JAK2112

bumped, because i thought there'd be more info on this by now. Anyone got any juicy details?

Nice amount of Summerteeth (Future Age, Via Chicago, Always in Love) so far, which isn't surprising considering all the ST - TWL comparisons being made lately (rightfully so, if you ask me)

Ya, i just saw that. Some pretty early unexpected gems in there, psyched to see they are still switching up setlists a lot.

Have people been tweeting the show?

This is how i spent my 9/11 anniversary, and i wouldn't have done it any other way. A beautiful performance of a breathtaking piece in a beautiful setting

http://www.npr.org/blogs/deceptivecadence/2011/09/07/140265002/remembering-september-11-a-live-concert-webcast-from-the-temple-of-dendur

The production on this song is absolutely incredible. I really want to know how Glenn got his snare sound, it's so tight and crisp.

I wandered over to the World Trade Center late last night to pay some respects since i knew it was going to be a zoo today (i was in chinatown with some friends). I found myself to be way more emotional about it than i thought. I didn't know personally anybody who passed away that day, but i grew up around NYC, and don't think I'll ever forget that day.

Another part of it is that i realized being 20 years old now, that day was a half a life ago, yet it still feels so immediate. My heart goes out to everyone, living and deceased, whose lives were more affected by this tragedy than mine was.

"As intimate as a kiss over the phone"

Coincidence?

 

You think The Final Cut or A Momentary Lapse of Reason is the best Pink Floyd album? I guess you could say Yoshimi could be in the top 2 or 3 Lips' albums. They might be close.

I was referring more to Animals and The Wall. Also don't forget The Soft Bulletin for Flaming Lips

Obviously, if you think The Whole Love is the greatest album of the century, this line of questioning makes little sense. But I don't think there is any band in the history of music that was making their best albums 15+ years into its career.

Pink Floyd?

The Flaming Lips?

I met Springsteen a few months ago, very nice guy, but it was at a crowded benefit event and he wasn't exactly in the right place to have an extended conversation with strangers. But we talked for about a minute, and i got a picture with him (still my FB profile pic). As a Springsteen fan, this was a defining life moment.

Grace Potter - Burps like a fiend

Dave Grohl - Super nice dude

Eddie Veder - Met on a few occasions, another super nice dude

Wayne Coyne - Nicest guy in Rock & Roll

Peter Silberman (The Antlers) - Nice guy, sort of quiet, but nice

Thom Yorke - Didn't really meet him, happened to run into a photographer friend at a festival and started talking to him, only to realize the guy he was with and about to photograph was Thom. He just sort of looked at me and i couldn't really breath for a few seconds

There might be a few more, but those are the big ones i can remember well.

I also heard lots of Nick Drake in the early parts of the song, probably the low vocals and the guitar tuned really low (Whole thing tuned a step down, drop C). Also reminds me of some of the quieter moments off of In Rainbows (House of Cards, Nude, Faust Arp).

I think Pat's heightened role in the studio is what helped kick this album up a notch. I think the last few albums have been missing the constant collaboration that made Summerteeth/YHF/AGIB so great (with both Jay B and Jim O'rourke). Hopefully this trend continues into the future.

Radiohead's 7th Album, roughly 15 years into their career was In Rainbows

Pink Floyd's 10th Album, also around 15 years in, was The Wall

There's no reason to think that just because Wilco is done creatively just because of how much time they've been around and how much material they've released. Personally, after listening to TWL quite a few times, i think it's easily in Wilco's top 4 albums, probably top 3.

The fact is, even if TWL isn't Wilco's best album, the fact that most bands probably won't ever make an album close to as good as that speaks to how many strong albums Wilco has in it's catalogue, and I'm certain they have at the very least a few more good ones left to make.

I've also always heard "Knocked down by the long lie", which in context would make sense since we're talking about Jane Smiley's boyfriend's view of his fathers religiousness.

 

I have another confession to make. I knew that you did. I recognized your name on Last.FM.

You're lucky that I didn't rat you out.

