DAngerer09

yeah, Seven Swans is really good too Solace. Sufjan is at his best when he isn't piling too many instruments and game show sounds on top of each other...

Greetings From Michigan

i've been listening to that album a lot lately. I think it's his best work by far.

anyone know if this place has a lame curfew like so many of the venues they've been playing over the past couple summers? I know nothing about this place...

yeah id be interested to know what song they were playing when he brought this thing out

that Lightning 100 interview was a hoot. Glenn spends a good minute talking about going to New Zealand, working on the Neil Finn project and how they loved it so much that they stayed an extra week to record. then the guy's next questions is, "Why did you choose New Zealand of all places to record the album?"

although that was a pretty bitchy first post, i do agree with your point about the aronoff not being a good rock venue (unless you are in the first few rows)

my favorites so far, in no order

wilco- the album

phoenix- wolfgang amadeus phoenix

patrick watson- wooden arms --- tremendously underrated musician!

passion pit- manners

bonnie prince billy- beware

as much as I'd like them to show off their musical chops and do Deeper Down, I think the most logical choice would be Sonny Feeling. For a casual late night TV watcher that hasn't heard much Wilco, that would be the catchiest song and the one that would grab listeners the best. I was playing that song on my iPod when I went through the drive-thru at Wendy's like 2 days after it leaked and the cashier said, "that sounds like a really great song." And she was probably mid 40s, working at Wendy's.

Deeper Down would be a bold move. I'm rooting for that one.

thanks for the link. jeff's vocals sounds great on this

yeah, im getting there early. wilco shows aren't the same unless you are right up front.

i still like most of it and listen to it often, but my feelings haven't changed much since my first few listens. still don't like you and i and country- skip those quite often.

haha, it will be nice to meet the fellow poster who bashed parts of WTA along with me (Alan).

How far of a drive is that for you Kalle?

hmm, i didn't think of that. i don't have a dime-a-dozen account anyway... is it up anywhere else?

I know there are some of the Spanish shows up on torrent sites, but I don't really want to download 1/2 a gig just to hear one song.

If anyone has downloaded a recent show, is it possible to post an mp3 of Bull Black Nova? This would be awesome if a kind soul would do that...

can someone describe how BBN is sounding live? is it much different from the album version? does Jeff scream "pick up!" more than just twice? is it fantastic?

I'm pumped that there is no opener. I've seen Wilco 4 times and the best show was "an evening with Wilco" in Morgantown, WV. They played longer and there seemed to be more banter than usual.

dang.... everywhere i looked, including the theater's site, said they were sold out. oh well. does seem like a cool venue though.

Hey everyone,

Looks like on the website it is showing that this show will be "An evening with Wilco" - no opener. Very excited for this. I paid way too much for a ticket on ebay, but I'm excited to go.

Anyone else headed to this show?

did they ever play fort wayne, where a bunch of ya'll started some big petition for them to come?

they should have followed this song, or preceded it, with Let's Fight (the song they played while road testing SBS material).

he may have never been an "official member," but he was in the band...

i don't really understand why they are stingy with the stream...

the thing is out there all over the internet and if someone wants to listen to it, they can.

does it have something to do with the label, you think?

yeah, but this song is sooo much better than on and on and on (a snoozer)

a nice piece from the blog, "Absolute Power Pop"

It was with great sadness that moments ago I learned that Jay Bennett, formerly of Wilco, died today at the age of 45. Sadly, most people will end up remembering him as the "obnoxious" guy that Jeff Tweedy had to boot out of the band during the Yankee Hotel Foxtrot sessions in 2001, courtesy of the documentary I Am Trying To Break Your Heart. I'll remember him as a kind of mad pop genius, and I've always been of the opinion that Wilco went downhill after he was ousted from the band.

 

Bennett was an accomplished multi-instrumentalist, and he joined Wilco for their critically acclaimed 2nd album, Being There. But it was 1999's Summerteeth when Bennett really took over. Its swirling pop melodies and walls of sound were as much Bennett as they were Tweedy, and it stands as a pop masterpiece in my book (the lovely ballad "My Darling" was a Bennett composition, for one). And his stamp was all over the avant-garde sounds of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (he was sacked at the end of the recording sessions). I don't mean to belittle what Tweedy did on these albums, but without Bennett playing Lennon to his McCartney (or the other way around), neither of these discs would have been the classics they were. In 2002, Bennett teamed up with Edward Burch to release The Palace at 4AM, an overlooked gem that let him unleash his inner Jeff Lynne on a series of densely produced pop nuggets, the highlight of which is "Shakin' Sugar", an outtake from the YHF sessions also known as "Alone", and one of the best ELO songs Lynne (or Bleu in LEO) never wrote. Bennett wasn't the world's greatest singer, but he does a passable Elvis Costello on songs such as "Whispers and Screams" and "Puzzle Heart", while "Talk to Me" and "Drinking on Your Dime" are also standouts. His turn on another Wilco outtake, the aching ballad "Venus Stopped the Train", is also excellent. I can't find a Lala embed for it, but you can listen to it through Rhapsody here:

 

Bennett's solo career after Palace was kind of checkered. He released a couple of acoustic-based albums, which to me just weren't his metier. His 2007 release The Magnificent Defeat was a step back in the right direction, and he had a new album in the can before his death. Meanwhile, at least in my opinion, Wilco since he left has had a musically aimless and unfocused sound, and I haven't been much of a fan of A Ghost is Born or Sky Blue Sky, and what little I've heard of Wilco (The Album) isn't hearkening back to the glory days of turn-of-the-century Wilco. Meanwhile, Bennett in recent times has continued to come off as an unsympathetic character; his most recent stint in the news came from a lawsuit he filed against Tweedy regarding royalties from I Am Trying to Break Your Heart. But before anyone makes him out to be the 100% bad guy, remember that Tweedy has left quite a "body count" in his wake when it came to musical partnerships; aside from his acrimonious break with Jay Farrar in Uncle Tupelo, he's managed to purge everyone sans John Stirratt from the early days of Wilco, and until recently the band was a revolving door of supporting players.

 

Jay Bennett will be missed, but I'd already been missing him for years. Maybe in death he'll get the credit he was due in Wilco. Rest in peace, Jay.