jracette

Can anyone tell me what's on the bonus CD that came with the box set that was presumably only available on Record Store Day? Suffice it to say that the Barnes and Noble in Fairbanks, Alaska was not participating.

I have no idea what you are saying.

LOL, fair enough.

Don't post here much, sporadically since Wilco's visit here in Alaska last summer sparked me to join the forum. Long time fan, bought a copy of Being There in 96 (was 16) and it more or less changed my life.

I have many thoughts about this album, Wilco's recent output, reactions here, etc., and I can't really cohere them. This will be a ramble.

I like The Album better than Sky Blue Sky. Sky Blue Sky was a disappointment. The Album is less of one, but some of it still chaps me.

I really like several of the tunes here. I love The Song. I love that 13 years after Being There, in my mind the ultimate album about what being a fan of rock and roll means, Wilco are willing to deliberately tear down the fourth wall and address their fans in a heartfelt manner. I think that is a brave and meaningful gesture in an era that still suffers from the ironic detachment that, for better and worse, has pervaded modern rock.

I love One Wing but it was better in its live incarnation - I miss the extended squall of noise at the end and I think the song suffers from the abbreviated, more polite soloing.

Bull Black Nova is awesome but not better than spiders, and I don't even know why so many are comparing it to that tune. The middle instrumental section (where the rhythm changes and we get the melodic guitar interlude) is out of place, I feel. It doesn't contribute to the rising tension in the tune that is its main strength. What I really like about it lyrically is that it's Tweedy clearly writing in character (more on this in a bit).

You and I, You Never Know, and I'll Fight are really nice tunes, I feel they are on the enjoyable side of the "sunny 70s pop/irritating soft rock" continuum. This is as good as it gets in terms of Wilco exploring this territory, and I don't know that they can continue to mine it without starting to miss more than they hit. Especially since Country Disappeared and Everlasting Everything are the real clunkers on the album to me and represent the bad side of that coin.

Last specific song I need to say something about is Sonny Feeling - there's no song that highlights what negative thoughts I have about this era of Wilco better than this one. And the bottom line is that this song is perfect without that lap steel over the verses and chorus. The lap steel damn near wrecks an awesome pop song. If you want to point to one musical moment in the Wilco canon that gives fuel to the "dad rock" nay-sayers (more on this below as well), this is it. This could be somewhat of a can of worms for those who have followed the band for a long time, scars of the war between the alt-country purists that felt the band went wayward after Being There and the ones who aggressively push the band towards avant-garde experimentalism. I've never understood or taken sides in that debate because to me what makes Wilco my favorite band is that they've done so many things so ridiculously well. The Americana/roots/whatever side in Being There (and AM, but I think general consensus is that AM is minor Wilco), the pop perfection in Summerteeth, the sonic experimentation of YHF/AGIB... all of these are among my very favorite albums. So that's not the point of my distaste for that lap steel. It's just so out of place, and recorded in a way and in a context that is reminiscent of some really bad music. It sounds cheesy, and not in a good way. I can't fully describe it, but I have a hunch if you agree with what I'm saying you know exactly what I mean, and if you disagree with me you have no idea what I'm saying.

All of which brings me to the big debate about Wilco's direction, etc. Yes, I am one of those who feel that SBS and W(TA) are not up to the standard of the band's 96-04 recorded output. That doesn't make me a bad fan. It just means that they are currently drawing from influences (70s classic rock, non-punk, metal, or glam) who themselves split my opinion. There's territory there that makes for really awesome music (late Beatles/Harrison influences noted by others on this album are obvious) and territory in the same constellation that, frankly, I can't stand. It's this crappy side of that era that drives the "dad-rock" criticisms. I sympathize with the dads on the board who take offense to this epithet and think it's kind of unfair, so call it "soft-rock," call it "lite," call it whatever, but they are just in a section of their record collection that has a lot of good music and a lot of bad music, and some of the bad is seeping into their albums. Simple as that. You could probably make one good album in this vein taking parts from SBS and W(TA) that are on the right side of that coin, make a couple of production tweaks, and you'd have an album that I love every bit as much as the previous four. At any rate, I certainly feel that they've mined this stuff as extensively as they can and its time to move on. This is the closest by far Wilco has come to making the same album twice in a row and they need some new inspiration.

