 18 years ago now. Which means I've been on Via Chicago for over half my life!! That's pretty crazy.

In those 18 years I've made over 3000 posts, most of them bad, but hopefully a few good ones too. I was probably pretty obnoxious in the early days.... sorry about that. Most importantly though, and the reason I am making this post in the first place, I discovered a lot of music from this place, thanks to all of you good people. I honestly don't know if I'd listen to the music that I do today if it wasn't for Via Chicago, so thanks folks.

This place is a bit quieter these days, yeah. But it's also a lot more friendly and welcoming than in 2005 - 2009. I think we've all mellowed, I guess that's what happens after half your lifetime. Here's to another 18 years! 

3 hours ago, DiamondClaw said:

The one-year anniversary of Cruel Country (digital version anyway) is this weekend I think. Maybe that gets its last moment in the spotlight and then the news comes in the next week or two? I'd think an announcement would at the very least come before Jeff's solo tour next month.

Yeah I think that's a pretty good guess. I was hoping for this week but usually music gets announced Monday - Thursday so if it hasn't been made yet it won't be this week... probably.

Then again, Locator got released as a one year celebration of Star Wars with no mention of Schmilco at the time. The album was shortly after sleuthed by VCers, IIRC. The band announced it shortly after.

Let's start a betting pool on when the first single will be dropped. 

One of these days I'm going to make it to one of these shows.

Psst... @bböp check the year in the thread title!! 😁

Great recap theashtraysays! Looks like some big changes are happening with the Wilcrew these days. 

I for one am a bbop mega fan. I don't even know who Wilco is? What's a Jeff Tweedy? I just come here for bbop's words.

Well done to whoever gave Wilco a trophy. 

And well done to you bbop for the recaps and setlists. Safe travels home everyone!

Thanks for the recap bbop. Looks like everyone is having a great time in Iceland. 

What Light and Too Far Apart?? Nice!

That worked! Thank you!

Hello VC admin team,

My profile has an ancient AIM account tied to it, seriously this thing is probably 17+ years old. You can see it if you view my profile. However, when I go to edit my profile, AIM isn't even listed:

So I can't edit or remove it from my profile, which I would like to do. Please advise. Thank you!

Andy Shauf tonight!!

On 3/15/2023 at 4:57 PM, nalafej said:

How were the shows? Considering going on Friday. Saw them in 2019 and that show wasn't as great as earlier tours...

 

Sorry, totally missed this! I honestly thought they were great but I also thought they were great in 2019. They did play every song off their new album but I think their new album is pretty solid, and then they played a ton of their hits and classics. For what it's worth the crowd was very into it and everyone seemed happy when they left. 

Canadian rock ensemble.... Sloan! (pt 2)

Canadian rock ensemble.... Sloan! (pt 1)

Alvvays!!

You can therefor assume that smoking was allowed at some shows in 2005. That's pretty crazy thinking back on it from today's perspective. So I suppose the period between no smoking and no smartphones was only a few short wonderful years.

I saw this movie once in high school but I don't think I was paying close attention because I didn't remember any of it. But it's one of those films I always hear about so I decided to give it another go. Anyways, this movie sucks. There's some charm to the music and setting but I don't feel like it does representing early 90s Seattle. Heck, I think Twin Peaks is a better representation of that period (not Seattle but in the general vicinity, so close enough). Ultimately it feels like Seattle and the grunge music is just kind of superficially sprinkled in.

It felt like it should have been a TV show, because it has a ton of characters but outside of the main two you don't spend enough time with any of them to get to know them. And if it was a TV show they would have basically had the same premise of Friends but a few years earlier. Also the fact that the main guy's idea for "super train" was "great coffee and great music" was pretty hilarious. This guy's idea of great music is probably Alice In Chains and that is not a band I want to listen to at 8:15am. 

I watched the movie Before Sunrise last year. It's kind of a similar concept but I thought Before Sunrise did a much better job at using its location as a character. 

The older I get the more I just can't stand Cameron Crowe. Almost Famous was a favourite of mine growing up but I don't want to revisit it and risk having it ruined for me.

However, Singles was a cinematic masterpiece compared to another movie I also watched on the same night:

Every character in this movie is as obnoxious as hell. I was rooting for the capitalist guy at the end to shut down the store because I hated everyone so much.

Ok let me recommend something actually good:

We all knew The Last of Us was going to be fantastic, so Poker Face is the big surprise of winter 2023 for me. Each episode is a self contained story. It's not really a "whodunnit" but more of a "howcatchem". Natasha Lyonne is fantastic. Honestly some of these scripts are so tight you almost feel like you're watching a movie. Soundtrack is great too! 

Somehow I've never read these before. I'm about half way through Two Towers and both it and Fellowship have been great. The detail and mythology in Tolkien's world is amazing. It's also making me really appreciate Jackson's adaptation. I can't imagine what a mammoth task turning these books into screenplays and then films would have been in the late 90s/early 00s but I think overall Jackson really made some smart decisions. My goal is to finish the trilogy and then take on.... The Silmarillion. Wish me luck.

Thanks for sharing Gabe, that was a great interview! I'm honestly still shocked that the 11lp edition Super Deluxe version exists but I'm so glad it does. I had always assumed it would be just the album with engineer demos we already had. I mean how much more could there have been? Turns out, a lot more. But if I had any complaint about the boxset, I wish it had a little bit more context and clarity about what these demos are and when they're from. Us big fans can figure out that American Aquarium is Ken on drums so and Unified Theory is Glenn, etc but that's probably lost to a lot of people. This helps fill in some of the gaps though.

Thanks for the recap U2roolz, I was watching the superb third episode of The Last of Us last night and had no idea there was Tweedy Show last night.

Another great recap bbop!

I did a top-20 favourite records list but because I'm an ego maniac it's a video:

Confirmed stuff:

King Tuff

Mac Demarco

Andy Shauf

Artists Due For Records:

J Mascis (he's been doing some solo sets opening for the Mountain Goats, gotta figure an LP is coming)

Courtney Barnett and Kurt Vile (just speculating but Kurt is going back to Australia in 2023 after going in 2022, I'm guessing/hoping him and Court have been recording)

Iron & Wine (last proper record in 2017, though apparently I listed him last year so who knows)

Japanese Breakfast (I saw her do a book reading this summer and she talked about her next record)

Boygenius

Wilco (don't they have a self described art-pop album ready to go?)

Hiss Golden Messenger

William Tyler

Big Thief??