BigWheeledWagon

Nice post BWW. You might have hit on something there.

 

As for myself, I was already in my mid-thirties with three young kids when A.M. came out so there's never been any association with youth in it for me. I do know that from the first notes of YHF I was immediately blown away with it, and began checking out their shows from then on.

 

The thing that Jeff has (imo) that is such a rare commodity in rock and roll is that the music he and his bandmates have created over the years is the kind of music that he can carry around with him and age gracefully with it. A good part of the catalogue could be done by a 20 year old kid, or a 60 year old man. I love that it has that much leeway. Bodes well for the future.

 

I guess I'm not too jaded yet.

I have to agree that there's a real sense of Jeff's music growing up with him. Part of what I've enjoyed about "SBS" is that it's the rare rock record that isn't afraid to embrace domesticity and responsibility. If most of Jeff's earlier works were about a struggle to make a connection/communicate, "SBS" is about how to handle that connection once its made. In a way, it speaks to my life now every bit as much as earlier albums did then, if not more -- even if I'm not as blown away by the music as i have been by some other albums. Maybe SBS hasn't grabbed the same place in my heart as past albums, but it's found a place all its own.

As for my previous post, I don't know if it's really about youth or getting jaded as much as it is about music fitting into a moment and experiencing something for the first time. In fact, I suppose it takes a little naivety to expect a new album to fill that same role to you as a previous album. Even though you personally discovered AM in your thirties, I'd wager that you still associate that album with that time period during which you really first lived with that music. Although a lot of people express disappointment that SBS doesn't sound like, say, YHF, I suspect many of them mean that they are disappointed that it's not YHF,. I mean, Wilco could make an album that sounds just like Being There, but it wouldn't be that album -- it would feel like going to your high school reunion: nostalgic, maybe a little fun in a bittersweet way, but also a little embarassing and uncomfortable. You just can't re-experience that particular moment and it can make taking on new Wilco as a new and unique experience a little difficult when you have those kind of expectations. Luckily, I still find music that grabs me a ties itself to parts of my life (for instance, I will always associate Spoon's new album with this past summer and with buying my first house -- I may find that the next Spoon album can't meet those lofty standards).

seeing wilco in a tiny club in philly just before AM came out was as exciting as any live music i've ever seen

 

current wilco doesn't come close to giving me that feeling

 

fair to say i'm bored with wilco

 

jay farrar's best songs still slay me. jeff's don't

While Sky Blue Sky is not one of my favorite Wilco albums, the band still amazes me live. Even if my favorite Wilco material isn't their most recent stuff, I can still enjoy the newer songs. With Jay, I tend to only enjoy the older stuff. If Wilco not evolving into its current incarnation meant that it would end up like Farrar/Son Volt (keeping pretty much the same sound, with each new album sounding more and more like a pale imitation of the last), then I'm glad things have worked out the way they have. I saw Jay live a few years ago, and it was one of the most boring shows I've ever been seen (though it could have just been an off night).

I mentioned this idea when Sky Blue Sky first came out, and I've come to believe there's something to it: I think that the way some people (myself included) feel about Wilco (or any band) has as much to do with the listener as with the band. When I discovered Wilco, I was in college. Music in general, and Wilco specifically, seemed so important and exciting. I wonder if I discovered that same music now, would it still seem so exciting or important? There's no denying that Wilco's changed, but I also can't deny that I've changed. Yes, "Sky Blue Sky" didn't grab me like "Being There" did, but I'm not sure "Being There" would have grabbed me like that were it released today (not that I wouln't love the hell out of it). By way of comparison, I present Star Wars. "Empire" was the first movie I ever experienced in a theater, and the original trilogy was absolutely magical to me as a kid. Watching them now with a more critical and adult mindset, I can see that these movies weren't anywhere near as great as I thought they were at the time. Yet, they still hold a special place in my heart. when the prequels came out, I, like almost everyone else, was disappointed. Now, objectively, the prequels were generally not as good as the originals, but even had they been much, much better films, they would have disappointed me, because there was not way they could recapture the childhood joy of discovering an imaginary galaxy far, far away. Likewise, no album Wilco makes now could ever recreate the joy I felt listening to "Being There" while drinking beer in my dorm room or the way "Summerteeth" took me through some tough times the summer after I graduated from college. For a lot of folks on the board, "YHF" is the Wilco album to which no other will ever compare. I love YHF, but I was in law school when it came out, and while I was amazed by the album on an artistic level, it didn't mean the same to me as the earlier albums. It may be a better album, but it didn't excite me the way the others did . . and it had very little to do with the album itself. So, while I think that "Sky Blue Sky" is not one of the better albums, I can't help but think that some of the disappointment I have for the album has more to do with just not having that joy of discovery. That said, I still can't wait to see Wilco at the Ryman in March.