Which brings me to my second and probably more important point. I don't get the sense that these last two albums have been driven by the same singular obsession/compulsion to explore a specific theme as the band's peak output was. Each of the four best Wilco albums have a sense of purpose, of trying to get at something that is gnawing away at Tweedy. I don't get that sense with these last two albums. Which is why Bull Black Nova strikes me as such a potentially exciting direction (aside from the fact that musically it is in a somewhat different direction that much of other late model Wilco). I'd love to see Tweedy doing more character study, writing from the perspective of someone who very clearly not him - in past albums there has been so much of himself in the lyrics but I don't get that from BBN. I want more of Tweedy as an observer of the world around him, trying to get inside the heads of others.

That's a lot of crap to read. Sorry. Thanks for your attention. Nothing here is meant to antagonize people who love SBS and W(TA) as much as any other Wilco album. Part of being a fan is talking and debating about the music with others who are fans. I also don't presume to dictate to the band what kind of music they should and should not be making. Methinks that a few of the "Wilco can do no wrong" crowd and a few of the "SBS and/or W(TA) blow(s)" crowd could stand to chill.

Count me among those pissed about the wack bonus content rollout. I live in Alaska and preordered the DVD but didn't get it until AFTER the DC show became unavailable. AND I had to create a new username to log into the Wilco site to even get access to the audio tracks from Ashes, because it did not show up in my menu under my old username. Displeased.

It's got fans-go-nuts crowd-pleaser written all over it. If not on an album, it's GOTTA be a live staple.

 

 

 

 

How many other bands have written songs with their band title in the song name? I thought of 3:

 

- The Story of Yo La Tengo

- Belle and Sebastian

- Okkervil River Song

They Might Be Giants

Talk Talk

I know there are more, can't think of them off the top of my head.

Holy crap that was good. I suppose now is as good of a time as any to start reading some more of his work. Do I start with Infinite Jest?

 

I have a feeling I have been missing much...

I too am a big DFW fan saddened by his loss. Infinite Jest is awesome, but daunting. I might humbly suggest his book of nonfiction essays "Consider the Lobster" as a good entry point into his writing and thinking style. The breadth of topics is wide (the uncut, original article on John McCain's 2000 campaign, the title essay, an article about Tracy Austin, one about attending the AVN Awards, one on usage in the English language...) but the brilliance is uniform. I also loved his nonfiction book about infinity. I forgot which of the articles I've read in the aftermath of his death said it, but the truest thing I've read is that he was a genius who was also a writer, rather than a writer who was a genius. His intellectual curiosity and mastery of so many things (and deep passion for so many disparate topics) is what really astounds me about him. My condolences to his wife, family, and anyone whose lives he's touched - this is a great loss for American culture.

Steve Reich- Music for 18 Musicians.

 

Do it. Do it. Do it. Possibly my all time favorite album. Theres a few versions: Ensemble Modern version; the Nonesuch version, played by Reich and musicians along with new musicians; the Amadinda Percussion Group version, a live concert recording; and the most recent, by the Grand Valley State University New Music Ensemble. Personally (and perhaps surprisingly), my favorite is the GVSU version..I like the acoustic dynamics of it the best. But yea, seriously..go out and buy this now. A sample of what its all about:

 

Supposedly one of the most difficult pieces of music to perform ever written. The GVSU ensemble trained intensively for over a year before attempting a live performance.

