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Alpha Mike Foxtrot


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I just got on here to post this, but another New Englander beat me to it. You are right - this writer gets it.

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So happy to get this, in fact it is a dream come true, like most I have heard a lot of these, but at least their from a real compilation and put together by the band because i'm too lazy to look for these songs and put them together myself! lol  :banana

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It's my own danged fault for not reading more closely, but I bought the $47 package and thought I was getting the rarities (sure, I have them all somewhere, but soooo happy to have them gathered in one place for me) a t-shirt AND "What's Your 20."  I got only the rarities and the t-shirt. I have all 20 of those songs, so now I'm probably not gonna buy it. Ticked I didn't read more closely and get both CDs instead of t-shirt. 

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It's my own danged fault for not reading more closely, but I bought the $47 package and thought I was getting the rarities (sure, I have them all somewhere, but soooo happy to have them gathered in one place for me) a t-shirt AND "What's Your 20."  I got only the rarities and the t-shirt. I have all 20 of those songs, so now I'm probably not gonna buy it. Ticked I didn't read more closely and get both CDs instead of t-shirt.

But that IS a cool t-shirt. The XX that looks like a W with a reflection, and the midnight blue color....it's moved to the top of my Wilco shirt favorites.

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Bought the vinyl and received it last week (it's great). Downloaded the digital mp3 copies from Nonesuch today, have been playing in itunes and so far, each of the tracks I've played have ended prematurely and advanced to the next song. When I back to the song that ended early and scrub past the point that song ended early, it plays (so there is media there). However, when I play a song from the beginning and let it go, it ends early at the same spot.

Anyone else experiencing this? 

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I'm still waiting on my vinyl set to come in. I've had this set for awhile, but can anyone comment on the version of The Good Part on the collection. YHF demo or the live version that's on the ITMWLY single?

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I'm still waiting on my vinyl set to come in. I've had this set for awhile, but can anyone comment on the version of The Good Part on the collection. YHF demo or the live version that's on the ITMWLY single?

live. booklet says its really not live, just a crowd snippet looped

Bought the vinyl and received it last week (it's great). Downloaded the digital mp3 copies from Nonesuch today, have been playing in itunes and so far, each of the tracks I've played have ended prematurely and advanced to the next song. When I back to the song that ended early and scrub past the point that song ended early, it plays (so there is media there). However, when I play a song from the beginning and let it go, it ends early at the same spot.

Anyone else experiencing this? 

sounds like your iTunes setting, you might have crossfade on

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A few things:

 

1) Got the CD, and not sure if something went wrong with the rip or if the problem is on the CD, but the Monday (demo) isn't working for me. Anyone have a similar issue?

 

2) Wondering why Venus stop the train wasn't included on here, it didn't ever see any official release did it? Would have been great to get some of the earlier alternate versions of YHF tracks on here as well, maybe some of the takes with Ken on drums, or some of the Jay mixes (though the latter could definitely still be a contentious issue, not sure who would own those recordings).

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so glad to hear about the "new" tracks.

 

"Venus Stopped The Train" is not included because it does not meet the criteria of having been officially released before.

 

Amazon (and maybe iTunes) has an option for digital booklet.  I ordered the physical CDs from importcds, so I was wondering if anyone would be willing to e-mail me the digital booklet if they have it?  I'm a completist and I would love to throw it in the directory with my lossless CD rips.  If you can help, please PM me.

 

-justin

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I consider myself something of a "serious collector" and likewise probably shared some of the initial disappointment that the track listing didn't include any "brand new," never-heard-by-anyone, non-album songs. However there actually are a few songs I've never heard outright, including Childlike and Evergreen, The TB is Whipping Me, I Am Not Willing, Thirteen, Tried and True, and Old Maid. And I never bothered to track down the live versions or demo versions of album songs that are included here. It would be easy to dismiss them, given the scope of live bootlegs and now Roadcase releases that are available, but it is interesting to hear what the band considers to be some of the seminal takes of those songs. Or versions that represent as one reviewer put it, Wilco when they were a bit more wild, less polished, and more spontaneous. Some of it has already gotten in my head, and the next time I hear Monday at a concert I'm gonna be singing "Momma just a give me a break" and "In school yeah I fooled ya / I'm sittin' on the dock of the bay"  to myself ;)

 

I always thought No More Poetry blatantly borrowed the music from Ripple, and was the genesis for so many requests for that song, and was surprised to see it was entirely credited to Tweedy.

