BigWheeledWagon

Strangely enough, a bar I was at last night here in Nashville played the entirety of the new album. It's a good thing I'm not waiting on the official release date to listen to SBS.

Probably cranked the old compressor way up like on a lot of country leads. That would give it that "plink-plink-plink" sound to which you refer.

There was a lot of very similar discussion when "AGIB" leaked -- "Spiders" and "LTYT" especially caused a great deal of controversy. The main difference I can see is that with that album, many were upset not with the songs, but with their presentation. With "Sky Blue Sky," a lot of folks have been unhappy with the songs that they had heard live before the album leaked, and if anything, the presentation may have increased the appreciation of these songs for at least a few out there.

I'm a little surprised at the sentiment out there that those of us who like "Sky Blue Sky": 1) are just deluding ourselves or 2) only like it because we would like anything Jeff does, even if he were intentionally trying to make something that we wouldn't like (I wonder if these same folks enjoyed the "drone" on LTYT). I was underwhelmed with "AGIB," but I certainly never felt that the people who loved it were somehow wrong. I just thought that they had different tastes than I did -- the same way I feel about those that don't like "Sky Blue Sky." On a side note, it's funny how some of those that prefer the "YHF" era now lament the shift in direction. I remember when there were people lamenting the change in direction from the "alt-country" sound , and "YHF" (or "Summerteeth") supporters were on the opposite side of the argument from where they are now. Personally, I've enjoyed the various shifts in direction from the band (though, as I said, "AGIB" was not as strong for me).

I'm also a little surprised that people who loved previous Wilco albums but weren't interested in Via Chicago would now join the board just to post about how they dislike this album. Then again, at least it shows they still have an interest in Wilco despite their disappointment; otherwise, I would think they wouldn't bother at all. Hey, whatever brings folks to the table is good, I guess.

I don't see this at all.

Assuming you mean that you don't think those who like "SBS" are in the minority, perhaps you're right. I certainly hope so -- and the poll taken a few days ago certainly appears to back you up (out of 193 respondants, the most common rating was an 8, and most others fell on the positive side of the spectrum). Maybe the negative comments just stick out more as I looks through the boards. An angry post of "WTF -- Dad rock?" probably stands out more than a more mellow post praising the new stuff.

You know, history generally seems to repeat itself with each new Wilco release. With every new album, there's a shift in the fan base. There's always a group of fans that is unhappy with whatever new direction the band takes and wishes that the new album would sound more like whatever phase of Wilco they liked best. In the past, those that defected from the Wilco camp were generally replaced with new fans drawn in by the new sound (this cycle was most apparent with "Summerteeth" and "YHF" but still seemed in effect for "AGIB"). I guess the true test for this album will be whether we see those new fans coming on board. I have noticed a lot of new posters around; however, a lot of them have come out of the woodwork to express their reservations with the new record or just to request a PM. Also, it seems to me that there are a lot of folks who have been constant in their enjoyment of Wilco throughout the previous changes who are now not embracing the new stuff. While I really do love "Sky Blue Sky" (more and more with each listen), I seem to be in the minority, and I'm starting to suspect that this may be the first album for Wilco that loses more supporters than it gains. Then again, we may experience an influx of excited new Via Chicago members come May. I'm curious to see how this unfolds.

"That's a bold statement"

-vincent vega

 

BigWheeledWagon,

 

i'm not giving up and i don't feel a "sense of duty". it's just that i now look at music more in terms of how [or if] it speaks to me, not at just wanting to keep the bands discography up to date on my shelf at home. i used to be obsessive like that. i'm holding off on a verdict until when/if it finally "clicks". wilco has and always will be the band i go back to regardless of what other bands/music i'd been listening to. it's a similar situation to when radiohead followed the bends and ok computer w/kid a and amnesiac. that was a definate WTF moment for me. i started to question that band a lot more for the direction they took and it's affect on my radiohead habit. needless to say, i listen to a lot less post-ok computer radiohead. i'm still a fan, but they went down a few notches in my list of favorite bands. i'm giving it a rest for a few days and then i'm giving sbs another shot with fresh ears.

