jethro

I dig Letterman, Conan, Kimmel, they are all pretty funny and clever talk show hosts, but I just CAN'T get into Sky Blue Sky. I feel really bad about posting such a thing. I really WANT to love the record and I'm trying to really concentrate on the melodies in order to hear what perhaps I'm missing, but it hasn't happened yet. I'll keep trying. YHF took me a while to get into as well, but then the record and I just kinda clicked and I don't think it's been out of my CD player since then. Hopefully that will happen with SBS as well. Or at least by the time they get booked on Kimmel. They shoot that one across the street from me and I wouldn't even have to bug my sister to use her industry contacts to get me in or go to the trouble of flying the red eye to NY to see the show. And I PROMISE..no matter who else appears as a guest that night, mums the word with regard to any long running series spoilers or any info that would throw a wrench into anyones viewing pleasure. I'll keep my fingers crossed that they get booked on Kimmel now and continue listening to SBS until the record and I hopefully "click".

The only late night host that's absolutely awful is Leno, I can't watch that douchebag without wanting to kill myself.

I didn't think their performance was awful but they rarely come out and nail a song on cue, and it's worse when it's a mellow beautiful song like What Light (and pretty much all of SBS). Their best performances are almost always on Conan.

About liking SBS, I'm happier with it if I ditch the sleepy opener and closer, and of course Shake It Off. I did an edit of Shake It Off a while back that made me like it more but don't have it here and it's too much bother to do again. I'd think about putting LNGCA in there somewhere but it'd probably make the rest of the record seem even more boring. Too bad they couldn't have distilled some of that energy and put it into the rest of the songs, we probably wouldn't be having these sorts of conversations about SBS. It's really just a matter of time before SBS infiltrates the muzak boxes of managed care facilities everywhere. "It's so soothing beautiful, our patients are 34% less likely to get riled up about having to eat banana mush 12 days in a row if we have SBS on, it's like aural xanax!"

Great show. What Light was a mellow beautiful but really nice song. It was great to see them and can't wait to see it on tv.

Fixed it for ya. /Jeff

I wish they'd kept the original live arrangement for What Light, or maybe it's just that it sounds so pasteurized on the record in comparison to those few early live performances. Oh well. Not the worst choice (that would have been Shake It Off, lol at the people advocating that one) but it would have been nice to see them do a more uptempo song.

You know what? I don't care about "growers." If an album doesn't grab me in the first few listens, why should I bother? Why should I listen to an uninteresting album twenty times in the hopes that it MIGHT "grow on me" when I could be listening to something that actually moves me? This finally occurred after listening to SBS yet again in the spirit of "giving it another chance" and realizing I'd rather just listen to YHF instead.

 

SBS is a pleasant, inconsequential album by a band which is capable of so much more. I don't hear much that's challenging, moving, memorable, attention-grabbing, thought-provoking, innovative, or even catchy and fun - which all of Wilco's previous albums (even the much-maligned AM) have delivered in spades. It's not a terrible album by any means, but "not terrible" is hardly the same as "brilliant." And no matter how many times I listen to it, I still feel the same way - and so do a lot of other people, by the sound of it. Will we all magically be converted on the 57th listen? Maybe - or maybe in a few years - but I somehow doubt it. I really don't want to waste any more of my time when there's so much better stuff out there.

Yep.

I suspect there's some sort of Wilcoboard divide centered around what bands you listened to prior to Wilco, like if you used to be a Replacements fan you're a lot less willing to put up with weaksauce Wilco than you are if you used to go listen to Phish or their ilk.

Anyway I've read some stuff that Mitchum has written post-review (in a thread about the review on another board) and he's not a hater of the band, just disappointed like the rest of us.

In the process of getting this and some other records now. It'd be a whole lot cooler if they weren't 128kbps but I am sick of how much space all my old CDs take up.

OK, playing now.

This should have been on the record, awful decision by the Wilcoes.

For those that may not know, LNGCA was played live during the 9:30 show archived at NPR. That version

has a killer drum solo so I would be shocked if it doesn't have it, given the Klotche credit.

Unfortunately, yeah. A rock song without a drum solo is like a pizza without an anvil.

11. WHAT LIGHT

0.19 God damn it, it's not - those boys HAVE left the good stuff for the home run! This is gorgeous, like a lost Dylan song from the mid-60s, with a lyric to suit: "If you feel like singing a song/And you want other people to sing along/Just sing what you feel, don't let anyone say it's wrong." YES, it's passive-aggressive rehab nonsense talking again but hell, it WORKS.

