I'm surprised he didn't talk about "I'm The Man Who Loves You". From what I've read/heard the song is about trying to write a love letter/song while suffering a migraine.

Might as well skip the article and buy this

What Tatsuma said.

I had the pleasure of seeing them perform live during their recent "winter residency" at the Riviera Theater in Chicago. It was one of the Top 5 shows I have ever attended. And believe me, I have a seen a great many incredible shows over the past 30-odd years.

Mr_Fabulous: What Tatsuma said.

I had the pleasure of seeing them perform live during their recent "winter residency" at the Riviera Theater in Chicago. It was one of the Top 5 shows I have ever attended. And believe me, I have a seen a great many incredible shows over the past 30-odd years.

I've downloaded all 5 shows and compressed them into one 702.3 MB zip file if you're interested. They sound awesome, except they lied. They claimed to play their entire catalog but NOT ONCE do they play Any Major Dude. Not once!

Saw the new haven show a couple of weeks ago. Unbelieveably good. Got a bunch of new respect for Nels Cline. The whole band is so musical -- there is nothing faked here. Brilliant show.

And Tweedy's acoustic sounded so good I decided I had to have one just like it. Custom Breedlove Jeff Tweedy model: $8500. Ooops! not for me thanks!

But what a great, great band Wilco is.

Lucky bastard can take Imitrex. I'm jealous.

Seriously though, THIS to everything Tweedy says. I still take narcotics because that is what works for me, but I am in total agreement with the difficulty that comes from pairing migraines with depression/anxiety.

I am sad that I forgot to ask him how he can have strobe lights during his rockshow when I met him. I'd be puking my guts out every single night.

Tweedy is one of the coolest classiest guys in all of show business.

amazing article. long but well worth the read.

"Any Major Dude" is a Steely Dan cover. Don't think it counts as part of their catalog.

I won't read the article, because although i love Wilco, I hate it when people explain art. I have absolutely no interest in hearing the story behind a song.

So what drug is it he takes that makes all his music put me to sleep?

Summerteeth is still my favorite Wilco album.


Take that, YHF!


"I'm a bomb regardless...."

mrEdude: I won't read the article, because although i love Wilco, I hate it when people explain art. I have absolutely no interest in hearing the story behind a song.

Don't worry about it, it's not like that. The entire article is meant to describe his mental/physical ailment, seemingly in an attempt to make people more aware of the condition many people have. It's really not like a dissection of each line of American Pie, or "the wall crumbling is repreasentative of our ever-deteriorating interpersonal relationships" or something stupid like that. It just explains how his physical condition affected some of the music.

If you're a fan of Tweedy and wonder what makes him tick, it's a pretty interesting read.

Gangway Fathead: Summerteeth is still my favorite Wilco album.


Take that, YHF!

YHF is probably their weakest album, except for maybe Ghost. I also love Summerteeth, but Being There makes me shudder with its greatness.

It's that deconstructionist production I don't like on YHF; (yes, the same thing the idiot record company dickheads objected to, I know, I know!). The versions of the same songs performed live on Kicking Television are much better I think. At least to my tastes.

The Dynamite Monkey: The versions of the same songs performed live on Kicking Television are much better I think. At least to my tastes

...and on the YHF demos I might add!

I adore YHF, but it's not my favorite of their albums. My least favorite is AGIB, partially because of Less Than You Think, which gives me (oddly enough) a headache. Feedback does that to a girl. But now I'm going to have to listen now that I know that the intent is to be headachey.

I LOVE Wilco, but I was really disappointed in their SNL appearance. I still haven't heard them sound better than on Austin City Limits...I love that episode

Not one mention of Sky Blue Sky here.....am I the only one who thinks it's their best?

priestrape: Not one mention of Sky Blue Sky here.....am I the only one who thinks it's their best?

I like it, and I especially like the spare, live, "out front" production, and the return of country and western melodies, but its a bit too mellow and jazzy overall to be my favorite... I like the way they shift from 0 to 60 and back again on Being There: "Misunderstood" to "Outtasite" to "Far, Far Away" to "Monday" to "Forget The Flowers" to "Red Eyed" to "I Got You". Incredible rack of diverse songs right there, and that is only on disc one.

Tweedy's singing is probably the best on SBS, very soulful.

I bought the special edition CD w/DVD, but I like the European version I downloaded (shhh!) better as it has "The Thanks I Get" on it. Somehow that one cut brightens up the whole thing for me.

The Dynamite Monkey: priestrape: Not one mention of Sky Blue Sky here.....am I the only one who thinks it's their best?

I like it, and I especially like the spare, live, "out front" production, and the return of country and western melodies, but its a bit too mellow and jazzy overall to be my favorite... I like the way they shift from 0 to 60 and back again on Being There: "Misunderstood" to "Outtasite" to "Far, Far Away" to "Monday" to "Forget The Flowers" to "Red Eyed" to "I Got You". Incredible rack of diverse songs right there, and that is only on disc one.

Tweedy's singing is probably the best on SBS, very soulful.

I bought the special edition CD w/DVD, but I like the European version I downloaded (shhh!) better as it has "The Thanks I Get" on it. Somehow that one cut brightens up the whole thing for me.

For me, it's been one of those rare albums that, initially, I didn't care for...but then it grew on me to the point where I just listened to it over and over again for a few weeks.

It seems that all of my favorite albums started out that way for me - something about them irks me, then I fall in love with it. I remember that it happened with Jeff Buckley's "Grace," too

bdhstprdgy: "Any Major Dude" is a Steely Dan cover. Don't think it counts as part of their catalog.

Still counts in my book. No different than any Guthrie song

I was a huge Uncle Tupelo fan, but Wilco, not so much. Summerteeth was okay. I much prefer the direction Jay Farrar went after UT with Son Volt.

