― Bee OK, Thursday, 1 March 2007 10:38 (seventeen years ago) link
― StanM, Thursday, 1 March 2007 10:40 (seventeen years ago) link
― Bee OK, Thursday, 1 March 2007 10:41 (seventeen years ago) link
― Bee OK, Thursday, 1 March 2007 10:43 (seventeen years ago) link
― Zeno, Thursday, 1 March 2007 11:07 (seventeen years ago) link
― StanM, Thursday, 1 March 2007 11:13 (seventeen years ago) link
― Zeno, Thursday, 1 March 2007 11:17 (seventeen years ago) link
― StanM, Thursday, 1 March 2007 11:40 (seventeen years ago) link
― I know, right?, Thursday, 1 March 2007 19:45 (seventeen years ago) link
― deej, Thursday, 1 March 2007 19:48 (seventeen years ago) link
― braveclub, Friday, 2 March 2007 14:28 (seventeen years ago) link
― Hurting 2, Friday, 2 March 2007 14:46 (seventeen years ago) link
― Zeno, Friday, 2 March 2007 16:45 (seventeen years ago) link
― I know, right?, Friday, 2 March 2007 22:08 (seventeen years ago) link
― Bee OK, Sunday, 4 March 2007 03:55 (seventeen years ago) link
― Bee OK, Sunday, 4 March 2007 05:01 (seventeen years ago) link
― gershy, Sunday, 4 March 2007 05:23 (seventeen years ago) link
― Zeno, Sunday, 4 March 2007 12:29 (seventeen years ago) link
― calstars, Tuesday, 6 March 2007 23:23 (seventeen years ago) link
― Drooone, Tuesday, 6 March 2007 23:28 (seventeen years ago) link
― Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 6 March 2007 23:33 (seventeen years ago) link
― akm, Tuesday, 6 March 2007 23:34 (seventeen years ago) link
― tipsy mothra, Tuesday, 6 March 2007 23:37 (seventeen years ago) link
― Drooone, Tuesday, 6 March 2007 23:40 (seventeen years ago) link
― tipsy mothra, Tuesday, 6 March 2007 23:43 (seventeen years ago) link
― gman, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 15:04 (seventeen years ago) link
― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 15:24 (seventeen years ago) link
― Dandy Don Weiner, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 17:02 (seventeen years ago) link
― Jubalique die Zitronen, Thursday, 8 March 2007 00:06 (seventeen years ago) link
― Rikard Fortworth, Thursday, 8 March 2007 00:35 (seventeen years ago) link
― G00blar, Monday, 12 March 2007 01:13 (seventeen years ago) link
― President Evil, Monday, 12 March 2007 12:04 (seventeen years ago) link
― Simon H., Monday, 12 March 2007 14:52 (seventeen years ago) link
― n/a, Monday, 12 March 2007 15:27 (seventeen years ago) link
― G00blar, Monday, 12 March 2007 18:27 (seventeen years ago) link
― MC, Monday, 12 March 2007 21:28 (seventeen years ago) link
― M@tt He1ges0n, Monday, 12 March 2007 21:32 (seventeen years ago) link
― Drooone, Monday, 12 March 2007 21:34 (seventeen years ago) link
― Zeno, Saturday, 17 March 2007 22:42 (seventeen years ago) link
― davedestroybox, Tuesday, 20 March 2007 23:58 (seventeen years ago) link
― drag ass snag, Thursday, 29 March 2007 11:07 (seventeen years ago) link
― akm, Thursday, 29 March 2007 18:34 (seventeen years ago) link
― Charlie Howard, Monday, 14 May 2007 13:05 (sixteen years ago) link
― curmudgeon, Monday, 14 May 2007 13:51 (sixteen years ago) link
― Scik Mouthy, Monday, 14 May 2007 14:08 (sixteen years ago) link
― Edward III, Monday, 14 May 2007 15:10 (sixteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 14 May 2007 15:12 (sixteen years ago) link
― ksg, Monday, 14 May 2007 15:35 (sixteen years ago) link
― QuantumNoise, Monday, 14 May 2007 15:41 (sixteen years ago) link
― whisperineddhurt, Monday, 14 May 2007 16:39 (sixteen years ago) link
but yeah, some of the long stuff on ghost is a bit silly. i liked "spiders" at the time and wouldn't mind if it popped up on a shuffle or playlist, but it is kind of meh.