You know, I had a similar Radiohead experience as well. "Kid A" worked for me, but for some reason "Amnesiac," which was really not all that different, triggered me to sort of disengage from Radiohead's post-"Kid A' work. I think you've hit on a pretty good analogy, too, because in a way, there's a real comparison to be made between "Hail to the Thief" and "Sky Blue Sky." Both find a band that has really experimented and evolved trying to reconcile their experimental sounds with what came before that (I guess the Beatles went through a similar thing with "Let it Be"). I remember Thom Yorke commenting at the time "Hail to the Thief" came out that it was intended as a sort of a combination of the electronic experimentation of "Kid A" and "Amnesiac" with the sort of operatic rock of "The Bends" and "OK Computer. Apparenly Jeff has compared "Sky Blue Sky" with "Being There." When I read Thom Yorke's comments before the album came out, I got pretty excited, but I was ultimately a little disappointed with the result. Though I still look forward to hearing whatever comes next for them, like you, I find that they've dropped a few places on the old list, and I just can't get excited in the way I did while anticipating the release of "Kid A." I've been much happier with "Sky Blue Sky," though. Maybe it's just a matter of personal taste -- "Sky Blue Sky" really contains a lot of elements for which I have a personal affinity (soul, late Beatles influences, an jazz-schooled lead guitar player -- "Abbey Road" is my favorite album of all time, I love Memphis soul obsessively, and I studied jazz guitar growing up). I hope that when you come back to the album with fresh ears it clicks for you. If not, I certainly see where you're coming from, even if I've had a different reaction.

i couldn't have said that better myself. at this point in my life, the mystique is gone. there is still the music, but the larger than life stuff that used to surround a band no longer exists for me. and i kind of miss that. i'm now drawn more to artists my age that i can relate to (jeff, jason falkner, glen phillips, etc.) and see the younger generation as a large collection of garage bands who all just blend together. once the current dinosaurs retire for good (who, mccartney, u2, etc.) i don't see much future in a band selling out a stadium. where is the new pink floyd with a floating pig, iconic album covers and epic songs? it certainly isn't fall out boy or my chemical romance.

 

i think that is why i can be so disillusioned when wilco, who i have followed so closely since the tupelo days follows up being there, summerteeth and yhf (one of the best 3 album runs a band has ever had) with agib and sbs. it's almost like they are slowly trying to abandon me. they've been such a constant in my life, i can't help but take it personal. i'm hanging in there, but dammit...change for the sake of change isn't always a good thing. i know a true artist has to follow his muse and i respect that, but i've been hanging on for so long i don't want to let go.

I think we're kind of on the sam wavelength here, but I still really enjoy the new album. Taking into account the subjective difference in the way I perceive music now compared to the way I once did, I can look at the new album in a different light. For instance, stepping back a realizing that "Being There," if released new today simply could not have the effect on me now that it did then, I can't fault the new record for not feeling as, um, life-changing (sorry to invoke the "Garden State" cliche there). With a little critical distance, I can see that it's not a change in Wilco but a change in me that accounts for the difference in my reception of these albums. I don't feel like I'm hanging on to Wilco out of any sense of duty or respect for their past achievements. "Sky Blue Sky" is a great achievement in and of itself, and it would be unreasonable of me to expect it to have the same impact on me that any album had on me when I was in college or high school. Back then, everything seemed more dramatic, and thus music spoke to me in a more dramatic fashion. Now that my life is relatively drama-free and I've settled down into a life of relative comfort and routine ("no alarms and no surprises"? -- yikes), it's hard for any music to seem so overwhelming.

