Ex-Post Facto: A Ghost is Born

[Crawdaddy]

It is a truth universally acknowledged that on their two studio albums since Yankee Hotel Foxtrot Wilco has gone in a decreasingly experimental direction.

 

Jeff Tweedy is likely bored of contradicting statements like that; he

[Gabe32]

cool article. but i've got a question about this line -

"the mythic record that was sold twice to the same company and contained prescient details about September 11th. (The story has been written many times elsewhere if you haven’t heard it)."

 

what prescient details about 9/11? does he just mean the couple of lines from "jesus etc?"

[mfwahl]

cool article. but i've got a question about this line -

"the mythic record that was sold twice to the same company and contained prescient details about September 11th. (The story has been written many times elsewhere if you haven

[nalafej]

The album was originally scheduled to be released on 9/11 but was postponed due to the attacks. Not sure if there's more to it than that. The album was definitely eerily prescient in jesus etc and war on war.

 

That isn't true. Albums that were scheduled to be released on 9/11 weren't then not released. Love and Theft came out that day. YHF may have at one time been scheduled for that date, but not up until that date.

[mfwahl]

That isn't true. Albums that were scheduled to be released on 9/11 weren't then not released. Love and Theft came out that day. YHF may have at one time been scheduled for that date, but not up until that date.

nerd

[Crawdaddy]

Thanks for reading, guys.

 

The idea behind that line was just that YHF had a reputation for being eerily timely with some lyrics, and the release-date coincidence, or was somehow plugged into the zeitgeist. But I didn't intend to evaluate those characteristics in any way. It's my opinion that they're just notable and odd coincidences.

 

Best,

D MacFadden

Crawdaddy!

[Griddles]

Pretty good article but as for saying Spiders and Less than you think are not songs because they are not good live that is just plain silliness. I would ask you to listen to any live recording since KT came out and make the same conclusion. Also listen to the Residency recording of Less than, because how it is used in the live setting is great.

[you ever seen a ghost?]

i'll tell you this much, if any record had any sort of shamanistic something or other going on about 9/11, it's "Love & Theft."

 

-justin

[Guest Jules]

The album was originally scheduled to be released on 9/11 but was postponed due to the attacks. Not sure if there's more to it than that. The album was definitely eerily prescient in jesus etc and war on war.

It might have also been postponed because they didn't have anyone to release it.

[Dacarst]

Good article, an interesting read. I find myself returning to AGIB far more often than SBS now that they've both aged a bit.

 

I do have a problem with the non-song argument for Spiders....my definition of a true song is one that stands up as a solo/acoustic version. To me, that's when Spiders is at its best.

[jimjiminy]

my definition of a true song is one that stands up as a solo/acoustic version. To me, that's when Spiders is at its best.

Amen. Although, I do have to say that the band version of Spiders (Kidsmoke) from Toronto 4-21-2002 (JHamm DVD Vol. 10) is superb. In fact, I'm going to go watch it right now...

[Crawdaddy]

Regarding the issues of song/not song, I'll definitely take a listen--especially to the acoustic version of "Less Than You Think." Actually, after writing the piece, I saw the "Spiders" from July 07 in Benicasim, Spain (courtesy of Wilcoclub.com--cheers!), which is an amazing performance. The bit where the audience starts chanting--I don't even know what they're chanting--but it's something that really can't be created, or even imagined in the studio. So, like always, the ideas are up for reconsideration. (Part 2 of the clip here, http://youtube.com/watch?v=Fpiyxi8GW7k&feature=related, if you haven't seen it already)

 

- David

[Sunken mountain]

Regarding the issues of song/not song, I'll definitely take a listen--especially to the acoustic version of "Less Than You Think." Actually, after writing the piece, I saw the "Spiders" from July 07 in Benicasim, Spain (courtesy of Wilcoclub.com--cheers!), which is an amazing performance. The bit where the audience starts chanting--I don't even know what they're chanting--but it's something that really can't be created, or even imagined in the studio. So, like always, the ideas are up for reconsideration. (Part 2 of the clip here, http://youtube.com/watch?v=Fpiyxi8GW7k&feature=related, if you haven't seen it already)

 

- David

 

The audience of Wilco shows in Spain use this "chant" ,-which Jeff Tweedy seems love-, in Spiders and also at the end of the show,asking for the "Encore".

