loldoctor

"I am an American Aquarium Drinker" = I am an alcoholic

So

"I assassin down the avenue" = I drink and drive...

It seems to me to be pretty solid as an interpretation, although it is of course debatable... But this seems (to me) to be the best explanation.

edit - Also, I thought that in I'm The Man Who Loves You the solo is played by Jay Bennett? Isn't AGIB creditted as "Tweedy's first guitar solo album"? This has always confused me actually so it would be nice for clarity.

I loved this show! After getting lost going there, ending up in the ghetoo, getting pulled over for being white, getting lost again (and thinking the cop's directions were just to fuck with us), and then finally arriving, all I could think was 'They better play a good set list.' And boy did they. Sky Blue Sky songs are so amazing to see live, I couldn't stop (literally) giggling the whole time... people were giving me weird looks. haha!

Their encore was my favorite part. It went from a pretty typical but great show to just an old fashioned concert, with the whole band just rocking out. This is the only time that the sound of the Rave got awful... for most of the show I was aware of the bad quality, especially in Tweedy's voice, but I didn't mind it. During their encore it seemed like everything got much MUCH louder and the guitars were topping out. I was stage center, about 50 feet from the stage itself. But the thing is, the crackling guitars and high pitched squeel only made it better because it just made me think--ten years ago, this is how they played. They played these songs, and just rocked out, and had a great time... and they're still doing it! That's why I love Wilco--above all else, they're musicians who love to play music.

I've seen them once before, at the Auditorium Theatre, and the show was pretty bland. I was too far away, and everyone was sitting, so it just didn't feel the same... Tweedy has an ear for crowds and he could tell we were all really into the music. At points I could hear the crowd singing along over the noise of the band--and Jesus Christtttt when they played Handshake Drugs at the end... It was fantastic to actually FEEL those notes, and watch them shred strings... And of course, Tweedy playing solo was amazing. To have the power to make that many people shut up... its astounding.

All-in-all it was a great show. Kidsmoke sounded amazing. There was very little banter, which I actually like (I know some people love Tweedy banter but for me I'd rather just hear them play. Maybe a little bit in the middle of the set, but no long stories... and that's exactly what he gave us). I can't wait to see them again at another small venue--its a completely different experience. I was supposed to go with my psuedo-girlfriend but she changed her mind at the last minute and so I took a guy friend of mine and I am so glad I did... he absolutely loved it and we were raving about it the entire way home. It was perfect... even with all the shit getting there and literally thinking we were going to die... haha!

going w/ 3 friends. can't wait

I shit my pants when I heard Wilco. At first I thought it was Nick Drake for some reason... like, I heard it and I was like 'What is that? I recognize it.' and didn't even think of Wilco since they're never on anything... it definitely made the episode better. I agree with the above post that dumping the body was dumb as hell... I hate both of those characters anyway though.

I hope the next album is more freak-out-guitar. I love Wilco, and SBS, but some of my favorite stuff by them is the weird stuff (YHF, AGIB). SBS is a nice break from all that, but man... I really want to hear them tear it up.

I can't believe they havn't released a DVD yet. I wonder what they're waiting for.

I've always loved Jeff Tweedy's lyrics. I'm a songwriter myself, and a major part of my writing goes into lyrics, which I think is why I like Wilco so much. Jeff Tweedy has commented a couple of times on how he writes songs, and I think it's in 'Learning How To Die' that he says a bunch of the lyrics on Being There were just made up as he went along, never really written down, but would just evolve with the song. This struck me as odd since I write songs the same way, just coming up with lyrics on the spot, and then later editting them to get a meaning across. This way of writing, I've found, and its noteable in Wilco, is what allows such great phrasing, the way things don't have to rhyme to sound good. The lyrics are completely reliant on the songwriters ear, the same way coming up with a catchy melody (another talent of Tweedy's) doesn't take long hours to do, it just sparks and happens. When you write like that you get those great roll-off-the-tongue phrases like the ones mentioned in this thread. It takes a certain ability to do it, and more than that a real confidence to be able to just say words and not think about them, even if you say something stupid as hell, and just move on and let the song do the talking. For Tweedy and myself music seems to be an expression more than anything, which you can really see in his guitar on AGIB--it sucks ass, the tone is terrible, he messes up constantly, but above all of that it's gorgeous, making it one of my favorite if not my favorite albums by them.