Interestingly enough, I would imagine Jeff is likewise in a similar situation, and his songrwriting seems to convey that. Perhaps that's why I still relate to this new album and don't feel "abandoned." First, I feel it would be unfair to blame Wilco for my own subjective shift in the way I perceive music. Second, this new evolution of the band arguably speaks to me in a way that perhaps I could not have appreciated as a younger man. While "Being There"/"Summerteeth"-era Wilco was the perfect band for a younger me, perhaps this era of Wilco is the perfect band for the month away from being thirty, gainfully employed in a job I love, and happoly married me. As a songwriter myself (note I didn't say a good songwriter), I can say that it is harder to write about being content than it is to write about struggling with life. Jeff seems much happier with life now, and this album seems to reflect that while still being musically interesting and emotionally rich. I've got to respect that.

Anyway, I've really enjoyed this thread and the conversations that have resulted. It's interesting to think about how our own perceptions of music change over time and change the way we interact with the music we love. Jeff has often talked about how interested he is in the way listeners interact with his music and impart their own meanings to his songs; accordingly, it's only appropriate that we really delve into how our perceptions shift over time and change the way we impart meaning to music. It's nice to participate with a group of fans who can have this kind of conversation as opposed to just "Wilco rawks!"

i couldn't have said that better myself. at this point in my life, the mystique is gone. there is still the music, but the larger than life stuff that used to surround a band no longer exists for me. and i kind of miss that. i'm now drawn more to artists my age that i can relate to (jeff, jason falkner, glen phillips, etc.) and see the younger generation as a large collection of garage bands who all just blend together. once the current dinosaurs retire for good (who, mccartney, u2, etc.) i don't see much future in a band selling out a stadium. where is the new pink floyd with a floating pig, iconic album covers and epic songs? it certainly isn't fall out boy or my chemical romance.

 

i think that is why i can be so disillusioned when wilco, who i have followed so closely since the tupelo days follows up being there, summerteeth and yhf (one of the best 3 album runs a band has ever had) with agib and sbs. it's almost like they are slowly trying to abandon me. they've been such a constant in my life, i can't help but take it personal. i'm hanging in there, but dammit...change for the sake of change isn't always a good thing. i know a true artist has to follow his muse and i respect that, but i've been hanging on for so long i don't want to let go.

I think we're kind of on the sam wavelength here, but I still really enjoy the new album. Taking into account the subjective difference in the way I perceive music now compared to the way I once did, I can look at the new album in a different light. For instance, stepping back a realizing that "Being There," if released new today simply could not have the effect on me now that it did then, I can't fault the new record for not feeling as, um, life-changing (sorry to invoke the "Garden State" cliche there). With a little critical distance, I can see that it's not a change in Wilco but a change in me that accounts for the difference in my reception of these albums. I don't feel like I'm hanging on to Wilco out of any sense of duty or respect for their past achievements. "Sky Blue Sky" is a great achievement in and of itself, and it would be unreasonable of me to expect it to have the same impact on me that any album had on me when I was in college or high school. Back then, everything seemed more dramatic, and thus music spoke to me in a more dramatic fashion. Now that my life is relatively drama-free and I've settled down into a life of relative comfort and routine ("no alarms and no surprises"? -- yikes), it's hard for any music to seem so overwhelming.

Interestingly enough, I would imagine Jeff is likewise in a similar situation, and his songrwriting seems to convey that. Perhaps that's why I still relate to this new album and don't feel "abandoned." First, I feel it would be unfair to blame Wilco for my own subjective shift in the way I perceive music. Second, this new evolution of the band arguably speaks to me in a way that perhaps I could not have appreciated as a younger man. While "Being There"/"Summerteeth"-era Wilco was the perfect band for a younger me, perhaps this era of Wilco is the perfect band for the month away from being thirty, gainfully employed in a job I love, and happoly married me. As a songwriter myself (note I didn't say a good songwriter), I can say that it is harder to write about being content than it is to write about struggling with life. Jeff seems much happier with life now, and this album seems to reflect that while still being musically interesting and emotionally rich. I've got to respect that.

Anyway, I've really enjoyed this thread and the conversations that have resulted. It's interesting to think about how our own perceptions of music change over time and change the way we interact with the music we love. Jeff has often talked about how interested he is in the way listeners interact with his music and impart their own meanings to his songs; accordingly, it's only appropriate that we really delve into how our perceptions shift over time and change the way we impart meaning to music. It's nice to participate with a group of fans who can have this kind of conversation as opposed to just "Wilco rawks!"

