I am very ignorant when it comes to music - modern music, anyway. I grew up on Simon and Garfunkel, The Beatles, Don Mclean, James Taylor, Bob Dylan, and whatever else my parents happened to like. For some reason I never really got around to listening to the music of the here and now. It was only recently that I started listening to Rufus Wainwright (who I absolutely love, now). My ignorance is appalling to some of my friends - one nearly had a stroke when I didn’t know who Coldplay and Snow Patrol were.
So anyway, this guy I know recommended in passing some band called Wilco. I’ve heard bits of their music and I think I’d like it, but feel like I need some kind of starting point. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. (And if you have any other recs for similar bands, please tell me about those, too.)
IMO, the most accessible album might be Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. “Heavy Metal Drummer” is nicely upbeat, while “I Am Trying to Break Your Heart” and “Ashes of American Flags” are more slow and emotional. It took a few listens-through for me to really catch on to the other songs, but now I find the album is one of my overall favorites.
A joyous mix of their selections, if you want to invest in a double album, is Kicking Television: Live in Chicago. I’ve heard most of these songs before but find I like the live versions as much or more in most cases.
Try AllMusic for reviews and samples of their songs.
Agree with Ferret Herder that Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is a good place to start, but if you’re looking for an album that has a few more powerful, poppy alt-country/rock songs, Summerteeth is also an album you definitely want to pick up.
While I think Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is the superior album, somedays I’m just in the mood for Summerteeth.
If you’re looking to check out a few songs from each before making your decision, I recommend:
“I’m Always in Love,” “Nothing’severgonnastandinmyway(again),” “ELT,” and “When You Wake Up Feeling Old” from Summerteeth
and
“Kamera,” “War on War,” “Jesus, etc.,” “Heavy Metal Drummer,” and “Pot Kettle Black” from Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.
Being There is probably Wilco’s most accessible album {with all due respect to Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, which I like but is more “experimental” and took longer to grow on me}, with good old-fashioned guitar-driven sloppy country rock that recalls the best of Neil Young, Mick Taylor-era Stones and 80’s tuneful alt-punk like the Replacements. A master class in songwriting.
If you like Wilco, actually - or even if you don’t - you could do much worse then check out the Replacements {or their main man Paul Westerberg} for superb country-punk songwriting and soulful tunes with a hard guitar edge: their last album, All Shook Down, is probably their most accessible, but any of their earlier, rawer stuff like Pleased To Meet Me is a fine mix of raucous glory and tender acoustic numbers.
I would suggest starting with Summerteeth, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, or their collaboration with Billy Bragg, Mermaid Ave Vol 1. If you like alt-country though, go with A.M or Being There. For all their experimental sounds in their latter albums, they did start as a pretty kick-ass alt-country band, and Jeff Tweedy was a member of the influential Uncle Tupelo prior to Wilco.
They sound fantastic live, so Kicking Television is also a great album to check out. I’ve seen them in concert 3 times now and jeff Tweedy once, and it’s always well worth it. They have a new album coming out early next year which is more about rock, and the songs and demos I’ve hears are very exciting.
My personal favorite album is A Ghost is Born. I think it’s brilliant from the first chord to the final note, but it’s not as accessible as Summerteeth, YHF, or Mermaid Avenue.
You said your a Beatles fan, so here’s the way I think of their albums, in terms of evolution. AM is a lot like With the Beatles or Please Please Me. The sound isn’t quite as sophisticated, but it gives you a good idea of where they’re coming from, and the albums are a great deal of fun. Being There is like A Hard Day’s Night or Help. It’s still a lot like there early stuff, but things are starting to evolve. Summerteeth is like the Rubber Soul or Revolver era. They’re taking more chances, and their pushing their own boundaries. Yankeet Hotel Foxtrot is like Sgt. Pepper’s. Their biggest risk/challenge to date, and their most experimental. As artists, they really mature with this album. A Ghost is Born is like The White Album. Brilliant for what it is, but people unfamiliar with the band may not recongize the brilliance.