Oh, and I don't mean to suggest that getting older takes any joy away from music or life in general. I'm only talking about the joy of a specific experience (be it Wilco or otherwise) and how it can be fleeting and difficult to recapture (it's like the difference between the crazy romance of youth and the more comfortable affection of an old married couple).

Even though I'm still not finished, I have enjoyed rebuilding my old Japanese Strat so much, that I am considering another customizing project -- my Epiphone Dot (Epi's version of the ES-335). So, any recommendations? New pups seems like the most obvious area for improvement. I've been a Fender guy when it comes to electric guitars, so I don't have much experience with humbuckers, so suggestions for pickups that would go well with a Gibson-style semi-hollowbody would be much appreciated. Any other ideas would also be welcomed. If it helps, the guitar has a tobacco-burst finish with gold hardware and a black pickguard.

This probably belongs in the thread I started when I orginally embarked upon my guitar project, but this thread has the most recent stuff about the newest developments. Anyway, I just thought I'd share a frustrating encounter in my attempts to get custom parts.

So, I ordered a custom engraved chrome neckplate a few weeks ago. They sent a confirmation email; it had my correct address. They sent a notice of shipping and invoice; it had my correct address. They sent a tracking page, and when I checked it today, it indicated that the plate had been delivered . . . to another address. Strangely enough, it was the address for the last place I lived. So, I called the store, and they confirmed that I had given them my correct address. Apparently they used paypal to print out the mailing address. Paypal had both my old and new addresses listed, and although I clicked on the my new one for purposes of the order (for some reason, paypal won't let me just erase the old one from the system), the folks at this store printed out the other address (even though my actual address was included with the paypal order stuff) and shipped my order there. To their credit, they admitted the mistake was entirely theirs.

Of course, I asked them how they intended to rectify the mistake, and the guy responded that he would send a letter to the old address and ask them to forward me the order. Before I could even respond to this ridiculous idea, the guy had another brilliant one and asked if I knew the people who now lived in my old apartment, because maybe I could just give them a call myself and arrange to pick it up. I told him that I had no clue who might be living in our old place (and imagined how I would feel if the person we bought out house from showed up one day to see if we'd gotten any packages of his). I then rephrased the original idea to the guy: "So, you want to send a letter that says 'Dear Occupant, we mistakenly sent you a package. Could you please, out of the goodness of your heart, take this package down to the post office and forward it along to someone else?'" He indicated that this was indeed how he wanted to handle the situation. I disagreed and commented that I was building at least one custom guitar and would probably need more parts in the future, but would be hesitant to order them from someone who did business that way. Finally, he agreed to just make a new one and send it to me. Of course, this doesn't make up for the delay (it had already taken several weeks because of the engraving), but I'm still waiting on the body anyway. I now have very little confidence that the engraving on the neckplate will even have correct spelling.

I've been holding out hope that Jeff will return to his roots and recapture the sound of The Primitives.

No, in all seriousness, I occasionally pine for that earlier Wilco sound, but then I wonder if I would still be into the band if they had just rehashed "Being There" over and over. Maybe Jeff did all he could do with that particular sound, and I enjoy discovering each new phase he enters, even if it presents the possibility of a little disappointment.

This doesn't have the neck that BigWheeledWagon and I discussed...that is for my next project! Seriously, building guitars is like crack.

Indeed -- it is addictive. I'm now thinking about putting some work into my Epiphone ES-335 (I believe Epiphone actually calls it the "Dot"). My wife got it for me for Christmas last year after I mentioned that I ould love to have a sem-hollow body electric. For a budget guitar, it's been really good, but I've got a feeling that with a little attention, it could be great. Now I just need to decide what to do to it.

Congrats on finishing her! I'm jealous. Did you give her a name?

Still waiting on Warmoth to finish my new body and for the hand-tooled leather pickguard to finish up. The engaraved neckplate finally shipped Friday. Almost everything else is here (including the chrome spring cover you located for me -- thanks again), so it's making the wait that much harder. Seeing your completed project has certainly given me a boost. Oh, and where did you get the decal? I'd like to replace the decal on the neck I'm using on my project with a 50's style logo (as opposed to the 80's one), but most places I've seen are asking more for a simple decal than what I paid for chrome volume/tone knobs with mother of pearl tops.

How's the other project coming along?

