Scalzunfield

must be nice to be holier than thou.

Most definitely.

I just laughed at this review. What annoys me about it is it's billed as a concert review, as others have mentioned, but there's no real concert review. It's just an excuse for Ott to whine about something he doesn't get and clearly has no desire to. What a hack of a writer.

Obviously, whenever a band gains popularity there are gonna be detractors and people who can only say negative things, but I think the best way to do it is just ignore them. There are many bands I don't like (in fact, I'd say "can't stand"), but I don't go out of my way to write some masturbatory article about how much I hate them.

I hate Colin Meloy and love this dude.

I wish I could hate someone I'd never met and didn't know personally. Must be nice to be able to judge someone's character like that.

I did watch Conan,and I dug I was asking a friend of mine who lives in S.Carolina (Isle of Palms) if he'd ever listened to them,and he sez "hell yes,they played at my bar (Bert's) a couple of years ago & they're great folks!"

I think they're alright, definitely a sound of their own, but a full show of that is quite long and, in my opinion, repetitive. They're really talented, but they have one shtick and, while they do it well, I don't feel it holds weight after a certain point. Kind of a one-trick pony in other words. I found it kinda painful having to sit through that at Tall Stacks after Rhett's awesome set and before Wilco's usually great stuff.

I dig one song at a time, but you couldn't pay me to sit through one of their shows. But hey, that's why we're all different and the world is an interesting place: to each his own.

I've been trying not to listen until I buy it but I did listen to the first two tracks...and found myself totally unimpressed. Not comparable to OIW or Chutes in any way because I don't enjoy these tracks at all. I may listen to it all eventually though. It's just not grabbed me enough yet (maybe because I'm indifferent to this release in the first place).

Some things I've noticed/thought:

1) A fair portion of people at each show are not like us VCers. They do NOT know every album song (and many non-album songs by heart). As previously stated, when Wilco has busted out Forget the Flowers recently (and Christ For Pres. in Louisville) there were crickets.

2) I saw them 3 times in a span of 5 days and, yes, I heard IATTBYH, ITMWLY, Jesus, and probably a few others each night I went. Did it bug me? No. The band was on top of their game.

Edit: I should add here that they played more songs off YHF than AGIB in Lousiville...and it was great.

3) Previous comments on I Got You/Red-Eyed. I think I could still use a couple more years without hearing those songs. I still love 'em, but they played them at virtually every show from '95 to '02. And I understand that some people feel that way about the newer material.

4) The songs on AM can be accomplished decently by 3 and perfectly by 4 people. I'm sure this lineup could add some incredible stuff to those old songs, but I think Jeff's past that point. As Louie and others stated, he doesn't want to fall back on all the old stuff (particularly, I'm sure, because he hasn't ever seemed that fond of the material he wrote for AM anyways).

5) I don't run the show. Sure, I pay for the ticket and spend the money to get there, but I'm not in charge of the show. If the band takes a turn I don't like, I'll stop going. It's just that simple (pun fully intended). It's their show and if they wanted to trot out a copycat setlist night after night, they could. But they don't and that's why I keep going.

Just a few pennies from yours truly.

And Wilco has recorded in the Soma Studio...So the plot thickens.

Have you considered being a dick?

A private eye, that is.

I just went to check out the site and it would appear it's either been hacked or switched hands in the past 12 hours since I last checked. Apparently I can get some sweet drugs from that site now...

There are a lot of other "voices" in the music industry that are much much more annoying, IMO.

*cough* Bob Dylan *cough*

And yet I love 'em both.

I don't ever download illegally. I find that I buy enough music without fully appreciating or listening to it enough anyways...

I have roughly 600 CDs and I have 12000 songs on my hard drive, 1800 of which are full Grateful Dead concerts. Granted, there are probably about 50 albums worth that were ripped in courtesy of my old roommate (Radiohead albums...I'd never buy 'em) or my dad.

What is the one Tweedy song from ANY band or project he's done that you would use if a person said: "Gimme one reason this guy's music is so special to you."

I'll give this a week, maybe longer, and then add up the totals on it. I want to see what you all feel.

Keep in mind, any song of Jeff's will work: (Mermaid Ave, Wilco, UT, Minus 5 contributions, Golden Smog, Odd Job Jack, etc.)

I'll start: Jesus, etc.

Decemberists

Destroyer

The Stills

Guster

Eels

Bands I have recently bought ONE album from and would like to get many more:

Spoon (Gimme Fiction)

Yo La Tengo (I Will Beat Your Ass)

Band lots of peeps here have said but I'm still not sold on:

MMJ--I like several songs off both Z and It Still Moves, but find myself shelving the new live album and hardly listening to more than 50% of both the studio ones I do have.