If you like Wilco, check out Tweedy’s other bands. The recent Loose Fur album, Born Again in the USA is good and fun, and I love his work with Golden Smog. Weird Tales and Another Fine Day are brilliant, imho.
I think their most accessible music is Mermaid Ave. Vol 1. Just great pop/folk music.
My favorite straight Wilco album is Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. There are some very catchy songs on it. If you don’t like the ‘experimental’ part, it’s just the bridge between some great music. Personally, I think it all fits together brilliantly.
For those that don’t know, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot stems from Jeff Tweedy’s hobby as a shortwave radio listener. YHF itself is a ‘numbers’ station, which is a station on shortwave radio that just broadcasts seemingly random numbers. These are generally spy stations transmitting code. Tweedy’s concept for the album is basically someone tuning through the spectrum and coming across these ethereal songs. The space between the tracks contains the sounds of a radio tuning between stations, and the aforementioned computerized female voice repeating “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” in the background. Very cool.
I would also recommend Uncle Tupelo, Jeff Tweedy’s older band, which is THE alt country band (the band also featured Jay Farrar of Son Volt). There’s a retrospective CD that is excellent.
Jeff Tweedy is also in a all-star band called Golden Smog that recently put out a new CD. That band also features members of the Jayhawks and Iffy. I think Jeff is the only one not from the Twin Cities in that band.
YHF is their best album, but make sure to give it a few listens before drawing any conclusions. I wrote it off originally after a couple of “background listens”, but after I came back to it it finally revealed itself to me. Easily the best record of the aughts, so far.
Being There is their other desert island album, but they’re all good. In fact, their live album, Kicking Television, might be a good introduction.
And by the way, I’m going to see them this weekend at Tall Stacks in Cincinnati! (Along with Rhett Miller, MMW, Old Crow Medicine Show, Over the Rhine, and the Heartless Bastards, just to name the ones I’m a fan of.)
Yeah, it’s definitely a grower. I came to it from the relatively straightforward country rock of Being There, and was mostly bemused at first some nice tunes, but what’s with all the weird noises? It really needed a few listens before it started to unfold itself, but once it did I was hooked: there’s an awful lot going on in that album.
See, I think Summerteeth is their most accessible. It reminds me of the Beatles.
I actually like Mermaid Ave. Volume 1 more than any of the stuff they did on their own. If you like it, you should listen to Billy Bragg (who I admit to liking more than Wilco as well).
I second the Replacements recommendation! They’re such a great band. Just a nitpick: Pleased To Meet Me isn’t one of their earlier albums, it’s their fifth. I haven’t heard any of their earliest albums, so I don’t know what they sound like.
The album of theirs that I like best is Let It Be. They have three great albums in a row: Let it Be, Tim, and Pleased to Meet Me. I haven’t heard much of All Shook Down. Specific Replacements songs I’d recommend:
“I Will Dare”
“Androgynous”
“Unsatisfied”
“Answering Machine”
“Kiss Me On the Bus”
“Here Comes A Regular”
“Skyway”
Wow, I was going to recommend The Jayhawks too. A good place to look for their cds would be a store that cells used cds. I’ve seen quite a few Jayhawks cds at Half Price Books (don’t let that fact scare you away).
Raw. Much grittier than their later stuff. Hell, Hootenanny makes Pleased To Meet Me sound over-produced. Raw in a good way, though: Paul Westerberg was a primo songwriter from way back. Shit, where to start with the ‘Mats? There’s a great double CD best-of All For Nothing/Nothing For All which has some prime album cuts, but apart from the previously mentioned, check out “Talent Show”, “Left Of The Dial”, "Achin’ To Be", “I’ll Be You” and “Alex Chilton”. And of course “Cruella DeVille”. Damn, I almost wish I hadn’t heard 'em before: just to be able to discover all this great music for this first time…