Back when this came on in October, I really freaked my friends out by getting all excited at the mention of Wilco. On a second viewing ronight, it certainly seemed very conspicuous -- I wonder if it was a deliberate attempt to earn a little indie cred for the show without getting too obscure (though plenty of indie hipsters would be screaming "Dad Rock!"). I'd really like to think that some folks with the show are just big fans, but I tend to be a little cynical about these things. Anyway, after this viewing I had to pull out my guitar and play a little "Passenger Side."

Oh, and kudos for doing a search and reviving the original thread.

Thanks for the story about Jeff and Marquee Moon, I didn't know that, and yes, the influence is obvious in the last two studio albums.

 

now I have some difficulties to understand this sentence: "On every song on that album it seems that the sum of the parts is greater than the whole."

 

??? What does that mean?

Sorry. I typed that in backward -- the expression is that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. It means that there is something intangible about the combination that makes it better than just the individual contributions. Let's say that you were to rate the performance of each guitarist, and you gave them each a 7 out of 10. So, you would think that the combination of these performances would be a 14 out of 20; however, due to the way these parts integrate and compliment each other, you would rate the overall combination as a 19 out of 20. In other words, as great as the individual performances are, they are better when combined.

As far as the story from "Learning How to Die," I believe Kott attributed it to Jay Bennett, so as much as I appreciate Jay's contributions to the band, you have to take the story with a grain of salt. Kott interviewed him after his departure from Wilco, and he clearly still had some issues about it at the time, and many of his stories seemed to be focused on establishing his importance in the evolution of Wilco. I think he said that Jeff had ingested a bunch of pot brownies on a van ride down to New Orleans and started freaking out while listening to "Marquee Moon." He then talked about how he guided Jeff through this panic attack and how this formed a special bond between the two that established his role as Jeff's writing partner and spiritual brother-in-arms.

How much is Bush giving me in refunds???

If you're single, probably about $600-$800 -- $1600 if you're married and filed jointly. The checks should go out in mid-May or June. Unfortunately, the refund my wife and I get will probably go to home improvements and not a new amp. Oh well.

As for the guitars, I've always liked the SG (though I can see your point about the horns), but I doubt I'll ever get one. I've come to realize that I like it because it's the closest thing Gibson makes to a Fender, if that makes sense. I've just always been a Fender guy when it comes to solid-body electrics. Now, for acoustics, hollow bodies, semi-hollow bodies, etc., I'm a Gibson guy.

I could see myself one day getting a Jazzmaster. They seem a little "high-maintenance," but I think I would really enjoy experimenting with it. With a tele and a strat (if I can still call it that, since it will soon have more custom replacement parts than original parts) already, I don't see myself buying another solid-body electric anytime soon.

As for telecasters, I can't recommend them enough. I've got a '52 American Vintage Tele, and it is my workhorse.

An amazing song. The interplay between Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd is unreal. They really subvert the whole rhythm/lead guitarist dynamic, and it's incredible how their guitar parts weave in and out of each other, creating intriguing nuances and subtle harmonies. On every song on that album it seems that the sum of the parts is greater than the whole. Not that each isn't an amazing guitar player in his own right -- I certainly can't imagine Matthew Sweet's "Girlfriend" album without Lloyd's guitar. His distinct sound made that album.

Speaking of this dynamic, I recall Jeff saying during the run-up to "A Ghost is Born" that he'd been listening to al ot of Television and thought the album would sound like it. Of course, the influence really becomes much more apparent on the newest album -- especially "Impossible Germany." I also recall that in the Greg Kott book, Jay Bennett provided a story about "Marquee Moon" triggering a panic attack for Jeff and Jay having to guide him through it.

ew - i dont want that guy wearing a wilco shirt.

Isn't that guy one of those three friends of Adam Sandler's that have piggy-backed on his success and end up in all of his movies? Now I guess they're even in movies that his production company makes. It must be nice when one of your friends gets famous and you can make a living just by continuing to be his friend. Then again, for all I know, those guys could be really talented, wonderful people. Still, I get the impression that these are some guys who have made a career out of mooching.

LNGCA...

 

LNGCA

 

Congratulations. You have just pushed one of my pet peeve buttons. (Please excuse the following rant, but my neck and knee are hurting, I didn't get much sleep last night, and you won the 'piss off crow lottery'.)

 

So...LNGCA isn't ringing any bells. So, I go to the iPod to pull up my wilco albums...none match. LNGCA...Is it really that hard to type the song name? Or is it some sort of key to hipness to know or invent acronyms for every song, every album, every name, every venue...?

What is being done here is exclude me (and other acronymally challenged board members) from a reasonably interesting and enjoyable thread.

