Wilco

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Greetings all and welcome to our first update of 2009. Man, we've got a lot to cover.

First, "Ashes of American Flags", the wilco concert film, had it's world premiere at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival last weekend and won the award for Best Cinematography. Congratulations to filmmakers Brendan Canty and Christoph Green, who were in Missoula for the event, and will be in San Francisco later today (Wednesday) for the screening at the Noise Pop Film Festival. For more info about future screenings, the April DVD release, or to see the trailer, click here.

The band's April tour (their only US dates of the spring) is up on the site now. Milwaukee, Bloomington IN and Athens OH presales are today (Wed.). The others are already on sale and several are very close to selling out. So if you're pondering seeing the band this spring... you better act fast or contemplate booking a trip to Spain. Otherwise, it's "see you in June".

The band are making major progress on the upcoming soon-to-be-titled LP. They've been hunkered down in the loft with Jim Scott and are just about ready to start mixing. We've got it on the calendar for release in June -- watch the site for further and more specific news in the next few weeks.

On the side project and miscellany fronts: Nels Cline has a new record out that's getting well-deserved great reviews. Check it here. Glenn Kotche performs with the Bang on a Can All Stars in Philadelphia (Kimmel Center) this weekend and New York (Alice Tully Hall @ Lincoln Center) next week. Info here. Mike Jorgensen's new group Pronto have a record coming out March 10. Two out of 3 of Jeff Tweedy's March solo shows are sold out. Some tickets for Beacon, NY benefit show for the Sloop Clearwater remain available here. The Bad Plus have a cool cover of Wilco's "Radio Cure" on their new release "For All I Care". Look for it. Our friend Dan Nadel has some great art books for sale at this site. We strongly recommend you pay him a visit. There's also another sale on at the Wilco store. Check out the deals here.

gotta run back to the studio. We hope to see you out there somewhere soon

the Wilco HQers
 
I saw a Jeff Tweedy solo show when I was in Chicago a few weeks ago, and he played a few new songs. It's hard to imagine them in their full form when it's just him and his acoustic guitar, but lyrically they were really tight. I'm seeing him again at the end of next month in Massachusetts.

There are a lot of interesting things going on with Wilco side projects right now, too, as the Wilco HQ email mentions. Nels Cline's new album is fabulous. I've gotten really into his work over the last year or so, and to my ears it's the best thing he's ever done. I'm looking forward to seeing Pronto open for Tweedy next month, and there's a chance I may head down to Philadelphia to see Glenn Kotche with Bang On A Can Saturday.

You can see how I've been passing the time between U2 albums :wink:
 
I've seen them four times (plus Tweedy solo twice), but I can firmly place the second time I saw them in October 2006 as one of the best shows I've ever been to. Top fiver for sure along with Sigur Ros, Radiohead, My Morning Jacket, and my first jaunt with Arcade Fire.
 
Great, now I'm going to have to be annoyed by seeing this thread all summer long. :wink:
 
Oh, A Ghost Is Born, you perplex me so. At Least That's What You Said, Muzzle Of Bees, Handshake Drugs, and Wishful Thinking (the segue between those last two is simply sublime) are probably all in my top 20 Wilco songs, and the album has great atmosphere, but they really did a number on the sequencing by placing Less Than You Think in the penultimate slot, surrounding it with all of the album's most frivolous tracks. That will never make sense to me. And I really don't think anything after Company In My Back is up to scratch. It's like they ran out of tracks to keep up the atmosphere and just placed whatever they had lying around at the end to fill up space.

Fuck, this album is so, so close to being one of my all-time favorites, and up until I'm A Wheel, it is my favorite Wilco album.
 
Oh, A Ghost Is Born, you perplex me so. At Least That's What You Said, Muzzle Of Bees, Handshake Drugs, and Wishful Thinking (the segue between those last two is simply sublime) are probably all in my top 20 Wilco songs, and the album has great atmosphere, but they really did a number on the sequencing by placing Less Than You Think in the penultimate slot, surrounding it with all of the album's most frivolous tracks. That will never make sense to me. And I really don't think anything after Company In My Back is up to scratch. It's like they ran out of tracks to keep up the atmosphere and just placed whatever they had lying around at the end to fill up space.

Fuck, this album is so, so close to being one of my all-time favorites, and up until I'm A Wheel, it is my favorite Wilco album.

