mastershake

Chipotle was playing Casino Queen the other day

This is a good observation. This seems to be some big, organic, pagan, tribal, hallucinogenic ball of fury. At least that's what I get out of it so far.

yeah and full of paranoia.

what's really amazing about this album is that wayne is 48 years old and writing this stuff. this album sounds like something from a band made up of 20 year olds. i mean how many songs on here sound like they were made by lightning bolt? it's like if lightning bolt had a singer and could write poetic lyrics then this is what they might turn out (well half the album, the other half is much more subdued).

I just noticed on Conan they left out the "burning the bibles tonight" line... what vaginas

the noises aside, i think this is really a great rock album. see the leaves, the ego's last stand, worm mountain - all great rock songs. thematically it seems much stronger than say yoshimi - where coyne was talking about robots for 4 songs and then that theme just completely disappeared for the second half of the album. this album the "she" that he is writing to/about reappears throughout the entire album. i'm trying to figure out what it all means still (this as my guide: http://www.flaminglips.com/forum/general-lips/wayne-song-song-commentary-embryonic-no-audio ), but it seems to be stronger than yoshimi and definitely stronger than mystics.

I haven't seen much hyperbole in this thread if any. No one is calling it the greatest album ever or anything.

it might be the second greatest album the flaming lips have ever made

I am being honest when I say that I am not directing this at anyone here, but I have certainly noticed that the chorus of praise for this album has gotten much louder and much more hyperbolic since Pitchfork's 9.0.

that, or the fact that the album released yesterday and people who do not download music illegally first got their hands on it and actually got to listen to it.

Well Wayne Coyne is still pushing the envelope. This album is great...

I wrote the Lips off after the Mystics disaster of an album but they are back in top form here.

pretty awesome.

So, this kind of remark has graced the past few pages of this thread. It wasn't a funeral, it was a public memorial service. A private memorial and graveside service were held before the public spectacle. This was not a funeral, it was a memorial. And as far as I can tell, it was not a memorial in the sacred sense, but a memorial in the LOTTERY TICKETS WOOOO STAPLES CENTER!!!! sense.

 

Was it too much? Of course it was! Every aspect of Michael Jackson's life has been too much, and I honestly can't think of a better way for the world at large to honor his life than a big flippin' spectacle. Should his body have been there? Probably not. Did that make it a little outrageous? Definitely yes. Is that fitting of his life in general? Absolutely.

 

I'm pretty confident that if he wanted to avoid anything like that he would have written it pretty damned explictly in his will.

what was too much about it? it was far from the circus i thought it would be. the guy sold over 100 million albums, he was one of the most popular entertainers to ever live. by comparison, wilco's best album has sold 650,000 copies. thriller sold 65 million copies. his fans absolutely loved him - i thought it was a very fitting service that paid respects to his uniqueness and his kind heart. we'll never see another entertainer as popular as he was ever again. it was a very fitting tribute to a legend, and a deserved one after the tortuous life he lived being constantly demonized, mocked and judged.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aejQHbet5YY

stevie wonder at michael's memorial. amazing performance.

man i still can't believe he's dead. i've been watching old michael jackson videos on youtube the last couple days - such an inventive entertainer. The whole skinny tie, black suit, black hat persona - his style is what made it so irresistible to watch, but his kind of fame will never be achieved again. he could easily sell out a venue that holds 10 million people. and his fan devotion is unbelievable - you'd think he was jesus or something to these people. the countless videos of girls crying and collapsing after hugging him... he met so much to so many people, but led such a tortured existence. the press never stopped hounding him and demonizing him - and he was the type of person who wouldn't hurt a fly. poor guy, on the eve of his comeback he dies.

i hope sonny feeling or i'll fight.

I don't think it's a case of people being in denial, I think that there was a lot about Jay that was easy to make jokes out of. I laughed at the lawsuit lyrics, but still respect Jay as a musical genius

 

Even when people made fun of him, they acknowledged that Wilco may not exist had he never came around.

i'd say the nels cline > jay bennett crowd was in denial.

I agree it is kind of phony... but there were a ton of people who did understand Jay's significance to the band before he died and were supportive of Jay. The fact is most of us would probably not be fans of Wilco if Jay hadn't been in the band helping create the masterpieces of Summerteeth and YHF. Maybe his death has made some people actually come to grips with this realization as they were obviously in denial of it prior to his death.

Steven says what i've been saying for a while now, except I think it's just a problem with the record labels and what they promote as "good music". There are plenty of bands out there that are inventive and make great music but they are not the bands that are getting the millions of dollars in promotion by record labels. It's the shitty bands that keep getting promoted, and the music industry is digging it's own grave by continually spamming Nickelback, Staind, Linkin Park, etc. to the masses instead of focusing on bands like Wilco, Spoon, etc. who fly under the radar when it comes to national media attention. The bands that rule the airwaves these days are terrible, produce similar song after similar song, and give the listener no real incentive to actually go out and pick up the full album when it's released. Instead I suspect that the majority of people who listen to mainstream Clear Channel radio, if they buy music at all, just buy the singles on the internet and don't bother picking up the full album. This is what I do with regard to rap tracks that I hear in clubs that I want on my iPod - I go download Flo Rida's Right Round but I don't bother spending $10 to get the entire album because I know that all the other tracks will be horrible. Thus there are declining music sales because there was a time in the past where people would buy the entire album just to get one song. That is no longer the case anymore. I think if good bands like Wilco were mainstream radio you'd have better album sales because you can expect to pick up a Wilco album and hear 10 good (if not great) songs - making the money spent well worth it. That is not the case with Hoobastank, Nickelback, Limp Bizkit, etc. etc. etc.