― get shrunk by this funk. (Austin), Friday, 28 January 2022 23:31 (two years ago) link
Oh god Spiders is the best best best thing they ever did. And even then I remember playing the album version the first time it leaked and going 'what they fuck is going on' after hearing how they had played it before
― PaulTMA, Saturday, 29 January 2022 00:22 (two years ago) link
I revisited Ghost for the first time in a few years and was startled by how … antiseptic it felt
― Legalize Suburban Benches (Raymond Cummings), Saturday, 29 January 2022 00:25 (two years ago) link
(For the most part anyway)
― Legalize Suburban Benches (Raymond Cummings), Saturday, 29 January 2022 00:26 (two years ago) link
so precise, and tiring?
― assert (matttkkkk), Saturday, 29 January 2022 01:08 (two years ago) link
"spiders" is one of the best tracks on a ghost is born. the drone on "less than you think" which is the only other long track is indeed self-indulgent nonsense though
i am boring and still think yhf and then summerteeth are their best. they're much more colourful records, losing bennett really seemed hurt their arrangements & having both him & o'rourke around on yhf went a long way to making it what it is.
― ufo, Saturday, 29 January 2022 01:24 (two years ago) link
just revisited sbs and my opinion on it hasn't really changed, the general mood & playing are lovely but around half of the songs are just sort of there, they don't all grab me in the way their best work does. still, the good stuff here is very very good
― ufo, Saturday, 29 January 2022 02:20 (two years ago) link
failed to mention that my diminishing appreciation for "spiders" stems from hearing the pre-studio live recordings (which i didn't hear until much later). studio version still decent, but makes me wonder why they changed the arrangement so much.
― get shrunk by this funk. (Austin), Saturday, 29 January 2022 02:50 (two years ago) link
I remember hearing Spiders as the more conservative tune it began as, and then it transformed gradually towards the more familiar version. I got to see them, for the second time since the Summerteeth tour, at the Glastonbury 2004 early afternoon slot when largely they remained unknown (in the UK) except for a couple of hundred people down the front. That Spiders (full-blown Neu! arrangement) was absolutely sublime, I was already very much getting into the album version, but by then I was inarguably won over. It will always be my favourite Wilco song. They won't play it at the very rare UK shows I get to see these days, they always appear to field off a request with a quick Bull Black Nova up their sleeves ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
― PaulTMA, Saturday, 29 January 2022 03:01 (two years ago) link
Sorry I wrote that as a 12 year old school holiday report love them though
― PaulTMA, Saturday, 29 January 2022 03:03 (two years ago) link
Being There is still my go to
― Heez, Saturday, 29 January 2022 03:24 (two years ago) link
yeah, i'm a YHF, Being There and A.M. guy. then probably Summerteeth and Star Wars.
― alpine static, Saturday, 29 January 2022 09:08 (two years ago) link
absolutely wore Being There out when I got it. I think for free after it was a rarely or probably never played promo-disc at the mall cd store I worked in at the time. that run from BT>Summerteeth>YHF was my jam but honestly don’t pull them out much these days.
― concentrating on Rationality (the book) (will), Saturday, 29 January 2022 15:39 (two years ago) link
Yeah, it's almost as if there was something to the notion that Bennett was key, hmm. Anyway, me too, BT/Summerteeth/YHF, I love them all and yet they're all still better than I remember them when I put them on.
― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 29 January 2022 16:26 (two years ago) link
one of these threads made me get out those first two Golden Smog albums recently. Still pretty great and much more engaging than I ever found the 3 or so 90s era Jayhawks’ LPs I owned to be (which are still totally fine and good IMO)
― concentrating on Rationality (the book) (will), Saturday, 29 January 2022 16:57 (two years ago) link
Bennett was key
― concentrating on Rationality (the book) (will), Saturday, 29 January 2022 17:01 (two years ago) link
There's a Jay Bennett doc floating around out there somewhere, definitely will be checking that out.