I never thought of any of this like this before, but now that you've laid it out there like that, I think I agree with you, except that Less Than You Think just kills me, especially live. "Especially live" is something you can add to any thing nice said about any Wilco song.
 
A Ghost is Born is by FAR my favorite Wilco album. Probably in my top 5 this decade actually. :drool:
 
"Especially live" is something you can add to any thing nice said about any Wilco song.

Oh man, ain't this the truth. When I saw them, they played At Least That's What You Said, Muzzle Of Bees, and Handshake Drugs, and they all sent chills through my fucking body. Incredible live band.
 
My proposal for a book about A Ghost Is Born for the 33 1/3 series got rejected :grumpy:

I love The Late Greats, but it doesn't feel like it's on the right album. I used to really enjoy Theologians, but I sort of burned out on it. I'd rank AGIB in my top three Wilco albums, behind Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and Being There.

I finally got to hear them play Ashes of American Flags live last year. It was the first of the three shows in St. Louis, and I was front row in front of Nels, and I knew what it was as soon as they played the first few notes and was shocked. I'd requested it for every single Wilco show I'd gone to up to that point, and I couldn't believe they were actually playing it. It was sort of like Bad has been for me--on the set list and doesn't get played, or played the night before or after. It was so intense I completely forgot other people were there.
 
Thanks. I wasn't nearly as disappointed about it as I thought I'd be. I didn't think I'd be looking for a job this year when I sent in the proposal, so I think things worked out for the best. There's still one in the running for a book about Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, but I really hope they don't pick that one--I think a more recent Wilco album (even sometime down the line) will make for a more interesting read.
 
Hey, I really like Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. And, because I suck and am a walking cliche, it's the only Wilco album I've ever heard. Light my path. What should be my next Wilco album?

Edit to Add: The only Wilco song I know that isn't on YHF is called "Let's Not Get Carried Away"...they play it a lot on my fave radio station. Kickass song.
 
Wow, that was great. Thanks. Gorgeous little song and then the lead guitarist goes friggin nuts at the 4 minute mark.

A Ghost Is Born it is!
 
I recommend their live double disc, Kicking Television, because Wilco is brilliant live. It's got a nice mix of songs, mostly from YHF and A Ghost Is Born, and it's nice to hear how the current lineup performs those songs (Nels Cline and Pat Sansone joined the band right after AGIB was released). One of the colleges in my town is showing the DVD at their theatre next weekend, and I can't wait to see it.

If you're interested in more country-tinged rock, look for their first two albums, A.M. and Being There. Summerteeth has a very bubblegum pop feel to it in places, while A Ghost Is Born is in many ways a continuation of YHF, both thematically and musically, while Sky Blue Sky, their most recent album, has a more stripped-down, back-to-basics sound.

With Wilco, you really can't go wrong. I'm itching for them to announce the rest of their summer tour dates so I can start planning a road trip. I'm a little swamped with work right now, but I may be able to fix you up with a live recording or two at some point if you'd like.
 
Hey, I really like Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. And, because I suck and am a walking cliche, it's the only Wilco album I've ever heard. Light my path. What should be my next Wilco album?

Edit to Add: The only Wilco song I know that isn't on YHF is called "Let's Not Get Carried Away"...they play it a lot on my fave radio station. Kickass song.

I'd say go for the live album (Kicking Television), which has amazing versions of most songs from A Ghost Is Born. Summerteeth is a personal favorite as well.

Edit: BonoIsMyMuse beat me to it. But I totally agree, you can't go wrong with them, particularly the live stuff.
 
Wilco is probably the only band where I would agree with the suggestion of the live CD but it's true that any given Wilco song sounds exponentially better live than the original recording.

While I like a lot of the earlier songs better than the songs on A Ghost is Born as a whole, the current (and hopefully final) Wilco line-up is just so amazing that it's almost hard for me to go back and listen to early Wilco records with the old band. So, yeah, the live CD would be a great way to go.
 
Is Nels Cline the dude that ripped that nasty solo at the end of the Muzzle of Bees video that joyful posted?
 
Is Nels Cline the dude that ripped that nasty solo at the end of the Muzzle of Bees video that joyful posted?

Yes. Nels is incredible. It's funny I almost mentioned to make sure you watch the whole thing so you wouldn't miss his solos. Jeff Tweedy is a fine guitarist in his own right as well. The whole band is a joy to watch.
 
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