wilco

I think it’s poetry and magic, something too big to have a name…. Five More from Wilco

/ Tony / 2 Comments

Let’s get back to it and pick up the thread from my Five from Wilco (Part One) post a few months back. There I struggled to select five songs from their first ten years… now I’ve set myself up with the unenviable task of finding five tracks that cover the next nineteen years. Seems logical.

On the one hand is the fact that there’s eight albums to choose from in that era. On the other, there’s the fact that two of those –Star Wars and Schmilco seem slight and throw-away enough (though not devoid of good songs, more in comparison with the rest) that that kind brings it down to six. I’m not yet up to speed with 2023’s Cousins which brings it to five… so let’s get moderately mid-tempo rocking:

You Are My Face

Wilco’s first album since their now in-stone lineup coalesced during the A Ghost Is Born tour, Sky Blue Sky is one of my favourite of their albums. I’ve already ticked off a couple of the album’s highlights elsewhere so let’s get ‘You Are My Face’ the coverage it deserves.

You Never Know

Seven albums in seems an odd time to go the self-titled route. Then again they were savvy enough to add the parenthesis to Wilco (The Album) as well as ‘Wilco (The Song). Wilco feels like a deliberate lightening-up (underlined by the choice of a camel as a cover star) and less experimental in sound than the last couple of albums had been. ‘You Never Know’ feels like a joyous George Harrison pastiche.

Art of Almost

Then again… let’s get experimental once more. The Whole Love – the first on their own album – is another favourite and an edgy, dissonant builder of a song is always going to score highly with me.

Hold Me Anyway

In 2015/2016 Wilco released two albums. Star Wars – which was initially given away as a free download – and Schmilco were both born of the same recording sessions and felt like two sides of the same coin. One felt very much like a band trying anything and going wherever the muse took them and the other, Schmilco, with a throwaway title and artwork that belied its sombre nature. Star Wars – which has as much to do with George Lucas’ saga as the cat on its cover – was already geared up to be renamed Cease and Desist just in case. A happy by product of the odd title is that when that streaming service that fucks over artists decided to give that film’s soundtracks a special feature, Wilco’s album also got the fun progress bar:

Anywho, after all that they took a break and a bit of a hiatus. When they came back with 2019’s Ode To Joy they seemed to have regained the focus that was missing from the aforementioned albums. ‘Hold Me Anyway’ feels like a wonderful companion piece to Sky Blue Sky’s ‘Either Way’ and its just delicious.

Bird Without a Tail / Base of My Skull

On Cruel Country, Wilco went country… except not in the ‘return of the twang’ vibe many were expecting. It’s country, sure, but not like that. This is mostly-acoustic and more country-inspired folk than it is a return to A.M (phew). A quietly majestic album full of highlights, for me hearing ‘Bird Without a Tail / Base of My Skull’ unfold and the space it allows all members to weave around each other is as good as it gets.

We fell in love, in the key of C – Five from Wilco

/ Tony / 4 Comments

This is far from the first time that Wilco have cropped up here. Back in the early 2000s I’d started to get into this revered band from Chicago – picked up a couple of CDs based on enjoyment of the then-new A Ghost Is Born… but then I stopped listening to them. The reasons are lost in the mists of time. It’s unlikely a case that I wasn’t enjoying it, more likely that I was delving deep into a lot of music at the time and they got list in that mix. There’s also the scientifically proven fact that music hits you differently at different points in your life and if you’re not quite in the right zone it’ll bounce off like a space vehicle with misjudged re-entry angles.

Skip forward some years to the modern-ish day. A time before orange-coloured despots got their second term and decided to add a new line to the definition of ‘cluster-fuck’. Something got me listening again – suddenly the compact discs are replaced by wax circles with special editions of Sky Blue Sky and Summerteeth kicking off a real deep dive and gradual accumulation of their back catalogue as I realise I’ve been sleeping on a huge amount of quality music. It’s also a factor that my son seems to share this with me – initially inspired by the obvious Beatle influence.