― henry s, Saturday, 29 January 2022 20:06 (two years ago) link
I'm reluctant to call Being There a great album - it's really enjoyable in small doses, but too many tracks seem to carry the same chord changes and that gets old pretty fast. I want to say it should've been a single album rather than a double, but regardless it was a great starting point (A.M. feels like they're still getting it together), and they just blew up into a great band after that. Every album from Mermaid Avenue to YHF shows remarkable growth - they're all great albums to me, and the first Mermaid Avenue and YHF are my two favorites, the ones I play most. A Ghost Is Born loses a little something and like I mentioned I tweaked it for my own listening, but it still feels like a commendable follow-up to YHF. The first live album is great too. If I had to make a case for them being one of the great bands in rock, it would be based on those ten years.
― birdistheword, Saturday, 29 January 2022 20:54 (two years ago) link
i've always chuckled that being there ended up being able to fit on a single disc after all.
but yeah, it's really good — while it's playing. i still think about that transition point in "sunken treasure" at about the three minute mark ("i am so out of tune . . .") with a lot of reverence. but beyond that song, i don't really remember it unless it's playing.
― get shrunk by this funk. (Austin), Saturday, 29 January 2022 21:30 (two years ago) link
Summerteeth was the biggest jump imo
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Saturday, 29 January 2022 21:46 (two years ago) link
Wilco is Too earnest for my taste but I do like golden smogs note for note cover of glad and sorry
― calstars, Saturday, 29 January 2022 21:56 (two years ago) link
xp or their biggest transition? i think if you're following Tweedy from the Uncle Tupelo years, Being There is a sort of pinnacle for his alt country sound. I'd say the same for Jay and Trace
― Heez, Saturday, 29 January 2022 21:57 (two years ago) link
half of being there is excellent and the other half ranges from not my thing to dull
― ufo, Saturday, 29 January 2022 22:01 (two years ago) link
re same chords changes on Being There—yep totally. I don’t hate it though. kinda gives it a thematic Red-Headed Stranger bine
― concentrating on Rationality (the book) (will), Saturday, 29 January 2022 22:14 (two years ago) link
Being There (the prototypically erratic double album) is pretty clearly where everything goes widescreen. Power-pop, country, Grateful Dead, Big Star's "Third," etc. Then "Summerteeth" is where it goes Technicolor. "YHF" is where it all falls apart (by deconstructed design). "Ghost" is where even a great band can't quite make up for Tweedy shouldering all the songwriting in addition to a pill addiction. Everything after that is pretty clear-eyed and consistent, and often kind of safe, but there are plenty of weird detours to be found.
― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 29 January 2022 22:18 (two years ago) link
vibe* Xpost
― concentrating on Rationality (the book) (will), Saturday, 29 January 2022 22:20 (two years ago) link
(Speaking of Golden Smog's Faces cover, I literally only learned a week or two ago that "Bad Time" by the Jayhawks is actually a Grand Funk cover. I had no idea!)
― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 29 January 2022 22:21 (two years ago) link
idk I'm the boring dude who says exposure to Billy Bragg + Guthrie tightened them
― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 29 January 2022 22:21 (two years ago) link
Lotta fingers in that particular pie.
― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 29 January 2022 22:27 (two years ago) link
what i really miss from summerteeth/yhf is the power-pop influence, the tight pop hooks they used to have. it seems like bennett really helped push things in that direction, and then without him around tweedy's interests were firmly elsewhere after yhf.
