Wilco fans are weird; they like to make music videos and create polls.
Man, has it been a week already? I’ve been so busy finding weird Wilco-related things on the internet, I hadn’t noticed. I also bought a glow-in-the-dark Wilco yo-yo, just in case you’re curious. Anyway, there was no real clear winner of last week’s poll, “What’s Your Favorite Live Performance of a Wilco song?” which is not a bad thing. There were a few great write-in answers, citing performances like “Spiders (Greek Theater, Los Angeles Ghost is Born Tour))” and “Impossible Germany from Summerfest 2005, Milwaukee, WI” as favorite live moments from Wilco. That’s awesome; most of the greatest musical performances are not on YouTube (every time you say that, a wannabe hipster drops his neon-red Ray-Bans in the sewer next to the thrift shop).
The last few polls have been strictly “What’s Your Favorite Thing Wilco Did”- type questions, so this week I thought I’d try something a little different. Here are some music videos made by Wilco fans. For amateur videos, they’re all shockingly good. It would be a bit ridiculous to expect fan videos to be on-par with the Power-Rangers-esque (did I just coin a phrase?) official Outtasite (Outta Mind) rocking-while-skydiving video by the band, (which you can watch here – WARNING – Do Not Watch If You Are the Type of Person Who Gets Sentimental about the 90′s), but they’re all damn good.
However, this wouldn’t be America if we didn’t pick and choose our favorite things and send the things we don’t like tumbling down the wayside. Vote below!
I also should note that if anyone has made a video that they would like considered for this poll, send them to Wilco News on Twitter: @WilcoNews.
(*Just learned a very valuable lesson about putting your email address on a website: don’t do it. Otherwise you’ll get bombarded with emails from people pretending to be 22 year old European women who need exactly $9300 to further their studies. Don’t do it.)
Jeff Tweedy just saw what you were thinking...and he liked it.
If you type in “Wilco” on your favorite search engine, you’re going to find a lot of information: Tour dates, information on their new album The Whole Love, information on Solid Sound Fest, downloads and….wait. You can find all of that right here! What you can’t find, however, are the weird, interesting Wilco-themed things around the internet that only a dude with unlimited time on his hands could find. Well, now you’re in luck! I killed that guy, assumed his identity and stole his links. Here is a bunch of (as Dana Carvey as Johnny Carson would put it) Weird Wild Schtuff from around the internet, related to Wilco. Some are strange, some are confusing, some will shake you to the very core of your being. Others will make you say “meh.” Anyway, without further rambling, here is some Weird Wilco Schtuff.
First up is something some of you may have already seen, and others of you may have already tried:
I can't decide if this is ominous or homage-y
Yep. That’s exactly what it looks like: Wilco beer. Though Lagunitas, the brewing company, claims that Tweedy, Cline and the gang wasn’t the inspiration for Wilco Tango Foxtrot, I think I speak for all Wilco fans when I say (the sarcasm flowing heavily), “Yeah, OK.”
Reviews for the ale have been surprisingly positive (B+ from Beer Advocate, the only magazine I’d trust to review my hops and barley), especially from a few Wilco NewsTwitter followers:
“Very, very good. Had a few pints on tap and the bottle as well” -@TheManOfSeal
“It’s very good! I picked up a bottle this past weekend.” -@alexhansonman
So if “Wilco Tango Foxtrot Ale” is not a reference to Wilco or their now-classic Yankee Hotel Foxtrot album, what would be? “Beering There”? “Wilco (the ale)”? “What Light (beer)?”
If anyone has any further horrible Wilco beer puns, send them to @WilcoNews on Twitter, and hashtag it #Wilcobeernames. Or you can leave a comment. Either way (see what I did there?).
Naming sandwiches after Wilco songs; that's not so much weird as it is awesome.
The Sky Blue Sky Sandwich Company (openly referencing Sky Blue Sky; say what you will about Canadians – at least they’re honest) aptly names each if its food items after Wilco songs. I know what you’re thinking. “Does this mean that if I order the Less Than You Think I’ll have to listen to ten minutes of guitar feedback?” I would assume not, though I’ve never eaten at the place. You can, however, experience Outtasite (Outta Mind) and She’s A Jar in a way that you (probably) never have: with a pickle.
"How To Fight Loneliness" consists of contains slices of chicken, apple and bacon all on "toasty naan-like bread."
