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Even though I had nothing to offer pneyu took me under her wing and sent me a starter package of stuff so I'd have something to trade, thus restoring my faith in rock 'n roll, the internet, and the kindness of mankind.

kidsmoke and pneyu did the same thing for some wayward San Franciscans at just about the same time, and our lives will never be the same.

 

There used to be an adopt-a-newbie program for new folks looking to start out trading, and it was a great way for people to become part of the VC community. As much as I love the ease of BTs, I think something's been lost with the lessening of the need for trading by mail (I only started trading/collecting shows when I arrived at VC, so I only caught the tail end of that; I'm not trying to claim any old-school trader status here).

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38 years old

 

Married, with three cats (one a former feral missing a paw)

 

PhD, professor of philosophy (I will begin teaching at McKendree College in Lebanon, Ill; which is but 10 or so minutes from Belleville. My wife is concerned...)

 

For years, I quite deliberately refused to give Wilco a serious listen. Music snob that I was (Zappa, avante classical, Zappa, etc.), I was sure that something so many of the hipsters loved would be something not worthy of my love. Foolish, I know. First YHF, then the documentary, then a deluge of downloads (thanks VC, dime-a-dozen,etc), and now--my wife is concerned...

 

Side note: I play guitar, and in younger days played in euro-style heavy metal bands in Baltimore and the mid-atlantic. Mercyful Fate! :rock Er, we live and learn. But, damn, if some of that stuff doesn't just hit the spot now and then.

 

Enough is enough. Or, more apropos, Enuff z' Nuff (I was tickled when JT mentioned them during an acoustic version of Heavy Metal Drummer).

Edited by zanelotti
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24 years of age.

 

I live in Chicago, IL.

 

I have been listening to Wilco since 2003 and have seen them at The Auditorium Theater, Langerado, and Summerfest.

 

I work for a smaller software company in downtown chciago and started at 1st Tier Tech Support and have been promoted twice and will soon get a third to hopefully the only Level 3 Support and start training in Development. I feel I am underpaid as well.

 

I went to Indiana University and graduated in 2005 with a degree in Informatics. I took many Business and Music courses and could have minored in either given one more semester.

 

I am a musician. I started playing bass at 12 and moved to guitar a year after. Currently, I am not in a band. My influences are Wilco, Umphrey's McGee, The Beatles, Modest Mouse, The Flaming Lips, Pink Floyd, and almost all Classic Rock. Truthfully, I am influenced by any music I hear. I love all types of music and own over 1,000 albums of all genre's.

 

Someone help me get a better job!

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I usually don't talk about personal stuff, but I'm feeling especially grateful and chatty today. Been completely clean and sober for 3 1/2 years, and Jeff's music and personal background have been a big inspiration for me. I may not have "gotten" early Wilco at the time because I wasn't in the emotional place to get it. A big reason AGIB never gets old to me is that so many of those songs represent a recovery of one sort or another. Every show I attended in the 90s was a blur, but I've been clear and lucid for all these Wilco and Jeff solo shows and each one has been a moving, spiritual experience for me.

 

Sorry to anyone who's still reading this. I'm usually not this corny, I swear.

 

Congrats on the sobriety and transition. It really is a gift that wilco's music can be enjoyed in so many ways, by so many people, under so many different conditions. There really is something to it...

 

:thumbup

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Congrats on the sobriety and transition. It really is a gift that wilco's music can be enjoyed in so many ways, by so many people, under so many different conditions. There really is something to it...

 

:thumbup

 

Thanks, dude :thumbup .

 

Of course, some say I'm even crazier now by doing things like picking up a complete stranger for a Wilco roadtrip to Florence, Mass....if you're out there Lisa, I had a blast :thumbup ....and definitely hold a Built to Spill ticket for me. :thumbup

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17. Going to be a senior in high school :beer

 

I'm pretty sure I'm the biggest Wilco fanatic in my high school

 

A friend gave me BT for Christmas or something, and from there, it's escalated. Albums and bootlegs and...you get the picture.

 

I'm also looking forward to seeing 1/3 of Wilco for the first time in September.

 

Wilco has changed the way I approach music, from a performer standpoint , a composer standpoint, and a listener standpoint.

 

I'm that boring.

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Thank you for par-taking. I thought this was a very mixed group.

X and Y's.

haves and have-nots.

yups & pups.

Strange and straight.

High degrees and high school.

nice mix.

 

any one else?

 

:cheers

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It isn't that we chose not to disclose anything it is just that lots of people have already heard these things about us over and over and it has gotten kinda boring.

 

But if you can sit still for this one more time, here goes.