Actually, what the negativity over the new songs shows is that some people don't like the new songs. There's nothing inherently snobbish about not liking something. The last line of your post, however, absolutely reeks of snobbery and condescension.

My point was that the new songs are more in the vein of Heavy Metal Drummer, I'm A Wheel, etc. It seems like more of a fun album and the critiques on here seem to be more about the lyrics, nevermind the fact that the songs are incredibly varied from stuff we've seen these guys do before (which is what everyone here seems to love them for...)

That and I can't help but laugh at TheMaker writing them off completely from one song. Now THAT cracks me up.

And the point of the last line was just that, hence the wink.

I love all the negativity going on here. It just shows how many people on here truly are music snobs and are completely opposed to an album that could actually be *gasp* fun without being at least minorly pretentious (and for the last time, pretentious is not always a bad thing).

I'm already convinced the new album will be better than AGIB, for one. I've loved pretty much every new song minus "Either Way" and "On and On," both of which have failed to show up in set lists for quite a long time.

For Rock/Wreck Myself, I love that line about singing through clenched and cracking teeth.

And as for Impossible Germany, I'm almost convinced that is my new favorite Wilco tune. That gradual build for the final few minutes of the song that leads up to that simple, but well-placed and dramatic walk-down from a G major to an E minor sends chills down my spine every time.

I also want to know who all the people are on here that are listening to mildly decent audience recordings. When you're there, it's a completely different experience. When I first got into Wilco a few months after Summerteeth came out, I wasn't impressed. The album seemed overblown and really didn't fit in with much I listened to, but after seeing them live, there was no better band. My opinion hasn't changed and I think seeing these new songs live would help.

If you have and you still don't like them at all, I don't know what to tell you. I'd imagine you to be the person skipping over I'm A Wheel and Theologians to get to Less Than You Think...for the drone.

Def saw at least 2 tapers as well

Oh yeah? I saw three.

That being said, I got nothing to add. Your review was spot on.

I was at Purdue, Tall Stacks, and Louisville this week and this one was definitely the best of 'em. What a great week for me and for the band.

I think I may be the only one disappointed by it.

My intro to the band was them opening for Wilco in Louisville last year and I didn't like them at all, but I took a chance earlier this year and purchased Z and It Still Moves. I find myself listening to Z much more and was looking forward to this release but...

His voice seems very weak live. I do like how some of the songs vary from the album versions, but most of the Z material is straight from the record, nearly note-by-note.

It's still a decent album: don't get me wrong. But in an age where even bands who don't warrant a live album put one out, this one is a middle-of-the-road release. It doesn't really stand out.

Two shows in a row I believe

If I remember some of the set lists from the tour before this, it wasn't there every show either. I, for one, am thankful at getting to potentially hear two (or even three) new songs in its place. Not that I don't love Spiders, but...a change is really nice.

forgive me but what song are you refering to?

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

From the quote he says at the beginning about it "not being on an album," it's hard to tell if he's referring to the upcoming release. If that song isn't on there, I'm gonna be sad. I'm really looking forward to a good studio version.

I've got NHL Center Ice and I'm watching 4 games tonite. Go Blackhawks.

Early Day Miners from Bloomington. They're good.

I was completely unimpressed: their songs sounded very similar at all points (especially the drums: two drummers should be able to make something more unique IMO). I think I'll delay my arrival in Louisville on Sunday a little bit.

I actually like this new album of theirs.

At this point, album of the year IMO. Glad to see others coming around to the dark side

1. No Sense In Lovin'

2. Gun

3. We've Been Had

4. Black Eye

5. New Madrid

6. Wait Up

I always have trouble with situations like this: there's nothing you can say that doesn't sound totally generic, but I really hope everyone in the Tweedy family gets through this with relative ease and remembers the happy moments throughout her quite lengthy life, not the very end and the fact that she's gone now.

My thoughts are with them for sure.

Ouch. That kinda sucks. Tell them some nice people from an online message board will be your chaperone or something.

I'll be working 6 am to 4 pm in Madison, Indiana. That's a 2 hour drive from where Tall Stacks is being held. But I'll be there in time for Wilco of course.

is there just a dirge of anything remotely good these days that this dude is the savior?

 

rider

Nope. You're just not "in the club" so to speak (of those who get his music). It's like Radiohead or Neil Young for me: I just don't get it and probably never will.

The only difference being, of course, that I dig a lot of the musicians Neil Young has influenced.