Wilco part deux

[joz]

thanks for the link, grotty...i pretty much agree with your list although i'd bump summerteeth up to 3, AGIB to 4 and AM down to 5.

[grotty]

Originally posted by joz:
  thanks for the link, grotty...i pretty much agree with your list although i'd bump summerteeth up to 3, AGIB to 4 and AM down to 5.

Yeah - those last 3 are really pretty close for me - it probably just depends on which Wilco phase I'm feeling like hearing.
 
 Everytime I hear Via Chicago though, Summerteeth shoots way up - then I pull it out & it always just sounds overall a little too cheerful - even though the lyrics are generally  far from happy.
 
 Thinking back - Via Chicago was a pretty good indicator of the Wilco to come: A BEAUTIFUL song that disolves into dissonance. Took some time to get used to, but now it's perfect. They pretty much used that template all over YHF - GREAT melodic songs hidden inside noisy beginnings & endings.

[joz]

good point, grotty...maybe that's why i love the new wilco so much.  songs like via chicago and misunderstood have always been my favorites.  don't get me wrong though, i can't help but love the beautiful, twangy country of songs like forget the flowers or do you remember the mountain bed.  i think it's great they can write/perform music with such versatility, even within one album; i mean, look at muzzle of bees and spiders...what a crazy juxtaposition of songs?

[ratioci nation]

finally bought it and i would say there are about 4 pretty good songs on it:
 
 At Least That's What You Said
 (the Neil Young impersonation 2 minutes in is the best thing on the album and I think is a more natural progression for them)
 
 Hell is Chrome
 Hummingbird
 Handshake Drugs (but they had already released this)
 
 and maybe The Late Greats
 
 Spiders(Kidsmoke) would probably be on this list if it was half as long, but as it is, I thought it was ending 8 minutes in and there were still 2 minutes left
 
 and no song ever better says don't listen to the last song than Less Than You Think

[grotty]

I predict Company In My Back will grow on you.
 
 At Least That's What You Said is my fav song also. It could be a Neil Young cover. Check out that live version above to really hear it smoke.
 
 Spiders/Kidsmoke is entirely different in its latest incarnation than what they were playing live during the earlier part of the year. I must have heard it before, but can't remember what it sounded like. Can't find it on Kazaa either. I've heard a few diehards saying that they think Wilco ruined one of their better songs & I've read where Tweedy gets pretty defensive saying "who are they [fans] to think that they know better than us what one of our songs should sound like?"

[ratioci nation]

Originally posted by grotty:
  I predict Company In My Back will grow on you.
 

not a bad song, I remember it being even better live, I will check out the live version of the Neil Young song, I will call it that from now on  

[ratioci nation]

and where is kicking television?
 
 is that an O'Rourke song?

[nkotb]

I was wondering the same thing.  I seem to remember it was listed as a track in some pre-release, pre-rehab press.
 
 

Originally posted by pollard:
  and where is kicking television?
 
 is that an O'Rourke song?

[joz]

i downloaded the album about 2 months ago and really disliked company in my back at first...i like it much better now than the first time i heard it.  
 
 kidsmoke sounded a bit different than the first time i heard it live (at the DAR show with Sonic Yoth).  i'll admit that they probably could have knocked off a minute or two but it doesn't grate on my nerves nearly as much as the noise at the end of less than you think, which is a beautiful song minus the noise.
 
 songs i would have liked to hear on this album:
 (1) kicking television - definitely...this song is fantastic live.  they played it at the Vic show.  bummer they didn't bust it out in dc.
 (2) cars can't escape - pretty amazing song. they had it streaming on their website a few weeks ago and were just "dusting it off". i have a copy of it if anyone's interested. maybe we can look forward to this one on the next album.
 (3) be not so fearful - i can't believe that wilco's never recorded this one.  it's an old bill fay song (the original blows me away...and to think that hardly anyone has heard of this guy; they sing it briefly before a gig (a capella i believe) in the documentary IATTBYH.  i heard loose fur do it live in brooklyn and it tore my heart out.
 
 
 that's my wilco geek-out for the day.

[joz]

btw...tweedy wrote kicking television (at least the lyrics).  i'm guessing o'rourke had some influence on the instrumentation.