 

I came to Wilco through Uncle Tupelo, who I followed, but never saw because I was busy with a young family. I am far and away the oldest active person on the board, since I have been on this planet for 5.5 decades. I live within the city limits of Chicago and my daughter Tweedy's Gurl used to be the kid on block here, but now has a few years on her and is nearly out of her teens. I still go out and hear music on a regular basis and I am an avid record collector, both vinyl and CD, but don't really do downloads. I had seen Wilco several times prior to YHF, but after turning my daughter on to it, I was obliged to schelp her to see both the group and Tweedy and as a result I have met the band and loads of fans from all over the world. I would not have traded that experience for anything, because now I know people when I go see stuff and don't have to go alone anymore.

 

I have a rather mundane job as a state bureaucrat in the Illinois dept of Education, after having worked in community organizations and done some other interesting stuff such as union organizing and school reform. I have lived in Chicago my entire adult life, although I did not grow up here.

 

That's about enough of that....

 

LouieB

 

Hi, Louie you offered to help out a few threads ago. How do I PM you?

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33

Restaurant Manager

Father of 1

recently moved back to SoCal from Oklahoma

fun lover

A.M. was my first love

Introduced to UT by my friend from St. Louis back in the early 90s.

I think Nels Cline is the best thing to ever happen to Wilco.

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I'm 50 (NOOOOOOO!).

The music I loved as a teenager is now fodder for TV commercials - everyone has sold out.

Married 20 years next year.

Work as a Project Manager/Analyst for a CUSO.

First heard Jeff on Golden Smog's Down By The Old Mill Stream a CD I picked up from Columbia House CD/Tape Club (yes, I was a member) on sale, but it didn't really register.

I think I caugt the video V on VH1's Crossroads which is why I bough the cd.

I recall loving the Son Volt Drown video that was rotated a great deal on that show.

Also vaugely remember seeing Wilco on HBO's Reverb series.

Probably got into Wilco thanks to Napster allow me to risk only time to discover new music.

I recall listening to tracks from YHF while painting my laundry room, but it wasn't until I bought it and played it as a whole piece during to my long commute to work each day.

Then I "got it" and marveled at finding what I thought had become a lost art form - the concept album.

I also loved at hearing the influences of music I grew up with throughout the album.

So many Beatle influences: Reservations reminded me of John Lennon's Julia, Poor Places reminded me of A Day In The Life, parts of Ashes of American Flags remind me of I Am The Walrus.

I hear George Harrison's Savoy Truffle in I'm The Man Who Loves You.

Bought all of their stuff since then and drug my wife to 2 concerts when they've come to town.

Pre-ordered the Sam Jones doc when it came out on DVD and have worn it out.

Favorite other artists over the decades have been Beatles (ya think?), Monkees, Stones, ELP, David Bowie, James Taylor, Jackson Browne, Elvis Costello, Genesis, REM, Replacements & Paul Westerberg, Phish, Green Day, and currently Arctic Monkeys. But I must listen to Hey Chicken 4 to 5 times a week.

After seeing Wilco on Conan a few months ago, I can't wait to see what direction the band goes on the next album.

Edited by ROBBY
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Hi, Louie you offered to help out a few threads ago. How do I PM you?
click on my name, get my profile and then it says Personal Message on the right and click on that for the PM part of this program. Easy.

 

LouieB

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click on my name, get my profile and then it says Personal Message on the right and click on that for the PM part of this program. Easy.

Have they fixed the PMs yet? Last I heard, they were out of commission.

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I'm 32, married, and my daughter turned two yesterday.

 

Although I enjoyed a brief term wearing sweat pants as a freelance researcher--for example, I wrote many of the annotations for a special edition of Gone With the Wind--I now serve as a veteran teacher of high school literature. Occasionally I publish pieces about movies for a few print and online outlets, although that endeavor has largely been paused while I continue working on my master's thesis. (This thread is distracting me from that right now.)

 

UT, Farrar, and Tweedy had been on my radar for years, but it was YHF that finally converted me. I have seen the full band four times, Tweedy solo twice, Son Volt once, and skipped last night's Cline/Kotche Milwaukee show despite having tickets. (No clue how many boots I have, but enough that I finally stopped collecting.) At this point I can't claim that Wilco is the greatest band on the planet, but I can say that no other band means more to me. I enjoy each "era" of the band equally, albeit for different reasons.

 

I don't have an iPod, don't BT, only recently acquired a cell phone, spend way too much time watching Turner Classic Movies and baseball, and too little time diving into the stack of books piling up in the corner.

 

And my blood is reddened by stardog's fruit basket.

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24 year old dude.

 

I live on the north side of Chicago, grew up in the Detroit area, did 4 years in Ann Arbor.