 

Also, Reichs other stuff is good too. Some of my favs:

Electric Counterpoint-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwxKtr5nF7Y

Different Trains-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJPyOh__zXw

 

And if you find yourself liking that, you should probably delve into Philip Glass as well.

 

 

Also, are you interested in ambient? If so, stuff like Stars of the Lid, Fennesz, William Basinski, Tim Hecker, Eluvium, Ulrich Schnauss...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3CoihmU1ok

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Go4ZZ3Ozc84

This thread has inspired me to track down Basinski's Disintegration Loops discs as well as the Music for 18 Musicians disc. I can't wait til they get here.

Does anyone know if Wilco has ever met Radiohead (the best band named after a Talking Heads song...)???

 

LouieB

I would have to think so, they've played on the same bill at multiple festivals and both bands have close relationships with REM and Sonic Youth.

Serious sounding, the Neutral Milk Hotel album might have a pretty intense thematic thread, but it sounds like a fun-time circus. It's too bad that guy wanted to disappear.

I see what you're saying.

I agree about Mangum, but if Aeroplane (and On Avery Island I suppose) are all he gives us, that's enough for me.

W/R/T the raging Wilco/Radiohead debate, I love both bands very much and both have made a lot of records that are extremely important to me. They are very different in some ways (many of which I think can be explained to varying degrees by European vs. American musical and lyrical traditions) and very similar in some ways (not the least of which is consistent awesomeness, such that comparatively weak records by these bands are still better than almost everything else). I don't like calling Wilco the "American Radiohead" any more than I would like calling Radiohead the "British Wilco" because both bands deserve better than that, but it just seems right to compare/contrast them to each other because they are contemporaries and really represent the current pinnacle of their respective canons. I think that's what the "American Radiohead" thing is getting at, if crudely. Wilco are the best American rock has to offer right now, Radiohead are the best British rock has to offer right now, and it's been that way for about 12-13 years now. This is just like comparisons between the Beach Boys and the Beatles, American vs. British punk, and on and on... I mean serious scholarship has been done on those questions and I bet it will be done on this one (any culture studies/music history/pick your liberal art types looking for a thesis topic?) Bottom line is it makes total sense to be mentioning these two bands in the same breath if you give a crap about such things, and obviously everyone here does. These are, IMHO (and I would venture to say a lot of other HOs and some not-so-HOs) the most important bands of their generation.

BTW, there are some Radiohead haters here. I'm not going to blast you all with "OMG radiohead rulz ur a moron" fanboy gibberish. I think the "pretentious," "ponderous," etc. criticisms are not without some merit. At the same time I don't see anything wrong with a little pretense sometimes. It can lead to massive failure, but it can also lead to astounding art. Its a fine line and sometimes its hard to parse out the pretentious crap from the pretentious greatness. I guess its a little like obscenity, I know it when I see it. Radiohead, I submit, are frequently pretentious greatness.

Sorry, had to get that off the old chest. Like anyone who has strong opinions about music this just seems obvious to me.

You may have a point. I bought that soon after it came out, but haven't listened to it (or Monster) for a long time. I just began to associate Monster and NAIHF with the post-Berry era, but I do recall liking several songs on each CD when they 1st came out.

I do think Up is somewhat underrated nowadays - when it came out I loved it for a period, then soured on it (the next two REM records were sort of responsible for that) and then I went back and listened to it again a couple of months ago and had my opinion of it rehabilitated somewhat. But New Adventures, THAT is a great album.

By the way, we are talking about a band that, for most of my musically-aware life, could do no wrong so take what I say on the topic of REM with a grain of salt.

We are lucky these shows are even available. Some of the shows are not - and I can see why. It's posts like yours that back-up my belief that these shows should not be released for the world to hear. You don't know the whole story - maybe you want to do some searching on the topic living room show - via the search box, to see what the deal is.

