wilco

the Jayhawks album that's stuck with me is Sound of Lies, which sounds more like a Fleetwood Mac album than an alt.country stalwart.

sound of lies rules. not even close to a bad song on it, and it gets heartbreaking toward the end of the album. "the sound of lies rings funny against the truth . . ."

("blue" (tomorrow the green grass) might be my favorite ever alt.country jam, if not "chickamauga" (uncle tupelo (anodyne)) or "mountain girl" (opener on blue mountain's second album, dog days))

blue mountain was good!

Personal low point for me is Sky Blue Sky and Wilco (The Album), I don't think they are bad records per se, but they don't grab me at all except for a few highlights. Since the Whole Love they've been consistently good at doing pleasant albums. They are not unlike post-NYC Ghost and Flowers Sonic Youth or present day Yo La Tengo. You can make very valuable stuff after the peak and give incredible shows.

i still like sky blue sky a lot, those are all really strong songs

Sky Blue Sky is a personal monolith of an album for me. It wasn't always that way, though. In my 2007 year-end roundup, I wrote of it under my "biggest disappointments" category:

Wilco — whatever it was called; some repetitive piece of esoteric dreck (Nonesuch, parent company of which is Warner, who also owns Reprise, but you knew that already, you Wilco-loving whore, who probably also loves this album even though it sucks me hard)
Hi, I’m Jeff Tweedy*. I like to think I’m as brilliant as everybody says I am, much like David Bowie. However, as my latest album will prove, I’m just another mediocre songwriter riding on the coattails of being an ‘American’ roots-rocker, relying on tired out twanginess and pseudo-‘Americana’ (which is a term I don’t even understand, but it gets me five star reviews and commendable sales) riffs to pull the wool over my audience’s eyes. But I have Nels Cline in my band and he’s a ‘musician’, so it counts, y’know? I don’t even care that he rips off John McLaughlin (who is a way cooler human being) most of the time. Here’s my new album. It’s about stuff. Stuff that I’m not sure about, but I’m an American songwriter, so it’s resonating whether it really is or not. That guy at Rolling Stone likes me, so why don’t you? Also, you know all those fun dynamics that Jim O’Rourke did on our last two albums that he mixed and mastered? Well, those are gone. In favor of LOUDNESS and COMPRESSION!! Yay for contemporization of recorded music! I’m brilliant, haven’t you heard?
*(review not really written by Jeff Tweedy, but may as well have been)

Some years later, after selling all my Wilco records and swearing off the band shortly after the above was written, the backstory to that shellacking was fully disclosed and revisited upon reacquisition of Sky Blue Sky:

I was in a bad place when this album came out. I was working a terrible job at Barnes and Noble that paid next to nothing and was struggling through a relationship that I was just beginning to realize was a complete failure. It was not the wonderfully gloomy and romantic escape that A Ghost is Born was (post-script note here: A Ghost is Born was an absolute milestone to me when it first came out). It was honest, no nonsense and blunt. And, most of all, not necessarily sad, but realistic. It had songs for days, but they talked about things in a way that was not fun, in any stretch of the imagination. I went to work every day, had to hear this fucking thing confront me —usually two or three times in a shift— like a small child sticking its tongue out, taunting me, "I'm one of your favorite bands and I just made you feel worse about your life!" I, of course, trashed it, like any honest person in my position would have. And I basically swore off Wilco after walking out on that job (my first walkout of two, within a year's time, in case you were wondering [you weren't]). So, yeah, fuck these guys, right? Fucking assholes; providing such wonderful escape for two albums and then going MOR dad-rock and forcing me to pay attention to the lyrics — because, let's face it, the simple arrangements here don't offer much in the way of hearing the words "that aren't there." And what about these lyrics? They suck, right? Well, me of years past says, "YES, OBVIOUSLY" and gives you this look (angry cat image). Me now, for lack of better words, gets it. Ghost is Born was recorded while Jeff Tweedy was in the grips of pill addiction, while Sky Blue Sky is the first thing he attempted after coming clean about his dependence. I was doing my own chemical coping in those days, so why shouldn't I have loved Ghost is Born, despite my own issues? But when Sky Blue Sky came out, I was still toiling. Such stark emotional confrontation was not what I wanted from one of my favorite bands when, in the previous five years they had provided the ultimate escape: a look back at youth through the eyes and mind of someone awestruck with America's (now inexplicable) enduring prominence in the post-World War II era. Jeff Tweedy even sounds angry at his own generation (one which was now officially "old" when this album was released). His —and the band's— ambitions here seem so much less interested in being "cool" than they are in being honest with themselves. You have to rewind a bit here and understand: these were the last days of GWB's run in office and they were —and I don't think I'm going out on much of limb here saying as much— a rather bleak time. We all knew that we were under the leadership of somebody that was not looking out for us. Couple this with my own internal issues, another horrific season of summer wildfires in Reno and, yeah, it was like this plastic, sugar-coated version of someone saying, "Hey, you're not going to be okay" and then smiling the most unpleasantly empty smile at me. Fuck them. Fuck it. Fuck it relentlessly. It was not fun to hear your favorite, previously unpredictable band go Prozac Dave Matthews on you. It was excruciating, to be completely honest. They truly were the one thing I had that I knew would be mine for all time. And now, a meddling soft rock turd was excreted to leave me alone and floating again forever. Except, why now, do I hear it and just acquiesce? Like it was just a really good album all along? I have not answers for that question. But, as bleak and creepy cheerful 70's AM pop as this thing is, I have only more questions. Why was it recorded as crappily as it was? That's not what Jim O'Rourke would have done. He would have forced the band's ambition to be emotionally stark naked for their audience into the background where some keen investigative listening would have revealed it. In other other words, he would forced the band's most human album to be another weird collage of good tunes and obscure sounds (he does, however, contribute some ultimately inconsequential string arrangements). But there's a lot to be said and admired about the fact that the band chose to just streamline everything and mask nothing. I also know that this was the second of two big lineup changes in Wilco in those days, so coupled with Jeff's substance dependence-shedding, it just reeks of a back to basics strip fest. Throw things out that you can't deal with anymore. The sort of record where it sounds relatively tame to the rest of us, but was actually a very traumatic and life-changing event for those involved (see also: David and friends). What is it about? Everyday life. What does it mean? It means you're okay while you're listening to it — in the classic sense of the blues, its misery wants your company until you both just want to hug each other and smile without effort. It's very 70's soft folk rock (think the Crosby/Nash albums, America's third album and Aztec Two-Step) and there's not a whole lot here that sounds that great when played outside of the context of the album. It will pat you on the back in the locker room after dunking on your head in a game of one on one and say some sidestepping compliment like, "Your new sneakers are cool." It's one of the friendliest arch rivals you'll ever encounter. That said, 'Impossible Germany' is easily one of the band's best tunes. One generation taking the next to task through an overthought metaphor, it's an absolute masterpiece on an album that definitely needed one. This is probably my most personal review ever; very telling that it's for this album — and this band. For such a lightweight sounding album, it's pretty fucking intense on closer inspection. I just. . . I mean I can't even. . . just. . . man. It's a lot better than it's reputation. Just wish I had known better at the time.

Pretty good album, I'd reckon.

Agree with you on Sky Blue Sky. I found it disappointing at first, and years later I see it as truly great. Maybe not their best but Very Good Wilco.

Also - Star Wars is a terrific return after a couple so-so albums. I really like Schmilco though it's been a while since I put it on. Star Wars really stayed on the turntable in my house for a long time.

Uncle Tupelo - to be honest I have just never really like Jay Farrar's voice and I have never been taken with Uncle Tupelo. Even Tweedy's songs, while not exactly bad, are so far from where he'd eventually go.

Jayhawks - a consistently good band, occasionally much better than good. They have a new album out this year that's not bad.

I don't like Uncle Tupelo, or at least they've never clicked with me, but the first Son Volt album is ace.

I think of everything after A Ghost Is Born as post-peak. From that era, the two highlights for me are The Whole Love and Sky Blue Sky. Star Wars was so boring that I've never bothered with Schmilco.

Star Wars and Schmilco are kind of boring.

Star Wars was so boring that I've never bothered with Schmilco.

So weird to me! "Boring" comes immediately to my mind, as a word to describe pre-Star Wars Wilco... then they suddenly got good and interesting! (to my ears, anyway)

i was so disappointed by sky blue sky that i gave up on wilco after it. didn't last because the next record had "bull black nova" on it.

try One Sunday Morning!

