smells like flowers

Nice piece by Jon Wurster in Spin:

 

http://www.spin.com/articles/jon-wurster-remembers-tommy-ramone-rip/

 

Didn't realize there was a debate over the Replacements' "Kiss Me On the Bus" solo ...

Jon Wurster gets all sincere. It's refreshing!

It was a great show. Lucinda is a 61 YO Bad *ss. Announced around 9, came on stage just prior to 11 and played 15 songs, including many of her greatest hits, for about 80 minutes to a hot and sweaty crowd of 200. Really cool that she did this. I was lucky to have been there.

Got to see her play HOB in New Orleans when she was touring for "Car Wheels on a Gravel Road". I was unfamiliar with the songs, but her performance was so magnetic that I connected with the songs immediately. One of the most memorable shows I've seen, ever. How fantastic that she went out of her way to do a free show in Chicago!

I only got a chance to watch the first two songs-- it's so great! And Jeff's long hair and cowboy hat combo are totally doing it for me.

Sounds awesome-- have fun, VCers! I'll be over in Portsmouth for the Tweedy show on July 25th, a stone's throw away. 

I've always loved the Ramones. When I discovered their music in the early 80s (along with the Sex Pistols, Black Flag, Circle Jerks, etc.) it gave legitimacy to my teenage anger and disdain for mainstream pop culture. I imagined myself as a punk rock girl (sans safety pins or a pink Mohawk) and therefore had the right to put on a hateful face, almost flunk out of chemistry and trigonometry, and puke from too many cheap beers. Those were the days...

Very Beatles-esque, to my ears. I love what those Lucius girls bring to the vocals. I really like it!

Boy, Spencer is not shy, is he?

 

No, he's not! You'd think it would be pretty easy to be overshadowed by Jeff in an interview, but he held his own.

In defense of It's Just That Simple: being a self declared John devotee, it's kind of sad that his sole Wilco song appears on the "least favorites" list several times (including, ouch, my own). But the way Jeff sings on AM just kills me. He still had that husky thing going on, and his voice was much more nasal (pre-adenoids surgery, I read). And young.

 

So I listened to AM, and It's Just That Simple fits the record really well. It's a little bit like the sorbet that cleanses your palate for the next buttery, rich course. Also, John sang it for the encore when Autumn Defense played in Annapolis last month, and it was wonderful. Pat was doing this honky-tonk piano stuff and it worked so well as a closer -- after Sentimental Lady, of course.

Brats, first boiled in beer and then finished on the grill.

Mmmmm, sounds awesome. I'm a fan of any salty, smoky sausage as long as there is a natural casing involved. That delicious crunch is one of the finer points of being a carnivore!

AM - It's Just That Simple

BT- Dreamer in My Dreams

Summerteeth - My Darling

YHF - Reservations

AGIB - Less Than You Think

Sky Blue Sky - Shake It Off

WTA - Deeper Down

The Whole Love - Open Mind

AM - Passenger Side

Being There - Monday

Summerteeth - Via Chicago

YHF - Pot Kettle Black

AGIB - Muzzle of Bees

Sky Blue Sky - Sky Blue Sky

Wilco (the album) - Country Disappeared

The Whole Love - One Sunday Morning

 

Nothing like committing to a "favorite" to make you realize there are just too many great songs to narrow it down.

Love the live version. The studio version doesn't have the extra fizz I was expecting, being slightly slower.

My reaction was similar. I like the song live a whole lot, but the studio version was a little...plodding. The video didn't help -- I kept thinking something artsy or cool would happen, or that maybe it was artsy/cool and I just didn't get it.

 

I like the live version of Diamond Light better than the studio version, too. Live, the drumming is somehow silvery and light. It also has "extra fizz!" Hope listening to the live versions many, many times hasn't ruined me for the record!

I know we're not supposed to post youtube videos...

Can anyone remind me why video/cell phone picture taking is so anathema to Jeff/Wilco? I remember reading an interview at one point where the argument against it was basically aesthetic, as in people focused on their phones would not really be present to enjoy the hard work of the live show in front of them. Is that the basic jist of it? Is there also some proprietary angle with images, video, etc? And finally, is this typical of lots of bands out there?

 

Looking forward to being enlightened. And, BTW, I deleted a recent post where I'd posted a YouTube video of "Give Back the Key to My Heart." I didn't realize it was actually against VC rules!

Nels will be on tour with Cibo Matto in September. The full list hasn't come out yet, but venues are starting to announce shows. So far I've seen the Ottobar in Baltimore on 9/11 (which I'll probably go to), the 40 Watt Club in Athens on 9/13, Exit/In in Nashville on 9/16, Pappy and Harriet's in Pioneertown, CA, on 9/28, the Roxy in LA on 9/30.

