Wilco Binge

I'm currently entrenched in a Wilco binge that has awarded me with three findings of great consequence (to those of Wilco fandom, anyways).

The band's latest, Kicking Television, along with two unofficial releases, are occupying a great deal of my listening at the moment, and I'm just popping in the wonderful DVD of Sam Jones', "I Am Trying To Break Your Heart."

What about the "unofficial" releases, you ask? First up are the demos for the the Yankee Hotel Foxtrot album. The beauty of this release is the ability of the listener to examine the songs in a more traditional arrangement, along with exploring a handful of unreleased tracks that flesh out the sessions leading up to the recording of the album that many have come to know and love. I reccomend hunting this down online on the e.tree website. Gotta love two versions of "Not For The Season."

Another is a release that I was made privy to by an engineer some 3 years ago when the band played our own Foellinger Auditorium on October 27th, 2002. Incidentally, that same night I was introduced to the band by that same engineer. God bless that soul, who shall remain anonymous. You can look up the set list for that night on the Wilco Base website. It speaks for itself.

As for Kicking Television, it similar to the sets that the band played earlier this year (including the gig this past February at Foellinger, sans the encore). Star Course kicks ass. Anyway, the record is a solid document of the last year and a half of the band in it's latest incarnation. It's wonderful to see this band evolve and to hear the songs evolve along with them. It makes the tours fresh and not just a sing-along experience. All the same, I would have liked to have seen the band with Jay Bennett. I feel he's a catalyst for ideas that otherwise fall to the wayside from bandmates that may just defer to Tweedy, as opposed to presenting ideas that compliment his alt-pop sensibilities. When you give someone like Bennett a vested interest in the band, you can have a conduit for ideas that otherwise may not be discovered. Just my $.02. Stylus Magazine has an interesting take on A Ghost Is Born, as well.

At any rate, you should immediately go to Exile On Main St. Records at the One Main Plaza and buy this new record if you have any interest in the band, as there's no document as good at relating the band's sound as this. It's even on sale!

The Living Blue also have a gig tonight, and if you don't know who they are... you should also head to Exile ASAP.