auctioneer69

Coco B's: from Southern California who have just released their self-titled debut themselves. It can be found on I-Tunes. A killer album - the best debut I have heard in ages. Somewhat redolent of the Replacements and other 80's US bands their tunes are poppy, rocky, catchy and varied. I also love lots of stuff that has come out of the UK in the last 18 months: the Fratelli's, Amy Winehouse, Lilly Alllen and Jamie T have all released albums brim full of great, catchy pop songs. If you like soul an album by Nicole Willis is a cool,updated version of classic 60's soul. For hip-hop try Aesop Rock, Common's new album or the brilliant second album by Seattle duo the Blue Scholars. Last but not least, and also from Seattle, the Blakes have released a dynamite album of snarly, short, catchy songs which draw on many influences. Ooops, also the album "Transparent Things" by Fujiya and Miyagi is a classic fusing pop, krautrock and dance in a new and unique combination. I'd also give loud shout-outs to albums by Datarock and the Junior Boys in the electronic category.

I have a chance to see them Saturday night when I travel to San Francisco. Not a huge fan - don't have their latest and sold the one before that. But, best bet for a gig this weekend. Are they worth seeing live? Am willing to be converted.

Saw the gig in Seattle on Monday night (9/24). A tad disappointing. Why? The sound was shit as they played in a University of Washington basketball arena. Also, this is my third time for Arcade Fire. In such a venue they didn't have the same impact as Sasquatch in 2005 or Coachella this year (where they stole the weekend). Also, I thought the stage show wasn't as good as I expected. They did some incredible screening of old film footage on "No Cars Go" but otherwise I wasn't that fussed at seeing blown up images of the band. LCD Soundsystem were great. James Murphy's voice was so much better live then on record and I loved their guitarist. Am I the only person who can see bits of Talking Heads in their stuff especially vis-a-vis the "Fear of Music" record. I could totally imagine them doing a killer cover of "I Zimbra".

This is a wonderful broadcast. Hope to hell someone is recording this. Having seen the band last week this is a great document of the tour. "Too Far Apart". Fantastic.

Three clips fresh from youtube. The person who shot Via Chicago and California Stars can't have been far from where I was standing. It's great to see and hear evidence of a wonderful show. I like what Pat has added in Walken. After Via Chicago my g/f asked me "what was that all about" and I could only smile in response:

Via Chicago

Walken / Spiders (excerpt)

California Stars (with Bill Frissel)

and hear's a cool pic I took

Wow! Having been to the Seattle show and now having seen the setlists for Oregon and Vancouver, how I wish I could have gone to all three shows. Has there been a better trio of setlists on the SBS tour? Too Far Apart, Either Way, Red Eyed and Blue, I Got You, Monday, Remember the Mountain Bed, Hesitating Beauty and Airline to Heaven and guest appearances from Bill Frissel, Scott M, and Peter Buck. I'd be interested to hear in opinions from anyone who went to all the shows.

Yep missed Via Chicago in the middle.

Was a great version. Didn't care if they played it in advance but thought it was brilliant at the show. Just saw the Vancouver set list. Envious of people who so both shows as what they played last night would have been a great compliment to the songs only performed tonight.

Soundcheck

Muzzle of Bees

When The Roses...

What Light

IAMTTBYH (Part)

What Light

Ashes of American Flags (Niles did a terrific ending)

War on War (Part)

Show

Sunken Treasure

You Are My Face

IAMTTBYH

Handshake Drugs

Pot Kettle Black

Side With the Seeds

War on War

Shot in The Arm

Sky Blue Sky

Too Far Apart

Impossible Germany

Jesus Etc

Hate It Here

Walken

IMTMWLY

What Light

Airline To Heaven

Hesitating Beauty (with Bill Frissel)

California Stars (with Bill Frissel)

Hummingbird

Misunderstood

Spiders

On Stage approx 7.55 left the stage at 9.55

Might be missing a song in the middle. My third Wilco show: all in Washington. Fantastic show. Though things didn't really take off until Handshake Drugs. For this song and the entire middle show of the show, Nels Cline was on fire. I think posts have mentioned him giving a little extra on this leg of the tour. Exactly. Banter from Jeff was at a minimum. He seemed to really enjoy himself as the show progressed. Encores were amazing. Airline was unexpected and a total treat. Bill Frissel is a Seattle bases modern jazz guitarist intoroduced as a friend of the band. Personal highlights: the harmonies on California Stars and Hummingbird were exquisite. The new songs were great live especially "Hate It Here" and Walken". Wilco haven't played in Washington since 2005 so none of the SBS songs had been played in the state before. The Venue was very pastoral, the crowd a little subdued at time. Lots of people had brought lawn chairs and blankets. The great upshot of this was being able to have beers and chill with friends before getting about 30 feet from the stage just before Wilco came on. Accidentally caught the soundcheck when making sure I knew where the Park was in the afternoon. Was a great bonus to hear "Muzzles", "When the Roses.." and "Ashes" in their entirety. This show felt different from the previous ones I had seen. As a massive music fan, I love the fact that Wilco can go from country-like camp fire songs, to Beatlesque harmonies to atonal Kraut rock jams in the space of three or four songs and never lose their audience for a second. Nels Cline has to be the most amazing guitarist I have seen live. His presence on stage adds so much to the live experience. Alright time for some kip.

