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3 songs off Sky Blue Sky available to listen to


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All this mastered/mixed stuff...to clarify... I know knowing about either process. That said, I recall reading an interview/article about a year ago when we first heard about the band recording the follow up to AGIB and KT... JT said something about the band literally sitting around a circle, playing, & recording w/ no....mixing board, etc. Comments made by others here suggest that these songs don't sound mastered. Given comments made in past interviews, could this be true? (i.e., where they intentionally left that way?) We know that ST and YHF were somewhat studio experiments. The Kot book suggests that BT was recorded in a similar fashion (press record and play). Could SBS have been record in the same fashion? Perhaps this is what JT was refering to in the SBS and BT reference?

 

At any rate the new songs sound great, and yes, I read too many articles about the band.

 

Peace.

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Anybody else notice the rhythm variations in the piano intro to Walken. It sounds a bit different than the live versions, and I know exactly why!

 

listen to the live version, and sing this along with the piano at the very beginning:

 

I'm Walken...a pure bug beauty...

 

that "pure bug beauty" rhythm is most likely all to familiar for the new album, so they changed it a little bit...I like.

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re: the "dad rock" thing...

 

I guess I come down softly on that side. These are still great songs, and I'm still itching to hear the rest of the record, but the things that really grabbed me with Summerteeth and YHF were that the tracks were all rooted in really great songwriting, but arranged in a way that was really forward thinking. It was the best of both worlds. At the end of the day, Jeff's still one of the best songwriters in the game, so no real complaints about an albums worth of his tunes... but the first time I listened to "You Are My Face" I was hoping that they might let Nels' guitar theatrics get a little more... theatric. It's still a top tune either way.

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I'm tired of reading about these "dad rock" or "cardigan rock" references. No one stays 20 years old forever! Most of us grow up and acquire tastes for new things. Our energy levels tend to drop off a bit. To suggest that a band of 30 somethings (some pushing 40) should..."stretch the spandex" and play fast and loud music is absurd.

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I'm happy I logged on after the leak was removed by management. I would have listened. But now I can maintain my virgin ears. It's more an experiment than any self-righteousness. I want to hear the album completely fresh to see if it makes any kind of difference. Kind of like when I bought my vinyl as a kid. Sight unseen, music unheard (excluding Rust Never Sleeps). B)

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These tracks sound like watered down AGIB. They seem boring and ready made for the 93.1 XRT Adult Contemporary playlist.

 

What happened to Wilco the alternative band?

 

Not sure what you mean by that exactly, but Jeff has said that he wanted his new material to be more "soulful" and less abstact. I'm all for this after YHF and AGIB, as much as I liked those discs. Maybe you should go listen to some Modest Mouse or something. I NEVER saw Wilco as a "alternative band". Just a great band.

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I couldn't agree more. They took one of the best new songs of the bunch, slowed it right down, and hushed the living hell out of it. And I'm not trying to be mean, but Jeff's wobbly, anemic vocal basically kills whatever momentum it might otherwise have had. I've cut the Tweedster a lot of slack in the past for whispering in the studio on songs he practically screams live, but I've seldom been more disappointed in a studio take than I am with Walken. I'm pretty astonished that such a lively concert staple ended up sounding so flat and dull on record.

 

 

I sure don't hear (or not hear) what you are hearing. Walken sounds exactly the same as all the live versions I've heard. Missing some energy? Of course it is. It isn't a live version. Seesh. Go give the new Lucinda another chance before you bash these, ok?

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another note: these songs fit right in with The high Heat and Panthers.

 

i haven't heard the new tracks yet, but this has been my prediction since hearing the Wilco Book CD. so i guess the piano player (forget his name) had a big influence on the recordings like with the Wilco Book era.

 

i like those two songs btw.

 

p.s. i still wish i had the time to combine AGIB and WB and make a double album - and not just sequencing the tracks together but actually mixing some songs together (i.e. taking some of the noise tracks on WB and mixing them in and out of the noise on AGIB, etc).

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i think these tracks are a breath of fresh air...i relate to them on a personal level and i honestly think they can hold their own weight against any other wilco record... even YHF. hopefully the remainder of the unleaked album will be the same :shifty

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All this mastered/mixed stuff...to clarify... I know knowing about either process. That said, I recall reading an interview/article about a year ago when we first heard about the band recording the follow up to AGIB and KT... JT said something about the band literally sitting around a circle, playing, & recording w/ no....mixing board, etc. Comments made by others here suggest that these songs don't sound mastered. Given comments made in past interviews, could this be true? (i.e., where they intentionally left that way?) We know that ST and YHF were somewhat studio experiments. The Kot book suggests that BT was recorded in a similar fashion (press record and play). Could SBS have been record in the same fashion? Perhaps this is what JT was refering to in the SBS and BT reference?

 

At any rate the new songs sound great, and yes, I read too many articles about the band.

 

Peace.

Wilco record with a mixing board, protools (or whatever they record with, probably protools) rig, engineer, outboard gear, etc etc. I know they like to record live but I'm pretty sure some parts are often re-done in overdubs and new parts are added. The songs will be mastered when you buy the record, it's just that these promos were made before the masters (pre-mastering is what it's ACTUALLY called) were finished. Mastering is the last step before a record is pressed.

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I'm tired of reading about these "dad rock" or "cardigan rock" references. No one stays 20 years old forever! Most of us grow up and acquire tastes for new things. Our energy levels tend to drop off a bit. To suggest that a band of 30 somethings (some pushing 40) should..."stretch the spandex" and play fast and loud music is absurd.

 

Agreed. And there's plenty of crap on the first three albums that comes them *not* being old enough, and not having a more mature, conservative, and economical (half of BT!) sense of making music; so let's not just simply draw the line between young being great and exciting and old being bland and boring

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Wilco record with a mixing board, protools (or whatever they record with, probably protools) rig, engineer, outboard gear, etc etc. I know they like to record live but I'm pretty sure some parts are often re-done in overdubs and new parts are added. The songs will be mastered when you buy the record, it's just that these promos were made before the masters (pre-mastering is what it's ACTUALLY called) were finished. Mastering is the last step before a record is pressed.

 

They might very well not be mastered (I can't say for sure), but you seem certain that they aren't. I've got a very strong feeling though, that you're going to be disappointed over this point. I guess we'll find out on Monday when they give away a song for free, unless they're still only putting out the 'unmastered' tracks. I'm not saying that I think they sound mastered and that they sound shit - I am saying that I think they sound mastered and sound good; they don't need to be compressed and fucked with any more - that 'flat' sound (really it's not flat though, it's just not over-using the mid-ranges that many bands use to make their music sound louder and punchier) is actually a common thing of a fair few early 1970's bands, and I think that is the sound they are going for.

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Maybe my sarcasm detector is broke...but isn't Keith in his early 60's?

Yes. And he rocks.

 

I was simply taking issue with the fact that Nels is 50 and so the tunes may be a little mellower. Horseshit. Age has nothing to do with it.

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