But I think what seperates him from most songwriters, myself included, is his ability to take a straight-forward statement and twist it. I fell in love with Jeff Tweedy when I listened to IATTBYH for the fifteenth time and it finally dawned on me what 'I assassin down the avenue' meant. After that I began tearing through his lyrics, looking for other little twistings of words, the way he can play with two meanings--Shes A Jar being likened with shes ajar... It's genius. But like I said, I didn't even realize it until the fifteenth listen. Wilco is a band that stradles the border between pop and "indie" music, mixing Tweedy's great and catchy melodies with often abrasive guitars, strange sounds, long progressions, and sometimes leaving you wanting that chorus that never comes. At the same time they never reach the swarms of sound that make bands like The Arcade Fire or Sigur Ros enjoyable to those people who want to just disappear in the music--which isn't a fault at all. I think Tweedy wants you to be aware that you're listening to a song, wants you to listen to the lyrics because they are mixed so loud. But at the same time, albums like YHF seem to drag you into this other place, where yes you can hear words, no you don't disappear into the warmth of music like you would with other bands, but you feel out of yourself. When I first listened to YHF, with the closing track finally winding down, I was awe-struck. I felt as though I had just ventured into the mind of an artist, lived among his most honest and serious sentiments--'All my lies are always wishes' slapped me in the face, 'I've got reservations about so many things but not about you' made me feel lonely, struck by his feelings for his wife, his children, his entire life.

In the IATTBYH DVD you can hear Wilco introduced as 'one of the most daring bands in rock and roll', or something of the like, and I think the same can be said about their lyrics. Tweedy puts it all out there, wears his life on his sleeves, bears his soul to the world in his music and doesn't except anyone to feel sympathy, or to call him tortured, or to say he's a genius, or any of that bullshit. It's just how he writes, how he's always written, and there's nothing he can do except write more. In the Shake It Off DVD he mentions that he wanted SBS to be an album he could listen to, to just fucking play, or something like that, and I think that's why his lyrics are as they are on the album. He didn't want another Summerteeth, which is plagued by some seriously harsh lyrics, and he didn't want YHF, which is pockmarked with the struggles of someone who doesn't understand why he does things. He just wanted to chill out, get lost in the music, play along in his head (which SBS is great for), and not feel those things again. I have written songs that have frightened me in their honesty and sometimes they have been good, but still I tuck them away for fear of ever letting someone hear the words coming from my mouth. Tweedy has written songs just as honest and then published them to millions of people, the way you mail off a letter to your loved one that is filled with angry words but needs to be said, and you already wrote it so why not? But who wants to read that note five years later, after the emotions are gone, after you know the outcome? No one. SBS is a love-letter, one that can be revisitted with fondness rather than cringing, and the lyrics are just as good, only in a different way.

I've written too much, I got a little lost in the moment there. But I'll end things with my favorite Wilco lyric:

'At least that's what you said.'

Which, when you think about it, is the greatest thing to say just before you bare all of your emotions without muttering a single word.

Thanks a million for the fast posting of the recording. Just starting this now, and I'll seed as long as I can. Can't wait to listen. Thanks again, and hopefully I'll see some of you guys at Eagle's Ballroom! Can't wait.

God damn! I'm killing myself right now... I had a chance at a free ticket to this show, but it would have required driving down there (6 hours) and back (6 hours) and then working for eight hours and so I figured 'Nah. It'll probably just be a typical show...' and I'm seeing them on the 9th of Oct... but now I wish I had taken the chance. That's a perfect setlist.

I think I speak for all of us when I say that the sooner we can get a recording, the better. What was Spiders like (someone said it was different?)

here's the goth HMD

 

http://www.sendspace.com/file/9df4p0

hahaha no way is that Jeff singing. He sounds nothing like himself! Haha thanks so much for sharing this it's good to hear Wilco mess around.

Wow I didn't know there was another set (Engineer set) of YHF recording! Kickass. Thanks for uploading.

I'm pretty sure he's thumbing a B during that second part, if you play it open. He does it on the 9th fret of the D string, I think. It might not be a B though, but he's definately thumbing some note.

It sounds like they mean D on the A string, which would be played x57775 as a bar.

A lot of music notation programs automatically put in those chord diagrams, so their addition of 'on A' could have been put in before the program started adding diagrams and they didn't think about it. Honestly though, it's weird. This is just my best guess, since 'on A' always means 'on the A string' when I hear it.

*Far, Far Away worked on me. We really hadn't known each other very long, maybe just seen each other a handful of times, but somehow we ended up taking off on a Friday morning and heading out to the Blue Ridge Parkway with a tent in the trunk and a handful of his cd's in the player. I knew a little about his musical leanings but no clue that he liked Wilco. That song starting coming through the speakers as we neared the place we were going to camp, two people who really didn't know each other, a little nervous that we'd committed to a weekend in the wild to boot.....I felt infinitely more comfortable and the act of each of us singing along here and there through our shyness was sweet foreplay......the mountain bed followed....

That's awesome. I was singing one of their new tracks from Sky Blue Sky while at work and my manager asked me 'Was that Wilco?'. I've already been in love with her for the past like two months (not real love, just playful kind) and so I proposed to her right there and then on the spot! Haha. Wilco has this great way of being subtely there, yet when you find out about it you can share this great relationship with someone. I think maybe it's becuase of a certain characteristic that's found throughout all the people who really LOVE the band. There's something universal in the listeners, the real die-hard Wilco fans.