Haha, thanks

And I'll work on a One Sunday Morning tab if i have time (classes start for me tomorrow). One interesting thing is it seems like a lot of songs have Tweedy playing with his guitar tuned a Whole step down. One Sunday Morning is definitely played this way, and it's possible I Might is also played in this tuning (not 100% sure). Rising Red Lung and Dawned on Me are both in drop C. Just an interesting tidbit i've noticed, and the reason why my guitar has been tuned down 2 semitones for the last two weeks.

 

Cool review. Your username looks very familiar - have you posted Radiohead stuff on YouTube?

So glad that this album doesn't lose any gas. I want to love this album for a very long time, and to have it grow in my mind as iconically as GIB or YHF has.

haha, yes i posted the In Rainbows basement stuff onto Youtube, funny that you recognized. The album definitely hasn't lost gas.

Rhino4evr: Yes, it was a watermarked CD

So i have a confession to make: I have had access to an advance copy of the album for close to a month now. It has been extraordinarily difficult to not post about it when everybody was speculating about the album, and i feel as though i can finally share my thoughts from the perspective of somebody who has had time to have the album grow on them.

First of all, I have to agree with the sentiment that TWL is easily the best album that Wilco has made with their current lineup. I feel as though that whereas SBS and WTA sounded like six guys in a studio playing together, even the simpler songs on this album feel a little bit more harder to pin down. There are way more subtleties to the songs that took many many many listens to discover, and i think that has been one of the most rewarding things about the album. Lyrically, i think i was worried about how the album would turn out, but i think there are some very memorable Tweedy lyrics on the album.

I can guarantee that lot of the tracks that people aren't crazy about right now are huge growers, especially Black Moon. I always thought it sounded sort of like "Ecstasy of Gold" from The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, but that might just be me. But this was probably the most forgettable song on the album the first couple of listens through. However, the string arrangement is absolutely gorgeous, and the production on that track is really something special. I think it's sort of funny how it starts off almost sounding like Black Eye too, even if just for a few seconds (starts on the same A minor chord). I could also tell that Capital City would be sort of divisive, but it has been one of my favorite TWL tracks from the first listen. It's lighthearted, jaunty, has some great chord changes and progressions. Just a feel good song overall.

One last thing i have to say is that I have listened to One Sunday Morning at least once a day for the 3 or 4 weeks i've had access to the album. I honestly think it's one of the most sincere, beautiful songs Jeff Tweedy has ever written and Wilco has ever recorded. I've been playing it nonstop on my guitar, and it is just so simple and beautiful in that classic Wilco way.

Even after a whole month of whole love, in my opinion this is one of the strongest Wilco efforts in a while, and i think that it has the potential to be as classic, memorable, and groundbreaking of a Wilco album as YHF, AGIB (still can't say for sure if it will be, but can't rule it out either)

I've always heard "This is how i'll tell her" at the beginning, but maybe that's just me.

This might also be my all time favorite wilco song, but maybe that's just me as well.

If i was Jeff Tweedy, i'd be trolling VC constantly. Then again, maybe i am Jeff Tweedy...

I have a fairly hard time believing that Dec 12 will be their only Chicago date...

I agree about the VC compilations (though as a contributor, I'm probably biased). But that Bad Plus Radio Cure cover is pure excellence

I don't think there was a stream, otherwise it would be fully leaked.

 

I bet they did something like make a few carefully chosen music journalists swear to give their firstborn child to Tony Margherita if it got out, then when they agreed, sent them a new form of mp3 that auto-erased after a single listen. Or maybe tied them up and threw them in a trunk of a bull black nova, took them to the loft where the band previewed the cd, journalist(s) still blindfolded.

...or maybe just gave them a watermarked CD the good old fashioned way?

I also think that the album will be bookended by loud progressive jams, with lots of light hearted stuff in between. If it wasn't for I Might, I would be less enthusiastic, but I love the direction of that track so...

I don't think Song for Jane Smiley's boyfriend, or One Sunday Morning, will be a loud/progressive jam like Art of Almost is. Jeff said it had 10 verses, I'm thinking a long, sincere folk song A la "Mountain Bed"