jethro

Nina Nastasia's All Your Life. They just reissued dogs, the record this is on, I like her first two records the best but the new one is really good too.

Richard Buckner's Song of 27. I wasn't a big fan of Devotion + Doubt when I first got it so I chucked it in the stack and picked it up one day and when I pulled it out a few months later I couldn't believe I didn't think it was great to start with.

Bah, I'd do more but my connection to the internets is completely f'd up.

I think the drinking age should be raised!Why some people can't handle their intake of alchohol is a mystery to me.

I think the unreasonably high drinking age is actually responsible in large part for people's inability to handle their booze. If it wasn't such a taboo thing kids wouldn't binge when they got a chance and learn bad habits and have all the other problems associated with it. Stupid reactionary politicians.

Anyway this makes me happy:

Halfway through "Airline to Heaven" during the first encore, a male fan ran onto the stage, grabbed Tweedy's head and tried to kiss him. Tweedy turned around, pulled the man's hair and then punched him in the face before shoving him out of the way. "You guys play nice," he said.

Except he should have felt that bad about decking him.

Psycho: You just made the list, buddy. Also, I don't like no one touching my stuff. So just keep your meathooks off. If I catch any of you guys in my stuff, I'll kill you. And I don't like nobody touching me. Any of you homos touch me, and I'll kill you.

Some serious inaccuracies in that report.....no face-punching occurred.

I was thinking that was the coolest Wilco concert report ever.

The band should hire someone to come up and be stupid and then give him a serious beat down so that word of their belligerence will cause people to stay off the stage. Maybe it could be a nightly thing, kind of like a rock 'n roll version of Bez.

Are you objectively blaming Wilco's decline on your subjective dislike of the piano?

If I was a really big fan of the piano in general and the sort of piano songs that Wilco is doing now in particular then I'd probably be happier with their direction.

And I don't get all of these "Tweedy's lyrics are subpar" threads; You've distinguished the difference between the new lyrics, and the "Ghost" lyrics stylistically, but not whether one is better than the other. I'm not saying these lyrics are a godsend, but let's not forget all of the shock-value non-sequiturs Tweedy ripped off from Henry Miller to create Summerteeth, and the pastoral, but ultimately bland and esoteric meanderings of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. I'm sure the man who wrote "I invented a sister, I populate her knives" or "spiders are filling out tax returns" is choosing to make his lyrics a little more universal, not declining because he's getting old and square.

Music appreciation is subjective, there's no way to logically prove the superiority of one style of lyric writing over another. I just don't happen to think dumbing the lyrics down so they can be easily digested by Margie Minivan on her way to pick the kids up from soccer practice is much of a cause for celebration, and to be honest it seems a bit condescending to think that people aren't going to be able to grasp more complex lyrics or derive any meaning from them. When people hear "spiders are filling out tax returns" they're not likely going to be envisioning literal arachnids with pencils and calculators, they're going to think about what the allegory means, which would in most cases be people who have the traits of spiders. They might think of people they know who are like that, it might remind them of a movie, or a book and that's just one line in the song. It's a much richer experience than if Jeff had just come out and said whatever it was he was alluding to in as concise and straight-forward a way as possible.

Yeah and if you want to keep people from clicking on the ignore button, I'd recommend maybe switching it up. We get it, you don't like piano dude and that's fine but you've made your point quite clear and there's no point being a broken record about it.

I don't care if people put me on ignore, I don't even know if I'll hang around here after the new record comes out. I want it to be great and be as excited about it as when YHF and AGIB were released, but so far..

I don't really hate all piano, just rock 'n roll piano. And not even all rock 'n roll piano, the stuff on Being There was great, so maybe I just hate current Wilco piano? Whatever. You probably won't have to deal with my tedious piano bashing much longer.

I think I now know why I disagree with everyone here all the time.

Reigning Sound

Black Lips

King Khan & BBQ Show

The Rippers

The Fevers

These might be more viachicago-y:

Holly Golightly

Nina Nastasia

Miss Mary

Links go to myspace pages, sucks but it's the easiest.

(Name me another guitarist out there who could affect a band and their sound so much in this woeful/wonderful modern-era of rock music.)

I only wish Nels did have the kind of impact that this guy is talking about. I hear new Wilco songs and unless Nels strapped on a piano it doesn't seem like he's making a huge contribution. I'd have used a song like Via Chicago instead of Hell Is Chrome to show the kind of impact he can have though, Jeff did a really great job with that song - and all the guitar really - on the record. I remember hearing a live version of ALTWYS for the first time and thinking Jay who?

Did I mention I think there's too much piano in Wilco right now? No, really.

You ask a true musician, and you can almost guarantee that they will say that the piano is the most skillfully crafted instrument, and basically an instrument literally descended from the gods.

Yeah, well, give me a guitar any time for rock 'n roll.

Maddie - I too thought it seemed like kind of a shout out to fans who want them to rock more. The funny thing is, as much as the song is kind of a throwaway it'll probably still get one of the best reactions live because people like to be excited and playing slow songs doesn't do that. I'm not saying Wilco should play all fast songs, but if they had a better ratio of slow:fast then they'd probably like the crowd reaction a lot more. I mean, FFS, what kid grows up wishing he was Gordon Lightfoot?

