Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

otm

OTM

There are only a few records I like better so far this decade.

I didn't listen to this for a few years for some reason but pulled it out again yesterday and really loved it the way I did when I first heard it. I still think Summerteeth might have the edge but this is really fantastic and they haven't done anything since that touches it.

and going back and listening to ghost is born and sky blue sky, I might have to say that jay bennet was more important to this band than they let on, because the albums since have been pretty flat; surprising considering the input nels cline and glen kotchke probably have. it's not just the lack of textures, but the songwriting has just lost something. bennet didn't get much credit for YHF (in fact until I saw 'i'm trying to break your heart' for some reason I was under the impression he quit before it was even finished) but I think maybe he deserves more of it than he gets.

I like YHF a lot, but I like SBS almost as much (if not more). I don't really understand why the former is so lauded and the latter is, by comparison, at least, so pilloried.

is it pilloried? i thought people liked it. it's fine, it's pretty good, but I think YHF has an edge and more memorable sounding songs

is it pilloried?

In some "hip" corners, yes. Then it turned up on a lot of Best of 2007 Lists, which led to a new round of dismissive "Dadrock!" comments.

The AAA station in Chicago did a live broadcast of Wilco's show the other night. During intermission, the DJs sounded like color commentary guys at halftime: "So far during this five-night stand, they've played "Impossible Germany" four times, "Poor Places" three times, which means you've gotta figure that one's gonna resurface later on tonight." "Did you notice Nels Cline's solo on that one? Hoo boy, that was masterful."

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog/2008/10/wilco-save-your.html

Wilco: Save your money, don't buy our Blu-ray!

03:05 PM PT, Oct 29 2008

In this tough economic time, Chicago-centered rock band Wilco is looking out for you. For those die-hard Wilco completists out there, the band is trying to save you some money. Don't, says the band, buy a new Blu-ray edition of its 2002 documentary "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart."

At the end of an e-mail announcing tour dates as well as an appearance Thursday night on "The Colbert Report," the band had a "CONSUMER ALERT" (the caps, Pop & Hiss wants it known, are all Wilco). Reads the notice:

Without consulting us, the DVD company (not WB/Nonesuch) that released "I am trying to break your heart" is about to issue a Blu-Ray Edition which, no surprise, costs considerably more (nearly 2x) than the standard DVD. We're unsure as to the rationale for the release, given that the film was shot in beautiful grainy B&W and has a stereo-only audio track... there is, in our opinion, not much to be gained by spending the extra cash. It's your money... and in this case you should probably hang onto it.

On Amazon.com, the single-disc version of the film costs $17.99, the two-disc DVD set will run you $24.99, and the Blu-ray edition, which will be released Nov. 18, is selling at a pre-order price of $30.99. Or you can find the used copy of the VHS (VHS! Was 2002 really that long ago?) for about $12.

UPDATE: Plexifilm co-founder Gary Hustwit e-mailed in a response to Wilco's statement. He says that the Blu-ray carries a higher list price because it costs more to make, and that there are added licensing costs to manufacture discs in the format. Additionally, Hustwit says, the quality of the film is significantly greater in Blu-ray.

Wrote Hustwit, "If you've got a film that was shot on super-16mm, like the Wilco film, a high-definition transfer on Blu-ray disc is going to look better than a standard-definition transfer compressed to DVD. Watching the Blu-ray disc is the closest you can get to actually sitting in a theater and watching the original film.... But we want to release our films in the best available format, and Blu-ray is just better than DVD, period."

On a side note, Wilco's upcoming tour mate, Neil Young, seems to have a different view toward Blu-ray technology. At the end of January, Young will release "Archive," his 10-disc set of performances from 1963-72 in multiple formats, including Blu-ray.

"Blu-ray is the future," Young told Billboard. "It sounds the best; the navigating system is the best. I've made a lot of CDs and we've made a lot of DVDs, and Blu-ray technology is so far superior to anything else. The fact there aren't many players out there now doesn't meant that much to me, because it is the future, so I would rather focus on what's next. If you were to get a Blu-ray of the 'Archive,' you would get the best."

