wilco

they totally had a mercury rev vibe for the first half of their set tonight. even tweedy was shredding. it ruled.

That's funny, my first ever big concert was Mercury Rev opening for Wilco. I tired out halfway thru Wilco but Mercury Rev was magical, I remember Jonathan Donahue in a shiny magenta shirt.

Thought Tweedy was kinda pushy and nevery in Mavis Staples doc footage where he decided he and his son would add instrumentation to late Pop Staples tapes, but back with Wilco I am kind of liking some of this new one.

Glenn and Nels own this record.

Every album since YHF makes it more and more clear how essential Jay Bennett was to the band.

was weird/sad that the cover of the chicago reader's pitchfork fest issue had bennett on it...
http://media2.fdncms.com/chicago/imager/u/original/18327189/reader-pitchfork-2015-900.jpg

make that "ghost jay bennett"

It's the Chicago Reader; I'm not surprised in the least.

yeah that's tasteless

is ariel pink being protested by two people holding signs with rabbits crossed out. the fuck is that

also jfc @ jim derogatis with the mirror

I'm a little surprised at the amount of pushback the band seems to have gotten for playing its new (less than 12 hour old) record in its entirety at Pitchfork. The last time I saw a band at Pitchfork do something surprising was maybe when the Thermals started their set with a handful of '90s alt-rock hits. I wish more bands everywhere would treat festival gigs as more than just another night and do something unique, unexpected or one-off. Boring is a fair criticism, but no Wilco set could have countered that criticism. But indulgent? Man, Panda Bear was indulgent *and* boring, and looked stupid in broad daylight, too. But hey, different strokes ...

playing the new one is the best thing i can imagine! i would've probably liked that better than the greatest hits set i saw last week.

Glenn and Nels own the record? Exciting; best things about this band by far.

Actually, I think as Tweedy gets noisier and solos more himself it's harder to distinguish some of his squonk from Nels (on record). Obviously Nels is a ridiculous guitarist (though I'm not a huge fan, tbh), but his insane precision actually often plays to my ears as a sort of surreal restraint - that is, he is too good to totally go off the map - whereas Tweedy is an OK guitarist, but knows how to play the wrong things at the right time in I suppose a more natural (as opposed to Nels' supernatural) weird way.

My fave thing about Glenn is that his kit keeps shrinking but he keeps putting out the same amount of wildly inventive noise.

That's a very good description.

Didn't Sonic Youth play Daydream Nation at p4k? Perhaps I got this wrong.

It's the Chicago Reader; I'm not surprised in the least.

― kwhitehead, Monday, July 20, 2015 5:53 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I don't get it -- what aren't you surprised by, and why aren't you surprised by it?

Didn't Sonic Youth play Daydream Nation at p4k? Perhaps I got this wrong.

They did, but it was announced as part of a collaboration between P4k and All Tomorrow's Parties.

Oh yes now I remember

I never thought I'd get wistful for the days of the Red Hot Chili Peppers dressing up as lightbulbs.

Seriously, though, remember when a selling point of the first Lollapalooza was who might pop up on the stage with whom? Now it's just, like, another night, another gig. I wonder if that's the natural product of bands forced into festival labor. They have to schedule tours around fests, they don't have the luxury of saying no to fests. Once the fests and their non-competition clauses kick in, it's a matter of plugging in live dates between fests, which not only basically means festivals do become just another stop on the tour, but the bands don't have the time or incentive to make fest stops special.

Probably better discussed/debated in another thread.

I don't get it -- what aren't you surprised by, and why aren't you surprised by it?

The Chicago Reader has always rubbed me the wrong way, esp. the music writers. It's seems to be a contest as to who can name check the most obscure bands. They act somewhat record store employees did in the '90's, judging your purchases, too hip to make eye contact, etc.

And also, the general quality of writing is suspect. They have existed for too long without any real competition.

At their best Wilco strike me as competent, lifeless guitar rock, but an early 2005 show promoting AGIB impressed me. The Pitchfork set didn't. Most of Friday's performances verged on the narcoleptic.

I'll give you "competent" and "guitar rock" but at least by the standard set by several of this weekend's acts, I dunno about "lifeless."

They have existed for too long without any real competition.