Adored by critics and fans alike, Wilco have, to quote AllMusic, ” evolved from a rough-and-tumble alt-country act into a mature and eclectic indie rock ensemble, Wilco have become critical favorites and cult heroes on the back of a stylistically diverse body of songs.” Uncut – a magazine I’ll often flick through – regard them as an institution, and the “most artistically consistent and compelling narratives in music.”

Across a remarkable run of great albums, Wilco have continually delivered the good stuff. Each album moves forward, adapts, changes and finds gold in the process. So how on Earth do I whittle a now 31 year (and still going) career into five cuts?

I’m gonna cheat. I’m going to split this into two parts. Because, thankfully, there’s a clear marker in their career where the current line-up fell into place in 2004 in support of fifth album A Ghost Is Born. So, five from the first five….

Passenger Side

Wilco formed just days after the end of Tweedy’s former band Uncle Tupelo and work on AM began just over a month on from that band’s last concert with the same line-up, minus Jay Farrar. It’s fair to say that AM is the only Wilco album that’s close enough to that band’s sound to be truly labelled as ‘alt-country’. It’s a lot of fun, mind, with songs like ‘I Must Be High’ and ‘Casino Queen’ getting things off to a cracking start and ‘Passenger Side’ is a real stand out though

Misunderstood

For a moment it looked like Tweedy’s Wilco would be the weaker of the bands formed by the Uncle Tupelo split as Farrar’s Son Volt had gotten off to better start. Shortly after the recording of AM, though, Jay Bennett joined Wilco. Bennett would become Tweedy’s creative collaborator through the band’s next few albums and his guitar and – more importantly – keyboard work would expand the band’s sound palette. Being There is a monumental album, and it’s a double, that deliberately blows away any ‘alt-country’ tag and is a massive leap forward.

Shot In The Arm

Another evolution, Summerteeth, may not be as strong as Misunderstood – perhaps because of the substance-addiction and tension-related issues swirling around the band during its recording – but it’s a glorious, off-kilter pop-fused album whose Beatles and Brian Wilson style melodies hide a darker centre in the lyrics across another bloody strong album.

Poor Places

Choosing one song from one album is getting trickier and tricker. The band’s ‘Best Of’ gave Summerteeth and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot six songs apiece and yet… YHF is an album that’s another benchmark in the band’s history. A tumultuous period that would see members including Jay Bennett leave and their record label refuse to release the finished product nonetheless bore one of their most well-known records. Oddly enough, those six slots on Wilco: What’s Your 20? ignore, for me, some of the album’s finest, including ‘Poor Places.’

Spiders (Kidsmoke)

I will always love A Ghost Is Born. I love the fact that, whereas all their previous albums are so concisely put together, even when they go off on tangents, A Ghost Is Born is so deliberately unravelled. With a drastic change in personnel and Tweedy battling drug dependancy and mental health issues (he’d check into rehab just as the tour supporting it was due to start), A Ghost Is Born is the Wilco album that rewards more with repeated listenings.

Monday tunes: recovery mode

/ Tony / 1 Comment

It’s been a weird old couple of weeks. A long drive down to Cornwall – which I think is only ever a short drive from somewhere else in Cornwall – and back for work followed very quickly by the switch to BST knocked me a little for six.

As I sit here recovered and with a week to spare before I put myself through a similarly taxing schedule, albeit for pleasure this time , I thought I’d ease myself back into this (and before tackling the final two instalments of the Springsteen Least and Most series) and ask you to lend me your ears for a few tracks while I share a sampling of those tunes that have aided my return to sanity as much as the copious amounts of caffeine I’ve been mainlining.

Tess Parks – Somedays

Margaret Glaspy – Act Natural

There’s something satisfying about a good needle-drop in a film when the song is one you love and that’s the case with Tess Parks’ ‘Somedays’ which I was pleasantly surprised to hear pop up in ‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.’ It’s such a beautiful stroll feel of a tune. Margaret Glaspy’s 2023 album Echo the Diamond is definitely worth checking out – the New York based singer-songwriter came to my ears on a Wilco playlist somewhere or other as she’d previously toured with them. Speaking of Wilco..