Like I noted above...I hope my tone isn't too pissed off. It's been a really tough couple of weeks.

Sorry to hear you're having a rough time.

ANYWAY, I don't know that I've ever gotten actively upset at acronym usage, but I wanted to confess that I, too, have struggled with this terrible affliction of being "acronymally challenged." When I first joined the board, I remember being completely confused at the use of "IAATRBYH," even though I had just gone to see that movie. It should have been completely obvious, but had it not been for the context surrounding the usage that gave it away, I would have puzzled over it for hours. The funny thing is, I'm usually pretty good with reading comprehension, word games, etc. Just thought I'd I offer you some support. You're not alone.

I'm not sure I would agree that anyone is trying to exclude those of us with this little-known condition from the conversation, but it does sometimes feel as if "speakers are speaking in code."

Slightly off-topic, but I once saw a kid give Glenn Danzig a bootleg Misfits 7" to sign, and Danzig got so pissed off that he snapped the record in half and slit the kid's throat with it.

It would be funny if I weren't slightly worried it just might be true. Then again, I can't believe Danzing would leave you alive to tell the tale. MOTHHA!

I'm glad to see "Village Green Preservation Society" getting some love here. It's one of my all-time favorites. It's one of the albums from the British Invasion bands that I somehow missed as a kid when I was discovering the Beatles, Stones, etc., and only discovered in my twenties. Along with the Zombies' "Odyssey and Oracle" and the Stones' "Between the Buttons" (I once tended to ignore any Stones album that wasn't in the run from "Beggar's Banquet" to "Exile on Mainstreet" -- okay, still mostly do), it's one of those albums I really regret not discovering earlier.

"Heavy Metal Drummer"? Sorry, couldn't resist.

I was taking a dump at The Hard Rock Hotel restroom on the 2nd floor in Chicago last week and I heard "Heavy Metal Drummer" follow Ryan Adams's "It Takes Two." As I was "taking my own two" I was thinking if I were Jeff Tweedy and partaking in this exercise at this particular establishment would I think it kind of surreal that I was crapping to my own song or would I just be pissed that I was following a Ryan Adams song?

Wow, that's a lot of "2"s. Your 2nd post, 2nd floor, "It Takes Two," your own personal, um, number two . . . Quite the scatological convergence. I'm torn between my numerological amazement and general discomfort at the idea of the now inevitable future threads dedicated to people's experiences of moving their bowels to Wilco songs.

New Orleans is a fine city indeed.. If you like seafood and oysters, you HAVE TO go to the Acme Oyster house.. The oysters are gigantic.. But if seafood isn't your bag, then there's plenty of other great restaurants of course..

Good call! Mmmmm . . . oysters. So many great places to eat in NO, but Acme is indeed one of the best if you like oysters. I also recommend getting bread pudding for dessert at almost any NO restaurant. I don't know what it is about that town, but almost every place features bread pudding dripping in rum (or whiskey) for dessert, and they do it well. Man, I really need to get back down there sometime soon.

I feel like people who can solder pedals, amps, etc. really have a one-up on the do-it-yourself stuff. I looked through the amp section at reranch and was just baffled. It would be awesome to tackle making something like that, but transistors, capacitors and circuits never really made sense to me. I'm hoping this guitar building is going to improve some of that.

 

What kind of neck are you going to use on your guitar? It's original one?

Yeah, it's the original neck -- I really like the way it plays, it's nicely aged, and I wanted to keep a few parts of the original guitar. I'm also using the same pups (thought they're not original to the guitar; I changed them years ago).

Killer! What color is the leather pickguard?

Brown -- I figured tan wouldn't stand out enough from the natural wood/vintage finish. Oh, and while you're browsing out the site, check out the leather encased tele body. I'm not sure what it would do to your tone (it can't be good -- then again, it's good enough for Waylon Jennings), but it looks pretty cool. I've seen some custom teles from a guy here in Nashville with leather binding around the entire edge, too (almost like a belt). It's a pretty distinctive look.

UPDATE:

Oh, I checked out the forums at re-ranch (I don't know how I missed those before when I was checking out tutorials, products, etc.) and saw the solder thread you posted in. I haven't soldered anything in a quite some time, so it was nice to have a refresher course. Soldering pots and stuff should be a lot easier than dealing with circuit boards (I tried to do a tube screamer mod several years ago -- it did not go well). Anyway, that's a pretty helpful board -- also some crazy stuff there. Some guy from China had taken the circuits out of several effects pedals, hollowed out a guitar, installed a ton of knobs, and combined it all into a monstrosity of a guitar. Crazy.

