Wilco
Lately my new favorite band to listen to (just new to me, seeing as how they’ve been around since the mid90s) is Wilco. Matt started listening to them a few months ago, and instantly knew they were good, but it always takes me a while to warm up to new music, though once a do, watch out, because it’s all I’ll listen to. Wilco is a great band, the kind of group I would love to be a part of if I were a “band” kind of musician (despite my new attempts at bass playing, I don’t except to ever really fit in to that kind of environment). But the songwriter/lead singer Jeff Tweedy writes some amazingly interesting (and good) songs as well as the kind of voice i love hearing. I tried to describe the band to my sister a last week and I think it went something along the lines of (depending on the song) a mix between John Lennon, Bob Dylan, Radiohead, Beck, and the Rolling Stones. Who wouldn’t like that kind of combination?
They have a new album that came out yesterday (Sky Blue Sky) and I read a review of it that I think properly described the band better than I could have, something along the lines of “Americana” and non-radio format "rock and roll.” I’ve also heard them described as “alt country” which I have issues with because, aside from Johnny Cash, I loathe country music (sorry to all my friends who like country music, I've tried, but I just can't do it), but in all honesty I can see where that term might come from, but I think “Americana” sounds much better than “country”. And despite their lack of prominence in pop culture (due to their “non radio format” probably), they seem to have the respect of a lot of the music world (rightly so), especially because their style can really appeal to pretty much anyone… matt even mentioned to me that his mom asked about the band when she heard him listening to it.
So here are some of my fave picks of the moment (I’m still learning the music, so these will pretty much come off the albums I know well)
From Being There disc 1:
Far Far Away- a sweet song about leaving a loved one while going out on a road trip, also I like it because the chorus switches from 4/4 into a waltz rhythm which makes me think that matt and I could someday dance to this song (we’d just have to learn a 4 step pattern for the verses)
Outtasite/Outtamind- really catchy upbeat song. There’s a different arrangement of the same song on the second disc that sounds like the theme song for Sesame Street (I thought it was weird that I thought that, and then found out that matt shared that opinion, and then while reading reviews saw that one of the reviewers thought the same thing—great minds think alike I guess!)
Monday- I wouldn’t have been one bit surprised if someone told me that this was originally a Rolling Stones song, and was actually more surprised when I found out that it wasn’t
The whole rest of the album. The second disc is really good too, more mellow and pretty, but doesn’t necessarily have the “hooks” found on the first disc.
From Yankee Hotel Foxtrot: (there’s a really interesting story behind the creation/production of this disc that’s worth reading about… there’s also a documentary that matt and I watched a few weeks ago. That’s really what got me interested in the band. It’s always interesting to see the creative process while it’s happening. Sometimes I think “I could do that” and other times I think “wow, I would never think to come up with something like that”) Well all the songs are good, so I’ll just highlight a few of them
War on War: I totally love this song, even though the lyrics don’t kick in until about 1 min into the song and even when they do it just repeats “there’s a war on war” for about 8 bars before going into the rest of the song.
Jesus, etc.: This is a great song overall. I really love the line “you were right about the stars, each one is a setting sun.” It’s kind of a beautiful pessimism.
Heavy Metal Drummer: a good song to get started on Wilco, though most of their music isn’t like this. But it’s a really fun catchy song and has some great lines in it: “shiny, shiny pants and bleach blond hair” being my favorite (there’s something really fun about singing the word shiny twice in a row.) My other favorite line: “Classical music blasting, nice and ringing in my ears.”
So those are just a few of my starting suggestions. You can listen to them all (in their entirety) for free on their website (yay for free stuff on the internet!)
They have a new album that came out yesterday (Sky Blue Sky) and I read a review of it that I think properly described the band better than I could have, something along the lines of “Americana” and non-radio format "rock and roll.” I’ve also heard them described as “alt country” which I have issues with because, aside from Johnny Cash, I loathe country music (sorry to all my friends who like country music, I've tried, but I just can't do it), but in all honesty I can see where that term might come from, but I think “Americana” sounds much better than “country”. And despite their lack of prominence in pop culture (due to their “non radio format” probably), they seem to have the respect of a lot of the music world (rightly so), especially because their style can really appeal to pretty much anyone… matt even mentioned to me that his mom asked about the band when she heard him listening to it.
So here are some of my fave picks of the moment (I’m still learning the music, so these will pretty much come off the albums I know well)
From Being There disc 1:
Far Far Away- a sweet song about leaving a loved one while going out on a road trip, also I like it because the chorus switches from 4/4 into a waltz rhythm which makes me think that matt and I could someday dance to this song (we’d just have to learn a 4 step pattern for the verses)
Outtasite/Outtamind- really catchy upbeat song. There’s a different arrangement of the same song on the second disc that sounds like the theme song for Sesame Street (I thought it was weird that I thought that, and then found out that matt shared that opinion, and then while reading reviews saw that one of the reviewers thought the same thing—great minds think alike I guess!)
Monday- I wouldn’t have been one bit surprised if someone told me that this was originally a Rolling Stones song, and was actually more surprised when I found out that it wasn’t
The whole rest of the album. The second disc is really good too, more mellow and pretty, but doesn’t necessarily have the “hooks” found on the first disc.
From Yankee Hotel Foxtrot: (there’s a really interesting story behind the creation/production of this disc that’s worth reading about… there’s also a documentary that matt and I watched a few weeks ago. That’s really what got me interested in the band. It’s always interesting to see the creative process while it’s happening. Sometimes I think “I could do that” and other times I think “wow, I would never think to come up with something like that”) Well all the songs are good, so I’ll just highlight a few of them
War on War: I totally love this song, even though the lyrics don’t kick in until about 1 min into the song and even when they do it just repeats “there’s a war on war” for about 8 bars before going into the rest of the song.
Jesus, etc.: This is a great song overall. I really love the line “you were right about the stars, each one is a setting sun.” It’s kind of a beautiful pessimism.
Heavy Metal Drummer: a good song to get started on Wilco, though most of their music isn’t like this. But it’s a really fun catchy song and has some great lines in it: “shiny, shiny pants and bleach blond hair” being my favorite (there’s something really fun about singing the word shiny twice in a row.) My other favorite line: “Classical music blasting, nice and ringing in my ears.”
So those are just a few of my starting suggestions. You can listen to them all (in their entirety) for free on their website (yay for free stuff on the internet!)
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