I confess…I jumped on to the Wilco bandwagon rather late. My first exposure to them was Mermaid Avenue, which was recorded with Billy Bragg.
Since then, though…I haven’t been able to get enough. I’ve bought Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Summer Teeth, and Being There, and all three kick serious ass.
Wilco strikes me as being a fairly unknown band, with a core of die-hard fans.
So…'fess up. Who else here likes Wilco?
I like Wilco.
I reeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaalllly like Wilco. I came to them in a roundabout way - I bought Being There when I was seventeen because of the ubiquitous “Outta Site (Outta Mind)” single that was being played on music TV, and liked maybe only two or three other songs on the album because the rest was, horror of horrors, country and folk music.
I returned to it when I bought Summerteeth (the first album I’d ever bought solely because of critical buzz) and realized how great it really was. Since then I’ve picked up Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and A.M. YHF is probably my favorite - it’s probably the most perfectly-paced album I’ve heard in a long time - though Summerteeth has some amazingly gorgeous, ambitious songs too.
Check out this other thread on alt-country music, where Wilco comes up a lot:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=224974
Big Wilco fan here as well. I first heard them on the Mermaid Avenue CD’s. Loved them, and when Yankee Hotel Foxtrot came out, I bought it and loved it too.
I must confess that some of their earlier stuff doesn’t do much to me. I like a handful of tracks off of “Being There” and “Summerteeth”, but overall I don’t like either album as much as YHF or the Mermaid Avenue sessions.
I saw a 20-second ad for them on TV one time so I downloaded a couple tracks. Liked what I heard so I bought YHF. I was real bummed out when ally my CDs were stolen in April and that was one of them.
:sigh:
I smashed a camera
I wanna know why
To my eye deciding
which lies i have been hiding
Which echoes belong
I’m counting on
a heart I know by heart
to walk me through this war
Memories distort
I listen to the song “California Stars” over and over and over…it’s hypnotic.
you should check out the documentary, “I am trying to break your heart,” available on DVD with some cool live perfs
Me!
If you like Wilco, take a look at the magazine No Depression.
The name ‘No Depression’ comes from an Uncle Tupelo song.
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is incredibly overrated. It’s not a bad album, but it really didn’t do anything for me.
I saw Wilco live in Toronto a few months ago.
The fellas had some serious endurance, they played through all of YHF (I think) and then a bunch of songs from Being There, Summer Teeth as well as some new stuff.
Great show, best I’d seen in a long while.
If you like Wilco you should go back to Uncle Tupelo where Jeff got his start.
My old girlfriend and I had a mutual obsession with Yankee Hotel Foxtrot back in the summer of 2002, when we spent two weeks in Turkey. I associate so many great memories with that album.
Watching my drunken girlfriend dance on a table in the nude back at the hotel to Heavy Metal Drummer, “playing Kiss covers beautiful and stoned,” and knocking the ashtray into my lap.
Renting a dusty jeep and driving out in to the sun scorched Turkish wilderness on search for ancient Roman ruins, with YHF blaring from a battered boombox held together with tape.
So maybe it’s because I associate YHF with such great memories, that I don’t think it’s overrated at all. It certanly hasn’t held up to repeated listenings as well as many other, lesser acclaimed albums from 2002. But still, it’s just a superb summery pop album that I can revisit every time I want, and relive days when everything was perfect and simple.
I can’t wait for their next album.
I think they’re fantastic. I’m a newcomer to their music who jumped on the YHF bandwagon when the internet controversy over YHF being dropped by their label was still raging. After reading about this situation on a few blogs, I made a point of downloading the tracks, made freely available by Wilco on their website, to see what all the fuss was about. I was immediately blown away by their pop sensibilities and couldn’t fathom the record label’s claims that it was too “experimental” or “avant-garde” for mainstream release. Utter hogwash.
So, in flagrant violation of RIAA claims that internet downloads destroy music sales, I rushed out to buy YHF when it finally received a proper CD release and, over the next couple of months, I purchased A.M., Being There and Summerteeth, all of which I thoroughly enjoy. I’ve recently branched out to albums by Uncle Tupelo, Son Volt and Minus 5’s Down With Wilco. In the near future I’d like to pick up Wilco’s collaboration with Billy Bragg on Mermaid Avenue Vols I and II. After this, I’m afraid I’m going to have to wait for some new releases :(.
Man, it’s a good thing that more great bands don’t release free music. I’d probably go broke.
Which is a cover of the Carter Family song. Which is actually a traditional American folk song.
I own both of these. In my opinion (even though this isn’t IMHO), Mermaid Avenue Vol I is better.
I agree that Vol I is better, but both are great CD’s. I think it’s my favorite work of Wilco’s (love “California Stars”), and it’s certainly my favorite work of Billy Bragg’s.
Am I the only one who thought this thread was about old Sierra adventure games?
Hodge: You don’t have to wait for a new Wilco release. Try picking up some of the CD’s by the other half of UT, Son Volt. Trace is excellent. Also, Jay Farrar (who was the SV frontman) has a couple of solo efforts out, the best is Sebastapol.