Has this piqued your curiosity? It’s definitely piqued mine-though I am a sucker for rock n’ roll-themed food. You can check their menu out here for the latest on Wilco-titled sandwiches from One Wing to Hoodoo Voodoo. As if you needed another reason to envy Canada. I will say this though. I haven’t been able to stop thinking of other Wilco sandwich names. I know you didn’t ask to hear them, but here they are:
Muzzle of Bees
Honeycomb cereal, bananas and salami all on cold Honey Wheat bread with honey mustard
Sunken Treasure
“It’s like eating a pirate!” Fried starfish, seaweed and pastrami on a pan-fried pair of boxer shorts with honey mustard
Candy Floss
Candy. Floss. Honey mustard.
That name again is Mr. Plow. Er-ah- Sky Blue Sky.
Naming Wilco sandwiches. Is that a career I could corner jump in on? I could do that all day. Though in the interest of your sanity and mine, I won’t. We’ve got to press on to other weird business. I mean that literally; this next guy’s name is Jake Weird:
Tweedy. Gyllenhall. Do I smell a cage match?
Jake has a thing for comparing Jeff Tweedy to actors, apparently. In one post he put up a bunch of pictures comparing the Wilco frontman to Jake Gyllenhall (pictured right), and in a more recent post, compared Tweedy to Emile Hirsch.
I’m not going to speak for everyone when I say this, but I don’t think I’m alone in saying, “Ah. You lost me.” For those of Tweed-Hirsch-llynhall heads who agree with Mr. Weird, check out his site here.
Mr. Tweedy’s all about the diet slush drinks.
Say the first name that pops into your head when you read the following combination of words: “Diet Coke” “Slurpee” “Folk Fest.” If you said “Nelson Mandela,” you’d be wrong. The name that you should have thought of was Jeff Tweedy.
An excerpt from SwerveCalgary.com tells the gripping (kinda) tale of one Folk Fest Volunteer’s at-first disappointing meeting with Wilco’s frontman, while revealing a ‘s strange, possibly short-fused side of Tweedy that many of us would not think exists.
Linden, can you go get Jeff Tweedy?’ ” The request marked Linden Ritchie’s first gig as a ground-transportation volunteer, a coveted position the musician/waste-management consultant says he begged for. “I’m like Forrest Gump,” says Ritchie. “I’ve met some pretty incredible people in my life, and I like that this role is where the common person meets with fame.” So, did his heart skip a beat when Wilco’s front man climbed into his van? “No. I’d never heard of him and anyway, he wasn’t friendly. He sat in the back and focused on his Blackberry for the entire 10-minute ride from his hotel to the Island.” When Ritchie turned on the radio, he says Tweedy glared at him and barked ‘Turn that down!’ “I wasn’t too impressed.”
Weird, right? It gets a bit weirder. Check here for the full story.
Uh-oh. Did you hear that? That sound means it’s time for the lightning round!
This article from Jew Eat Yet? (which gets my full and undying respect if only for the name) from Danny Miller, brother-in-law of Jeff Tweedy, is a very sweet recount of Tweedy’s 40th birthday in 2007.
This is a sweet video of Glenn Kotche composing Drum-kit quartets:
This is a story on Marina City in Chicago, the towers on the cover of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. The AV Club also did a great piece on the “Wilco towers,” as they are now more commonly known.
This is a chat room for fans of Wilco. You know, like in case you time travel back to 1997 and are 12 years old.
This isn’t Wilco (the band) at all! Definitely signed up for the wrong mailing list. On the plus side, I’ve now got enough pop rivets to sink a battleship.
This is a glow-in-the-dark Wilco yo-yo! Yes, you read that correctly.
Finally, to end this week in weird, strange and interesting Wilco News, here are some rejected covers for Wilco’s last full-length album, Wilco (the album). I tried to pick and choose the best and least disturbing ones, but if you’d like to see them all (at your own risk) check out The Hidden Track.
Via Glide Magazine’s The Hidden Track:
Man, that was a lot of stuff! Weirded out enough? If not, check out some odd yet awesome covers of songs by and of Wilco.
And if you haven’t pre-orderedThe Whole Love yet, what’samadda you?
The day of judgement is finally here... because I just spent my last 40 bucks.
Woah. I knew something important was happening today. Was it the Obama/Boehner debate? No, definitely not. Was it the end of the NFL lock-out? Nope, that was yesterday. The moon landing? No, that was 40 years ago.
Actually, today is arguably much more important than all those events combined: Today, July 26th, is the fist official pre-order date for The Whole Love!
I already know the answer to your question; yes, it glows in the dark.
For those of you who are out of the loop, The Whole Love is Wilco’s forthcoming eighth (or ninth, depending on your appreciation of live albums) full-length album, set for a September 27th release.
You can pre-order the album here, in addition to many other goodies and odds-and-ends in bundles. The album is available in 180 gram double gatefold vinyl, cd, deluxe cd box & digital.