Cibo Matto is slated to play a festival in Jacksonville, FL in September.  Already excited for Kermit Ruffins and Treme Brass Band, playing the same festival, but it would be great to see Nels sit in with Cibo Matto!

Am I reading into this or is John's tone when talking about Wilco/Tweedy a bit...distant?

 

I get that, too. Willing myself not to speculate or read into it.  But "distant" is a good way to describe it.

Reading The Secret History by Donna Tartt.  It's a great read, although I liked The Goldfinch a bit more. Apparently it's being adapted for a movie, which I think will work really well with the story (a group of Classics students at a small Vermont college murder their classmate. * Not a spoiler, this is revealed on page 1.)

There's a radio show called Out of the Box on the local NPR station. The host specializes in new and alternative music. So during tonight's first set he played Summer Noon off the new record. It was the first time I'd heard it in anything other than a live version. It sounded very sweet.

I woke up with that song in my head this morning.  Excited for studio versions of all these songs.

Shit, I have the most amazing picture of Josh with cowbell on my computer, but I have that stupid GIMP program and when I cut and paste it, nothing shows up.

 

As far as music credentials, no idea, but I remember reading he was a librarian at one point. Agree 100% about the 'stache!

I don't know anything about this controversy, but I'm glad you're back. I enjoy your posts, and this board could use a little more yin to balance the yang! (Shameless borrowing of your metaphor from another thread).

So long as John's in the next band...

 

I second that emotion!

Ever since the Balto/DC shows I have been pretty fully consumed by all things Tweedy. So I what I was putting out there came right back at me this week, when I heard a snippet from Spiders playing at the end of NPR's The Takeaway, and then heard I Might on the radio on the way to work this morning. I really cannot bear to entertain the suggestions on this board that Wilco might be almost finished....

Maybe someone who's recently signed up for @jefftweedy on Twitter?

Diane, you are officially obsessed with that bare-chested picture of Jeff!

The Autumn Defense - Good Danny's 3-14-2014 Daytrotter

Guess that's Josh in the bottom right corner!

Guess I'm replying to my own post, but I just wanted to quickly add a few notes and quotes from last night's show:.

As a friend remarked to me afterward, Jeff was really quite funny tonight with his banter. I only have time to mention a few things now, but he had his dry wit going last night:

*After a somewhat tepid effort by the audience to the call-and-response parts in Someday Soon, particularly the swoon, Jeff cracked, "You guys aren't the Jordanaires," referring to Elvis' longtime backing vocalists.

*Noting the crowd's enthusiastic response to a particular riff in I Am Trying To Break Your Heart, Jeff went on a little jag about how he didn't really understand why people cheered that riff (and nobody cheered another one that was actually trickier to play) and how "there are probably 1,000 guitar players here tonight who are wondering why they even practice." I'm not getting that entire quote right, but that was the gist of the sarcasm.

*In finally introducing the band (and specifically, Spencer) before California Stars, Jeff told a story about how he was eating dinner with his family once and he and his wife were bickering and Spencer looked around and said, "How come I sometimes feel like I'm the only mature one at this table?" And both Jeff and Susan said, at the exact same time, "Because you are." Then Jeff said, "You want to know why? Because you had better parents than we did!" Haha.

Jeff went onto say that every parent's dream is for their kids to turn out better than they did and that he didn't know how it had happened because he and his wife were "awful people" but Spencer is really nice.

*Early on, Jeff noted what a special place the Ryman is. He said it is "the best place. I tell people in other places that they have the best place, but they're little white lies to make them feel better about their shitty places."

*Perhaps the biggest cheer of the night came during Via Chicago when Jeff's vocal mike came back near the end of the song. It had definitely dropped out of the mix at the start, causing Jeff to restart the song once. He continued to play it with basically no vocal amplification, but not being sure that the audience couldn't really hear him. Afterward he said, "I knew something wasn't right. You guys are too polite to say, 'I couldn't really hear him.'" He subsequently called it a unique rendition of the song, jokingly labeling it "the partially inaudible version."

Thanks, Paul! Sounds like the banter was top-notch. Love the line about Spencer having better parents than Jeff and Sue did! He really is a witty bastard.

I wonder if they'll do any of the new TWEEDY stuff, with the release of Sukierae just a couple weeks after, or if it'll be a full-on Wilco extravaganza?  Oh, I so wish it was in the cards for me...