I agree that we are lucky they are available, I'm all in favor of getting as much music out there as possible. And I get the gist of the story of the show. I've listened to it once, and I probably won't listen repeatedly to it for the aforementioned reason. That's not to say I don't wish I was there, and also not to say I wouldn't have been singing just as loud. I bet the intimacy of the setting and the sense of community and of charity were amazing and that comes through, but I wasn't there so the recording doesn't mean as much to me as it does to someone who was. I don't mean to offend you and I don't mean to say that this stuff isn't worthwhile, I just mean that I'm not going to go back and spend a ton of time with this recording.

nice... something to listen to at work

 

edit 1: lol some terrible singers in the crowd for airline to heaven

 

"turn your eye to the lord of the sky" - someone is trying to harmonize an octave above jeff and is failing miserably

 

edit 2: haha jeff is screwing up pretty much every song. pretty funny stuff.

I have to say, this is only good for Tweedy's between-song jibber jabber. The actual tunes are unlistenable thanks to the singing, much of it extremely loud.

That's an interesting battle......In the Aeroplane is so much more playful, it's hard to put up against such serious sounding stuff. But, you might have it there.

An album about Anne Frank isn't serious? Man, I have to say I haven't heard a record as purely heartbreaking as In the Aeroplane ever, I don't think...

"And I know they buried her body with others

Her sister and mother and 500 families

And will she remember me 50 years later

I wished I could save her in some sort of time machine"

The poster above got the wrong REM album - New Adventures in Hi-Fi is the criminally underrated member of the REM discography. This was the last album with Bill Berry on board, and it also totally vindicates the artistic direction they had taken on Monster by incorporating the best elements of the glam-rock/celebrity culture skewering themes into the broader REM palette.

Approximate setlist:

 

Sunken Treasure

You are My Face

Handshake Drugs

I Am Trying to Break Your Heart

Jesus etc.

Company In My Back

Hotel Arizona

Radio Cure

Impossible Germany

Pot Kettle Black

Blood of the Lamb

Side With the Seeds

Wishful Thinking

Theologians

Poor Places

Spiders

 

 

Encore 1

Hate it Here

The Late Greats

Walken

I'm the Man WHo Loves You

 

 

Encore 2

Hummingbird

Heavy Metal Drummer

Casino Queen

Outta Sight, Outta Mind

 

I think I've got all the songs but the order is probably messed up. Came on at 8:15 played until 10:30.

Extremely jealous of Hotel Arizona, one I've never heard live in many shows.

he's been doing it for awhile. I remember seeing it at the residency, and I think he did it on SNL too.

He also showed off this move in Anchorage, FWIW.

Anyone been watching classic 120 Minutes on VH1 Classic? Not quite the same because they don't have cuts of Pinfield dropping knowledge on us but still pretty cool. That show was actually instrumental in me discovering Wilco - I had read a review of Being There (simultaneous with Straightaways, actually) but never heard it, and then a couple of weeks later I saw Pinfield interview Tweedy followed by showing the Outtasite (Outta Mind) video and I was off and running.

My photos from the Alaska shows are finally up: http://www.flickr.com/photos/23431408@N05/

There are some good guitar hero action shots. Some of them turned out not so great - still learning to use a new camera. Also a few pics from the Whipsaws set in Fairbanks.

Please enjoy!

Looks like some of you have found this already, but for anyone who hasn't noticed it up there yet: http://bt.etree.org/details.php?id=517341

 

Jim sent me a very cool looking CD with graphics and everything on it. If anyone who can't do BT wants a copy, let me know. I'll send the nice disc out to the first person who calls dibs in this thread (preferably someone who was at the show, for souvenir purposes).

 

(Note: the files on Jim's CD are in flac format, so if you can't deal with that, don't bother asking!)

Dibs!

I'm afraid that as early as the first one I find myself in disagreement... The Sinatra one that everyone should listen to, is Where Are You? At least for the pop fan, which I think basically most of us are. What is unforgettable on Where Are You? is the sound of Frank's voice with the strings of Gordon Jenkins. It's really impressive, the beauty is immediate and pure, and all the romantic souls will swoon.

