Cold as Gasoline

Montreal, Sept 21!  (GA)

Does anyone know what time the Pickens aftershows tend to end?  

Wish I could remember more exactly how long each of them went last year, but they were somewhere in the 2 hours range.  Not until middle-of-the-night like those Deer Tick aftershows, which are a younger person's game

I am getting very excited for NFF! Super bummed to be missing The Watkins Family Hour, especially now that they've announced that Joe Pug will be joining. 

 

Any guesses about who the unannounced bands are on Friday and Saturday? It looks like there's an unannounced band on Friday from 5:30PM-6:30PM right before Roger Waters (with no break in between, oddly enough), and another unannounced on Saturday from 3:45 - 4:45.

No guesses about the unannounced acts, but I am dying to know!  I will be at the Watkins Family Hour pre-show (can't really call it an after-show since it's on Thursday night) as long as my flight is on time.  Looking forward to it very much.  

My biggest scheduling woe is Jason Isbell and Courtney Barnett overlapping almost completely on different ends of the fort grounds.  Still don't know what I will do about that one, since they are two of my favorites.  First time to hear the new Isbell songs live, but I've never seen Barnett and don't want to miss her.  High class problem, right?

Just my opinion, of course.  But I can't stand the attitude and condescension evident in statements like this:

Basically, they make musically adept pop rock with enough fuzz and energy to appeal to aging men. Men who are moving beyond their ability, or emotional bandwidth, to process a constant barrage of heavier or more noodle-y music, and need a chill middle ground, without giving up the cool factor of listening to something “alternative.”

I also went to see Trainwreck.  Very weird and funny and I enjoyed the unexpected jolt of Wilco.

Add me to those who are binge-listening both Star Wars and Isbell's new album.  Enjoying both so much I don't want to listen to anything else!

OK, this is the most insufferably hipper-than-thou review I've ever read.  But at least the jackass "critic" likes the album.  

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/07/18/wilco-s-new-free-album-is-the-band-s-best-in-years.html

Something's wrong with the world when someone is actually paid to write this stuff.  It's more about what the author deems to be "cool" (hint: not you!) than the music.

Thank you fellow Wilco nuts -- you are all so helpful!  I am downloading from the dropbox link right now.  Can't wait to watch this again.

Was out tonight but now watching the stream on YouTube.  Holy Heck the new songs sound like they have been polished over years on the road.  So Good!  I want to listen to nothing but this for a long time.  The new songs hold together as an entity as well as any album I can think of.  Ecstatic.

Don't think anyone else posted this yet unless I missed it, but saw this interview Jeff did with Marty Lennartz of WXRT this morning.  Revelations: He says they are doing the whole album tonight at Pitchfork!  Also, the album name "Star Wars" is either after the 80s missile defense system or the name of the cat; "that much should be obvious"

http://wxrt.cbslocal.com/2015/07/17/we-want-people-to-hear-the-whole-record-first-jeff-tweedy-on-wilcos-surprise-new-album-plus-plans-for-tonights-pitchfork-set/

I am so happy.  That is all.

I am downloading this right now, but don't know what to think!  

http://wilcoworld.net/

It's a throwback week for me!  Matthew Sweet tonight and the English Beat friday.

Sublime image.  Totally captures Jeff's passion.

As an over-singer as well, I concur with your statements. No regrets.

 

Thanks, Sarah!  I'm not generally a over-singer (in my guitar class, it's generally known that I can sing on key, but not loud enough). I love to sing and enthusiasm does sometimes get the better of me, but out of joy.  No regrets, though.

Really nice, and a very natural fit!  I could start a whole other thread on how much I love those AV Club covers.  The Sylvan Esso cover of Gillian Welch's "Everything is Free" is my current fave.

She would do a great cover of Handshake Drugs or even, dare I say, Spiders.

I would LOVE to hear the Handshake Drugs cover!  She'd kill that.

I've been thinking about this all day.  Compare and contrast lyrics:

JT: I was chewing gum for something to do.

CB: I'm not suicidal, just idling insignificantly.

It's probably not a coincidence that Wilco fans are digging Courtney Barnett.

Seeing Great Lake Swimmers tonight and the Baseball Project tomorrow.

Tonight, the Lonesome Trio (Ed Helms' bluegrass group).

...And I love all the Yo Yo La Tengo puns above!  Thanks for the laugh.

So I just got home, and Dawes rocked it out, even though it really was a beautiful but less-than-ideal venue for them and the bass was way way too high in the mix from where I was sitting, about 12 rows back.  They played the title song from the new record, which is my favorite. You gotta love an anthemic rock song that contains this lyric: "When I think of you, you've still got on that hat that says 'Let's Party'.  I hope that thing is never thrown away." Even some of the 8 zillion teenage girls there to see Hozier were getting into it.  

I had to leave about 45 minutes into Hozier.  The young crowd (mostly teens and 20s and about 75% female) were really excited and knew the words to most of the songs, but they all kind of sounded like hook-free celtic rock to me.  

As for the live feel on the new Dawes album, I hear what you're saying.  I was listening to "Stories Don't End" on my iPod on the way home and it has a much more claustrophobic feel than this one though.  Of course, I'm also kind of a David Rawlings fangirl, so I'm going to be somewhat biased and pretty forgiving about his production choices.  You're sure right that the songs sound best live though.  Enjoy the show!

Hozier and Dawes.

There doesn't seem to be a general Dawes topic, so I will start one.  Their new album "All Your Favorite Bands" is fantastic.  Especially the title song has great, funny, nostalgic, poignant lyrics.  Dawes has been a grower for me, and listening to the new album in the car this morning I realized that I really love this band now  Exceptional lyrics, very strong vocals, and tight musicality.  

Seeing them tomorrow night at Millennium Park with Hozier.  Not so much a Hozier fan, though of course I like that one song (like everyone does).

This is a really thought-provoking thread.  I have found that my interest does wax and wane through the years.  There was a period where I wasn't really finding any new music and found myself not listening to as much music as I had in my younger years.  What turned it around was a recognition (partially inspired by a Wilco concert) that seeing live music is something that can inspire me in a way almost nothing else does.  It also dawned on me that I was always waiting for someone who shared my admittedly idiosyncratic musical taste to accompany me, and I was likely never going to find that.

Once I started going to concerts on my own, it naturally led to the realization that I'd been missing a lot, and that exploring acts similar to things I already knew I liked opened doors to a ton of new stuff that was out there that I was oblivious to.  There truly is more great music out there than you could listen to in a lifetime, but you have to look.  And as a single person without kids, I have more time and money than most to do the looking.

There's such a treasure trove of great archival music, too!  How could you hear it all?  Recently, my obsessions are along the lines of Mississippi John Hurt and Bessie Smith, nothing I ever would have heard in my youth, but which really speaks to me now.