I don't consider people who don't love everything the band does "shitters" any more than I consider the people who offer up their undying love no matter what the band puts out the knee-pad brigade. Well, OK, I do think that about some people.

Company in my Back, perhaps, but the other three are pretty much integral to the context and color of the album. I don't like "On The Run", or "Any Color You Like", but why ruin the sequence of "Dark Side of the Moon" over a few songs?

I'm not a big fan of piano songs and that version of Hummingbird puts the pee in piano. I'm OK with other people loving it, I'm not out to win any converts to the jethro way, but I could do without the two piano attack. Handshake Drugs was already released before AGIB and that version isn't so amazingly better that they just had to put it out again. I'm not a huge fan of the instrumentation for Company In My Back and it seems kind of like filler anyway. Late Greats on the record is bland, boring, meh. I think removing those songs improves the sequence of the record rather than ruins it but that's just me. I do like most of those songs live, Late Greats in particular is much better now, and Hummingbird is an amazingly great song solo.

Maybe as lyricists get older, they don't go off on youthful, whimsical tangents anymore?

Saying they were sub-par maybe gives the wrong impression. Jeff has been a really gifted lyricist, he's not listed on "best living lyricist" lists for nothing. Through all of the stylistic changes that's been the constant. This new batch of songs it seems like they've given that up in favor of bland MORness. I don't hate all the new songs or anything but none of them have really blown me away like when I first heard early live versions of I'm A Wheel, Hummingbird, Spiders, Less Than You Think, At Least That's What You Said, etc.

If Wilco was smart, they'd let guys like Jethro, Wheelco, Speed Racer....etc.....decide which songs make the cut.

True. I've already said I'd have axed Hummingbird, Company In My Back, Late Greats and Handshake Drugs from AGIB, that kind of leadership and vision takes balls the size of coconuts.

And FWIW, I agree with whoever said the lyrics sound like "right myself" rather than "rock myself" or the cool sounding but misguided "wreck myself".

I'm still not sure what to make of the song, it seems a bit too over-the-top tongue-in-cheek, I mean... a drum solo? It's fun now but I dunno if it's the kind of thing I'd want to hear a bunch of times outside of a live setting.

The biggest difference to me with the new songs is the lyrics seem pretty sub-par compared to what we're used to from Jeff. Whatever the personal musical likes or dislikes of the people here (like with me piano songs are like kryptonite) I think we all can appreciate something as great as Hummingbird's lyrics (my dislike is for the album's fruity piano version, not the song itself). But... the new songs have been better. I'd feel much more miserable about the new record if I hadn't heard What Light (the lyrics are kinda cringey but the song as a whole I like quite a bit) and Impossible Germany.

From the rumors spilling around I was expecting it to be a bit more uptempo, but it was alright.

Were you here when Late Greats was first played? It was hailed as this amazing rocker and then when the shows were uploaded it was like... whu?! You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means, etc. I've come to like the newer live versions, but just because a song has an amped up guitar doesn't make it a rocker.

Maybe it's just people's different idea of what music is, when I think of trash I think of something like Jeffrey Novak.

For me the best thing about this song is Jeff's vocals, he doesn't sound bored.

Thanks so much to Jon for his quick turnaround.

Ditto, been waiting to hear it.

Impressions... Oh, snap! Jeff is a funny guy.

I wouldn't call it a rocker in the punk or garage sense (like I'm A Wheel), it's more like 80's cock rock done by The Band.

Maybe, I'd also add the song that appeared on the SpongeBob soundtrack.

Yeah, Jeff can write some really great rock songs when he lets himself. Student Loan Stereo (Summerteeth era b-side) would be another one for your punk record. I'd probably love the record but I don't know if it'd last in the same way a record like Being There does.

My center-for-the-day wish would be for more Jeff and less Wilco. Not that I really want the band to break up, but most of the really good Wilco songs I can think of seem like stuff he's taken into the studio mostly finished and that escaped the Wilcoization process mostly intact. What Light is a good example of a new song that escaped without being Panthersed. On & On & On and Let's Fight seem like songs that have maybe lost that battle.

This band is so much better at subtlety and melody than most out there, but this type of tune throws it out the window.

Expectations... rising.

Wilco has been taking subtlety to the point of Jeff having to badger the audience into standing and they have to bust out 10 year old songs for their encores. You can't think he enjoys that sort of thing? Some of my favorite songs are Jeff's more ballady moments but I don't want to hear a concert full of them.

Some jerk once said something like:

There's darkness in this life

But the brighter side we also may view

There's room for both types of music, and having that dynamic makes both have more impact than either would alone.

I don't expect that this one song (that I haven't heard, watch it be like Late Greats which got talked up as this amazing rocker only to spread bitter tears of disappointment, or maybe it was just indifference, once it got out) will usher in a bunch of other new ones that get people jumping around and having fun at Wilco concerts, but God, if only it would.

