smells like flowers

I had BT and listened to it quite a bit but I didn't really get into Wilco until ST came out. The whole album still blows me away. Not a weak song IMHO. Not that I think there's a weak song on BT it's just that ST really got my attention.

My experience was similar, but I went from AM to ST (didn't get to know BT til a year or so later). I used to have a 30-minute commute to a small town and the drive would take me past old farms, corn fields and produce stands. A friend had given me a copy of ST for Christmas ('99) and I can still remember hearing the track Summerteeth for the first time, with the birds chirping, and realizing how many layers there were to the whole record -- it would take dozens of listens to hear and appreciate all the sounds. It was the record that made me fall in love with Wilco.

Song which inspires tender lovemaking? Pieholden Suite.*

Song which inspires the f-ing word? I'm a Wheel.

* I would so love to have a whisper breathed into my ear. With all due respect to Ms. Miller-Tweedy. Lucky lass with the cherry strands of gold hair!

Now that I've had a couple weeks to fully absorb the impact of The Whole Love, I'm ready to "wax poetic" over it. (Hope you're reading this, Crow Daddy Magnus). While I love most of the songs on the record (still lukewarm to Open Mind, but even Capitol City has grown on me), for me the real standout is One Sunday Morning.

This song is a miracle. It creates its own universe. When I wander into it, everything else fades. It feels like going to a matinee movie, one you get totally absorbed in, and then leaves you blinking in the bright light wondering how it's possible that outside the theater is just an ordinary afternoon. One Sunday Morning is like that for me. I'm finding myself listening to it only once in a while, so I can savor its effect and keep it from becoming less magical.

The melancholy tone of the lyrics wants to weigh you down, but the light touch of the skipping melody, the bells and the shuffle beat (right term?) of the drums keep it from leaving you in a devastated heap on the floor. The contrast of the dark lyrics and light music add to the song's impact. Your heart gets pulled in two directions at once, you feel the narrator's loss and redemption, and at the end of the shortest 12 minutes you might live all day, you shake your head and ask, what the fuck just happened?

It bears repeating -- One Sunday Morning is a miracle.

The YHF version is frustrating for me to listen to, because Jeff's voice rarely seems lounder than a whisper on it. I love it live, though!

Not to split hairs, but Nels usually plays lap steel unless he took up pedal steel in the last couple years. I mean I think I could play pedal steel just fine.

 

LouieB

I wish he would... pedal steel slays me. Lap steel, not so much.

Wilco is supporting their new album, and playing 9 songs plus label is what a wilco concert vet would come to expect and appreciate. Before standing o, Jeff mentioned how tonight we will question why they are playing this song but in five years we will be asking why they no longer play it. A pretty accurate explanation. And if any of these songs fail to become concert staples, there will be more then one post on this board asking what happened to the last record. That is both the blessing and curse of being a long time fan. They should keep doing exactly what they are doing. Promote the most recent album and play the faves. That said, this is my third straight show needing to travel out of State to attend (pittsburgh, south bend and last night). And if not for the beauty of the overture center, and the nostalgia I personally have for my college years spent at that amazing institution, it would have been a waste. I enjoy the new songs, yet do not currently have a bond with them. And I have seen the staples so many times, they sound like caractures of themselves. Once again, wilco is doing the right thing, they should not be performing for me, I am already hooked and in the phase of my life where I am buying t shirts for the kid. (another very funny state of what wilco is today is the line of parents buying merch for their kids).

 

My personal dilemma is how important their first 6 (yes I include sbs) albums are to me, and how amazing and fortunate and many

many more superlatives scoring a 5 day residency pass was. That was the high point not just for wilco, but my entire music loving life. So it is only natural to feel a bit let down as time passes and future shows become normal. I hope this has not read as a

complaint, it is just a personal review of my experience last night. I both love it and yawn at the same time. My allegiance these days

lays with a Jeff solo show, full band shows within walking distance from home (hello Vic in December) and memories of the amazing span that 2000-2008 shows provided.

I feel you. With so much material these days, a show might only have a sprinkling of what I'm dying to hear (very excited about the new songs, btw) --but enough with the IG, BBN, HMD! For me, I'm sure that I'll keep looking forward to the next show, hoping for something a little less predictable. That's what makes Solid Sound so irresistible... two sets, maybe 4 + hours of Wilco! (I say this because I can't imagine they'd possibly go back to only playing one night after last year.)

Jeff's voice, though, does seem to have evolved exponentially on this record. We get the high highs and the low lows, and his singing resonates so clearly. I dearly love the old Jeff hoarseness and voice-cracking from the BT era, but here it sounds better than ever, while still sounding oh-so-Jeff Tweedy-ish.

Apples and oranges. No reason to compare disc 1 and disc 2. But for sake of interest, let's change the fruits to peaches and cherries. Both utterly, differently delicious.