Finally some half-decent songs that actually rock and featuring some great harmonies from the incomparable Mike Mills. It sounds like Peter Buck is actually taking an active role in the band again. I think "Up" was a great album (if two songs too long), "Reveal" a failed experiment and "Around The Sun" plain awful. Hopefully, they will record these songs quickly and they won't be overproduced and washed out. Personally, I'd love for REM to collaborate with Jeff Tweedy as a producer in the studio. I think it's telling that they played these songs with stuff of the first four albums. I love early R.E.M..

"Shake It Off" (which I hated at first). Love the way it builds and the lyrics are great ("Ceiling fan chopping up my dreams"). Then in no particular order "Hate it Here" "SBS" and "Impossible Germany".

Oh, and which camp are you in?

 

No, I'm just kidding, obviously. Your bias couldn't be more obvious if it were dangling out of your fly.

 

You know what I'm fucking sick of? The high-and-mighty type of fan who endorses this sort of endeavour unreservedly, and just can't wait to use it as an excuse to elevate himself over people with incredibly valid principles that just happen to differ from his own. Look, pal, don't go thinking you're the "better fan" - whatever the fuck that even means - just because you don't have a problem with a song that used to stand on its own two legs being chopped apart and run across your TV screen in 30-second flashes god knows how many times a day. Because I'll goddamned tell you something: you're not.

Firstly, I don't know what a better fan is. But you raise another good point. Stop being so precious about someone's elses music especially Wilco's. Because they certainly aren't precious about it. Did it bother you when they allowed fans like us the chance to listen it to it months or years before it's official release though a downloaded bit torrent? Were you upset that the "Sunken Treasure" DVD included free downloads of it's songs including "The Thanks"? Was it galling to hear an audio stream of "Sky Blue Sky" two months before it's release? Were you incensed you had the chance to listen to about four different webcasts in the last year? Does it bother you that Wilco play smaller venues, at times, when they could clearly make more money by playing bigger ones? Are you annoyed that the current incarnation of Wilco has six amazing musicians on stage which has to come with added cost? Given all that the band do, couldn't you just choose to change the channel if you might happen to be in the room when the commercial comes on, be slightly miffed but magnimous knowing that there are few bands big or small who treat their fans so well?

This discussion highlights a difference between the few who are looking to taking offence at anything and the vast majority of fans who wish Wilco the best in light of the generosity the band has shown us over the years. The only time I have been pissed off by the use of songs in commercials is hearing part of "Baba O'Reilly" in a car commercial although my guess is that Pete Townsend was motivated more by his well documented contrariness than by anything else. I hope that Jeff and the other members of the band make a shit load of money.

On an unrelated topic, I just got turned on to a great new British band called Maps. If you dig melancholic, melodic, textured electronic stuff with vocals you will like them.

I posted this in another thread but would like to know how many other people feel the VW Whingers lack a full perspective.

On the topic of the VW commercials with all due respect, I think a lot of posts have been very parochial and myopic. Or more pointedly written by ungrateful bastards. Jeff and the band have every right to make money from their efforts in any way they see fit. It's one thing to take a standard and use it in an advert. For god's sake how much more money does Pete Townsend (several commercials) and Paul McCartney (Fidelity Investments) need to make? Did U2 who were guaranteed massive airplay when "Vertigo" was released in 2004 need to license it to Apple? But it's another thing entirely for Wilco, a mid-level band, to use a couple of new songs in the same way. They make some money and increase the chances of many people who might be completely unaware of them being turned on to some of the greatest music made in the last ten years. As for all of those people who feel that these songs will forever be ruined by being associated with VW: get over it! Did you feel the same disappointment when Wilco streamed "Sky Blue Sky" for two months online prior to it's release or when you heard them live on a downloaded torrent months or even years before the new record came out? Will you be similarly disappointed to see them performed live in a relatively intimate theatre instead of the bigger venue that Wilco could choose to play based on demand? Perhaps you were distressed that the first official version of "The Thanks I Get" was a complimentary one provided with Jeff's solo DVD? Did the hiss on the webcast from London ruin your special interpretation on the meaning of "You Are My Face"? It's ironic that so many people seem so precious about "art" that Wilco seem only too happy to provide in many other ways than the standard format of releasing a CD every two or three years. Moreover, as a massive music fan, it's shitty to see so many people completely forget the generosity of one of the few bands who have always strived to treat their fans with the utmost respect