― ufo, Sunday, 30 January 2022 10:00 (two years ago) link
Yeah, I miss that power pop element too. It's even there on Mermaid Avenue Vol. II:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQhk__Ti3pc
― birdistheword, Sunday, 30 January 2022 22:07 (two years ago) link
it's really just that the guitar on this record is so fucking amazing, every song's horizons are extended by some sick guitar part
― STOCK FIST-PUMPER BRAD (BradNelson), Monday, 31 January 2022 22:28 (two years ago) link
The power pop appeared to come back on the uptempo songs from The Whole Love (and perhaps on You Never Know) but I couldn't help wondering what Jay would have brought to them
It feels like Jeff has fallen back to writing every song in first position on the guitar which to me is making so much of his recent output sound so samey. He's clearly happier keeping vocal pitching fairly low and hushed too
― PaulTMA, Wednesday, 2 February 2022 01:12 (two years ago) link
Rather than retread old ground, these days I'd just be keen to hear someone come up with some more interesting (and lively) chord changes here and there
― PaulTMA, Wednesday, 2 February 2022 01:14 (two years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5tmVsUKCiY
this 8 minute "impossible germany" rules
― ufo, Wednesday, 2 February 2022 09:30 (two years ago) link
Just fired this up
― Legalize Suburban Benches (Raymond Cummings), Wednesday, 2 February 2022 22:57 (two years ago) link
So far: I can totally understand why the me of 2007 loathed this. It’s still not high in my overall Wilco estimation but after a long day of middle management it’s nice enough.
― Legalize Suburban Benches (Raymond Cummings), Wednesday, 2 February 2022 23:06 (two years ago) link
“Glass of white wine, middle-aged, home alone on a weeknight” Wilco
Otherwise known as Chillco
(I’m not making fun of it anymore than I’m making fun of myself at this age)
― Legalize Suburban Benches (Raymond Cummings), Wednesday, 2 February 2022 23:30 (two years ago) link
Oh right, “Leave Me” was always such a pretty song.
― Legalize Suburban Benches (Raymond Cummings), Wednesday, 2 February 2022 23:33 (two years ago) link
In conclusion: I’m in a mellower place with SBS but it’s still not The Wilco Album I Reach For Automatically.
― Legalize Suburban Benches (Raymond Cummings), Wednesday, 2 February 2022 23:42 (two years ago) link
i think Sky Blue Sky is vastly underrated. i felt it was an album that had Wilco hit their stride. i understand that is not like by most of their older fans but think it is their lost. it really has some of their more solid songs but most people just say that it's dad rock, so whatever.
― Bee OK, Wednesday, May 6, 2009 9:11 PM (twelve years ago)
i pretty much stand by that and i have been wanting to listen to this present day to see how i feel
good revival series for Wilco Brad, it has been fun to read #originalthread
― Bee OK, Thursday, 3 February 2022 05:12 (two years ago) link
i just remembered that years back when i worked at my college radio station we got the promo copy. i let my grad colleague hear it first because he'd been a bigger wilcohead and his immediate review was so lackluster that i'd never heard the album. what are the best YHF/AGIB type tracks?
― Western® with Bacon Flavor, Thursday, 3 February 2022 07:55 (two years ago) link
none of it really sounds much like yhf but none of it is too far from most of the mellower tracks on agib. just listen to "impossible germany"
― ufo, Thursday, 3 February 2022 08:08 (two years ago) link
it's not the most agib-like track (idk which is exactly) but it's the album's defining moment
― ufo, Thursday, 3 February 2022 08:15 (two years ago) link
Do they ever not play Impossible Germany outside of album shows?
― PaulTMA, Thursday, 3 February 2022 16:05 (two years ago) link
I don't know if this is their best record (probably Mermaid Avenue for me) but it's the only one I still listen to, and didn't get bored of.
This post was OTM
Oh man, why can't the whole album sound like the middle two minutes of 'You Are My Face'? Christ, why couldn't the whole of 'You Are My Face' sound like that?― G00blar, Monday, March 12, 2007 1:13 AM (fourteen years ago) bookmarkflaglink
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 3 February 2022 21:54 (two years ago) link
I'm not sure about more recently, but it did get played outside of album shows now and then. The band recently issued a box set of shows from the Capitol Theatre from 2014 where it was played.
― a superficial sheeb of intelligence (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Thursday, 3 February 2022 22:58 (two years ago) link
they haven't played it at every show ever since its release but it's pretty close
― ufo, Thursday, 3 February 2022 23:03 (two years ago) link
possible and likely at every show
― I know we will continue to be a power couple (Sufjan Grafton), Friday, 4 February 2022 02:01 (two years ago) link
I got the impression it has got to the stage where there'd be riots if they didn't
― PaulTMA, Friday, 4 February 2022 12:01 (two years ago) link