Wilco – Handshake Drugs

The Beta Band – She’s the One

I’ve been on a real Wilco rediscovery kick lately, reabsorbing favourite albums – like the recently reissued A Ghost Is Born from which ‘Handshake Drugs’ hails – and spending time with those that I’ve missed. It’s been, and continues to be, a real pleasure especially as my son seems to be keen on them too helped by the fact that they wear their Fab Four influence on their sleeve.

The Beta Band are, hopefully, poised to enjoy a resurgence as they’ve rallied together again after their initial gentle collapse in 2004. Back with tour dates booked and a reissue campaign ready to go included their The Three E.P’s – yes, as referenced in ‘High Fidelity’.

Buffalo Tom – one of Boston’s many fine musical acts – are also in the process of reissuing many of their ’90s albums and, judging by their social media posts, it looks like Sleepy Eyed is about to be next as it hits its 30th anniversary this year.

Buffalo Tom – Sunday Night

Bruce Cockburn – Lovers in a Dangerous Time

It’s funny where you discover music isn’t it? ‘Lovers in a Dangerous Time’ came up as track one some ‘heardl’ challenge or another. I hadn’t heard it before, so I failed that one. But I did love the tune and have since been enjoying his 1984 album Stealing Fire of which a bulk of the material is inspired by his travels in Central America.

Something a little more up to date…

Lissie – Into The Great Wide Open

I don’t spend a lot of time watching television – well, streaming that it, that is. There are couple of other shows that aren’t called ‘Reacher’ that I’ve enjoyed recently and ‘Bad Monkey’ was pretty solid. Its soundtrack of Tom Petty covers (as it’s based in Florida) was an added bonus. ‘Into The Great Wide Open’ has never been one of my favourites yet Lissie – who also appeared in my other recent binge, ‘Loudermilk’ – does a great job of turning it into a regular spin.

Matt Berninger – Bonnet of Pins

The National’s front-man has a new solo album on the horizon and I’ve been pretty taken with ‘Bonney of Pins’, really enjoy the way this one builds into a frenzy (well, by the self-proclaimed ‘Sad Dads’ standard, at least) of sorts.

Thanks for sticking around, hope you found something to enjoy.

Tuesday afternoon, I’m just beginning to see… Tuesday tunes

/ Tony / Leave a comment

Another temporary interruption in Springsteen posting bought to you by the urge to share other things that have been worming into my ears lately.

Kim Deal – Nobody Loves You More

Kim Deal’s debut solo album – which is a pretty weird thing to be typing given the length of her career – continues to be a source of delight. There’s a wonderful sense of freeness to the songs that’s beautifully infections.

Smashing Pumpkins – Pentagrams

Also a weird thing to be typing in 2024… the new Smashing Pumpkins album has proven a regular spinner since the physical version arrived a few weeks back. While it’s not going to sit up there with them in terms of quality, it’s nice to hear the band creating guitar-heavy tunes in the style of their stellar ’90s output.

Wilco – Impossible Germany

Sky Blue Sky really is a wonderful album, isn’t it? I love how this song develops and takes flight.

Momma – Ohio All The Time

There’s something deliciously late ’90s / early ’00s soundtrack vibe about this that I adore. I caught this a while back and it’s gotten me hooked on the band since.

George Harrison – Isn’t It A Pity

Of all the things John Lennon regretted saying, “Is that a gun in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?” is probably not on the list. But I’d hope he regretted having consistently vetoed Harrison’s ‘Isn’t It A Pity’ after George put it forward in 1966. It’s that time of the year when I slowly rewatch ‘Get Back’ and each time it’s more a surprise that George didn’t leave sooner given how crappily Heroin John reacted to the songs he was bringing to the fold. Anyway, there’s not much better than this.