Saturday Spins: Wilco Schmilco

Christopher Bradley

Christopher is a lawyer from NEPA, aka, Pennsultucky, He is an avid baseball fan, audiophile, and dog owner. He spends the majority of his free time with his wife and daughters, reading, listening to music, watching baseball (except the Yankees) and writing.

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20 Responses

  1. Stillwater says:

    Ehh, “common sense” seems like an example of Tweedy and the band doing that space music thing they began experimenting with around the time of the Yankee Hotel Foxtrot album. (Maybe earlier?) I always account for those self-indulgent dissonant-noise moments by trying to figure out what particular mood they’re trying to create and settling into it. Whether I want to or not. I mean, I’m a Wilco fan afterall.

    Thanks for writing this. Wilco loves ya baby.

    Add: I’ve always wondered … did Jeff and Jay Farrar have a competing space music thing going on there which they both were inspired by, trying to outdo each other?Report

    • Read the autobiography! Jeff is real careful to not outright call Jay a lot of mean names.Report

      • Stillwater in reply to Christopher Bradley says:

        The only story I know from the Uncle Tupelo days, one where Jeff is (mildly!) critical of Jay is about Jeff emerging as a song writer. He wrote some songs, brought them into the studio for Jay to sing, and Jay tells bass-playing, non-singer Jeff “sing your own damn songs.” 🙂

        Adding: when you referred to Wilco as “dad rock” I immediately remembered a line from 30 Rock where a black woman, referring to an event she attended, said “there were more white people there than at a Wilco concert”.Report

  2. Slade the Leveller says:

    I have really good friends who are huge Wilco fans and they have tried and tried to get me interested, but, even after repeated listens, it just isn’t happening for me. The first 2 tracks of The Whole Love gave me real hope, but the rest of the album reverted back to mid-tempo dad rock (sorry!).

    Jeff Tweedy is a great guy (humble brag time – my band played at a block party he was at. When we were done, he and I talked about minor league baseball.), and he’s one of the best story tellers I’ve ever met. His book took me about a day to read. He’s that good. If he ever to decided to take the Henry Rollins tack, he’d clean up. I’ve just always felt like there was a sameness to his songs.

    Here’s a great take on one of there songs:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQvHzZ2bk2YReport

  3. Anne says:

    Thanks for exposing me to more Wilco. I’ve only really listened to them on Mermaid Avenue with Billy Bragg…listened to that one A LOTReport

    • Slade the Leveller in reply to Anne says:

      There’s a hilarious story about those sessions in Greg Kot’s Wilco book. Seems Billy Bragg was absolutely dumbfounded when work ground to a halt because the guys in the band were watching The Simpsons.Report