You might be right. I dunno. All I can say is that I'm 32, and music has never meant more to me than it does right now.

I'm not saying that music means any less to me now; it's just that as a kid, music seemed nearly magical, and bands seemed almost mythological (hell, when I was 13, I'm pretty sure I envisioned Zeppelin as some sort of band of Norse marauders). I approached it all with an innocence that's just not there anymore. I don't love music any less, but it doesn't seem so, I don't know, life-and-death important. Of course, when you're a teenager, everything is life-and-death important. Now, bands don't seem like epic heroes -- they seem like regular guys who happen to have really cool jobs and travel a lot. Some of the younger bands just seem like the neighbor's kids jamming out in the garage; they may be really good, but they don't seem exactly awe-inspiring. I guess as I've gotten older, my appreciation for music has shifted toward a personal relationship with that music at the expense of that sense of wonder I once had. I guess it's an okay trade-off. Still, it's hard not to "miss the innocence I've known, playing Kiss covers beautiful and stoned."

i still think it's an enjoyable listen, but it doesn't have any moments that give me goose bumps or make my hair stand on end. that, to me is the mark of a great album. those moments are becoming less and less for me with new music in general, not just wilco.

I know what you're talking about, and I sometimes wonder if it's the music being made now or just the fact that no music can ever sound as good as it does when you're a kid, and the good music seems so, well, important. Perhaps as we get older and jaded it's just impossible for music to ever sound that good again -- or to be that important. Wow, that's a depressing thought.

Anyway, as an example, when I was 19, and "Being There" came out, it felt so vital and important to me in a way that I wonder if that exact same album if released today could have that same impact on me now over ten years later. I honestly couldn't tell you if 19-year-old me would have felt that same way about "Sky Blue Sky." Perhaps. 29-year-old me, though, really enjoys it, but not with that same fervor of which only a younger man is capable.

I've been surprised how much this album has grown on me upon repeated listens. Upon my first listen, this did not strike me as particularly "difficult" album, and I did not anticipate that further playings would change my original reaction to what I heard. I'm not saying that I didn't enjoy the album at first -- I did -- but I thought it was fairly straight-forward and lacked the sonic depth of albums like "YHF' or "Summerteeth."

Strangely enough, as I listen to it again and again (something I find myself doing not out of some sort of duty but out of a real enjoyment for the album) it really grows on me. The performances are brilliant, subtle, and perfectly understated. While I at first agreed with the criticisms that the songs had a kind of static "sameness," I have found that they actually seem to have wonderful movement and dynamics. On Sunday, I found the idea that this sounded like a lost late-period Beatles album confounding, but I really see it now (well, if the Beatles had recorded at Stax studios or in Muscle Shoals). This is quickly becoming one of my favorite Wilco albums -- something I truly never expected. While I really like "AGIB," I don't hold it the same regard as "Being There," "Summerteeth," or "YHF," and I was begining to expect that while I would continue to enjoy Wilco, their creative zenith had passed almost as if "YHF" had been their "Exile on Main Street" (though "Being There" would work much better as a sonic comparison) and while we might get the occasional "Some Girls" nothing would ever match that 3-album run. I no longer feel that way. It looks as if Wlco will continue to put out great albums that all sound unique.

I've got other new albums I want to listen to, but every time I try to listen to the new Son Volt album, I find myself clicking back to "SBS." That's nothing against "The Search" -- I just can't get enough of this great new album.

I also seem to recall "Late Greats" being referred to by Jeff as one of the many left-overs from the "Being There" era. Unlike some of the other songs from that time period, I don't think they recorded a version of it at the time. I really wish that the "Being There" songs that didn't make the cut would leak out like the "YHF" and "Summerteeth" demos. The only song that I've even heard that got left off "BT" has been "Old Maid" performed live by Jeff solo. Then again, those songs may have been lost -- I though I recalled Jeff saying something about recording over some stuff because of the difficulty of obtaining good old-fashioned reel-to-reel tape. Anyone know anything about this?

