lost highway

I'm a Dreamer In My Dreams of a White Christmas

I'm Frosty the Snowman Who Loves You

At Least That's What You Said You'd Get Me

Born Alone (in a manger)

It's too bad they don't put Wilco puns on Bob's Burgers.

I feel like I should use these for lyrics.

Oh yeah... also..... Reservations made me tear up just a little.

That was life-affirming and awesome. I'll echo what people have been saying on this tour: these guys are on fire.

A couple randome observations:

War on War is sounding especially good. The crescendo at the end was so perfect thanks in part to Mr. Kotche's musicality. I couldn't resist the urge to point at Pat to my buddy while he was doing some excellent glockenspiel work with one hand while playing the organ with the other.

While I've seen the similar setlists posted here, as Jeff would emphatically point out, reading a setlist and being in the room for it are two totally different things. There's kind of a main course with Wilco where they pace things, put in the subtle stuff, play with the arc of the energy, and then there's the dessert; the rock block. During that first half of the set I felt like they were playing with their characteristic extremes more than ever veering from incredibly controlled and understated Ode to Joy material to Jeff and Nels guitar demolition. Never was this more apparent than the incredibly contained White Wooden Cross, into the unhinged Nova Cat duo.

At this point for any longtime Wilco fan it would be easy to dismiss Impossible Germany purely out of its consistent inclusion in their setlists in the decade + since they've written it. Somehow it still makes for a special moment every time thanks almost entirely to Nels. I can't imagine how many times he's performed that solo in front of people for what has come to be his predictable moment (among others) in the set. Nonetheless he seems to be actively engaged in exploring the possibilities of it, and always comes up with something new to say within that familiar progression. Very inspiring,

My buddy is also a longtime Wilco fan, but unlike me an Ode to Joy skeptic. He mentioned halfway through that he thought those songs were coming alive for him, and that he was surprised how much he was enjoying them live. I did notice a lot more trips to the bar and the bathroom from crowd members during One and a Half Stars and White Wooden Cross.... their loss.

I can't for the life of me discern the purpose of a bot uttering such arbitrary banalities. Maybe if we engage with it, it would try and sell us tickets to Hawaii? 

Can someone please tell me what is happening?

It’s interesting that they use the wedge monitors now instead of in-ears, but I think it helps them sound even better.

Yeah, I think it was a short-lived experiment. A lot of people have a hard time getting used to those little ear monitors- doesn't feel as rockin.

Gosh y’all are making me paranoid I’m losing my hearing maybe too many live shows! Haven’t really noticed anything different

Or you just haven't purchased a crummy pressing.

Yeah my Ode to Joy has a few tracks that are totally undermined by the pressing quality. That and the latest Andrew Bird... a few others I can't think of. Bad vinyl has such a distinct sound, it pretty much just sounds like there's lint on the needle when there isn't.

Hey gang, I'm being a little hyperbolic to inspire discussion, but I'm starting to think the standards for pressing records have gone down.

Several brand new records I've purchased (including one by Wilco), all on bigger indie labels have pretty poor audio quality compared to the cd, or download. Lots of distortion and muffling. The range of clarity depending on the track is pretty huge. Any LPs outer grooves will sound a little better than the inner ones, but a half dozen records I've bought over the last year or so sound like there's lint on the needle. I started to think my turntable, or cartridge was junk.

Then I thrown on something pressed in the 60's, 70's or 80's, most of which was bought secondhand and is in a very beat up jacket, and it sounds great.

Any other vinyl collectors noticing this discrepancy in pressing quality?

Yeah the footage from the end of IATTBYH with Leroy and a laptop is interesting. They were using in-ear monitors and using lower stage volume. It was the most mini-ensemble they've ever been.

 Rhythmically, at least, it is the exact opposite of what they were going for with Ode to Joy.

That's an astute, musical observation.

And then there was one...songs from Ode To Joy left to be performed live, that is,

The best one!!! I really hope they get that one going before they make it to my town in a few weeks.

So far I've enjoyed it all except for the Parquet Courts.  Kudos to them for doing something totally different with their contribution, but I think I'll skip that one when I listen to this cd in the future. 

Same here, it's awesome to take risks when covering something. Their risk just wasn't very rewarding. Whereas Twin Peaks and Nora Jones didn't take much of a risk at all, and it was just kind of 'meh' (for lack of a more intelligent word).

What I did love was Ohmme, Sharon Van Etten, Mountain Man (holy shit!), Courtney Barnett, Low, Jen Cloher, Jim Elkington, Liam Kazar (doing Sunloathe no less) and Handsome Family. In fact I think I'll put those 9 on a playlist and listen to it a lot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8DxQbIhRkg

Took me two minutes to find Mikael, I thought he sat this one out.

Also, Glenn's ability to flip his brush around for some fills, and take others one handed is pretty sweet.