Wilco (The Album) might have been the most disappointing album I've ever looked forward to and while The Whole Love was streets ahead, to me it was badly let down by about three quiet/slow/acoustic tracks which were so dreary and unmemorable. Star Wars was such a brilliant comeback - really brief, ragged, catchy, fun - elements which had been missing for some time.

Schmilco doesn't really come across as an album proper to me, it does sound like inferior outtakes from the same session even though they probably deliberately split the two albums by tone, I do think the Star Wars pile came out on top by some distance. Having said that, it's a more interesting listen than the bland self-titled album any day.

try One Sunday Morning!

― Van Horn Street

i like that one too even though the version i have is some sort of shitty pre-release with terrible sound quality. i also listened to "star wars" and liked the cover and "pickled ginger". i don't think i ever got around to listening to "schmilco". i think they're a great midwest classic rock band though.

lots of bad Wilco opinions itt

wilco is great, what the shit sons

summerteeth - yankee - ghost is born - meh

wilco the album is not bad too, yeah guess alpine static OTM

“Passenger side” sounded pretty good in the bar a couple days ago

does anyone know the address (or maybe cross streets) of The Loft? not in a creepy way, i'm just curious where it is in town, really. what it's near, etc.

...tour manager Jason Tobias, who "handles" the Wilco loft. He says, "Not a lot of people know where it is exactly. The neighborhood allows the Loft to keep a low profile, which is essentially the desired effect. A few die-hard fans know and have been pretty cool with keeping it the secret it is intended to be."

But the general neighborhood where it is, nah, there's not really anything there. Some good ethnic food nearby I guess. Asian and middle eastern, mostly.

fair enough!

Tweedy has played small benefits there, hasn't he? and haven't they given away a tour/visit as a prize? wonder if they make people sign NDAs.

oh, and thanks JiC

looking forward to tweedy's memoir

^ same. can't think of too many musicians i'd rather read

Good new Tweedy song (album coming): https://pitchfork.com/news/jeff-tweedy-announces-new-album-warm-shares-song-some-birds-listen/

this is good: http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episode-972-jeff-tweedy

anyone check out the album yet?

I ran through it y'day; sounded good, tho pretty mellow

anyone read the memoir? i hear good things, not into wilco but like the scene

I've listened to the new album a couple times. It's pleasant but nothing has really sunk in. Feeling ambivalent about it. By contrast I've really enjoyed the last two Wilco albums and still find myself going back to them.

I listened to Tweedy on the Maron podcast and have been revisiting the Wilco catalogue. Thoughts: Being There was my 'one', my way in, buying it at record store in South West London from a guy with a fire in his eyes from seeing them the night before: it remains a ragged wreck of an album and I still love it; YHF, while full of holes (War on War, Heavy Metal Drummer), I wear in my soul - I'm all for hyperbole and this is their As I Lay Dying, their Moby Dick; I hadn't realised just how much A Ghost is Born had affected me - this was my first listen in toto in probably five years and that run from At Least to Wishful Thinking is astounding; Kicking Television is fucking incredible.

A.M is fine, but I can kinda take or leave it; Summer Teeth I need to persevere with. I've not really explored much beyond Sky Blue Sky. Maybe tomorrow. Bob Dylan's 49th Beard might have hit me hardest today. I wasn't expecting it.

Is the new Tweedy solo record worth a listen?

I have met maybe a half dozen people from Bellevillie, Illinois in my life, even dated a girl who took me back there past the Still Feel Gone highway signs to meet the parents. Each one, within five minutes of the city's first mention in our first conversation, has told me the same piece of trivia: That Belleville's Main Street is longer than anywhere else's.

Chapter One of Tweedy's memoir? "The Longest Main Street in the World". Apparently, they ain't all just playing to type.

long Main Street in Belleville, yeah, but personally I think the World's Largest Ketchup Bottle in Collinsville wins "coolest -est" among cities of the Metro East

anyone here considering a trip to this:

https://wilcoskybluesky.com

No but I'm going to Solid Sound for the first time next month!

