loraaw

I love how the sun through the window back-lights this video, bringing out the dust in the air and silhouetting Jeff a few times. Oh ... the song was cool, too.

-Laura

I think that was bjorn's problem with the copy editing.

Fowl - chickens maybe?

Can't believe I didn't see that.

-Laura

Jesus, are they ever going to give it a rest with the rehab thing? Talk about your laaa-zzzy reporting. No journalistic standards there, I'm afraid.

And even worse copy editing standards.

Ok guys, I'm a copy editor (not for EW).

Let's keep a few things in mind:

1. We're not Entertainment Weekly's audience. This is written for people who need some background. The rehab stint was news (it made the CNN crawl). YHF was news. (I would, however, like to see more articles start out with the fact that AGIB was a Grammy winner).

2. I only skimmed the article, but I don't see any grammatical or other copy editing errors. I'm not sure, exactly, how that article goes against any journalistic values.

3. Jeff tends to repeat himself. Yes, they may have asked the same questions (but one can assume that most EW's readers don't read Paste and Harp and Uncut ...), but he answered them the same. If he's sick of the rehab question he can say "I think everyone has heard enough about that - new question." That question seems to have some relevance to the new album since the songs are more direct.

I hope I spelled everything correctly here, or I'm about to get slammed.

Thanks,

Laura

I don' t know anything about chords and such, but this song has always reminded me of recent solo versions I've heard Tweedy do of the Golden Smog song "All the Same to Me."

Maybe it's the narrative tone. I'm a sucker for the narrative.

-Laura

Buying things from Music Today (the company that runs the wilco store) is probably the biggest joke in the world. 13.25 for shipping to be guaranteed on the release date? 4.75 shipping is the cheapest option which comes over a week after the release date. I think i'll skip the contest (and tote bag) and walk to the record store.

Did you see that you can enter w/out purchasing?

http://www.musictoday.com/interact/contest...oice=noPurchase

I plan to buy the record, I just don't want to pay extra to have it shipped on the release day when I can drive up the road (hopefully) and buy it at one of the mega-chains (sorry, no cool private record stores near me).

-laura

Nobody got me (and I'm not a dude).

Please?

Here's my excuse - my sweet husband surprised me with a birthday trip to Chicago this weekend. When I said to him "OMG - did you get in one of the those Tweedy Living Room Groups?!!?!?!?!" a VERRRRRRRRRRRRY sad look came over his face. "Uh, no, we're going to see the Autumn Defense Saturday and Second City Sunday."

"Oh - uh, ok" I said. Yes, I may be the only person on Earth who flies to see the Autumn Defense. (They were great, by the way; they closed with an AWESOME cover of "Sentimental Lady"; I have the best husband - I just never would have thought to do that).

But I missed the CD streaming. Soooooooo please someone send this Mac OSX user a belated birthday present.

-Laura

EDIT - I got it a few days ago. Thanks to everyone who has sent me a PM. Count me as one of those who love it.

I was out to town, too. Any chance someone could PM me? Much appreciated. I've looked all the obvious places to find it on my own to no avail.

Everyone's descriptions made me want to go to this festival all that much more, but the reality is that we get to see Wilco quite often (it's realitively cheap to fly w/in the U.S. from where I live) and it's going to be MUCH more affordable for us to go to Europe on a package some other time than to try to work our trip around this.

Sigh. All your advice was useful though - I poured over every word, adding up airfares and routing planes, trains and automobiles. It was a fun little dream to obsess over for a few days ... Maybe next year!

Carry on your discussions - I'm sure I'm not the only one who is curious about this Fest. (I wish festivals here were more like this, instead of 40,000 people hoping to get a glimpse of a stage in the far distance).

I'm laughing about the stuff about "beans" being cheap. This is why I shouldn't go to Europe - I don't even know what drugs "beans" is slang for.

Thanks, and enjoy your beans,

-Laura

Hey folks - does Arcade Fire have any sort of fan presale I can sign up for, or did you all go through Ticketmaster for the Chicago shows?

I'm maybe looking for buy some for Upper Darby, Pa. - which goes on sale at Ticketmaster Friday.

For years my husband and I have been saying 2007 would be the summer we'd go to Europe - we were just about to scrap it and be more fiscally responsible when I saw Wilco show up at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival in Somerset.

Wow - this looks cool, a music festival at a RESORT! I'm anti-festival, anti-camping, anti-port-a-johns, but having your own private room onsite! Only the people at the resort get to go to the shows?!??! AND wow, in addition to Wilco, what a lineup!