With all due respect, I think a lot of posts have been very parochial and myopic. Or more pointedly written by ungrateful bastards. Jeff and the band have every right to make money from their efforts in any way they see fit. It's one thing to take a standard and use it in an advert. For god's sake how much more money does Pete Townsend (several commercials) and Paul McCartney (Fidelity Investments) need to make? Did U2 who were guaranteed massive airplay when "Vertigo" was released in 2004 need to license it to Apple? But it's another thing entirely for Wilco, a mid-level band, to use a couple of new songs in the same way. They make some money and increase the chances of many people who might be completely unaware of them being turned on to some of the greatest music made in the last ten years. As for all of those people who feel that these songs will forever be ruined by being associated with VW: get over it! Did you feel the same disappointment when Wilco streamed "Sky Blue Sky" for two months online or when you heard them live on a downloaded torrent months or even years before the new record came out? Will you be similarly disappointed to see them performed live in a relatively intimate theatre instead of the smaller basketball arena that Wilco could choose to play based on demand? Perhaps you were distressed that the first official version of "The Thanks I Get" was a complimentary one provided with Jeff's solo DVD? It's ironic that so many people seem so precious about "art" that Wilco seem only too happy to provide in many other ways than the standard format of releasing a CD every two or three years. Moreover, as a massive music fan, it's shitty to see so many people completely forget the generosity of one of the few bands who have always strived to treat their fans with the utmost respect.

I'd love to see "IATMWLY" dropped as well as "IATTBYH" and "ALTWYS" and "War on War". I'd love to hear all the new songs getting rotated including "Is That The Thanks I Get". Older songs: "Hoodoo Voodoo" and "Hotel Arizona".

That's a great interview and a very fair review. I have to agree with Jeff's take on music and his distaste for the constant need to pigeonhole bands. Playboy is a quality publication. Their interviews and features are consistently as intelligent, revealing and worthwhile as any magazine out there. As it's such an establishment they don't have an axe to grind or a pretence to be tastemakers in any arena. If you get a chance: pick up an out-of-print book of the last unexpurgated interview that Playboy did with John Lennon in 1980. He is very candid on many subjects and gives very detailed accounts on who was the main contributor between him and McCartney on many Beatles songs.

As for dixiecupdrinker, your jokes indicate you have just hit puberty.

Great version: this should have been on the album. It sounds so much better than the live versions I heard - it has just a little more looseness and swagger. As for the album: it's the gift that keeps on giving. Kinda wish I had got the DVD but "One True Vine" and the live version of "Theologians" are great. As I think about it, I would have been very happy with a 14 song album or better still "Is That The Thanks I Get" replacing "Shake It Off". I think I am in the minority but I think "Let's Not Carried Away" is truly awful: a rock song that doesn't rock.

Well there go the rest of my predictions for the encores. Great segue from "Poor Places" to "Reservations" to "Spiders". What a band! Now give us another encore entirely consisting of SBS songs.

I just started a new dance that can only be described as the spastic involuntary motion that comes from Sunken Treasure and Misunderstood in the same set

What a pretty ending to Misunderstood

The end of the main set is nigh: here comes "I"m The Man"....... Great version of Theologians. Honestly when I get the chance to see them in the Seattle area later this year, I hope the setlists are a little more varied. Things are a tad predictable. Tonight, I foresee "Hate It Here", "What Light", "Heavy Metal Drummer" and possibly a "Misunderstood" or "I'm A Wheel" in the encores.

And that's "Misunderstood" for ten points.

The end of the main set is nigh: here comes "I"m The Man"....... Great version of Theologians. Honestly when I get the chance to see them in the Seattle area later this year, I hope the setlists are a little more varied. Things are a tad predictable. Tonight, I foresee "Hate It Here", "What Light", "Heavy Metal Drummer" and possibly a "Misunderstood" or "I'm A Wheel" in the encores.

that was a short set,no? hopefully we'll get 3 encores

Great version of "I am the man...". Nice rocking end to the song. "The Late Greats". The one song I wish they would drop from their live sets. Boring when you hear it for the thousandth time.

I am stoked. What the world didn't need was another record whose overall feel was pretty dark given the truly fucked up world we inhabit today. Call me corny or sentimental but I am glad to see Jeff deliberately go with a more hopeful vibe for this album. I am also glad that Wilco remain one of the few bands that prune in the editing process and give us a 12 track album as opposed to dragging the music out for 70 minutes over 17 or 18 cuts. I am sure the temptation was there. "Patient With Me" and "Side With the Seeds" are my live favourites. Predictions: I think "On and On and On" has been truncated to two minutes max and will fade in gently after "What Light". Talking of "What Light" it will be adopted by Obama Barack in his successful run for the White House next year. His first order as President will be to make Wilco his official White House band. They will perform at a summit on Middle-East peace in March 2009 and, in a stunning move, the Iranian delegation will agree to close all nuclear facilities if the band agree to remove "Less Than You Think" from all future copies of AGIB.