For anyone hmm-ing and haw-ing about pre-ordering the album, I have seven words for you, six of which are hyphenated: “Glow-in-the-dark Wilco yo-yo.” Did that get your attention? It should have.
This is a beautiful image to wake up seeing in the morning.
In addition to the album, pre-orderers will also get:
a free Mp3 download of the entire album on release day (September 27)
entry to weekly drawings (including signed albums, a completely restored 1955 single speed bicycle – photosHERE, tickets to sold out shows, a Polaroid camera and photos taken by the band, and more.
Hurry up, though, you slackers. The sooner you order, the better chance you have to win one of the drawings. Did I mention the glow-in-the-dark Wilco yo-yo? Well it exists. and I’m getting one.
*You can also order directly from Anti- records here: less goodies, but cheaper shipping.
* For you digital nerds (just kidding, c’mon), you can also buy The Whole Love off iTunes here
Can’t wait to hear some of the latest tune-skis? Yes I just used the word “tune-skis.” Deal with it. And listen to Wilco’s latest tunes here. Also, don’t forget to check around the site for free downloads and streaming tracks. Think of it as an Easter egg hunt. For adults. Who don’t care about Easter anymore. And like Wilco.
Hope everyone got their tickets last week for Wilco’s upcoming fall tour. If you haven’t already purchased said tickets, chances are you’re S.O.L… or areyou?
...and Wilco. The best combo since pretzels filled with cheese?
Wilco has partnered up with Record Store Day to bring us the “I Love My Record Store” contest. Before everybody gets all up in arms trying to decode this mysterious title for a contest, let me explain:
Wilco’s latest single from their forthcoming album The Whole Love is entitled “I Might.” The B-side to that single is a cover of Nick Lowe’s “I Love My Label,” a wink to the fact that Wilco recently dropped Nonesuch, their previous label, and created their own: dBpm. Henceforth, the Record Store Day contest is called “I Love My Record Store,” which is in and of itself a wink to the Wilco cover of “I Love My Label.” Everybody on board? Good. I’m not explaining that again.
Write down the name of your favorite record store and why it’s your favorite
Pray to Uncle Tupelo, The Wilco (and Son Volt) God of tunes, that your name is selected to go see Wilco Live At Central Park on September 22! (Contest ends 7/31, so hurry up! And don’t forget to include the name of the store, as well as the city and state so we can share the love!).
Is it possible that the sheer awesomeness of Jeff Tweedy's jacket caused Chicago to brown-out? I'm gonna say definitely.
Here’s what happened. I came up with (what I thought was) a good idea for this week’s poll: “Best Use of a Wilco Song in a Movie or TV Show.” I thought it had a pretty cool, Academy Awards ring to it. There were also some excellent scenes and original songs I found that Wilco did for a surprisingly large number of films and TV shows.
I picked the 7 best from IMDb, and was about to find clips for all of them when suddenly my power shut off. I gave it a few minutes, then realized that it was not coming on anytime soon; the power to my entire neighborhood browned (crapped) out on a 100 degree day in July. The power came back after a few hours, but even after it did there was no internet for six hours. The internet eventually came back on, and I went back to looking up clips for the poll of the week, and I found that none of the clips existed anywhere on the internet.
So here we are. Instead of the original poll idea, I decided to make this week’s poll “Favorite Live Performance of a Wilco Song.” I know this may have been done to death, but hear me out. Each one of these clips is pretty great; if you haven’t seen any of them yet, prepare to have your mind blown. There’s even one from way back in 2005 at Farm Aid, where then State Senator Barack Obama introduces the band before going into a damn good version of “Airline to Heaven.” This is the perfect example of hipsters being able to claim they like Obama before he “sold out and got all commercial.”
I realize that there are other great live clips out there; probably many I didn’t even look at yet, so you can also write in a performance you think is worthy of this week’s highly coveted “most votes” prize. This week’s prize, like last week’s and the week before, is nothing, because you can’t give prizes to inanimate videos on the internet. Yet.
Sorry for rambling, here’s the videos:
Radio Cure
Impossible Germany
Jesus, Etc.
I Am Trying To Break Your Heart
Hummingbird
Monday (Balls-out version)
Airline to Heaven (Featuring Obama’s first big break!)
Sometimes you can find deep hidden meanings in things. This is not one of those.
Sorry. This is funny to me.
First off, big ups (is that still a thing?) to any of you who are reading this or visiting this site at all. You’re all intelligent, well-adjusted, very, very good-looking people.
Second, if you’re not already following @WilcoNews on Twitter, you’re missing out on some great Wilco-related happenings.