From the research I've done, this seems like it's a new resort for this festival. However, has anyone ever gone to one of these before (music festival at a resort). Is it really as cool as it seems? How crowded are the performances? How crazy does it get at the resort? And am I crazy or does about $600 for 3 nights at a resort INCLUDING concert tickets not seem all that expensive for Europe (for the "4 berth room" the smallest left - that's NOT per person, right????) Anyone ever been to this particular resort (Butlins Minehead)?

Any advice from anyone would be much appreciated. We'll probably need to figure this out this week before the last room we could afford sells out. We'd, obviously, stick around Europe for longer than the 3 days of the festival - I'm just trying to figure out if this is something worth working a trip around.

Thanks,

-Laura

Any kind soul wanna offer up this show to me oldstyle, on discs by mail? Still haven't figured out all this downloading stuff on my mac. I can offer the 3 disc set from the SnS Hotel (Jeff Tweedy private basement show early this year) in return - I know a lot of people don't have that and it's awesome.

PM me.

I'll make it my New Years resolution to figure out downloading on Mr. Mac in the new year.

-Laura

Look, I'de see them 365 days a year, but damn, everyone has their limits. Wilco puts more into a show than any band Ive seen, and though this show was not a disapointment by any stretch of the imagination, its obvious when a band is tired and is just going through the motions. That's how they looked in my opinion.

Wow - if "going through the motions" includes two sets of encores with 7 songs, plus a handful of new songs, and even some little guitar jumps on Jeff's part, well ... I don't know what to say. They're polished and tight from A LOT of time on the road. Walken live just really jumped out at me as one of the catchiest songs Jeff's ever written - and it was just beautifully delivered Monday night. Tons of energy. The floor was shaking.

I've been lucky in my travel plans this year - I was able to extend a Nashville weekend trip to see this show. And yeah, I've seen the guys go "through the motions" at a show or two in the past few years. This wasn't one of them. I left glad that I'd taken the extra time and effort to get to the-middle-of-nowhere Alabama to see it.

My 3 cents,

-Laura

I actually feel like "Don't Fear the Reaper" and the cowbell thing is becoming the new "Freebird."

It wasn't all that funny on SNL, but I thought it was cool when Wilco covered it on Halloween 2 years ago - since then, I've seen about half a dozen pretty prominent bands do it. And THEN (2 years ago) the joke was old.

8 bands or so later, I'm just like "wow, no more, pleeeease." The Roots, before Son Volt at Taste of St. Louis a week ago, was my limit for this song. I so don't wanna hear The Roots cover old, white-boy 70s rock for a laugh any more, or hear those girls blow their whistles in my ear. No thanks.

Give me Freebird anytime instead,

-Laura

I highly doubt Fred Armisen has any control over the booking of musical guests.

Eh, I'm sure you're right. I'm just daydreaming about a future "Fred and Jeff Show," which is a daydream that I'd probably rather not come true. Let Jeff keep making great music. Let Fred keep dressing up as a big cat. The two don't really go together, do they?. java script:emoticon('',%20'smid_14')

-Laura

Fred and Jeff are hilarious together. Did they invent the term "Googlebating" or have others heard that? It's hilarious. If I had to pick two people on Earth to sit down and have a beer (or, uh, a caffiene-free, Splenda-sweetened diet cola) with, it would be them.

The last few years I've been watching SNL just for Fred (have TiVo and fast forward through it in about 24 minutes) and the musical guests.

So if they're such great pals, why hasn't Wilco been the musical guest on SNL yet? Seems like they're in NYC enough, and it would be a fun little gig w/great exposure to a new audience; and one would assume Fred has some pull there.

You think Jeff and Sue ever sit at home watching SNL and see really bad skits, like the one where Fred dressed up as a big cat (actually that one was SOOOOOO bad it was funny) and just wonder why the heck he's agreeing to that crap? Fred's so much better than that.

And that's my little rant on Fred and Jeff,

-Laura

Usually WilcoWorld/MusicToday throws in some sort of extra or contest entry with their preorders to get you to pay the extra couple of bucks. I'm gonna hold off and see if that happens.

I didn't forget Dan, I do not believe he is on the tour. I assume he is busy with the Soul Asylum tour. By the way if anyone cares, I did see Soul Asylum this summer, and they were great!

