Slow States

This is Wilco, likely singing from the heart, a very good Nick Lowe cover.

And no, that post tile is not drunken nonsense — here’s a Stiff Records Tribute Band called I Love My Label playing “I Love My Label” at a San Francisco bar, apparently one that hasn’t yet installed lights. It’s really not that bad:

P.S. I swear this isn’t turning into a Wilco blog. Blame XM Radio — it’s Wilco Weekend on their The Spectrum channel.

What the hell is that? Pretty simply formula, actually: The unreliable but incredibly well performing Mustachio plugin for Chrome plus NPR’s album review and free stream of Wilco’s ‘The Whole Love’.

And this space? Patrick was telling the truth. We’ll get back to Mornin’ Joes next week, along with some album reviews (Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! returns from the dead, and AA Bondy is back), the Wilco project ramps with songs we actually like, and I’ll be damned if it isn’t Octoberfest season, of which I’m consuming with great delight.

We’re sorry for taking a month off, but other obligations just sort of came up. Chris and Kevin took over Black Shoe Diaries, which is the Blogfrica equivalent of what would have happened if Wyclef Jean had won the election in Haiti. And, while they were getting the party started over there, I was staging a hunger strike until Wilco announced a return to Des Moines. Now that things are in place at BSD and Wilco has announced their tour (12/4, Val Air Ballroom BOOM), we can get back to work.

And we start with this. Yes, it’s Jeff Tweedy, but he’s covering one of Graham Filler’s favorite bands, so I’m sure our resident Wilco curmudgeon won’t mind.

Welcome back to Slow States.

Please Don’t Feel Obligated To Listen To Wilco

I went to a Bob Dylan concert last year. Ol’ Bob is getting, well, old. Anyways, he garbled through about five minutes of something incomprehensible, jammed for awhile, and then fell asleep, snoring loudly for an hour. Not a great experience. Then I realized it was just a dream and the whole thing was actually a Wilco album.

I have a philosophy on why people may enjoy Wilco. Indi music wasn’t the monstrous beast it is now back in 2002, so when this non-pandering piece of understated American gritty “The Band”-esque music came out, it surprised a lot of people. “What is this intriguing band” they asked, “what is this dull, dreary sound they have created,” they asked.

I am not, contrary to Patrick Vint’s assertions, a hipster. I’m a lawyer who knows good and bad music when he hears it. I do kind of look like that guy though. Dammit.

Anyways, now that we have nuanced, awesome indi music that pulls us all the way from The National’s morose awesomeness to Band of Horses balladic genius to Arcade Fire’s ramshackle operatic epics…we know what good indi music is. But back then we didn’t, so Wilco filled a void. So now everyone can stop moping around with your coors light in dark bars and replaying “Jesus Etc.” thinking about your lost love…and go listen to real music.

I have a story about the Sky Blue Sky album…I heard a song called Hate It Here…I thought it was weird, I was experimenting, I decided to keep listening to it…so I added it to my Ipod, played it a few times, realized how barebones and uninteresting it was…and eventually hated it.

Stunning. And then Sky Blue Sky apparently sucks as a whole album.

Like seriously, I could see, maybe, just maybe, getting drunk in Bloomington, Illinois and hanging out in a nice dive bar next to a strip mall, and hearing, “Jesus Etc.” or even “I’m The Man Who Loves You”…and possibly feeling like yeah, this reads the mood right.

But that’s it.

Goddamn is Wilco boring. At best, it’s background music during the heartbreaking part of movies. But the goddamn generic nature of the music kills me. And the new stuff is more Jason Mraz than Radiohead.

I actually think Wilco would be a decent band if people didn’t slobber all over them. My expectations were raised. Hell, in honor of being the Wilco hater, I decided to listen to them all day. Unfortunately it was making my day bad so I switched to something I enjoyed..