 

He posts here regularly actually under the moniker IRememberDBoon... oh, shit I wasn't supposed to say anything about that. Move along, nothing to see here.

One of the funniest recent posts I've read here and stuck in my mind for days, was by IRDB -- I think it was in the "I Might" thread -- something about "mo-fos standing next to me better look out, I'm going to be cutting a rug." It made me want to be one of the mofos standing next to IRDB!

I like to clap at the end of Monday when Jeff's screaming "Alright! Alright! Alright!" but it's hard to keep up with the freak-out! Worth a try, though.

Finally, a chance to hear this in the car! Listened to about half of it whilst running errands this afternoon, and am so excited to hear all the little sonic surprises and treats that I couldn't hear on computer speakers. Most notable (for today) are the sexy sighs Jeff makes throughout I Might...

I was pretty disappointed with the setlist, tbh. Recent shows hadn't had songs like Drummer or Man Who Loves You, but last night's did. I think the NPR broadcast kinda pressured them to play more of the hits, which was a bit unfortunate. I was hopping they'd bring out some more rare songs, though Box Full of Letters was a nice surprise.

 

Still, great show. Monday->Outtasite is just the best way to end a set.

Also not crazy about the setlist. I would have (happily) sacrificed Bull Black Nova or Impossible Germany for more tunes off AGIB. And the really long ones do eat up the night... but Almost and One Sunday Morning were both amazing. Last night was the second time I saw Wilco at Merriweather and I don't like the sound there. It's not loud and crisp enough... more muted and fuzzy.

Great, great show at Merriweather last night. Brought a friend who I was hoping to convert to Wilco fandom and it worked! She commented that the whole thing sort of crystallizes around one word, when Jeff says "alright." She is so right.

I must have listened to Harborcoat a thousand times.

I spent at least a year in high school listening to Reckoning while falling asleep.

Q: Is it a struggle to maintain sobriety?

another Q: Salty or sweet?

smoke pot smoke pot smoke pot smoke pot.....

I can't believe I posted the info about this and then had such a mother of a day at work that I couldn't listen to one bit of it! I was able to read all 30 page of chat that's still up, though. That's a lot more fun when you're in the moment, but still I'm struck by what a really nice group of people Wilco fans are, overall.

 

I hope I'm reading correctly that Bob Boilen will be posting the interview segment on the website later?

I missed it too, but got a vicarious thrill from reading the chat. The best was the line that went something like..."this is so f'ing good. I'm opening a beer."

Love your photos -- thanks for posting! A while back there was a post on VC that mentioned a five-year run for Solid Sound. We can only hope for three more years of such amazing stuff!

I also think..and I know I will get crap for this...that the last tour shows were way too long.

Not giving you crap, but TOO LONG?! The last two (I mean three) shows I saw were Solid Sound and I didn't want any of them to end. As many songs as they play, there are always a few more that I was dying to hear. Incidentally, I missed the "Evening With" tour and I can honestly say it is one of the major regrets of my life. Yes, I know that sounds melodramatic, but I have very few regrets... and dammit, that's one of them!

"Drag your blanket blindly

And fill your heart with smoke"

 

For me conjures a mental picture of a usually ever-optimistic Linus van Pelt, crushed and heartbroken.

I've always loved that too! And these:

There's a random painted highway

And a muzzle of bees

You were right about the stars

Each one is a setting sun

I'm down on my hands and knees every time the doorbell rings

I shake like a toothache when I hear myself sing

All my lies are always wishes

I know I would die if I could come back new

"You Never Know" at Ross. It made me feel yucky (the volume was too low and the song sounded sort of muffled, and Ross smells funny).

I dunno, I just don't find it feasible to call yourself a "true fan" if you absolutely loathe a whole album by a band or artist. Whatever the exact parameters of the "true fan" cliche are, I don't know. I do know that for me, one of the parameters is definitely being able to at least tolerate every album put out by a band. I mean, that really is all an artist has to stand by - their discography.

.

Can't remember who said this: "Hate is not the opposite of love. Indifference is."

I think that Wilco fans -- lovers of Wilco, if you will, just have intense feelings about the band's offerings. Feelings made more intense by their big love for their favorite albums. So the ones that are somewhat disappointing create a more intensely felt disappointment.

Capitol City is the only song from the new album that I skip - I just have this image of Jeff in a straw hat and a red & white striped vest twirling a bamboo cane. ugh.

 

 

But.. I also accept that other folks around here love that song.

The song makes me picture an old-timey baseball game. Hot dog vendors with waxed moustaches are involved...

It's going to be hard not to read setlists from the next week's shows but I want it to be a surprise when I see them on 9/25!

"My eyes have seen the fury so flattered by fate"

I love how his vocal goes low on faaaate.

Me, too! Haven't heard JT do that low thing with his voice before.