Dan was at the two shows already played this year - and those dates don't seem to conflict w/SA shows. I can't imagine them playing without him. He's faaaaaaar more a part of the current lineup of GS than Jeff.

-Laura

Only two songs (on the first two albums) even have links to lyrics/credits--"Radio King" and "Lost Love" (and this link doesn't work). I know there's more than that. And then there's the latest album...

On the new CD Jeff is credited with co-writing "Long Time Ago," where he sings lead, and "Listen Joe," where he sings backup. He also sings the Kinks cover of "Strangers." He has some credits for backup vocals and some guitar on a few other tracks, but that pretty much covers it.

Don't get caught up in just what Jeff was on or you'll miss some gems. I've been irked reading reviews of this CD how many reviewers lead with Jeff when he had such a small part in it. Or, my fav., when they write about the song he wrote about his "little sister." Nope, he has no younger siblings. That's Gary's little sis, I believe, even though Jeff sings the song ("Long Time Ago.").

Anyway, loving the Smog - I was lucky enough to be in Minneapolis for the show two weeks ago.

I'm too lazy to go through the other 2 CDs' credits for you. Just buy 'em; they're worth it. The new one is my current fav., but Weird Tales is probably the best first purchase for a newbie.

-Laura

I thought Asheville was the show (actually both shows) where he picked up the little girl from the audience for Hummingbird? All the reviews made it should like a really touching moment, and a good show I wish I'd been at. I fell in love when w/Asheville when I was there last summer, but unfortunately not at the same time as either of those Wilco shows.

Missed that NPR interview. Is it still around? Can someone post a link?

For me, I can't imagine they could top AGIB - and I'm not sure I'd want them to; I'm ready for something different, but will always come back to this one. The raw emotion, in the guitar and the lyrics, is what gets me.

Oddly, I like this recorded version of Muzzle of Bees better than any I've heard live. The building of guitars at the end just takes me off somewhere.

-Laura

Is anyone calling this the "Green Striped Blazer Tour" yet?

I am poking fun, but I do kinda secretly (not so secretly anymore, I suppose) like how Jeff seems to obsess on one clothing item for 2-3 months at a time. For the longest time it was the black jacket zipped all the way up. I guess that's not "summer" enough. :-)

Silly post, I know. Wish I coulda made it up to Canada to hear the new song, be called a motherf*cker and see the green striped blazer in person.

-Laura

Lists seem like an easy way for a magazine to fill most of an edition without doing a whole lot of reporting (although it does require a lot of numbers gathering and research). It seems a bit cheap of Paste, which is often above such things, to jump on the list bandwagon.

However, I think both lists - the one from readers AND the one from musicians/journalists - stay pretty true to the Paste readership. Jeff's up top because Paste caters to listeners, like us, who listen to artists who have a solid foot in the past (with influences like Dylan) but are definately looking toward the future.

As silly as lists are, I think that an artist should be flattered to be on this one. The voters in the musicians/journalists panel ranged from Solomon Burke (who I bet threw Jeff a vote!) to Cameron Crowe. There were also music writers from Pitchfork and the LA Times. A nice little sampling that isn't exactly going to give you Harris Poll "here's what the nation thinks" results, but rather "here's what Paste-like folks think" results. How many modern bands are really writing songs anymore? How many who are still putting out quality songwriting that offers something different every time have a solid back catalog of more than a decade? Not that many.

And hey, let's not forget Jeff was one of the voters in the Rolling Stone Top 100 of All Time List a year or so back, so he must not hate lists too much.

I think my point is, lists are cool as long as I agree with them. :-)

-Laura

P.S. I was just at Borders and the old issue of Paste (Flaming Lips) is still on the shelf at my branch. I also couldn't find a link to the whole list on the Paste Web site.

Just got my Paste Magazine in the mail. 18,000 readers voted and Jeff came in No. 11 of 100 on THE BEST LIVING SONGWRITERS list.

It's a pretty respectable list.

Here's the Top 15

1. Bob Dylan

2. Neil Young

3. Paul McCartney

4. Bruce Springsteen

5. Paul Simon

6. Elvis Costello

7. Joni Mitchell

8. U2

9. Tom Waits

10. Van Morrison

11. Jeff Tweedy

12. REM

13. Brian Wilson

14. Mick Jagger

15. David Bowe

You know who got my vote. Congrats Jeff, if you pay any attention to this silly stuff.

- Laura

PS I got excited and posted this before I read fully. Above is the readers list. He's 24 on the poll of musicians and journalists.