2.01 Plus pedal steel, a lovely chorus, and a tune that winds to its end with finesse.

5/5

This will not be the last negative SBS review, at least this one had some kind words thrown in here and there.

This Saturday (May 12) Wilco are in Minneapolis performing on A Prairie Home Companion. It's on too many stations to list... many NPR affiliates as well as XM, Sirius and online here.

Urgh. I guess that's another thread though. Still, WTF. Do they hate having younger fans or something?

Anyway... I guess this means pre-sales aren't doing all that well. The problem is that the people who are likely to see that letter are the ones who were going to buy it regardless. I'm obviously not a huge fan of the record but I'll still buy it on the iTunes store at least. I'm sick of accumulating plastic so am probably going to do that more often in any case.

LNGCA would be like nails on a chalkboard a needed shot of adrenaline in the context of [not being bored while listening to] this album...

Fixed.

Well, I like LNGCA more than much of SBS but it's not like it's exactly super great either. What it does do is not be mid-tempo pleasantrock. It probably doesn't help that I followed a link from somewhere to some old Uncle Tupelo videos on the youtube. I was >

Anyway I can see why this wasn't on the record, it reminds me a bit of Let Me Come Home. Thanks for posting it.

anyone else secretly hoping pitchfork gives sky blue sky a poor grade? i can't stand the thought of all those little indie farts getting into wilco now if pitchfork gives sky blue sky a really good rating. i was quite pleased with the 6.6 given to a ghost is born, other than the 'greatest album of the century' title it deserved.

Haha, oh man. I bet there are some kids playing on your lawn, go get 'em!

Aww, just when I get through slagging off current Wilco this gets posted and makes me love them again. Thanks.

Hate it here a breakup song?I think not, what an idiot!

What would you call it? A broken up, pining after the one who left song?

I happen to like Glenn a lot and think he's very good but you couldn't prove it by this record. Listen to the Nina Nastasia & Jim White record to see what a great drummer on a quiet record can sound like, though maybe you have more license to be creative when you're playing on a great record. Oh no you d'int, etc.

Both reviews have merits, there are a few good songs and you could make an argument for a few of them on a Wilco greatest hits record but it's just not a great Wilco record (nor is it awful, it's just oh so very ordinary). Maybe it's just that I'd really rather see a Jeff, Nels and Glenn side project than another Wilco record that sets out to make pleasant, inoffensive music.

This is the first thing i've listened to. i've still yet to to listen to the album and thought i'd tide myself over by allowing myself to hear one song. well, i'm more worried now than before. this one does nothing for me at all. it's on par with my dislike of on&on etc. here's hoping there are some songs that are going to bowl me over that i've yet to hear.

If anything the music from these videos sounds a lot better to me than the tighter, more subdued album versions. There's a video for Hate It Here floating around, that's one of the better tracks on the record, if that one doesn't do it for you then there's no hope left, turn in your jacket.

hmmm not workign on my mac

Works for me, right-click, etc. Maybe the link is different now or something.

Funny that they cut off the boring start of the song for the video, too bad that didn't carry over to the record. I guess in their defense it's not really all that much of the song and they do want people to actually buy it - playing the first minute of Shake It Off for people wouldn't be my idea of enticing them to do that. I prefer just to delete it altogether, problem solved.

But that

"Jesus Etc." was the first song on YHF when I first heard the leak. I remember it was a Wends. and I was working on math homework, but took a break to put the cd-r in the cd player that used to live in the den. When the strings kicked in I stopped my homework and sat there and just listened, like intensely listened, for the enitre song... I think that's the moment Wilco became me favorite band...

Really? I got the leak in early July of 2001 (not through great connections or anything, I just happened to run across it online, viva la 56k!) and the track order and song mix was definitely the same as what was eventually released. I remember thinking the rip was bad because of that skip in the feedbacky bit at the end of IATTBYH.

Even knowing it was written well before 9/11 I still connect it with that because that's what I was listening to pretty much non-stop at the time.

Your thought on You Are My Face is implying that, "yeah, it's a good song...but only because it's an old song". And I take it that you also like Hate It Here because it may be a re-worked old song. So....I may be reading too much into your comments, but you seem to be suggesting that Jeff and the band aren't creating songs as great as the Being There-Summerteeth days. If so, I think that's a bunch of bullshit. Just my opinion.

You can think it's a bunch of bullshit but that doesn't make it wrong. I suppose there are people who think SBS is the best Wilco record, there are probably people who get all weak-kneed when they hear It's Just That Simple too.

And Handshake Drugs live, with this current lineup, has all kinds of swagger...it really has a great build up at the end.

That's a big part of the problem.