I was driving around the other day when "Via Chicago" came on the radio. Of course the song is great, but I didn't totally recognize it as the version I knew, so figured it was a live version, or some other session. I Shazam it and it comes up the usual "Via Chicago." Hmm, I think, that can't be right, so I do it again, and get the same result. It turns out it'd been so long since I actually listened to "Summerteeth" and the studio version that I just didn't recognize it. Listening to "Summerteeth" right now it's more clear than ever that the band really, really lost something when it fired Jay Bennett. I mean, that's old news, and obviously Tweedy has remained a good and sometimes interesting songwriter, and the band long ago coalesced into something consistently solid, especially as a live act. But Bennett brought something to the band, or at least helped shape what Tweedy and the band did, that brought it to another level. Like, there are a lot of things at play, but I couldn't imagine Wilco playing a show without touching on songs from "Being There" or Summerteeth." The stuff is just too good, even after all this time. I guess in retrospect, "YHF" was more of a transitional album rather than a peak many made it out to be, with plenty of Bennett but also showing off the first full taste of Tweedy's more ascetic aesthetic. Tweedy and the band have remained good, but I don't think anything post "YHF" is in competition to supplant any of those Bennett albums as the band's best.

Anyway, no news here, just thinking about stuff.

i think a big part of what made YHF so great was tweedy, bennett and o'rourke all firing on full cylinders with the arrangements, despite the bennett/tweedy tensions they really ended up with great results there. it's a real shame the creative & personal differences between bennett & tweedy lead to tweedy firing bennett, so much colour was gone from the band's arrangements after bennett was fired, and his songwriting contributions were really missed too.

still kinda strange that they've never quite managed to make an album that captures how great they became as a live band either. like there's been the occasional moment where they get there on record in their current post-AGIB incarnation but never for anywhere near a whole album.

with "via chicago", it's one they really transform live with it getting even more chaotic etc., the studio version's great but it's even better live

yeah they are so much better live now

could definitely go with another live album

yeah kicking television is one of their very best releases & while it covers their strongest material there's still plenty of gems since then that have become live staples ("impossible germany" etc.) that would be great to have on a new live album

yeah I feel like "Impossible Germany" has turned into their "Dark Star"

last time I saw them was a very cute moment when Nels was going absolutely apeshit during IG and Tweedy looked at the crowd, shaking his head and laughing, then pointed at Nels with his thumb like "Can you believe this guy?"

can y'all recommend a good boot

I do not but that's a good idea

That's actually a good question. I've seen them a bunch, but all the most memorable ones were up to and including behind YHF. Since then the band has been remarkably consistent live. My favorite was a stand they did here for five nights where over the course of the week they played every song they'd ever recorded to date, including the one from the Sponge Bob movie. I saw a great Golden Smog set back in ... 1998? That was when Tweedy/Wilco was still in rock and tumble shambling mode.

This was a great one I saw:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7pY6UPPbVQ

from videos ive seen the yhf tour was their weakest, due to the transitional lineup where tweedy was the only guitarist

That wasn't my experience, those shows were pretty intense, iirc. Plus Leroy Bach played guitar, too. Definitely transitional, though.

^^I saw the Austin date on the first leg of that tour. The band brought it (and The Handsome Family on that show is one of my all-time opening act memories), but there was so much going on feelings-wise: YHF was still in limbo, 9/11 was only a couple weeks old, and those combined facts almost led them to cancel the tour. The decision not too, the band later said, is why they're still around today.

Would love to get recommendations on good live boots, too. (Paging Tyler..)

Having said that, this 2011 show in the Netherlands was streamed professionally and I love it. Beautifully shot. The opening song from that stream is on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4GWGSndpag

I captured the audio back then and burned it to cdr, I'll try to find it! Can't recall if the encore is on it though, seems like too much to burn to one cd..

Setlist:
One Sunday Morning
Poor Places
Art of Almost
I Might
I Am Trying to Break Your Heart
One Wing
Bull Black Nova
Black Moon
Impossible Germany
Born Alone
Jesus, Etc.
Capitol City
Handshake Drugs
Dawned on Me
Hummingbird
Whole Love
A Shot in the Arm

Encore:
Via Chicago
California Stars
War on War
Standing O
I'm a Wheel
I'm the Man Who Loves You
Monday
Outtasite (Outta Mind)