Wilco
So tonight I decided to let the iTunes just ramble. Picked a band and let it roll me into the evening times. The band I chose was Wilco. They’ve been a huge favorite of mine for years but I don’t think I’ve sat down and listened to the entirety of their tasty jams all the way through. Well tonight’s Sunday night and I don’t have much else to do so I said, “ok 4 hours or so of Wilco, yeah let’s do this.”
First hour in, I really think that iTunes gets a sense of what you like to listen to and just sticks with that. All the time. I mean I know you all bitch at your iTunes because “they just played that song 30 minutes ago!” Well most of that shit for me was Wilco. I guess I unconsciously listen to their shit all the time. Anyway, I’m getting all the good old jams like “Pieholden Suite.” A slow almost sultry love song of a love gone bad. Real bad. But the great thing about this song is how it croons you into the middle of the song and then the guitars and piano just break out crushing you into a final two minutes of a real good rock song.
Ok let’s talk about their latest album Sky Blue Sky. A lot of people have a lot of things to say about this album. I mean Wilco has basically become an underground smash hit gone big. They have a lot to live up to. Albums like Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and A Ghost is Born were very big albums. They brought in a LOT of mainstream fans into a band when those albums came out. Expectations were high. When I listened all the way through I’ll have to admit, I wasn’t sold. But then I gave it a second listen and started to really see the gems. ”Side with the Seeds” is an amazing song. Plain and simple I love to listen to the song and hear Nels Cline absolutely destroy the guitar for two sick solos. Really don’t understand the song but you dont have to when you get to listen to that.
About two hours in now. Really digging into the good stuff. And I’m realizing it’s mostly songs from A Ghost Is Born. This album came out right when I heard of them. A friend recommended them and they were supposed to be “The next huge thing”. Well she sold me a Lexus and I went out and bought the album. <Yes, I actually bought the album- big for me>. I popped it in and let it roll for a long roadtrip I had to make that week. I gotta tell you it didn’t take long for me to be completely sold. ”Wishful Thinking,” I think is the song that did me in. What a slow, well-paced song. Sometimes bands think they need to throw a bunch of shit at you all the time to make a good song. Just not true. Just get the parts right. Know when you need to break the song up, change paces, melodies and just let it roll when it needs to roll.
And finally, don’t really know how long it’s been. A while I would guess. The live shit. They are a live band. Usually while recording they sit there and play each of their songs live. They don’t break up the parts and put them together later. Basically it’s Click- Record- Play Play Play- Stop. As a band they shine when they get to be on stage and blast their songs. They play them all the time and so well that when they want to just jam out, they do. Sometimes for 12 minute songs like “Spiders (Kidsmoke).” I play this song, twelve minutes passes, song changes and I’m just like “shit, keep going I want more.”
Well, that’s all I’ve got. Time to get some sleep. Mooooonday’s a comin’ people. Look ouuuuut.