Either Way sounds so simple and straight-forward, yet is so dang beautiful sounding. Impossible Germany is pretty at the start...nothing to blow you away....but then evolves into glorious guitar interplay. To me, it's just as good as the payoff in Misunderstood. Side With the Seeds is going to be incredible live....a little soul mixed with a rocking finale. Leave Me Like You Found Me reminds me of I Thought I Held You from AM....only better. And hearing that On and On and On was written for Tweedy's Dad, makes the album closer even more special....and I really, really dig Glenn's drumming half-way through the song.

I don't want to get into a song by song critique but I don't think any of those songs are among the highlights of the record and Impossible Germany is probably the most disappointing song on the record. I'm sure it'll be great live though...

I'm 42. I'm domesticated. Like Tweedy, I'm settled with kids. (As it happens, I'm also a performing musician and a songwriter too, but that's a weekend hobby thing.) Basically what I'm saying is that I don't really get many chances to hang out with Wilco fans, so I find myself feeling extremely naive in thinking previously that Wilco fans were more musically sophisticated and/or knowledgable than other music fans. I figured that anyone who listened to a record as experimental as YHF and liked it obviously had to have adventurous and open-minded tastes. Unfortunately, many of the negative reactions to SBS -- a record that is just as experimental, folks -- have shown me that this is undeniably not the case. Many Wilco fans are obviously just as prejudiced and stuck in the proverbial musical rut as your garden-variety classic rock fan. I wish it weren't the case, and I'm still kind of stunned by it. But there it is.

You're entitled to your opinion of course but SBS is about as experimental as a Big Mac. Or maybe you mean it's so safe and conventional that it's gone right out the other side and become dangerous and exciting? I'd have to give that some thought... maybe I've been short-changing Hansen all these years.

In the end SBS (minus the three tracks I don't like, though it's more accurate to say two songs that by themselves aren't bad but make the record worse and one - Shake It Off - that's just outright bad) is a sometimes pretty and inoffensive but ultimately disappointing record from a band that I expected more from. A disappointing Wilco record is still pretty decent but we're not visiting the Wilcoboard because we think they're a decent band.

The "Seeds" solo echoes the work of Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio

I don't understand. The better takes would be less polished? Its no doubt Wilco can afford high tech recording, but its all analog, pretty much everything after Summerteeth (SBS included) is way more natural sounding to my ears then any other band at their success level, or below it for that matter.

I can appreciate technical sophistication but that doesn't mean I want to listen to it. I can't think of too many Wilco fans who would rather listen to the album version compared to the live one and at some point you'd think Wilco would realize it and wonder why that is.

Personally I think rock music is supposed to have an element of slop in it, the more the merrier. I'm not saying that Wilco needs to turn into the Black Lips but it'd be nice to see some rough edges like there used to be.

If you've ever seen the King of the Hill with Bobby growing roses and the hippies at the head shop sponsoring the Hill "team", neu-Wilco is like Hank Hill with the technically perfect rose but lacking wabbi-sabbi (or whatever it was called).

thanks to tubesock for allowing me to save the video + audio... I listened to it over and over again walking between classes today.. i love the garage band sound

Nooooo! Or maybe I mean Hrunnnh?! The idea that there are less "beautiful" versions of some of these songs rather than just pantherized outtakes makes me a little excited again. How many come with the pre-order? Lots? Sound quality is decent? I was just going to buy it on iTunes since I probably won't spend a lot of time listening to it but this could turn the tide.

OK, I've seen it now, that's what I get for ignoring most threads on the wilcoboard. I wish Wilco on record sounded more like Wilco live, even LoftWilco is about 5x better than StudioWilco, and you know this will be great live. They need to get together and kick the ass of whoever produces their records. Oh wait, it's them.

There's a maturity, and clarity to the lyrics here, as opposed to all the angry whims on Summerteeth. I think the writing on here will stand the test of time far more than the Neutral Milk Hotel-isms Tweedy did in the late '90s. There are some lyrics on here that are a little too direct, I'll admit. But that's Tweedy's personal preference; not a sign of decline. "You Are My Face" is pretty much Tweedy at his lyrical prime.

YAMF is one of the better songs on SBS but it's pretty much the sort of lyrical style you're dismissing in your post. Even the music is more throwbacky, so is it really a new song or was it pulled from a tape that Jeff had laying around like Hate It Here? I'm leaning towards old song.

I don't want to give the impression I don't like AGIB, but in retrospect there isn't a lot of emotion there. It's detached in a medicating yourself kind of way. Listening to it now reminds me of that scene from Trainspotting where Rent Boy OD's.