 

Currently working as a Customer Service Rep. Wanna do some museum work eventually.

 

I play guitar. In A2 I was in a band called Prison Rodeo. Working on developing my new band, Grunt, into something that can adaquately conquer the big city.

 

I first heard Wilco back when A.M. came out, when I saw the video for "Box Full of Letters" on MTV's 120 Minutes. I didn't really get into them, however, until around the time of YHF.

 

Other favorites besides Wilco: The Velvet Underground, the Clash, X, Mission of Burma, Guided by Voices, the White Stripes, the Pixies, Sonic Youth, Neko Case, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Elvis Costello, Thunderbirds Are Now!, Blanche, Television, Arcade Fire, Tenacious D, the Stooges, Mars Volta, Lee Marvin Computer Arm.

 

Interests other than music: History, politics, baseball/fantasy baseball/sabermetrics, melatonin, Arrested Development, WonderShowzen, Kurt Vonnegut, Edgar Allen Poe, Zadie Smith, being a total bad ass.

Edited by MrRain422
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I've been on VC for more than three years. :punch

 

33 years old. Single, no kids. Married to the sea. :pirate

 

Born and raised in Ann Arbor, MI, moved to Portland, OR six years ago, then moved here to Austin in May.

 

BA in English Literature from the University of Michigan; realized that said BA was completely useless and ended up going to midwifery school. I'm now apprenticing at New Life Birth Services..

 

In 2002, I got some birthday money from my folks and decided to buy some record that critics were yapping about called "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot." I listened to nothing else for weeks, until I bought "Summerteeth" and listened to nothing but that for weeks. After that, there was no turning back.

 

I've seen Wilco five times, Jeff Tweedy three times, and met more awesome VCers than I can shake a stick at.

 

Thanks to Wilco, I've gotten into dozens of other artists and impoverished myself by buying rare Jim O'Rourke records on Ebay. Thanks a lot, Tweedy. :realmad

 

Other favorite bands: Sonic Youth, Robyn Hitchcock, XTC, Elvis Costello, the Elephant 6 collective, the Decemberists, Smog, etc.

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BA in English Literature from the University of Michigan; realized that said BA was completely useless and ended up going to midwifery school.

Hmmm. Looks like I'll be going to midwifery school come next May...... :hmm

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Hmmm. Looks like I'll be going to midwifery school come next May...... :hmm

You will STILL be awesome,tho :yay

 

In all honesty,I nearly always get a laugh at your posts

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26 years-young. Single dude with no children (that I know of).

 

I joined this site in late 2001 (I think or was it early 2002, sometime around that point) after Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was leaked onto the internet. I was already a Wilco fan for a few years by then and was eagerly awaiting it's release and was crushed when I found that it was being ditched by the record company. I went to find other fans of the band to bitch about it being canned after I got it (I was certain that it was a classic). Ended up here. Been here a while, I just don't open my mouth as much as some of the other board old timers here (because I think the RTT is stupid, why fluff your post count - get a fuckin' life!). This is hands down the best community on the internet!

 

I grew up in a very small, backwards town in SC and when I turned 18, I just had to get the fuck outta there. I obtained a B.A. in Art Education from a great little school in Kentucky, Berea College. I attended from '98-'03. I searched everywhere in the USA for a job to teach art and I be damned if I didn't end up back in SC. I moved to the "big city" of Greenville and fell in love with it. I teach elementary art and couldn't be happier with life now. Everything is great!

 

How I came to Wilco was through Son Volt. I bought Trace when it came out because I liked the single "Drown." I loved Trace. It was different and sounded kinda country, but not quite. It was very much looked down upon to listen to country in my group of friends, whom were metalheads. I was aware of this band called Wilco and their album Being There but was not aware of their connection to Son Volt and Uncle Tupelo. I knew a few UT songs and their connection to Son Volt, but they were all Jay's songs. I loved "outta mind outta sight" when it came on the radio. I almost bought Being There at Wal-Mart when it came out but I didn't. It wasn't until Summerteeth and the Mermaid Ave. albums that I took notice. My first year in college proved to be a bounty of musical experience for me, not to mention unlimited internet access. I learned about so many bands when I went to school that I am still sifting through it all today. I started listening to Uncle Tupelo and that's when I found out about Jeff. I saw Wilco on Sessions at West 54thin an old hotel room in Kentucky one late night. I was hooked and went to buy Summerteeth the next day. It was all downhill from there.

 

I've seen Wilco in concert 3 times now, Son Volt twice, Jay Farrar once and Jay Bennett once (Hey, I didn't get to see his version of wilco).

 

Music is the greatest thing to ever happen to me.

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