But by Far, Far Away I meant that I perform it for people. It's one of my favorite covers to play, if not THE favorite. It's out of my range and slow and my voice barely makes enough noise to hear when I sing it but for some reason that only makes it more enjoyable. There's an intimacy there that's hightened when you have to phyiscally lean forward, swoon along to the rhythm. My Wilco-loving friends always ask me to sing it for them whenever we're all sitting around, and its one of the few songs I enjoy covering.

Man, almost a year later I realize I came off as prick when I posted in this thread about my girlfriend at the time.

Anyway, any girl who would swoon to Far, Far Away is cool in my book. I took a lady to see JT solo and she cried during Sunken Treasure and let me just tell you--that is one of the most attractive things possible.

That being said, nothing will ever top Reservations. It may not be as warm and cuddly as most of the songs, and it doesn't translate into guitar, but the lyrics are so straight-forward and beautiful--especially in the context of an album filled with conflicted feelings.

I've got reservations about so many things but not about you.

The greatest lyrics are the ones that don't need to rhyme, and Tweedy nails it with that one.

But seriously though...anyone in Chicago wanna start a band ?

I'm in.

Yeah, I heard one of my friends mention that Wilco was on the radio. I have no idea why, of all the songs, they picked 'What Light' to be their radio track? I like the track, but it's definitely not what I would have thought they'd choose. The only reason I can think of is that it's short, whereas tracks like Impossible Germany (which is my favorite on the album, maybe Side With The Seeds) is too long.

I'd be interested to hear what stations are playing it, my friends didn't remember. Is there a website for that kind of stuff?

I like that setlist, sounds like it was a good show. Hopefully I'll get to see them next year in Europe, it will be like a home-away-from-home kind of thing.

Someone needs to get this stuff on Youtube so I can see it, lean back, grin to myself and nod.

Can someone please re-post the Jeff Tweedy cover of Neutral Milk Hotel? The link's down.. I would kill for that track. Thanks to everyone who's posted, I love this community!

A great performance, although we sat way too far away for it to be all it coulda been. The drum solo was awesome, though, as was most of the performance.

Unfortunately, my two favorite live songs weren't played. Muzzle of Bees I can understand, but why didn't they play Via Chicago?

For me I started getting into that whole "indie" / Pitchfork Media scene--listening to Modest Mouse, Postal Service (before they became super-popular and when I thought they were indie), Nick Drake, The Shins, etc. All those bands that are psuedo-popular now but never played on the radio.

Anyway, I had always heard 'Man you've got to listen to Wilco they're the best!' but I never gave them a shot until one day I took YHF off my brother's computer and put it on my iPod so I could listen to it on the way to school.

I listened to it every day for at least a month, then I moved on to A Ghost is Born, then Summerteeth and Being There. Finally I bought Kicking Television and it was done--I was in love with Wilco, both as a listener and as an amateur songwriter who could enjoy Tweedy's extremely simple yet complicated melodies and song structures, his amazing lyrics, and his insistence that it's all fake and he isn't actually a poet.

My first and only concert was just a few weeks ago--Tweedy alone in Champaign, IL. It was a great performance, had me reeling for the next week and unable to write music (I can usually chug out around 1-3 songs a week just for fiddling with, maybe 1 in 10 actually being good). It was a great concert and changed my life (not hugely, only in the area of music). I'm going to see Wilco on the 25th live in Chicago so that should be amazing beyond all measure. Super-pumped for it.

A great band with great music--Jeff Tweedy is one of the few true musicians of our musical era. I don't care what you say, Jeff, there's some kind of treasure rumored to be locked inside that chest of yours--even if it isn't sunken.

Here's the setlist:

Foellinger Auditorium

U of I

10/27/06

Spiders

IATTBYH

Cars Can't Escape

Instrumental

Sunken Treasure

Was I in your dreams

Lullaby for Rafters and Dreams (I think)

The Ruling Class

Radio King

*new song ?? (Be Patient with Me?)

Summerteeth

Gun

Theologians

I am the Man who Loves You

Bob Dylan's Beard

What light

In a Future Age

Wishful Thinking

Walken

Is that the Thanks I get

(yeah, that's right--he played a brand new song!)

I just hope they do Via Chicago on the 25th. I love the live version of this song, it would really make my night to hear it in person.

Also I hope they do Muzzle of Bees because I want my face melted off.

bumping this for Was I In Your Dreams solo tab

Damn it! I knew I should have come. Two shows in one week would have been amazing... too bad they're so damn expensive. Looking forward to the recording once it gets posted. Glad you guys had a good time!