So now Jeff's off the drugs but the detachment is still kind of hanging around. I know that they can still bring it live, but more frequently that seems to depend on the crowd lifting the band up. Ideally you want the band providing some of that energy to get things started and then it's a mutual thing rather than rock 'n roll vampirism. Yeah, I can't believe I said it either. Anyway it seems like Jeff is so involved with Wilco all year, every year that he's just burned out. How much of yourself can you make for any one performance when you know you have 250 more (or whatever) of them to do? And since so many of the shows are taped and spread online even the excitement of debuting new songs for fans isn't really there anymore.

It's probably not as dire as I'm making out, it's better than it was on AGIB, but the music is what I'm mostly disappointed with anyway. One of the things I liked about LNGCA was that it had some of that old swagger back. I'm not a big Jay Bennett or Ken Coomer fan but the six headed Wilco would get its ass kicked by the four headed version. Don't like it? Prove me wrong, kick ass on tour, blow people away like you used to. Concerts are supposed to be fun, damnit. It won't be easy with the mellow (OK, "beautiful" ) record they have to support, but I hope they do. I'll more than happily eat crow if I get a Wilco I don't have to make excuses for back.

The other thing I really like about it is that it's not "just like" any other record they've done. If we had gotten YHF 2 or something like that, that's what would have disappointed me. So many bands today keep re-releasing the same formula over and over. I think it's good to put away some of the stuff that made YHF or even AGIB so unique for a while. It's OK there's no "obligatory weird noise stuff" in this. It's OK to do something more on the clear / mellow / accessible / whatever side of things, especially now.

This isn't really a new direction for Wilco though, this is like a throwback to Being There with the rock excised and some soft 70's mellow gold splooged on in place. I think at this point, with time providing some objectivity, I like some of it but won't ever love it like I did past Wilco records.

So, I plan to continue to listen and enjoy, and hope that the May 15 release version doesn't remix the vocals to the back.

Is that even a point of contention for anyone? I never got the impression that Wilco buried the vocals on any of their records, it just seems more prominent here because of the music being so weaksauce. Some people claim to like the new lyrics better, and maybe they even believe that now, but looking back at a record like Summerteeth or YHF there's just no way to fanwank around Jeff just not writing at the same level. The songs just don't capture the same depth of emotion and I can't help but have the feeling that most of the songs I do like were older songs that were in some way resurrected for this record (e.g. SBS or Hate It Here). Listening to a song like Via Chicago or Poor Places at the end you were like "holy shit", at the end of an SBS track it's like "well, that wasn't too bad".

My main problem is with the music though, it's way too safe and soft rock for my taste and songs that could have been rockers (like Impossible Germany) ended up smooth jazz guitar workouts. I like Nels Cline and I was as happy as anyone that Wilco got a full-time lead guitarist back, but Jeff on AGIB > Nels on SBS and it's not even a contest. Nels can noodle around Jeff without even trying but being able to cram 20 notes into 4 seconds of music isn't anything I'm all that impressed with or interested in. Maybe it's just that a less wimpy guitar it would have overwhelmed the soft rock stylings of the rest of the band and that would have offended someone. Which brings me to... I think most of the problems center around the new song-by-committee approach that Jeff seems to think is so wonderful and I don't really have any great hopes for the band if that continues.

I had just gotten over a love affair with Alabama

I probably shouldn't respond but, fuck, how can you not. What a maroon.

Stinson?

That's what I thought when I saw this thread - that's the only Bob back on guitar that I'd care about - but of course like was pointed out, he's dead.

He played My Words, Panthers, You're Really Gone, and another little ditty called A Long Time Ago (some of the lyrics from this song ended up in the final Theologians).

Yeah, that's such a great show.

Here's an mp3.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/d250nn

It's cool but Hate It Here >> You're Really Gone, someone (IamJacks maybe?) posted a while back that Hate It Here was about as good as you could expect a refresh of that song to come out and I'd agree with that.

i can't see anyone not liking it either. it was one of my favs back when i was listening to the live debuts. the only complaint is that i think the live versions had more bite to them. combine this with that partial Tweedy interview that was posted yesterday where he said the live versions of the song were going to kick ass and you gotta wonder what happened...

The parts that are good are very good, but the parts that aren't are pretty bad. I haven't listened to the official version of the song in a while but from what I remember it's it's like a pile of burning tires in the middle of what's otherwise a pretty smooth flowing record. Maybe it'll be great live (and it's kind of sad that they can't manage to translate how good they can be live onto the records, that's another post) but on the record? Yeah, kinda sucks.