 

It was a nice touch to open the booklet and immediately see photos of Jay and Ken.

 

In addition to the YHF demos I have long had my own homemade mix of non-album tracks, but I like having this expanded version. Great to have more Wilco to keep in steady rotation. Been a fun couple of months between this, the Wilco tour and the Tweedy tour =)

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Man they need to hire an editor at some "pint" to read "ever" paragraph.

 

Other thoughts:

 

'Cars Can't Escape' sounds a lot different than the version I've had for years, it's way better.  'The Good Part' is a little different too.

'Let Me Come Home' is a crazy mess of a song.  I agreed with Jeff it's a difficult listen.

 

Is the version of 'Hummingbird' exactly the same as the Wilcobook version?  I somehow don't remember it sounding quite like that. 

 

I think that Wilco's production aesthetic, and perhaps just the way people make recordings sound now, versus in the mid 90's is WAY better.  So many of the older recordings simultaneously sound more 'produced' and worse.  Kind of a claustrophobic sound in those days.

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I had a $100 Reward Certificate from Best Buy and I went to my local one yesterday and they didn't have either release, but they had Nickelback out on the shelves, so all is right in the world of butt rock. They couldn't even order it for me as it showed 0 quantity in every story over 2 states. 

Nothing stood in my way. I ran over to Target: same thing. Finally, I went to Newbury Comics and they had both releases much cheaper than the Best Buy online prices. $14.99 for What's Your 20? and $25.99 for Alpha Mike Foxtrot. I may take a ride to Best Buy and see if they have them now. Oh well!

 

I did notice an error in the What's Your 20? booklet. They mention that Pat Sansone did the string arrangement for Black Moon which isn't even on the collection. I thought that maybe it was a hidden track, but it is not. 

 

Alpha Mike Foxtrot is an amazing collection. Loving it! That live version of Spiders is killer. I don't think I ever downloaded that when it was made available. You can really hear the remastered quality moreso on Disc 1 of What's Your 20? On my copy of A.M., Box Full Of Letters always sounded shitty in the opening 4 seconds, so it's nice to have it remastered. Is it like this for anyone else? It's like the guitar sound drops out. 

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I got the vinyl set tonight, and I'm sure it's nothing...but I noticed that the inner stickers have grooves on them, similar to how Jack White's new record felt, when it had hidden tracks that played through the labels.   My tone arm won't go that far in, so I can't check.  Like I said, it's probably nothing, but it might be worth checking out. 

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Got the vinyl boxset last night, was disappointed since I ordered it within minutes of the record going live on the official Wilco store, that I got a number in the mid-4000s, but, I guess they never did guarantee low numbers. Would have been nice though.

Some of these songs I haven't listened to since my college days but it's good to finally hear them on vinyl. Some of them, especially the earlier stuff I just haven't heard at all (the cover of "Burned" is a good example, and it's awesome!)

Side 5 is just as good as any actual side of a real Wilco album, IMO. It speaks a lot to the band's talent in that period to have left songs like Cars Can't Escape and Magazine Called Sunset off albums.

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Has anyone who placed an order with Collector's Choice Music for the vinyl gotten their copy yet? They had a good price on it and I preordered but I checked the status yesterday and it still hadn't shipped. I called Customer Service today and was told that the vinyl is still on backorder and no copies have shipped yet. I canceled my order, which they gave me no hassle about.

 

I still would like to have the vinyl, even though I already have the CD version. Any idea who's offering the best price on this now?

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