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ashes of american flags dvd


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having just seen wilco for the first time last month, i'm going to buy this dvd. i wondered if there are any differences between the region 1/2 versions? (i did try to search for posts on this, but the search kept getting rejected.) i was very surprised that there seems to be only 12 songs, with various bonus songs as extras? why didn,t they just recreate a full show as the main feature? :dontgetit

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having just seen wilco for the first time last month, i'm going to buy this dvd. i wondered if there are any differences between the region 1/2 versions? (i did try to search for posts on this, but the search kept getting rejected.) i was very surprised that there seems to be only 12 songs, with various bonus songs as extras? why didn,t they just recreate a full show as the main feature? :dontgetit

 

I bought mine in the U.S. (on Amazon) so I assume it's region 1. It has 13 songs on the main disc + 7 more on the extras, and you can download all of them to your iTunes when you buy the DVD. It's a hell of a value, I think, and thoroughly enjoyable--though there are many on this board who don't like the DVD and I'm sure they'll let you know why.

 

The performances were recorded at several different venues with the current band lineup and interviews are interspersed between many songs--it wasn't just a single concert. Hope this info helps.

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Guest Speed Racer

It seems they didn't recreate a full show as the main feature because they were darned excited about creating a plot about how middle America is dying off (ashes - get it?!). So they show them traveling, wandering around the towns where the shows are in, talking about how different it was 7 years ago in the good old days, and going on and on about how Walmart is ruining things.

 

Pat talks for a while about how he likes taking Polaroids of everything because they're no longer making Polaroid film; of course, four months after the release they started making Polaroid film again. So there's that.

 

The DVD is certainly not my cup of tea; it starts and ends each of these "storylines" without any sort of resolution. The editing is terrible - during guitar solos and interesting musical moments you're more likely to see the crowd or, in my favorite edit, rafters.

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It seems they didn't recreate a full show as the main feature because they were darned excited about creating a plot about how middle America is dying off (ashes - get it?!). So they show them traveling, wandering around the towns where the shows are in, talking about how different it was 7 years ago in the good old days, and going on and on about how Walmart is ruining things.

 

Pat talks for a while about how he likes taking Polaroids of everything because they're no longer making Polaroid film; of course, four months after the release they started making Polaroid film again. So there's that.

 

The DVD is certainly not my cup of tea; it starts and ends each of these "storylines" without any sort of resolution. The editing is terrible - during guitar solos and interesting musical moments you're more likely to see the crowd or, in my favorite edit, rafters.

 

Well...Walmart is killing small town America.

But all socio-political musings aside, I find Jeff's hoarse vocals more than a bit distracting. You'd think if they were going to produce a document of this band at that moment in time, they could have waited until Jeff got over his sore throat.

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Guest Speed Racer

Well...Walmart is killing small town America.

 

Oh, it certainly is, but the storyline comes off as a Law & Order quality PSA, and I didn't buy a crappy TV-drama DVD, I bought a Wilco DVD. It's very poorly done, in my opinion. Like I said, they start these storylines and don't finish them. I got a lot more out of the vignettes in IATTBYH than I did Ashes. Touring is hard, but when each band member says, "Touring is hard" in Ashes I want to roll my eyes; contrast that with the Wendy's scene in IATTBYH which carries the same message without the blatant PSA.

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Well...Walmart is killing small town America.

But all socio-political musings aside, I find Jeff's hoarse vocals more than a bit distracting. You'd think if they were going to produce a document of this band at that moment in time, they could have waited until Jeff got over his sore throat.

 

Jeff's often got a sore throat. He's mentioned it lots of times through the years. Might've been hard to schedule filming around his throat. Which, actually, sounds as soulful and golden to me on this DVD as always.

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Personally, I wish they had completed that DVD that was going to be made from Kicking Television. I beleive Sam Jones had filmed it. I recall that they had said there were some technical or timecode issues with the film, but if the sample (Kicking Telvision video)was any indication as to the rest of the film, it might have been great. I'm surpised no "cutting room floor" bootleg of that film ever surfaced. What'd they do, burn the film stock?

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If they did burn the film stock, they should just do what zeppelin did.

 

 

I cant wait to see glenn racing and tending to cattle, nels climbing a mountain as a wizard, john, pat and mikael scaring kids and tweedy riding a horse and swordfighting with knights...

 

that would make a cool concert film!

 

 

I really like ashes. I think "wishful thinking" is extra awesome, and the solo on "ashes of american flags" is really killer.

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umm, what did zeppelin do?. Jimmy has lots of film and audio buried in his jocks that we havent seen or heard yet

 

 

 

For the Song Remains the Same film, there were large sections of video missing/ not captured during the shows, so the band filled the holes with different scenarios with each band member, and the manager. Some people find them ridiculous, others (myself included) think it is really awesome to watch wizard-jimmy climb a mountain while crazy violin bow guitar solo noise is going down.

 

 

I cant believe I forgot about gangster tony! That might be the best part of "The Ghost Remains The Same"

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