I think people should do what they want in life. One professor at Miami (OH) always lectured about living your best life;  don’t be weighed down by expectations or what you think others want. So my fellow music lovers, don’t feel like you must like Wilco. You won’t lose your Indi Card for admitting it’s a boring band that sort of peaked years ago and has been surpassed by legions of better bands. Just move on to all the amazing music out there and explore the vast wild world of genius songwriters and brilliant front men. You’re going to thank me.

Let’s talk about a few songs by Wilco.

Handshake Drugs – This might be the worst song I’ve ever heard.  What part of this am I supposed to enjoy? I realize barebones is cool, but barebones without any pop sensibility is just a jam session.

Kamera – I would put this song on, assuming I was using it as background party music where no one actually had to listen to the song. Music is supposed to draw you in and inspire, not make you fall asleep.

War on War – Probably the best song I listened to all day and it was completely forgettable.

Jesus etc. – Ah, how understated, I get it, Wilco is always so fucking understated. I’ll bet they go to McDonalds and get their meals downsized and with less flavor. I’m getting a distinct emo country feel here and that’s not a compliment.

I’m The Man Who Loves You – WOW.  So now Wilco is doing their impression of Phoenix during a jam session. This sounds like Radiohead without any understanding of say, catchy or intriguing musical concepts. I also thought there was some Simon and Garfunkel here, but I’m not sure because I fell asleep during the song.

I’m Trying To Break Your Heart – I feel like I’m getting somewhere here. I feel like I learned something. Yup, Wilco is the American version of earlier Radiohead! Oh, but with less talent, less pop sensibility, less irony…

Raining on someone’s parade is never fun, but it’s necessary. I wanted to finish with a few thoughts…and then of course some song suggestions for when you toss out all those Wilco albums. I love music…and I really truly love the idea of “Indi” music. I love the idea that always ALWAYS, new music will be out there to discover, popular or barely known. But with this vast amount of great music that exists, more attention needs to be paid to band or artists that spark the imagination, that show you something new, whatever that may be. The latest Wilco CD is by far the most accessible of their work, but it’s “dad rock” blandness makes me unable to give it an extended listen. Why spend time on Jeff Tweedy’s Dylan Lite when I can be replaying Justin Vernon’s haunting, intriguingly grainy vocals?

To sum up:

Wilco: Background music for a Wes Anderson film. Way in the background.

Wilco: Something the limousine chauffer plays at low volume as we drive to the cemetery to bury my gramma.

BONUS FEATURE!

Here are some songs you should probably go listen to instead.

Bon Iver – For Emma (In Paris, live, I just am not sure it gets better than this.)

Jeff Buckley – Vancouver (His angriest song, and that’s saying something.)

Neutral Milk Hotel – Aeroplane Over The Sea (I know you’ve all heard it. I don’t care. This is how you make a record. This is provocative. And when he says, oh hell I’m getting emotional, I’ll just cut and paste…)

Now, how I remember you
How I would push my fingers through your mouth
To make those muscles move
That made your voice so smooth and sweet
And now we keep where we don’t know
All secrets sleep in winter clothes
With one you loved so long ago
Now he don’t even know his name

Jeff Mangum – I Love How You Love Me (Covering a Phil Spector girl band song from the 60’s and just killin’ it, killin’ it so good.)

Adam Haworth Stephens – Heights of Diamonds (Lead singer of Two Gallants, his solo album was too light for some, but man, this track will take you somewhere.)

Bright Eyes – Approximate Sunlight (Now that’s some haunting shit.)

Jens Lekman – Friday Night at the Drive In Bingo (Never heard anything like this, something I can say for most of Lekman’s stuff. Brilliant use of horns…)

The National – Slow Show (You want depressing? This is actually a love song, but they make anything sound depressing. Pay attention the drums at the end, very moving use of drums. Go listen to Conversation #16 also.)

High – CG (39) – Much to like here. A beautiful, reassuring song from father to child, complete with a Beatles-like transition into dreamland toward the end. Kevin hates it because he hates babies, and probably puppies and unicorns, too.