 

I remember see Tweedy asking for this chant in Youtube during some concert (sorry ,I don

[Sunken mountain]

Ah ! and I like your article,good job ,but...try to listen an acoustic version of Spiders

[Griddles]

Regarding the issues of song/not song, I'll definitely take a listen--especially to the acoustic version of "Less Than You Think." Actually, after writing the piece, I saw the "Spiders" from July 07 in Benicasim, Spain (courtesy of Wilcoclub.com--cheers!), which is an amazing performance. The bit where the audience starts chanting--I don't even know what they're chanting--but it's something that really can't be created, or even imagined in the studio. So, like always, the ideas are up for reconsideration. (Part 2 of the clip here, http://youtube.com/watch?v=Fpiyxi8GW7k&feature=related, if you haven't seen it already)

 

- David

The audience is chanting "Ole Ole" I know it from soccer matches. According to Wikipedia: "Ol

[dbag]

did anyone check out the comments section for this article?

[Sunken mountain]

The audience is chanting "Ole Ole" I know it from soccer matches. According to Wikipedia: "Ol

[Crawdaddy]

After listening to the live "Less Than You Think" from the residency in Chicago, I agree that it holds up as a song in a live setting--very cool reworking of the song with more sonic texture than the studio version. I was surprised they pulled it off.

 

@ Sunken Mountain and Griddles, thanks for noting the chant. I do remember that from football broadcasts now that you mention it.

 

And @ dbag, I certainly noticed the comments section over at the other site. Pretty useless. I was happy to see people over here actually engage and dispute the article for factual reasons and strong opinions. Cheers!

 

David

[Golden Smoghead]

Good article -- honestly though, in places it kinda drifts towards the whole "is music criticism worth a damn?" thing that comes up sometimes. I walk away from the article saying, "yeah man, fuck Rolling Stone and the other music rags," so you convinced me. However, as far as those parts of this article go... While it's definitely a good deconstruction of that other crap, where do you end up? Yes, music criticism is always pretty reactionary and snarky and often way off in hindsight. Kinda cool to see it broken out in a literate, analytic way, but I dunno -- those parts of the article almost (not quite, but almost) fall prey to the same cynical bitchiness that they decry (and which I'm also consciously mimicking here, see how witty and snarky I can be? Haha, titter-titter, we're so effete, and we don't even know what that word means).

 

I think the best portions of this article are where it's just a reminder: "hey dudes, AGIB really is pretty kickass in hindsight, even if it wasn't really as shit-hot-magical as YHF." I totally agree with that sentiment, especially with SBS for me kinda falling to that tier-2 Wilco rack with Being There. I really do appreciate AGIB more in hindsight, even if I still find that drone in Spiders completely unnecessary. I think this article is very-good where it cheerleads AGIB and puts it in context with Wilco's body of work. Maybe you need the other part to help prop that up, but I'm not sure. I think that I would've liked this article a little more if it managed to be more about the relative strengths of AGIB and less about pointing out the flaws of the music-critic asshats wrt that album.

 

...

 

Rereading this post, I come off more negative than I meant to. I actually agree with every single word you wrote and appreciate the fact that your article made me think intensely about a couple things. I think the negative-vibe comes from my advice to try to hide your disdain for (hipster a-hole music critics who display an utter lack of analytic rigor) a little better. Just trying to give you some feedback to chew on.

 

And like I said before, I was happy for the reminder that AGIB needs to a higher place in my rotation! Great album, great article. You definitely got me to dig into some of your other work too, good stuff. I really look forward to what you write next, please drop it in the other forum (Someone Else's Song) if it's non-Wilco... By which I mean, please post your other work here too, VC isn't only about Wilco.

 

cheers

[junkiesmile]

While Ghost pushed Wilco