Who ever knows about personal dynamics, but maybe, just maybe, Tweedy and Farrar can kiss and make up.

Weirdest thing.


I just don't like Wilco.


They sound good.
Their compositions are well thought out and sound good live and on record. Not a lot of dazzling hooks but very solid playing.
They also appear to me as a band of integrity. No image posturing or gimmicks.

I just don't like them.
Every time I hear them I forget to like them or something.
I honestly have difficulty remembering their songs.

If only they were a little more like Built To Spill maybe.

The only Wilco CD I own is that double disc live one.
The sound quality is unbelievable, the musicians great, the songwriting interesting [almost like it's own genre: pop/rock/country/prog]. To me, anyway, it's a great introduction. I haven't really listened to the second disc much... the first disc is great though.

"isn't it past your bedtime?" PWNED!!!

A.M. = yawn
1st Disc Being There = awesome
2nd Disc Being There = beyond yawn
Summerteeth = BEST album EVER by ANYONE
YHF = Awesome, but not as awesome as previous album
Ghost = meh
Sky Blue Sky = 1/2 great, 1/2 meh

Oh... and Wilco are 1000x better than Radiohead.

yay! a wilco thread! can't read the article now but i must make some time for it later. YHF, Ghost and Being There are all amazing.
SBS was decent but a little too safe IMO.

/favorite band
//have all their music
///second favorite is radiohead

My one beef with Sky Blue Sky...I swear I had already heard half the album on car commercials before it was even released. And I don't even watch much TV. I mean, Come on Wilco, at least let your fans become acquainted with the music before you sell it out.

Maybe the reason I don't like Wilco is there is nothing sublime about their music.

Wilco is honest and straight ahead and totally non-pretentious but
somehow that bores me.

I guess I fail.

Did anyone go to the Millenium Park show this year? Easily one of the BEST shows I have ever been to. Winter residency was excellent too.

What I love so much about Wilco is that every record they release is like it's coming from a different band, conceptually. It makes it really hard for me to pick an album I love more than the others, because it's almost like they are written in such different perspectives. This band is truly a band that keeps me interested all the time.

also, Tweedy is a DILF

Glenn Kotche gave me my first drumset lesson, so I'm getting a kick out of these replies.

/rimshot
//and a crash, too

craigdamage: I guess I fail.

No. Not every band speaks to every one. That's what's great about it. You're allowed to not like my favorite band. It'd be boring if we all liked the same thing.

However I will make one slight unusual suggestion: go see them live. They are quite brilliant and extremely musical -- all of those odd rhythms ans sonic moods are pulled off somehow. It might change your mind about them.

For instance, I was never a Nels Cline fan (as I loved Jay Bennett and Nels was too avant-garde jazzy for me) until I saw them live, and it changed my whole appreciation of Nels' playing -- he's actually one of my favorite guitarists now. He's got seemingly unlimited technique, yet his playing is very tasteful, and he does not shred where it is not called for.

A band I hated until I saw them: The Strokes. Still not my favorite but it definitely not hated any more. And I must know 50 people who hated Springsteen until they went to a show. Sometimes that works.

No "Venus Stopped the Train" at the residency either.

As a migraine sufferer myself, reading everything Tweedy said, and realizing that as bad as my migraines are, he got off about a thousand times worse, it kinda made me sick to my stomach. For me, it was kind of a hard read, but very worthwhile.

/bookmarked that Migraine Journal site thingy
//also just downloaded two Wilco albums, just because...

It was pretty clear from watching I Am Trying To Break Your Heart that Tweedy had a problem with the migraines.

If you've never watched that, do so. Interesting film on several different levels...

I read the comments. One thing that drives me nuts is the constant "have you tried..." Yes, yes I have tried whatever medicine, lifestyle change or voodoo you've suggested because they had an article in Parade last Sunday. Also, Topamax is the devil.

Tweedy behaved very well in IAMTBYH. If I was in that fight, I might have thrown up ON Jay Bennett. It's a risk one takes when starting stupid fights with people who are in the middle of a migraine.

clod9:
What I love so much about Wilco is that every record they release is like it's coming from a different band, conceptually. It makes it really hard for me to pick an album I love more than the others, because it's almost like they are written in such different perspectives. This band is truly a band that keeps me interested all the time.


Yeah, I'd go along wit all o' dat. Although, I'd like to see them start moving back towards the more rock and roll of AM and Being There sometimes. Don't get me wrong I love what they've been doing, I just like me some rock and roll. I Am Trying to Break Your Heart is a great documentary (or rockumentary if you will)during YHF. Didn't get a chance to catch the Winter Residency, but I did catch them last time they were down by neck of the woods. Did any one go to the Lounge Axe shows Tweedy did a few years back?

doschi: No "Venus Stopped the Train" at the residency either.

Oooh, that reminds me... I saw them back in Oct. or Nov., and they played "Cars Can't Escape". I damn near peed my pants I was so delighted.

Caught a 9:30 show, and was 5th row for Philly few weeks back. All I can say, is Nels Cline is one of the greatest touring guitarists. That man owns the show.

This guy is a broken record. Migranes and pills were the best thing to happen to this dude- he has something to whine about forever.

I looked at the link to migraine art on the right hand side and it made me sick to my stomach. I hate migraines.
This article was great though. I'm printing it to show to my doctor next time I go.

No Uncle Tupelo love here, huh? If you don't know them, check out Anodyne. Tweedy's sound is distinct in half the songs, Farrar's in the rest, all very good.

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pleaseleavemebe:

This guy is a broken record. Migranes and pills were the best thing to happen to this dude- he has something to whine about forever.


Yeah, and the Nazis were the best thing to happen to Anne Frank.