Low – KP (86) – The sound on this one throws me off. It’s too clangy at the beginning, too muddy at the end, and a total momentum buster right after a pretty traditional sounding rock song in “ELT”. I guess I should be thankful they didn’t go full-on noise machine at the end, so there’s that, but then again he probably realized there would be babies listening and he didn’t want to ruin their ear drums during a phase of important development. Oh, and unicorns suck.

72. In a Future Age (Summer)
PV – 42 | CG – 59 | KP – 87

High – PV (42) – I have no explanation. It’s nothing in particular that they did here, and it’s nothing in the words, but this just feels spacey and open and…yeah, a bit futuristic, and it’s done with just a piano and a little guitar. It floats over suburbia like it was written for The Postal Service, and it does it without bleeps and bloops. It’s impressive, really.

Low – KP (87) – I can see myself, in certain situations, actually really liking this song. But you know, when I’m listening to 93 of these things rating effort and art, the chugging-along train and random, probably drunk piano rambling doesn’t add up to more than the sum of its parts. Patrick will hate this, but it’s not far off from the same uninterrupted approach to lyrical structure as “I’ll Fight”.

71. Was I in Your Dreams (Being)
PV – 79 | CG – 66 | KP – 41

No embed available. Probably exists only in your dreams.

High – KP (41) – This is the second best intro of any Wilco song on our list, which is both undebatable fact and awesome. That alone is good enough for the ranking, but the lyrical tone of this one is extra points. The lyrics, though, are admiralty kind of weak, and that’s why this one sinks a little. But as far as “grab a girl and drunkenly sway with her” songs go, this one is right up there, and you know what, the world needs that kind of tune.

Low – PV (79) – The plodding rhythm of this one is my only real strike against this one. Well, that and the throwaway lyric “When a dreamer dies does his dreams die too?/Do you really mind if I dream about you?/I can’t say what any of that means”. Jeff Tweedy, he don’t know nothin’ ’bout my dreaming. “Was I in Your Dreams” is as forgettable as anything in the Wilco catalog.

70. War on War (YHF)
PV – 66 | CG – 41 | KP – 77

High – CG (41) – Pretty sure I hated this song for a few years, but it must have grown on me slightly. Honestly surprised to see it at #41. “You have to learn how to die if you want to be alive” is so painfully trite, but I’ve always had a thing for the piano in this one.

Low – KP (77) – There was a time during my many non-stop music indulgences during college when I be came all-consumed by the protest song, in which the songwriter is able to use art and usually their folksiness to compellingly talk about current events. The lyrics are usually simple and often straightforward but it’s also probably one of the hardest things to do in popular music. A lot of the best songwriters we’ve seen in recent times, even ones with dozens of well-known tracks, are resigned to committing to an honest cover because it’s hard to readdress the same handful of topics that have been getting recycled for the past 300 or so years — war, abuse of power, social injustice, class warfare and all the rest.

To me this whole thing always felt like a wanabe protest song that Tweedy didn’t have the guts to commit to. Instead, he does the 8x repeat of the “chorus” and then cops out with a bunch of abstract or, as Chris mentioned, trite lyrics. It’s not even that bad, musically, but I actually wish I would have dropped this one a little lower than 77.

69. Walken (SBS)
PV – 88 | CG – 78 | KP – 12

High – KP (12) – It’s not the same kind of song, but it pulls the same strings for me as “Was I In Your Dreams”. There’s a subtle reverb-type thing on the main vocal here I always really liked, kind of an ode to the low-fi age of everyone just kickin’ it in a big room, and it jives perfectly with the dirty guitar and fantastic steel. The middle break of this thing is something I could see myself really getting down to at a blues festival and that makes me feel very good inside.

Low – PV (88) – He’s walkin’ all by himself and talkin’ to himself and singin’ a song and thinkin’ about singin’ a song for you and then there’s some falsetto, and while all of that is really stupid, I don’t think that’s my problem with this song. My problem with this song is there are no transitions. There’s this bouncey part, and then there’s a jam session, and then there’s another bouncey part, and then there’s a bigger jam session (one that kicks ass, to be fair). It’s like Tweedy wrote a 20 second lyric and stretched it to four-and-a-half minutes by telling his band, “I’m going to repeat this a few times, and in between, give me the Trey Anastasio.”