I have a video of part of this song that I took during the Cincinnati show. Just not sure how I would get it posted on here.

TINWOMP3

Youtube the video.

Later I found out it was because they (Colexico) were playing at the same time on a different stage.

 

Point is, i've never seen anyone repeat anything out of pity. It's to have fun. Someone could yell out "Banana!", and i'd still repeat it as loudly as I could.

It's one thing to do something like that, or Jeff's bit with the screaming in Kingpin, it's another to tell the crowd that this is a good song to sing along to (uh, ok!), then pause while singing it to tell them here's where they're supposed to do it. It's like watching a kid whiff at a t-ball game.

I don't think it's all on the band, though I do feel bad for them whenever they skip a line for a song to hear the audience and it's mostly crickets or feel like they have to chide the crowd to stand up. Maybe they just need more liquor at the shows to loosen people up.

thanks for the video. jeff is back to looking like well, jeff.

It's good to see rock star Jeff instead of Professor Tweedy, thanks for the clips.

Is it really sad? Jeff can be pretty biting to the crowd for "participation;" maybe he just wants it to be clear that it is okay to sing an echo.

My point is it's one thing for a crowd to spontaneously start the sing-along but when the singer badgers them about it and then stops the song and tells them when they're supposed to do it then any specialness is lost. It's like pity sex. I feel embarrassed for Jeff when he does it; trust your fans to do the right thing (or be let down by them which tends to be the case).

"Is That The Thanks I Get?"...the one referred to at the top of this thread.

Someday Jeff will realize how sad it is to beg for singalongs, I feel bad for him whenever he does it and it's worse when it's on something like this.

Pity crowd participation aside though, I do like this song quite a bit better solo than with the full band but I can't help but wish it were more "Is That The Thanks I Get" rather than "We Can Make It Better!!" upwithpeopley.

Jeff's mother died last Friday.

That sucks. My happiness for new rocking Wilco is definitely tempered by that news.

As much as Jeff puts his heart into his live shows - and that's what makes Wilco worth seeing - it must have been tough to play so soon afterwards. Best wishes, etc. to all the Wilcos & families.

And to the guy complaining about the mix, the keyboards are always too loud, where you been?

Tough call, so many great songs get left out in the cold.

Flatness

Gun

Black Eye

Fatal Wound

Long Cut

New Madrid

Not trying to derail the thread, but listening back over those records to come up with that list (and leaving off some absolute classics due to the size) makes me wish Wilco would play some of those songs live. It probably seems like looking backwards, I can see why an artist who is still putting out new music wouldn't want to do it, but it'd be fresher than old Wilco catalog material and God knows it beats the crap out of a lot of the piano balladry they've been doing lately. Then again, it'd be something like sacrilege to put a song like Fatal Wound under the tender mercies of the two piano attack so maybe it's just as well they don't play 'em.

AM: + box full of letters, - just that simple

BT: + misunderstood, - kingpin

MA1: + 1x1, - birds+ships

ST: + shot in the arm, - my darling

MA2: + remember the mtn. bed, - joe dimaggio, etc.

YHF: + poor places, - jesus, etc.

YHF EP: + camera, - woodgrain

YHF Demos: + venus, etc., - alone

AGIB: + spiders, - late greats

AGIB EP: + kicking tv with a special shout out to late greats which kind of redeems itself here, - panther, omgwtf, Stripped of all emotion and the guitar has been replaced with awful, boring keyboards. Possible Wilco jumping the shark moment.

New Wilco Record Is A Rocker

Wilco have decided to change course from their soft-jazz piano direction after their latest demos were mistaken one too many times for an old Billy Joel prog-rock record. Jeff Tweedy explained, "It just seemed like a complete drag having to trot out the old rockers to get the crowds to show much life all the time, we're sick of playing 'em, they're 10+ years old; this way we can play new songs and still hold the crowds attention. An added bonus is I don't have to chide them into standing so they don't seem like such a lifeless mob, and they actually want to sing along rather than having to be told to do it."

i disagree that the 5.16 version is better.

The 11/13/2005 performance is better since the 5/16/2003 show was his first post-surgery show, but I much prefer the 5/16/2003 version. That whole show is pretty great with all of the new at the time songs.

It also has the lyrics switched around a bit:

my words blow like bags down alleys

my words buy modest homes

my words roll across meadows

my words tilt backwards down staircases

I like the way "backwards down staircases" sounds much more than "backwards up staircases". I'm guessing he didn't want to have two "my words down " lines, but he should.

Just downloaded it and love it. I think if AGIB had it in place of less then you think it would be much better.

The EP version? Really? Takes all kinds I guess.

Drone aside Less Than You Think is one of the best things Jeff's ever written. It's the kind of song that gets people to talk about him as a great songwriter. I like Panthers, at least the solo pre-death-by-piano murderized version Jeff did, but wouldn't put it anywhere near LTYT. What it isn't is a very good live song due to how quiet it is, but not every song can (or should) be played live. But... I think the best versions of the song are from live performances the band did before AGIB.