Sounds like some debate fodder for the tour bus.

Neil Young will be playing, sans Wilco, Thursday night at the Forum in Inglewood.

-- Todd Martens

It's kind of dull, isn't it? The songs aren't that good, and the production affects an illusion of progression that just isn't there. But then, I've never liked Wilco. But I seriously can't understand what everyone is raving about.
― Melissa W, Friday, March 22, 2002 1:00 AM (6 years ago)

Whoops.

Whoops what? It is kinda dull compared to Summerteeth.

Indeed. I haven't really been able to get into anything by Wilco post-Summerteeth, the odd toon - "Hell Is Chrome", "Leave Me Like You Found Me" - aside.

I stick by A Ghost is Born as the classic.

The monumental dirginess of the first song and the plodathon that is "Spiders" put me off pursuing that album.

YHF is kind of boring except for a couple songs. In other words, 2002's OK Computer.

Now that's just a mad thing to say.

nah, it's the cool thing to say. there's a difference.

That first song on YHF is interminable.

^^^ffs

I stick by A Ghost is Born as the classic.

I'll second this.

The monumental dirginess of the first song and the plodathon that is "Spiders" put me off pursuing that album.

― Freedom,

Haha! those are about the two best!

Oh man, A Ghost Is Born is great except for "Hummingbird", "I'm A Wheel" and "Theologians", which is fine because these songs rly don't matter one jot, the important stuff is fkn aces, especially "Handshake Drugs", which is nigh-on songwriting genius

and if you hate on "Less Than You Think" you've never listened to music while suffering a terrible cold

I will go to my grave believing that YHF somehow killed popular music for this millennium.

yhf is popular?

No -- more like the Grim Reaper of popular music.

how

im not sure why im even responding to you i don't even know what you mean

"pitchfork indie" >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> ongoing "pitchfork indie" backlash

otm

Anyway, YHF and AGIB are largely good music, to these ears, "authentic" or not. The band has a real feel for texture, sound and emotional depth.

im not sure why im even responding to you i don't even know what you mean

Well, there's a lot more to my point here, but in essence, it was exactly at YHF that pop deconstruction plays itself out.

i wonder if all of you are dads.

wtf is the pitchfork indie backlash? pitchfork & the bands it likes are bigger than ever, right? surely u can't mean ILM cos if this place was ever unfriendly to indie (lol Kid A) it certainly isn't now. indie won, well done u fuxx, u can drop the victimhood

Wilco is a band, I have determined, who while not necessarily the best around will always be above their criticism, be it positive or negative. A combination of self-explanatory artistic decisions and attention to craft leaves the critic with little to say beyond "I liked it" and "I didn't like it".

by the "pitchfork indie" backlash, I mean the visible minority who go out of their way to slag off arty indie bands such as Radiohead and Wilco because of a perceived lack of real artistic integrity. there is no point pretending this lot don't exist.

little to say beyond "I liked it" and "I didn't like it"

having suffered through all of that interminable movie, I have a great deal more that I could say about this pedestrian, unimaginative bunch of retreads. But you aren't listening, and, worse, would probably write some godforsaken exegesis about their imagined merits.

Anyway, there are literally hundreds of much better bands I could spend my time listening to, so I will. But imagining that people can't make a case against this crap is wishful thinking.

go on then

oh right, so u just mean that there are some ppl who don't like wilco and radiohead. don't really see how that is a 'backlash', maybe some ppl really don't like that music and have good reasons too! crazy i know! (x-posts)

where would we be without wishful thinking

dude there is no point pretending that there aren't folk who not only use bands like wilco and radiohead as strawmen, but construct their own fantastical conspiracy theory around "pitchfork indie" and how it is all nonsense

hence "death of popular music this millennium" grandstanding

i mean bogus metanarratives are the main weapon of this aforementioned backlash

btw sleeve's post from the second sentence onwards is the most arrogant, pompous dreck i've seen in a while here, even allowing for the fact that (s)he dislikes wilco

yeah calling it a backlash when the majority of ppl talking about music on the internet (including here) are v pro that kind of music seems like a pretty good example of bogus grandstanding metanarration itself.