68. What’s the World Got in Store (Being)
PV – 55 | CG – 49 | KP – 74

No embed available. Youtube remains incompatable with banjocore.

High – CG (49) – Hey, it’s only #49, I don’t need a full-throated defense here. The banjo-only intro and subsequent soaring vocal harmonies are rather perfect, as is the slight delay between the harmonies and Tweedy’s first verse vocals. The interloping organ sweetens the mood rather nicely, as well. Better than solid, less than spectacular.

Low – KP (74) – I don’t really feel like blasting this one, mostly because it doesn’t deserve it. It’s pretty easy to take most song lyrics and embarrass them — hell Patrick is making a living out of it on some of what I think are Wilco’s best efforts at upbeatness — but that’s kind of the nature of poetry. This one doesn’t particularly speak to me and I don’t find anything except the banjo very interesting.

67. Wishful Thinking (AGIB)
PV – 37 | CG – 89 | KP – 47

High – PV (37) – This isn’t fair, because Chris is right: On the album, it’s a brooding, rumbly Tweedy personality apology for like the 19th time. It’s just that this song kicks total ass live, and it kicks total ass on Kicking Television, and that clouds my judgment. Plus, I’m a sucker for that “Take off your dress/An embarrassing poem/Was written when I was alone/In love with you” line for some reason.

Mid – KP (47) – Another top five lyrics, the title line here in “Cause what would love be without wishful thinking”. I don’t take Chris’s interpretation, to me it’s more a realization about a only half-worthwhile relationship and all the nostalgia that goes along with evaluating those in hindsight. Tweedy will occasionally boil loaded situations like that down into a line or two and that’s part of what makes him often very good at his job.

Low – CG (89) – Seriously, guys? This is an automatic skip, every single time. Variation #38 of the “you’re so wonderful for loving a troubled man” song, and the melodies don’t save it. Blech. Pass.

66. On and On and On (SBS)
PV – 50 | CG – 74 | KP – 49

High – KP (49) – The song so great they named it twice (and a half)! There’s a desperation in this one that is compelling for whatever reason. I’m not sure I’ve ever tried to take all the lyrics in at once, so thanks, Chris, for the downer.

Low – CG (74) – I could be going a bit rough on this one. It’s not a bad song, it’s just unpleasant. “Please don’t cry, we’re designed to die” is a knife to the heart every time I hear it. That doesn’t make it bad, but it gives some insight to my criteria for ranking these songs.

65. I Got You (at the End of the Century) (Being)
PV – 75 | CG – 25 | KP – 70

In lieu of the audio, I am including this live clip of “I Got You” from a ski lodge, which is either the most ironic Wilco show of all time or Ashton Kutcher’s greatest work to date.

High – CG (25) – Okay, lyrically, it’s nothing. I’m guessing that’ll be the main complaint below, and it’s totally valid. But I’m a music and melody guy, not a poet, and as straightforward concert rockers go, this is a very good one. It has all the elements, droned-out harmonies, a funky bridge, and a false finish.

Low – PV (75) – Lyrically, it’s nothing. Also, I’m a total hypocrite, because this song also kicks ass live and yet I have it way down the list when I gave “Wishful Thinking” the benefit of the doubt.

64. Should’ve Been in Love (AM)
PV – 83 | CG – 54 | KP – 31

Live clip on the audio, but as good as it gets for 1995.

High – KP (31) – So the high/low on these AMs is getting a little predictable, isn’t it? For me, this is the theme song of all the good looking girls in college you never go up and talk to. Because I never did that. And Tweedy avoids the emo approach to this and takes a more classically romanic one, and the song is a worthwhile mp3 to have in your first generation iPod when life seems like it could shoot in 1,000 different directions with every minor decision you make (this is also known as “college”).

