shabba rich

I wasted two hours of my life Wednesday morning for the presale, haplessly hitting "continue" over and over and over again without success.

I decided not to leave it to the seemingly unfair vagaries of online ticketing, so i lined up at a ticketmaster outlet for 12 noon today. Two others were there for Wilco tickets. At 12 sharp the agent clicked in for each of us. I got second row gallery (second balcony in the middle). A far cry from the second row floors that some of you lucky buggers got in the presale. But I am still thrilled just to be there. And I'm at least one of the first to be able to hold my Wilco tickets in my hot little hands.

Sky Blue Sky isn't going to change that trend, I would guess. Not really a record that will grab the ears of those not already committed to them.

Funny, I see it just the opposite. It's maybe the most accessible album they've ever made. No 10-minute tracks of churning krautrock. No two-minute crecendos of noise. No 7-minutes of drone. Just beautifully written and performed songs. SBS may turn off the hipsters, but it just might be the album to break through to the hoi polloi.

So is it worth it? Do they usually release really good tickets for the presale, or is it the same Row T crap that ticketbastard sells us?

For anyone who hasn't heard it yet, Cassadega is streaming for free this week at music.aol.com. Personally I think it's very very good, by far his best work, maybe his breakout album.

But Stephen Stills actually did.

And got rejected because his teeth were crooked, in favour of Peter Tork, who was a pretty good guitarist in his own right. Just imagine how rock history might have been different if Steven Stills had better teeth: Crosby, Tork, Nash and Young.

It was common knowledge that Jeff's pick-up routine was to start crying to elicit sympathy from whatever female he was attracted to.

That Jay would mention this in the retelling of the story indicates to me that his motives are more axe-grinding as opposed to setting the historical record straight. It doesn't shed any more light on what happened in that vehicle that night, and it's only purpose would seem to be to stick it to Jeff.

Besides, what kind of rock star starts crying to get laid? That's a tactic for the rest of us schlubs, and it even works sometimes too, but not on goths or bodybuilders.

"I am an American Aquarium Drinker, I assassin down the avenue" (and basically all the lyrics to IATTBYH)

I too was befuddled by this line, until I realized you could take it as referring to not an aquarium drinker (yuck) who happened to be American, but rather to a drinker of the American Aquarium, which I suppose is a way of saying he absorbs the vast richness of American cultural life, or something like that. In which case, lets face it, the assassin part makes more sense.

organic

soulful

contemplative

Just to add my 2 cents, I loved the new record on my one and only listen, but with reservations. I agree the soulful vibe is a departure, and change is always hard to adjust to for everybody, but I also agree the Wilco way is to defy expectations, so full marks there.

The songwriting is fantastic, and the musicianship, particularly Messrs. Cline and Stirratt, is jaw-droppingly brilliant. But I also agree with those who say there's not a wide enough range of sound, and that the addition of just one raw rocker would make the album more complete to me. Add me to the list of those disappointed that Glenn was never given a chance to really let em rip like he can.

But I think this is a perfect album to introduce Wilco to some of my friends who were intimidated by the noise of the previous albums. And I suspect that I will be loving it, without reservation, sometime in late May.

With each record, they've turned a corner, and as they did, some people got off and others got on. This time, the road they turned onto brought them a few blocks from home - closest to where they started (in my opinion). For those who got in the car... around YHF and AGIB, it's been fun, but I'm sticking around. And I can see where this record might bring back some of fans that got out a few records ago.

 

Peace.

And all those idiots who have still labelled the band as "alt-country" despite the past 5 or 6 years will suddenly and unwittingly be closer to the mark again.

I always thought that "Monday" sounded like it was lifted right off of Exile On Main Street.

I would guess that it will be a lot like A Ghost is Born with a number of the Wilco members listed as the songwriters on each song. It wouldn't surprise me if there was a Stirrat/Tweedy piece either.

8 out of the 12 songs on AGIB were credited solely to JT, as opposed to YHF, where the majority of tracks were co-compositions. Some would argue that that would partly explain the different feel of the two albums. SBS promises to be different again, and I'm thinking maybe it's partly due to a new creative dynamic.

As the first album recorded with the sextet lineup, I'm very curious to see how the band's songwriting dynamic has changed. Are we gonna see any Cline/Tweedy compositions? If so which ones? That opening lick on Impossible Germany is an important motif in the song, wonder if it belongs to Nels? Will there be more Jorgenson/Tweedy or Kochke/Tweedy songs? And what about Johnny? We know he's a pretty good songwriter, howcum there haven't been any Stirratt/Tweedy Wilco songs ?

It'd be a good opener, but I think it'll probably be Impossible Germany since that's the sort of song that Wilco tends to open records with.

I think both Walken and Impossible Germany are too straightforward to be openers. If the last two albums represent a pattern, then we can say that Wilco now tends to open with one of the most challenging tracks on the album. I think with YHF, opening with IATTBYH was a way for the band to give the middle finger to Warner, and to signal that their sound had changed. Opening AGIB with ALTWYS was issuing a similar challenge to listeners.

But most of the new stuff that I've heard falls under the straighforward category. Is there any new track that challenges like IATTBYH?