I'm liking "More..." but I wish there was more liveliness to the production. The drums and bass sit so quietly in the mix and I don't think I'm a fan of the way they're using hard panning.

I'm a bit conflicted with the band. I loved everything up to YHF. I thought A Ghost Is Born was a bit aimless sounding so I stopped paying attention to them until I heard some buzz around Sky Blue Sky which I checked out but found it completely unmemorable. I picked up "The Whole Love" at the local library and I was surprised how much I dug it though. I love this new one too. "Magnetized" is a great track, like ELO on downers.

Really loving this new one, feels loose and like a band that's just letting it out and has played together for a long time

Didn't realize the new one was free until I looked at this thread. Based on one go-through in the car, "You Satellite" definitely jumped out as my favourite. Tweedy sounds a lot like Lennon on "More."

I would call this very good karma:

This message has arrived in your inbox because you downloaded Wilco's new album Star Wars. Thanks for that and we hope you're enjoying the new tunes.

Now a bit of background... We consider ourselves lucky to be in the position to give you this music free of charge, but we do so knowing not every band, label or studio can do the same. Much of the “music business” relies on physical sales to keep the lights on and the mics up. Without that support, well, it gets tougher and tougher to make it all work.

With that in mind, Wilco has put together a list of some of their favorite recent releases. We encourage you to explore it (and beyond) and yep, even march down to your neighborhood record shop and BUY. There’s a lot of great music out there, lets all try to support it. After all, it's the years of support (and purchases) of Wilco's music that allowed us to do what we did last week.

Adron - Organismo
Cibo Matto - Hotel Valentine
Empyrean Atlas - Inner Circle
Eleventh Dream Day - Works for Tomorrow
Full of Hell, Merzbow - Full of Hell & Merzbow
Game Theory - Real Nighttime
Girlpool - Before the World Was Big
Invisible Familiars - Disturbing Wildlife
Landlady - Upright Behavior
Luluc - Passerby
Ned Doheny - Hard Candy
Parquet Courts - Content Nausea
Richard Julian - Fleur de Lis
Scott Walker + Sunn O))) - Soused
Speedy Ortiz - Foil Deer
Steve Gunn - Way Out Weather
William Tyler - Deseret Canyon
Thanks for listening (and sometimes buying),

- HQ

Alright for William Tyler getting a mention!

Totally. I picked that up, the Luluc and the Empyrean Atlas, the latter two of which were totally unfamiliar to me but seemed cool enough.

thats really cool

Game Theory!

man, "magnetized." it's been a long time since a song like this made me feel like this

yeah just got that, very cool

Totally. I picked that up, the Luluc and the Empyrean Atlas, the latter two of which were totally unfamiliar to me but seemed cool enough.

I like the Empyrean Atlas too. I had to check if Nels Cline wasn´t playing guitar with them, it´s exactly the same sound and style (crying whales!)

Played through their whole catalog earlier this week. AGIB has aged really well, and in fact the first half of Sky Blue Sky is some of their best stuff. Still not so crazy about its second half but everything up to "Side with the Seeds" is A+.

i probably think "Hate It Here" is my favorite Wilco song.

http://www.spin.com/2016/07/wilco-new-album-schmilco-new-song-listen/

Nice.

For a minute there I (accidentally) forgot Wilco existed. I never listened to the last record and not sure I can remember anything from the one before it (I liked it?), been a while since I saw them live or even seen any of them around. But the radio played "You Never Know" from "Wilco (The Album)" this morning, and it was pretty good! I should probably catch up on the last decade of Wilco, see how it sounds with clear ears.

The Whole Love was the last one of theirs that I really liked across the board. Star Wars and Schmilco are kind of boring.

xp
I never liked them until their two most recent albums, which I think are terrific (I had this same convo w/you or someone else in the Dad Rock thread?)

last song on star wars is incredible but their album art is generally more exciting than their records now

they are a great live band at this point

agreed that "you never know" is a v good song. the problem with wilco (the album) is it's just kinda like "you never know" for 40 minutes

oh yeah they still rule live

i appreciate them mainly as a reliable source of income for nels cline at this point

last song on star wars is incredible

Haha, that's the weak one (IMO)!

Star Wars is appealingly buzzy-sounding, particularly Random Name Generator. Schmilco didn't make much of an impression on me but I do like Someone To Lose