Don’t believe me? Here’s what some people from around Twitter are saying:
@WilcoNews has retweeted me over 5 times! That’s 5 More times than anyone else!
Now, granted the first two were from the same person, a person who may or may not be me (it totally is, don’t buy into my lies), and the third one really isn’t relevant (though is awesome because it really is from Judd Apatow), you definitely should follow @WilcoNews on Twitter. Why? Why are you asking so many questions? Anyway, because you asked, here are some reasons:
Read all the latest up-to-the-minute news on Wilco that doesn’t make it to the site.
Watch sweet Wilco and Wilco-related videos I find
Listen to free Wilco and Wilco-related tracks
Download some of the aforementioned tracks for free
You can play the guitar with your teeth you say? Good for you. But can you be Nels Cline and play the guitar with your teeth? Didn't think so.
In the same vein as The Tweedy Feed, I decided to create Cline Time, a source for the latest dirt on our favorite Cline: Nels. It’s kind of like the Frasier to The Tweedy Feed’s Cheers; kind of a spinoff, but very much it’s own thing (though I did try to get that delightful dog to appear in here. He said no.). Actually, it’s a lot more like The Colbert Report to The Daily Show. That’s a much better analogy; I don’t know why I said that other thing. Forget that I did, all right?
In any case, forgetting all sitcom spinoffs, many of us Wilco fans have gotten so caught up in the frenzy of anticipation and anxiety (what, you don’t have anxiety?) for The Whole Loveand Wilco’s upcoming tour, we overlooked another major album release earlier this summer: BB&C (Tim Berne, Jim Black and Nels Cline)’s live album, The Veil. To many of us Wilco fans, Nels Cline is the underrated, under-appreciated, incredibly talented guitar god from Wilco; however, what many of us don’t realize is that he is one hell of an experimental free Jazz-rock musician. And he’s out there. Like Sun Ra On Jupiter out there.
Don’t believe me? Take a pull on this: It’s called “Caved-In Heart Blues” from Cline’s 2007 album, Draw Breath. It has come close to replacing Neil Young’s For The Turnstiles as the song I will hear in my head just before I go insane. Which is pretty high praise coming from me.
Did you listen to it? Pretty out there, right? Yet it’s somehow very soothing. It might be the molasses-drippingly slow tempo. Which is kind of a good thing.
Here’s a pretty sweet video of Cline performing with the Les Paul Trio in New York at Iridium last Monday:
Awesome distractions aside, The Veil, the latest from Cline, Black, and Berne (or BB&C, as they’re also known, which I like because you can hold the Shift bar the entire time you type it in) has been getting some pretty great reviews so far, and judging from Railroaded, the free MP3 download from last month, (which you can download here), they all seem justified in their praise. Here are some reviews for the record so far:
The Veil is a rapturous performance from three of New York City’s most electrifying talents at the last vestige for improvisational music left standing in Manhattan following the Blue Condo-ization of the Lower East Side.
Cover from The Veil. Anybody else getting a Tom Waits-y vibe?
From the opening passages you can tell that these are masters at work. Behind the doors of their industrial space, they are wrapping Waterford crystals in sheet-metal and playing catch. They are sprinkling machine nuts in the gears watching it sputter and spit out twisted scraps and unanticipated treasures.
… [The Veil performances were] mostly two continuous improvised performances from musicians who have no fear of going into simultaneous improvisation that might scare other musicians back to law school. The kind of meeting of minds that both jazz and bands like Wilco need.
The combination of the three, which for a time went under the name Sons of Champignon, makes for an alchemical fusing of explosive out-jazz and apocalyptic rock punctuated by moments of delicate beauty.
This is Tinariwen. They are going to make beautiful music with Nels Cline. I'm going to buy it. Probably.
As if all this wasn’t enough for Nels, he’s also recorded an all-acoustic album called Tassili with a band called Tinariwen (here’s a little taste), who are, I kid you not, a group of nomadic Tuareg tribesmen who fought in Mali’s civil war. Also featured on the album are Tunde Adebimpe and Kyp Malone of TV on the Radio and the horn players of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band. Is it cool if I speak for everyone on this one? Well I’m going to: “If I don’t get to hear this soon, I’m going to do something drastic. Like cancel my Spotify subscription. Which I don’t have.”
You’ve got time for one more awesome video before you go to bed, or work, or some other website, right? Good. Because this one’s pretty wild. I will end this edition of Cline Time with a video of Nels Cline playing the (kickass) solo to “Impossible Germany,” which so far is the frontrunner for this week’s poll. Please enjoy:
