wilco

listened to Wilco (The Album) for the first time in a while last week ... prety meh, actually! Just sounded workmanlike, not very inspired. Still think this version of Wilco has a great album in 'em, but that one ain't it.

On Rolling Nels Cline Thread, I wrote:

Wilco (the album) is a much better record [than Sky Blue Sky], and one that I'll listen to much more as time passes, but it really is a "Whitman sampler of the different aspects and obsessions of Wilco," as Tweedy called it. You have the Neu! motorik thing they did on "Spiders (Kidsmoke)" on "Bull Black Nova," the obvious "I'm A Wheel"/"Monday"/"Can't Stand It" rocker tune ("Wilco (the song)"), the unassuming acoustic number "Solitaire," which recalls "Dash 7," "Far, Far Away," "Radio Cure," "Muzzle of Bees," and most of SBS. The whole record really is a summation of their career.

In that same post, I said:

Wilco is primarily a vehicle for Tweedy's creativity, and although things seem to be more stable for the band now insofar as the lineup is concerned -- no one has been fired in five years, and everyone including Tweedy (see the new Rolling Stone interview) seems to feel good about the band as a unit -- I don't think he will ever be in a place where he'd want to make another Yankee Hotel Foxtrot/A ghost is born pseudoexperimental record again. I doubt Nels will get to do any truly radical work in Wilco. (The most "radical" things he does on the new record, which are not "radical" at all, really, are these strange little backwards-guitar solos at the end of "One Wing" and "Everlasting Everything" and some feedback-soaked guitar work at the end of "Bull Black Nova.")

yeah, that's otm -- i just think they've done better versions of all of those things on previous albums.

they may prove me wrong on that last point, though. I've read them say things that gave me the feeling they might go more experimental on the next LP

maybe i need to hear live versions of these tunes -- that's what turned me around on SBS.

maybe! they were great live when I saw them last summer. still prefer to hear them play something like "Spiders" than anything on the new record, though

but yeah, i think it's sort of a mistake to look at nels cline for some injection of "out there-ness" though he's obviously capable of it. Nels is probably more interested in fitting into the mainstream aspects of the band -- he's certainly got plenty of other outlets for the experimental stuff.

yeah! i think he's said as much in interviews. Glenn too. "we just play what's good for the songs." so both of them have their side projects where they do the more out their stuff, and then when they come into a Wilco sessions they just try to suit the needs of whatever's before them.

if you look at the entire Wilco discography, Jeff's probably responsible for the most out their stuff. like the solos on a ghost is born. although Jim O'Rourke probably did a lot of crazy stuff on YHF and agib, and Bennett added a lot to the former record too

out *there*

wilco sux

http://beckyyamamoto.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/dawson-crying.jpg

i love passenger side so much

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/361308/october-06-2010/mavis-staples---jeff-tweedy

http://pitchfork.com/news/41372-wilco-start-their-own-label/

fuuuuuuuuck, "can't stand it" is a dope album opener

summerteeth is so good

however you might feel, tonight is real

listen close when you click and my face gets sick, stuck, like a question unposed

wilco circa 1999-2004 was just unfuckwithable

I love that "can't stand it" was added at the last minute because reprise didn't hear a single on summerteeth.

http://pitchfork.com/news/43449-wilcos-jeff-tweedy-releases-split-single-with-deerhoof-starts-new-band-with-his-sons/

http://www.theverge.com/2012/6/6/3068636/wilco-incredible-shrinking-tour-chicago-ibooks

PoeticLava says:
I saw Jeff Tweedy at the North Side Chicago Chipotle 6 years ago. Don’t know what he ordered.

http://www.jambase.com/Articles/118811/Wilco-Focuses-On-Covers-For-First-Ever-All-Request-Set

Daft Punk and the Replacements among many more

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcL4zJxBMH8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwHqRi468ic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYixOQ2vxzM

The clip someone posted of the 'Mats cover was awesome enough that I think the entirety of Wilco should be tapped to back Tommy and Paul.

Jeff looks like Artie Lange at this point

I was at Solid Sound this weekend. The "all request show" was quite good, esp. "Marquee Moon" and "Color Me Impressed." They also nailed "Don't Fear the Reaper" pretty well too with Nels shredding on the solo. Dream Syndicate set was the highlight of the weekend for me though. And Wilco's Saturday evening set was pretty lackluster. Fun, laud back festival.

seems fun -- at least this festival has things that *don't* happen at every other summer festival.
kwhitehead - was there any indication as to whether dream syndicate was going to do any more us dates?

tylerw- they didn't except Wynn mentioned at one point that they are thrilled to actually be playing these songs "at home". He then went on to mention that they don't often get the chance but didn't elaborate. There website doesn't indicate any more us dates. Jason Victor was very good on lead guitar but, have to say I missed Precoda and Cutler.

Foxygen were fun too but ended up getting escorted out of the festival' this from ROlling Stone:

"It wasn't the only incident involving Foxygen: the band was later ejected from the festival after the group's tambourine player was involved in a drunken altercation. The North Adams police said a member of the band was briefly detained but not charged. "They were awesome," Tweedy joked onstage later in the day. "They were a little too awesome, I think."

yeah i've seen victor play with wynn a couple times and he is great (tho obviously it wouldbe more exciting if those other dudes were coaxed out of retirement). just wondered if they were holding off announcing more dates, so the solid sound fest could say "ONLY SCHEDULED PERFORMANCE" or something.

Fascinating look into Wilco, Inc.:

http://www.chicagogrid.com/features/wilcos-jeff-tweedy-learned-grow-start-firing-friends/

Before founding Wilco in 1994, Tweedy played in alt-country group Uncle Tupelo, where he says profits were anathema. “You kept everyone who’s making money, the idea of making money, at arm’s length,” Tweedy says. “But when Uncle Tupelo ended, it became very obvious that we were in a business, because we owed people money.”

awesome, thanks for the link

it is interesting that this lineup has been so stable -- wilco, inc. must be a decent employer.

too bad all their best records came out before any of this

maybe the sun will shine again some day

the clouds will roll away

whole love was def the best post ghost is born record, so i guess i'm cautiously optimistic.

i haven't listened to the mavis staples/tweedy things... should i?

i mean, i'll probably listen to the next thing they put out however bad it is, but i think at this point i'd be surprised if it wasn't . . . [word(s)]

i haven't either

too bad all their best records came out before any of this

otm

http://pitchfork.com/news/55244-wilcos-jeff-tweedy-announces-tour-new-solo-album-coming/

i'm a huge fan of Wilco AM thru YHF, but at this point i'm probably more interested in hearing a Tweedy solo album than another Wilco album

you forgot a ghost is born

idk he wrote some pretty solid stuff on cruel country so if they just took a more self-consciously arty approach to the arrangements again with some of tweedy's stronger, more direct songs then that could be quite decent

apparently the songs on this one weren't all written together or anything though, tweedy got le bon to dig through a bunch of demos & studio outtakes from the last 10 years and pick out songs to work on. it sounds like some were more recent songs that they'd been working on before they got side-tracked with cruel country, but some date further back.

oh see, i didn't know that part about le bon digging thru the archives. i guess by "somewhat speculating" i mean "talking out of my ass" :)

i agree that Cruel Country contains strong material ... it's just too long, imo, but if they'd kept it to 12ish songs, it'd be a post-YHF high point.

i didn't either, i just read a bunch of recent interviews because i was curious. they gave le bon a lot of control over the shape of the arrangements too

idk what i'd cut from cruel country though, it's definitely longer than it needs to be but there aren't really any obvious duds

maybe what we need more of from them is exploratory jams like "bird without a tail"

They were still writing and playing with teeth on Star Wars, I guess that was 8 years ago but I had given up on them kicking out the jams again when that came out and proved me wrong. “Cold Slope” is top ten Wilco for me I think.

Star Was is indeed fantastic, seems odd that the Schmilco half was was the most blah thing they've put to tape

That's for sure - it's like they decided to put out the interesting stuff first, and if people like it, maybe they can put out the boring leftovers as a holding pattern.

that’s bullshit imo, schmilco is full of great songs and bizarre shit

i understand why ppl think it’s boring, it’s a much calmer and subtler palette, but it’s pretty much just as wacky as star wars, just from the opposite angle

I haven't heard the new album yet, but... Unlike most everyone I genuinely think all of their/his albums have at least a few high quality songs. The vibe has definitely gotten sleepier and staid as he's gotten older, and its understandable why most people would interpret that as Jeff running in place creatively.

However, while the artistic "shifts" are subtler, I still believe I could distinguish near every album from one another if you were to play me a random song from side B that I hadn't listened to in a few years. And they still sound like Wilco and no one else, and I'm not sure who you could point to that sounds a lot like them making music today, and that suggests to me that they still have a unique sound that is mainly due to Jeff's songwriting and their undeniable musical talents (Glenn, Nels). I'm not going to pretend his songwriting is anywhere near as good as it once was, but I'm perfectly happy to listen to a new Wilco album every year or two even if 75% of it is just ok.

Great post Indexed, I think there's a lot of truth to that.

I haven't heard it yet! but I would say active enough that it's not boring. assuming it is.

