Category: Wilco

I’ve previously mentioned how many of the CD singles sitting here in Villain Towers were picked up long after the time of their release via bargain bins or as cheap second-hand offerings.   Today’s offering is another example.

My first exposure to Wilco was through the album Being There, released in 1996.   The CD was given to me as a Christmas Present from Jacques the Kipper, presumably on the basis that it was an album he had enjoyed, and that he thought I’d like it too.  Then again, it might have been something he picked up on a whim or had received as a gift from someone else that had proved not to be his liking and he fobbed it off on me (only kidding…..he’s never do anything like that – he’s about the most honest and straight-up bloke I know!!!).  Looking back on the timeline, it might have been to give me an early heads-up on Mermaid Avenue, the upcoming project between Billy Bragg and Wilco in which previously unreleased songs by Woody Guthrie would be taken into the studio and recorded.

Either way, Being There didn’t really hold my attention for long, while the Wilco-led songs on Mermaid Avenue didn’t appeal as much as the ones on which Billy was at the forefront.  It happens, doesn’t it?   A critically acclaimed singer or band whom the optics suggest you will like just never measures up.

I did hand over 99p sometime in 1999 to buy Can’t Stand It, a single from Wilco that had been issued to support the release of the album Summerteeth.  It didn’ttty change my opinion of them, but on the basis that there may be a few regular readers who are fond of the band (as evidenced by the enthusiastic response to this ICA written by Jonny the Friendly Lawyer back in February 2020)  I thought I’d remind you of the single, which reached #67 in March 1999, along with the two songs that can be found on CD1 of what was a multi-formatted release.

mp3 : Wilco – Can’t Stand It
mp3 : Wilco – Student Loan Stereo
mp3 : Wilco – Tried And True

 

JC

A GUEST POSTING by JONNY THE FRIENDLY LAWYER

Our friend Hybrid Soc Prof recently posted two stellar ICAs, one featuring Son Volt (#207) and the other Uncle Tupelo (#211). You will have read from those literate missives that Uncle Tupelo had two principal songwriters, high school friends Jay Farrar and Jeff Tweedy, and that Farrar split and formed Son Volt, while Tweedy took the rest of the band and renamed it Wilco. A quick search shows that not too much has been written about Wilco here on TVV. This surprises me as the band have been making terrific records for the past 25 years!

There are actually a few Wilcos. There’s the alt-country band they started out as. Then came the indie-rock crusader version (which is ironic as Wilco has always been on a major label). Tweedy has had his confessional, introspective moments, too, as well as a guitar hero turn. The band briefly moved in an experimental direction when adventurous guitarist Nels Cline came aboard. Eventually, Wilco settled in and just kept on making good rock songs.

I’m not even going to attempt an erudite study in the style of HSP. Instead, mine’s a chronological survey ICA for the uninitiated. Just picking my favorites, which tend to be the up tempo rockier numbers. Curious to see whether the Wilco fans on this blessed site would have picked 10 different ones altogether.

1. Box Full of Letters. From A.M. (1995).

Wilco were very much still an alt-country act at this point, not too far removed from Uncle Tupelo. The album is full of pedal steel, dobro, fiddle and mandolin.

2. Outtasite (Outta Mind). From Being There (1996).

Wilco’s second LP was a double-album and most every song on it was a killer. A sort of Americana Exile on Main Street, if you will. Critics loved it, it sold well, and Wilco were on the map. By rights I should get to pick another song but, you know, the rules. (It would have been ‘Forget The Flowers.’)

3. Can’t Stand It. From Summerteeth (1999).

My personal favorite Wilco album. On the previous two Tweedy wrote all the songs. This time out he shared the writing credits with multi-instrumentalist Jay Bennett, who came on board for Being There. Don’t know if Bennett was the magic ingredient but the LP is superb. This tune as well as ‘I’m Always In Love,’ ‘She’s a Jar’, ‘ELT, ‘A Shot In the Arm’ are all winners. Synthesizers entering the mix now, while the fiddles and dobro are in the rear view mirror.

4. Heavy Metal Drummer. From Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2001).

This is probably everyone else’s favorite Wilco record. It’s their highest charting album, for what that’s worth. The band went through a record label nightmare over it and ended up dropped from Reprise. Tensions with Tweedy led to Bennett leaving the band, too. A lot of this stress was caught in a contemporaneous documentary about the band, I Am Trying To Break Your Heart.

5. I’m A Wheel. From A Ghost Is Born (2004).

Ghost was quite a departure from the earlier catalog. Tweedy flexed his lead guitar muscles for the first time, trying to emulate his heroes Richard Lloyd and Tom Verlaine of Television. The album featured longer songs, including a couple clocking in at over 10 minutes. If you’re new to the band this is not the place to start. If you already like them consider this a worthwhile headphones LP.

After Ghost Wilco released Sky Blue Sky (2007), the first album to feature Los Angeles hero Nels Cline. But I don’t really like that album so I’m skipping it. Sorry.

6. Wilco (the Song). From Wilco (The Album) (2009).

Somehow Tweedy and the band got over the weirdness of Ghost and the bummer that was Sky Blue Sky and made a fun record. It was recorded in New Zealand, so maybe that had something to do with it.

7. I Might. From The Whole Love (2011).

Another solid album that, like all its predecessors, made a lot of year-end best lists.

8. Random Name Generator. From Star Wars (2015).

A crowd favorite, lots of good YouTube videos of the band performing this one. I probably should have said earlier that Wilco are a great live act.

9. Someone To Lose. From Schmilco (2016).

The band sounds really comfortable by now, no doubt from having a stable lineup for over 10 years. Some of my favorite lyrics, too: “I keep it rolling/Considering no one/Punching a path/Facing the blast and the moon and the math/But you still never know where your soul is attached.” The LP title is a nod to Harry Nilsson’s Nilsson Schmilsson.

10. Everyone Hides. From Ode to Joy (2019).

Nothing new here, to be honest, but it’s become the classic Wilco sound. Smart lyrics, bouncy melody, interesting guitar work by Cline, pretty but unobtrusive keys, all supporting Tweedy’s good-natured midwestern voice.

Wilco are, in a word, solid. As mentioned, I prefer their livelier numbers but the band’s catalog has something for everyone: 4/4 rock, alt-country, ballads, experiments, love songs, party songs, anthems—with every sort of instrumentation along the way. Tweedy is seriously underrated as a lyricist and singer. I especially like that the band are all outstanding musicians but there’s never any showing off. Simply one of America’s best bands since before the millennium. If you get a chance to see them live don’t miss it.

Bonus Track: California Stars. From Mermaid Avenue (1998).

The story goes that folk legend Woody Guthrie’s daughter contacted our man Billy Bragg with a trove of her dad’s lyrics. Billy connected with Wilco about recording songs featuring the words set to new music, resulting in a number of records over the years. This track was co-written by Tweedy and Bennett.

JTFL