Yes, the phrasing of the words is exactly like "On and On".. Even though I really like the song, you have to wonder what Jeff was thinking... Did he do this on purpose?

maybe he thought he could write a better song than on and on and on - so he did.

i think i'll fight is great - one of my favorites on the album. i did not like on and on and on that much.

 

Jeff and Jay playing James Alley Blues. Great performance.

nice find.

don't know if this has been re-posted yet, but one of my favorites on youtube:

wilco - i got you

and casino queen

i just spent like an hour and half trying to rip the version of how to fight loneliness off the iattbryh dvd but i failed as none of the free dvd rippers ever work. but that performance with jay is great and sadly not on youtube.

in perspective, his life wasn't *that* unfair...he got to make music for a living. while he may not have made the greatest living off of it, he was still blessed enough to get to do what he loved. i don't think he'd say that's unfair at all.

unfair in the sense that he didn't get to live his life to its fullest potential. he accomplished a lot, but i think he had a lot more in him, and now it's been tragically cut short. i agree that he definitely got to do what he wanted to do in life, which is more than most of us probably can say (including me). still i always thought he'd find another situation where he'd climb back on top. he was just too great a talent to be writing obscure solo albums that very few people were exposed to.

dammit this sucks. i always felt jay got shit on in his life, and it was usually partly his fault, but that still it wasn't right that things turned out for him the way they did. he was on top of the world in 2001 and just his personality and his obsession and his idiosyncrasies got the best of him and the band voted him out... and he's been basically in a rut creating solo albums for the past 7 years. he seemed to me to be someone immensely talented but not blessed enough to lead a full band on his own. his voice was just too polarizing to create mass appeal. i think he could create all the songs, write all the lyrics, but still he'd just be hurt having to sing the songs himself. if he had been just born with a better voice he'd be equivalent to the likes of jeff and others, but he got the short end of the stick on that one. and then now this premature death he again gets crapped on. poor jay, sometimes life just isn't fair.

wow unbelievable. this is very unexpected news.

well jay you were a huge part of wilco's most creative years, always a huge talent that worked underneath the radar, and if this board is any indication (which it is) you were widely dismissed even amongst the wilco fan base and never given proper credit for what you brought to the band. wilco would not be what it is today without you, and i'd say it would be 1/10th as popular if you had never brought your direction and your ideas to the table. the jump in the level of artistic quality and songwriting that came between AM and Being There was just monumental - it has to rank as one of the all time best transformations in all of rock history - the likes of Radiohead moving from Pablo Honey to The Bends. Pretty much anyone who had been following Uncle Tupelo listened to Tweedy's Wilco debut and thought "mmkay, that's nice... but Uncle Tupelo was so much better." I think few could make that argument after BH, Summerteeth, and YHF. you were/are a musical genius and i think time and history will eventually look favorable upon you for your contribution to this band we all love (at least more so than has been the case in recent years).

Pot Kettle Black

I'm the Man Who Loves You

Solitaire

i like the entire album, including country disappeared. solitaire is probably my favorite song at the moment. not really much to complain about. i think this album is 1000 times better than SBS.

i wonder if they'll release a studio version of one wing complete with the ending they normally give it live... that would be swell because i sorta am left wanting everytime i listen. maybe it'll be a download if you buy the album.

you think they are crappy? I thought they are pretty good for a leak.. you notice the static on sonny feeling?

it's no 320 kbps... but definitely listenable yeah.

Wow, who would have thought the guy who sleeps next to the dumpster behind our office building is edgy? Can't wait to hear his next album!

well the old eminem was edgy... the new one is kind of a little ______*.

*This has been an edit by your friendly administrative staff. Please, let's refrain from hateful language.

but my point is still valid. what song of wilco's is particularly edgy? maybe war on war, ashes of american flags... but really i don't see it. just good songs, somewhat topical, poetic and thoughtful lyrics. not really edgy. lennon was edgy because he was such an activist. he wrote songs simply to piss off the establishment (and particularly nixon). wilco is not active in that way.

sent it

received it. HIGH FIVE!!!

Jeff if you are reading, don't worry, I've got $13 coming to you June 30th. I can't stick with these crappy quality mp3s for the rest of my life.

honestly i don't think wilco was ever an edgy band. edge is like eminem - he says things that make people uncomfortable, he cusses a lot, etc.

wilco's music has never been about that. it's more about great song writing and poetic lyrics. i think the song writing has returned in the new album... it was notably absent on SBS.