The body is a solid alder telecaster body. It's gonna be finished in sonic blue with the paint reranch sells. I was originally gonna go with swamp ash, but I heard grain filling it is a lot of work. After looking at a number of pics, I really wish I would have had them do binding on the body -- such a nice look. It'll have a mint pickguard too.

 

The neck specs: 1 11/16" nut width, 12" straight radius, Quartersawn maple neck and fretboard, '59 back contour, vintage finish and short-scale -- like a Gibson neck, but to go on a telecaster. Kind of specific, but hey -- I figure it's gonna be the guitar I built and I wanted it really special.

 

I'll be sure to put some pics up when it's done. You do the same!

 

I have no guitar building skills (or any kind for that matter:)) so I started by getting a $99 Squier and taking it all apart...so we'll see. Soldering scares me.

 

EDIT: Chrome Fender Back Plate

Thanks! I went ahead and ordered it. It's like you said -- if it's going to be a guitar you build, it should be specific and special. It's little touches like this that make the difference. Hell, I'm even putting an embossed leather pickguard on my crazy Frankenstrat.

I ordered a pre-cut body from Warmoth, which is nice cause it was already made and I got it quick. I ordered a custom neck from Musikraft that will be here in 8 weeks () . I've been frequenting this forum at reranch.com/reranch that has been a HUGE help. I bet if you asked about your chrome spring cover they might know. Are you looking for something like an "ashtray" cover that telecasters have?

I ordered a custom body from Warmoth (10-12 weeks). I've also checked reranch -- they really are a great resource. Anyway, no ashtray type bridge (though I do enjoy the one in my tele) -- I'm just looking for a regular strat back plate that covers the spring cavity, but in chrome (hopefully with holes for the strings so I don't have to remove it everytime I restring it).

Let's hear about this custom neck -- what are the specs/features? Also, what kind of pre-made body did you go with? I looked through the pre-mades, but they didn't have exactly what I was looking for -- a flame maple top on swamp ash strat body with a drop-top white binding and a vintage tint clear gloss finish (I still can't get over that they can put a binding on the strat's contoured body). Oh, and be sure to post some pics when you get finished.

I started building a guitar over the holidays and have learned a lot of stuff. So much, that as I do things on the guitar I'm building, I think to go look at things on my other (factory built) guitars. So, the other night I shielded the body of my Strat. I bought this shielding tape and put it all in the pickup cavities and control cavities. I used to never use the neck or bridge pickup by itself cause the hum was so bad -- the tape cured this, 100%. It even made the tone better. So, if you want a quick and cheap little project, I suggest doing this to any single-coil guitar.

I'm glad to hear that, because I ordered some copper shielding tape along with my new strat body (which won't be ready until late Feb./early March). I was wondering how much diffence it really makes, but figured I might as well since I was completely rebuilding the guitar anyway. I also just ordered an engraved neckplate for the thing. Now if I can just find a chrome tremolo spring cover for a strat (I've found chrome pup covers and knobs).

Are you building the guitar completely from scratch (as in, cutting and shaping the body) or are you using a pre-cut body?

I've done a little updating lately, though the mixes are still a little rough. Anyway, here's a link to some stuff I've done in my home studio:

Here

Although it claims to be a band page, all the stuff on there is just me (with the exception of backing vox on one song).

not to be a jerk or anything but when i clicked on your link, "Sorry, the link that brought you to this page seems to be out of date or broken." came up so try to get the right link if you are talking about forum ettiquette. And should the word "nazi" be used so lightly

Look, I was just trying to be helpful. It appeared you wanted to discuss Wilco's inclusion on FNL, and I was trying to direct you to where that discussion had already begun and several comments had been made. I wasn't trying to personally attack you as the poster. When I was new to the board, I did the same thing and people were not as kind in their response as I was in mine, and I was specifically trying not to be like that. When someone starts a topic that has already been started, usually someone will point out that a simple search is in order before posting to ensure that the same topic hasn't already been started. In this case, a search wouldn't have even been needed as the original post was still only about four posts down when the new one went up. Sorry I got the link wrong -- I must have forgotten to enable HTML or something. Here it is: FNL

As for the term "Nazi," I'm sorry if my reference to Seinfeld's "Soup Nazi" offended you. I assure you, I was in no way trying to make light of Nazis or their deeds anymore than I was trying to personally offend you. Again, all apologies. I realize that no one likes to feel like they're being ridiculed or belittled for making a post, and it was precisely that type of reaction I was hoping to avoid. Apparently I failed in this regard, and for this I am sorry. Take care.