 

The Wee Small Hours is fine, it's the first concept album as a full LP, I think. That may be why it's considered historically important.

 

Glad to see they didn't forget Jacques Brel's Olympia 64. Perfect pick.

I own that book. Lists like this are never 100% definitive IMO, just launching points for discussion, but my general criticisms of the book were too Brit centered (editor is a Brit) and too much emphasis on the psychedelic rock.

i agree about hate it here. that song is somewhat simple lyrically but theres so much emotion in those lines "I try to keep the house nice and neat,do i made my bed ,i changed the sheets, i even learned how to use a washing machine, keeping things clean..doesnt change anything"

"Hate it Here" = "Far, Far Away" inverted. My, how things come full circle.

Nobody was bitching in 1996 about the lack of obfuscation in that tune.

Please do share....

3 Feet High and Rising, essential album. Go forth and purchase... http://www.amazon.com/3-Feet-High-Rising-Soul/dp/B000000HHE

Wow, so much crap to sort through, but this will get me going. Reverse order, until the year of my birth...

2008 - The Black Keys, Attack and Release (probably will change)

2007 - The National, Boxer

2006 - Islands, Return to the Sea

2005 - Sufjan Stevens, Illinois (tough year, so many great records)

2004 - Arcade Fire, Funeral

2003 - Broken Social Scene, You Forgot it in People

2002 - Wilco, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

2001 - Drive-By Truckers, Southern Rock Opera

2000 - Radiohead, Kid A

1999 - The Flaming Lips, The Soft Bulletin/Wilco, Summerteeth (unfair to make me decide between these two)

1998 - Neutral Milk Hotel, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea/Mercury Rev, Deserter's Songs (ditto)

1997 - Radiohead, OK Computer

1996 - Wilco, Being There

1995 - Radiohead, The Bends

1994 - Blur, Parklife

1993 - PJ Harvey - Rid of Me

1992 - REM, Automatic for the People

1991 - Matthew Sweet, Girlfriend (lots of watershed records this year but this one's probably my favorite)

1990 - They Might Be Giants, Flood

1989 - The Pixies, Doolittle

1988 - Sonic Youth, Daydream Nation

1987 - REM, Document

1986 - Beastie Boys, Licensed to Ill

1985 - The Replacements, Tim

1984 - The Replacements, Let it Be

1983 - REM - Murmur

1982 - The Cure, Pornography

1981 - Kraftwerk, Computer World (maybe just a hole in my collection but I couldn't find many good records this year)

1980 - Talking Heads, Remain in Light

And I'll go back to the year in which I was conceived and say that The Clash, London Calling is at the top of a pile of great records from 1979.

Thanks for that. Maybe it was partly the weather's influence (and the fact that we stayed at the best B&B ever) but I was very fond of the Fairbanks area.

Where did you stay?

Now I'm feeling bad for not getting on when the shows were announced and giving my food, entertainment, etc. recommendations. If anyone is coming to Alaska anytime I'm glad to help with that stuff, PM me if you like.

I'm glad you spoke up-interesting backstory to that show. I'm curious......do you recall Janet from Sleater-Kinney playing a lot during this show? I was wondering if she was the one that added the extra "something" to Handshake Drugs or if it was Jeff just going nuts.

I do remember Janet Weiss playing on California Stars and Handshake Drugs, now that you mention it, but it was on drums - that's Jeff going nuts.... Quasi had played a killer set at Bumbershoot, I'm remembering now as well. I suppose Janet just came down from Portland and Jeff brought her on up. I miss Sleater-Kinney, talk about a tremendous live band. Janet's talents are somewhat wasted on the Malkmus and the Jicks, not that I don't like them but they don't exactly showcase her skills.

edited to add that Janet came back out for Not for the Season too - that's where she really got to show off.