― Josh in Chicago, Friday, September 29, 2023 5:11 PM (three days ago) bookmarkflaglink

well keep us posted

For those who missed the Wilco/Tweedy poll, there were songs from 18 different albums that made the top 77, every album but Love is King had at least one song that received a vote, and roughly ~60% of his songs received at least one vote. Like any band that's been around as long as they have, I think there are just different fans for different "eras" of their catalogue. Everyone seems to like YHF, and most everyone seems to like Summerteeth, but after that I think it's pretty wide open.

what confuses me is why there needs to be six people in the band

To be fair, they tour a lot and rarely seem to hire additional personnel for those tours like some other long-running acts, so maybe six is ideal?

The best, or at least most intense, I ever saw the band was in the early YHF days, post Bennett, when iirc they were a four-piece, with Leroy Bach swapping between keys and guitar.

I actually thought this was an interesting read:

https://www.insidehook.com/article/music/wilco-cousin-review

Not sure I'd 100% cosign all of it, but some really good points about how weird expectations have gotten around this band and how specific fans seems to want to hear specific things. I've listened to Cousin twice now and I like it well enough. I do wish there was a little more Le Bon weirdness evident, but close listening reveals quite a bit under the surface.

That's great. Thanks for sharing it.

Everything said in that article makes sense if your point of reference for experimental music is Radiohead, as it is for the author.

they should get sparhawk & bj burton in

― ufo, Friday, September 29, 2023 4:38 PM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

Hell, just have Tweedy make the hot tag with those two and you’d have a Wilco I could get behind.

I've been going through a stack of bootleg CD-R's that I dug out of storage, and one of them is (most of) Wilco's set from Summerfest in Milwaukee, WI from July 4, 1998. Great soundboard recording, possibly no generational loss, this is right on the heels of Mermaid Avenue. (Billy Bragg is even playing that same day, albeit in NYC, drawing most of his setlist from that same album as well.) The standout is actually the-yet-to-be-released "I'm Always in Love," and I never realized how much they sweetened it up for Summerteeth. When I first heard it there, I immediately thought "Beach Boys," but here it sounds like it came out of a spot-on cover of the Velvet Underground's "I'm Waiting for the Man."

There’s some pretty interesting shit happening on Cousin, I’m beginning to realise. The songs sound slightly listless on a casual listen but there’s a submarine pull to them which is kind of sick and thrilling. I’m a bit obsessed with “Levee” at the moment.

i'm realising cousin feels most like a sequel to a ghost is born? similarly mellow/restrained with a lot of songs driven by piano or fingerpicked acoustic guitar, and weird atmospherics in the background. i'm appreciating it more now and it even holds together better than a ghost is born even if it doesn't reach the same highs. they should probably put out a follow-up live album though because i bet the songs really work better live, just like a ghost is born

they've also just toured japan for the first time in 8 years so maybe there'll be progress on that third loose fur album at last?

This has probably been mentioned upthread somewhere, but after years of wondering what the cover of summerteeth was supposed to be I looked it up. It's a person blowing a gigantic bubble of bubble gum.

they really are the best live band in the world it turns out. easily one of the best shows i've ever seen. they jammed out "bird without a tail" for 9 minutes and it really deserves to be a permanent live staple now. "at least that's what you said" was genuinely kinda life affirming as silly as it sounds. even "how to fight loneliness", which is hardly my favourite, was pretty great and way better than the album version

is kotche the best drummer in the history of rock?

i wish i'd managed to get a ticket for last night too now

Kotche is great. He's the king of underplaying, which is an invisible skill that often goes (not surprisingly) unnoticed. "Check out all the stuff he's not doing!" But he's really sneakily creative about what he's not playing, and you know he's one of the greats because everyone, from other drummers on down, recognizes he's great *despite* the underplaying.

I still haven't heard the new record (or the previous three, tbh), but the new song I hear sometimes ("Meant to Be"?) is really good and not at all what I expected. Super poppy, sounds a little like the Pretenders.

what really stuck out to me about kotche was how much nuance there was in his playing, it was incredibly detailed. he was pretty much always doing something interesting and intricate, though never doing too much. cline is an absolutely incredible player too of course and it was pretty amazing how much the two of them add to the pre-yhf songs.

the last two albums are some of the strongest they've made in quite a while, especially cruel country, they're definitely worth checking out. "bird without a tail" off cruel country is the best thing they've done in over a decade, although the studio version pales in comparison to what they've turned it into live. they finally have a second "impossible germany" and sansone gets to go wild alongside cline on it

Cline gets much of the attention but I think Kotche is the most talented musician in the band. Both have created a style completely their own that is immediately recognizable and yet impossible to recreate. I've never heard anyone say "check out this new band, their drummer reminds me of Glenn."