If the question is, "Does a preference for classic rock lead to dissatisfaction with much of Wilco's post-2000 output," I'd have to say yes, for myself. Maybe post-2004 would be a more specific timeframe. I love the Wilco run from A.M. through AGIB... after that, it's pretty hit or miss for me.

 

I'm only a couple years older than JT, but come not from a tradition of The Minutemen or The Clash but rather classic rock, hard rock, prog rock, etc. Consequently (perhaps), I'd rather hear the "encore rockers" they've been playing lately than anything off the new record.

This is an interesting pickle to me that I can't relate to, but I can understand. I can see how folks with these tastes are less thrilled with Ode to Joy than I am, but I don't see any future album really scratching your itch.

To me that's like wishing Radiohead were more of an alternative rock band, or that Portishead would release an album that's more hiphop, or wanting Sturgill Simpson to release a straight-ahead country record, or that Fugazi had been more of a hardcore band. You get what I mean, these acts- like Wilco- all represent people who were steeped in a tradition and spent the majority of their output pivoting away from it, or deconstructing it.

Your tastes are your tastes and there is nothing wrong with that.  But when you make a sweeping condescending generalization about new iterations of classic rock, it seems you are trying to justify your own opinion by stating that everybody else surely must think as you do, when clearly not everyone does.  I like classic rock and I like new iterations of it, so I guess that makes me a "nobody"in your view.  i don't like punk or goth or most art rock or most indie rock.  I don't think those band have done much to master the craft of playing roots-based music.  I get that they purposely don't want to do that, nothing wrong with that.  Some find it fresh and inspiring, others like me find it unenjoyable, uncompelling. I find Marcus King to be fresh and inspiring for exactly the reasons you find him tired and uninspiring.   He's a fucking genius virtuoso playing with passion and intensity and coming from an authentic and hard-earned understanding of classic idioms of American musical traditions. you say his just doing the Allmans as a derogatory mark while I saw he's doing the Allmans as high praise.  He's doing something that very few bands are doing today and doing it an exceptional level, at least in my opinion.  My point is that you don't really have to undermine some one else's opinion to make yours legitimate, its legitimate on its own.  Treating people who like classic rock as less than you is just plain arrogance.

This is all fair, and fine although I'd suggest we'd all be better not to take a sweeping critical dismissal to heart as a personal affront. To me these discussions can take the same jovial rudeness as dismissing a sports team and all of their fans. 

More on topic: does this particular preference in rock music lead to dissatisfaction with much of Wilco's post-2000 output?

Less on topic: do you dig Hiss Golden Messenger? That's a pretty good example of a group doing nothing new, style-wise, that I find very enjoyable.

I had to visit the dentist for a crown this afternoon. During the portion where they had to drill out the cavity, between bursts of drilling sounds I heard the unmistakeable groove of 'Everyone Hides'. Just as I got excited there was more drilling. It was like the 'Less Than You Think' remix of the song.

No these were not taped for the TV show

Dang.

Are they taping either of these gigs for the ACL tv show?

Did you hear the new Wilco music they made?

Maybe philosophical musings on the socio-political ramifications of creating art in the current climate, and how much you care about your fans shouldn't be considered within the same part of a conversation. I think if you read a little more, especially some of the group's comments on the community present at Solid Sound you will find that Jeff and the gang are plenty appreciative of their fans.

I think the mercurial element of Jeff as an artist is a key component in what makes him and what he makes captivating. His lack of interest in simply making "rock and roll" is a part of how YHF became a sound. The fact that he continues to create from an authentic curiosity, rather than as a caretaker of fans, is what's kept the band throwing interesting curveballs. I'm glad he's not thinking about what a particular song might have meant to me personally because if he did, he'd probably get lost in generating a lot of garbage. While I appreciate the palpable respect this group of talented musicians has for their fanbase, I'm also glad their view of creativity isn't boxed in by some paternal responsibility for my feelings.

Only if 45 minutes north of Manhattan counts as "upstate"!

To Brooklyn hipsters, or wealthy upper-west siders yes. To the rest of us, no.

:-)

This book has been blowing my mind. Humboldt's life brings you on a journey that collides with Goethe, the Enlightenment, colonial South America, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, Thomas Jefferson, the birth of environmentalism, Darwin and I'm not even done yet. Best non-fiction I've read in some time.

AL-bany instead of Awl-bany and ROE-chester instead of Rah-chester (Solid Sound).

 

I guess people from the midwest just pronounce things differently!

 

You must be from upstate NY!

It was the exact same way for me, although repeated listens have opened up White Wooden Cross for me, and to a lesser extent, One and a Half Stars. If I were forced to pick a weak spot on this album, that would be my choice.

Mine would be Citizens. I actually don't dislike it, it's merely the song I like. The rest I love.

I keep thinking White Wooden Cross is like a 21st century Motown, or Stacks ballad. I can imagine the Supremes doo wopping through imagining if their nearest and dearest was spontaneously killed in a car accident.