It's up on Pitchfork now, too.

Some says it's heavily distorted bass, some say it's heavily distorted acoustic guitar.

In IATTBYH, Jeff was playing a distorted acoustic guitar while recording a take of the song. Accordingly, I've always assumed (correctly or incorrectly) that's what went onto the EP (not that particular take, but the set up). As for the "noise," well, I'm not quite sure on that. Probably a collection of reversed tracks and various and sundry feedback, distortion, etc. as suggested before. No clue what particular pedal Jeff ran the guitar signal through or what pedal(s) may have been used in the generation of the noise.

Yeah, this came up when the episode orginally aired -- be prepared to catch some flack for watching the show. I blieve a good half of the posts were "You watch the OC?" What the hell, though, it's a fun show sometimes. I just tell folks my wife makes me watch it.

Wasn't SBS also known as "Lullaby for Rafters and Beams" at one point?

 

If they're the same song, then here's a link:

 

YSI link

 

If they're different songs, then that was a link to another new song called "Lullaby for Rafters and Beams" with the phrase "sky blue sky" repeated several times, in the lyrics.

They appear to be the same song -- Jeff referred to that song in question as "Sky Blue Sky" last night (or should it be "Sky-Blue Sky"?). Glenn indeed played it with him. By the way, Glenn was amazing. I was only able to catch the last three or four songs he played solo, but it was impressive.

What song was douchebag requesting when Jeff said his mother just died and he would never play that song again?

I believe he was requesting "Please Tell My Brother." The guy apparently had a Golden Smog fixation.

Great song, though, and I can see how that last verse would be incredibly difficult for Jeff to sing.

if any of you were the person yelling for 'radio king', you should seriously consider ending yourself...and thanks for being an idiot and yelling it during spiders as well.

Yeah, that guy was a collossal douchebag; however, Jeff handled it well for the most part. Unfortunately, it set the precedent for anyone who felt like yelling something out to do so (sing "Happy Birthday" to my kid, call my sister, etc.) Still, amazing show.

Says it's called "Sky Blue Sky," and it should be out May 15th. Great show, too, by the way. Sorry if this is old news.

[edit: topic sub-title edited by gogo (I'm going to keep merging these threads, unless someone has some specific thing to discuss; everything general is going to be tossed in here)]

Thanks for the quick response, Speed Racer. Yeah, I would really like to check Glenn's show out; however, I'm introducing a friend to Jeff's music, and he doesn't get off work in time to be there at 7:30. I really should just meet him there, but I have the tickets, promised him a ride, etc., etc.

At least it's not general admission.

Thanks again.

So, at a normal full-band performance it's pretty common for folks to skip the opening act and show up in time for the band to go on. What's the etiquette when dealing with a Tweedy solo show? I'm not sure I can make it in time to see Glenn open in Nashville (though I'd like to) -- is it okay to show up towards the end of the opening set (or just generally any time before Jeff goes on), or does the more intimate setting of a solo show make this a no-no?

I guess I'm one of the few folks on this board willing to say that I love "Summerteeth" as is, and not in spite of the production but partially because of it. I love the mix of dark lyrics with the sugar-coated production. I like that it's every bit as over the top as "YHF" is restrained (though let's be honest -- there's a great deal of production on that album, too -- just not multi-tracked choirs and 48 vintage keyboards on every song). I like that it's somehow both a logical sequel to "Being There" and also entirely foreign to the sound of that album. I wouldn't change a thing.

That being said, I agree that underneath the lush production and multi-tracking, the songs are fantastic and no doubt stand on their own no matter how they are presented.

Oh, and without "Summerteeth," I can't see Wilco making the step from "Being There" to "YHF."

Interstingly enough, AGIB got a lot of "On the Beach" comparisons around here when those songs started surfacing.

Tony Timberwood