Low – PV (83) – I think this comes from the fact that I’m not nearly the A.M. fan that my comrades are, but I have this way underrated…wait, did he just rhyme “stinking” three times in the course of one song? Does the music really never get out of second gear? Nevermind, I was right. This song is crap.

Official site. Hype Machine. More tracks.

For those of you who didn’t listen to the podcast, there was a brief discussion of how each of us first found Wilco. My first encounter with Wilco was through the demos to Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, which is certainly an odd way to first find a band.

Then again, there was little that wasn’t odd about YHF. After the countryfied rock of A.M. and Being There, Wilco made a sharp right turn toward noisy pop music with 1999′s Summerteeth. It was the band’s first sustained foray away from their alt-country beginnings, not to mention their first album on a major label (Warner Bros. had picked the band up following Being There). It was also, at least by Wilco’s standards, immensely popular. The band entered their Chicago loft to record the follow-up in late 2000 with little instruction or oversight from the label.

The result were the Yankee Hotel Foxtrot demos, now available for download at Captain’s Dead. I’ll leave the discussion of song disintegration and Radiohead comparisons for later posts, but the YHF demos are in many ways the bridge between Summerteeth‘s pop and the proper Yankee Hotel Foxtrot‘s experimentation. Only seven of the fourteen new tracks from the demos — there are seven instrumental tracks and alternate versions of prior songs at the end — made the final album, and while some of those songs are very high on our list of Wilco’s best, it’s the tracks that didn’t make it that are the gems here. “Alone” acts as a natural sequel to “How to Fight Loneliness” with its bouncey pop juxtaposed against lyrics like “Take a shower/Take another nap/Watch some television/Taking a bath”. “Nothing Up My Sleeve” is as close to a blow-off track as Wilco’s ever done. “Venus Stop the Train” floats so slowly and laments so openly to fall right in my wheelhouse. I still have no idea how “Magazine Called Sunset” and “Not for the Season” (which now makes frequent concert cameos as “Laminated Cat”) were left on the cutting room floor a year later. And the sad, drunken dirge of “Rhythm/Cars Can’t Escape” (“There were reasons for you to love me/But I gave you none/So I tap my glass and nod my chin and wonder who you’ve been in rhythm with”) is unquestionably my favorite Tweedy lyric, from this album or any other.

This isn’t to say that the familiar YHF tracks aren’t worth a listen. Some, like “Ashes of American Flags” and “I am Trying to Break Your Heart” survived largely unscathed. Most were completely reimagined before making the proper album. “I’m the Man Who Loves You” chugs along like a jalopy this time, “Kamera” replaces Glenn Kotche’s smooth backing snare from the formal album with drums that break like waves (I don’t know if Kotche or Ken Coomer was on drums during the demo, though I believe it’s the former), and “Poor Places” went from a little piano-driven diddy on the demos to some sort of spacy mind trip with half the words missing on YHF proper.

The story of what happened after the demos, of course, is legend: Jeff Tweedy and Jay Bennett, who had written virtually all of Wilco’s material through the album, clashed frequently over basically all of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Eventually, the demos were remixed and sent to Warner Bros. Tweedy, assuming the album was done, fired Bennett. Warner Bros., which had just merged with AOL and was in the process of reducing its music division, hated the album and refused to release it. The band took their album and left, and eventually began streaming the album for free on its web site (the initial planned release date was September 11, 2001, though I have no idea what that coincidence would have done for “Ashes of American Flags”). The web traffic and buzz surrounding the album started a bidding war between smaller labels, eventually won in the most ironic of fashions by Warner Bros.-controlled Nonesuch Records. Yes, Tweedy had made WB pay to make the album, taken the album from them for free, and then sold it back.

The mythology eventually completely outstripped the album itself, which is a bit of a shame as the album is a masterpiece. The demos, with none of the fanfare and all of the rawness of, well, a demo album, is its equal in many ways. More importantly, it’s a snapshot of Wilco at a time of great transition, and an insight into what we eventually heard. It’s interesting, and it’s beautiful, and it’s free, so go get it.