Wilco - I Just Don't Get It

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Can someone explain their appeal to me? I love so many roots rock/alternative country artists, or whatever you want to call them, but these guys bore me to tears.
I bought Yankee Hotel Foxtrot after first buying the hype. Sorry, but judging from his lyrics and his singing, Jeff Tweedy sounds like he's smoking way too much dope.

― Jim M, Friday, 13 December 2002 21:54 (twenty-three years ago)

I don't get it either, and I liked Uncle Tupelo.

― hstencil, Friday, 13 December 2002 21:54 (twenty-three years ago)

I don't get it either, but I didn't get Uncle Tupelo. I get Souled American and Califone though.

― dan (dan), Friday, 13 December 2002 22:05 (twenty-three years ago)

I don't get it either. They seem like nice, funny, intelligent gents, but their music bores me to absolute tears.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 13 December 2002 22:07 (twenty-three years ago)

deRog to thread--he had them number one last year, and he must get almost everything he wants for free!

― dan (dan), Friday, 13 December 2002 22:16 (twenty-three years ago)

I have always maintained that they are perhaps the most boring band extant.

― Lee G (Lee G), Friday, 13 December 2002 22:21 (twenty-three years ago)

I get Souled American, but not Califone.

― hstencil, Friday, 13 December 2002 22:21 (twenty-three years ago)

I liked that one song off of Summerteeth, the single, you could call it? But the rest, I do not even remember, and I own this somewhere.

Only heard sound samples of YHF, and nothin there just seemed to excite me either. But they're akn to being the alt-country nu-radiohead, for some people (thats supposed to be a good thing). I miss old radiohead, though.

― Vic, Friday, 13 December 2002 22:24 (twenty-three years ago)

Califone are much better than DAF or Whitehouse, neither of whom I get. I get Cat Power.

― dan (dan), Friday, 13 December 2002 22:25 (twenty-three years ago)

I don't doubt that they're better, although they're probably more boring, from a certain perspective. I don't like Whitehouse or DAF, neither.

― hstencil, Friday, 13 December 2002 22:26 (twenty-three years ago)

Took me awhile, but I LOVE Summerteeth and about half of YHF. Still can't get into Being There, AM or those Mermaid Avenue discs...

― mike a (mike a), Friday, 13 December 2002 22:31 (twenty-three years ago)

If you don't get DAF, you probably need:

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0609607332.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

― Tom Millar (Millar), Friday, 13 December 2002 22:39 (twenty-three years ago)

Actually I think the "smoking too much dope" line might be key here. The main reason I didn't get into it was that it seemed like an album I would have been into three or four years ago: one of the subtle melodic pop records that can read as either just subdued and pleasant or, if you're really focusing in on them (cf dope) very precise, clever, and vaguely psychedelic -- something of a sunny pop equivalent of what slowcore tends to do. I found this stuff fairly interesting at one point, but over the past three years it seems to have rapidly mutated into some form of indie adult-contemporary, and in the process reached a point of terminal dullness. Which is where I think Wilco are with this last record: it's not that I don't think I'd find it enjoyable if I listened to it again, but rather that I doesn't make me want that enjoyment.

― nabisco (nabisco), Friday, 13 December 2002 22:54 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm frankly surprised to find so many people agreeing with me. I expected to get slammed. So where are all the Wilco supporters (especially if this board is supposed to be made up primarily of critics)?
I did like a few of the sunny pop songs on Summerteeth, but I'm missing the alleged genius on YHF.

― Jim M, Friday, 13 December 2002 23:13 (twenty-three years ago)

i heard Summerteeth a few times and thought it an insufferable pity party, and i usually like that kinda thing. go fig. only heard a couple tracks off YHF and they didn't grab me but i can see how it could've taken off with the help of the Suppressed Masterpiece myth.

― Al (sitcom), Friday, 13 December 2002 23:27 (twenty-three years ago)

Really, you don't have to get it.

― Bruce Urquhart (Bruce Urquhart), Friday, 13 December 2002 23:31 (twenty-three years ago)

I don't think it needed the Suppressed Masterpiece myth: loads of people really liked Summerteeth (myself included), and at the time of its release the indie-M.O.R. contingent had been pretty well solidified and expanded (in large part due to Elliott Smith and The Soft Bulletin).

― nabisco (nabisco), Saturday, 14 December 2002 00:15 (twenty-three years ago)

I've never heard Wilco, but they can't be worse than that Ryan Adams solo album somebody sent me.Uggh.That guy needs an enema.Do these people even listen to all the Neil Young albums they supposedly own or are they too busy flirting with Christina Ricci's forehead at Reese Whitherspoon's house? Why don't I even believe that Ryan Adams is a musician? Maybe his other stuff is wonderful.Who knows.Boring music should be shot in the head.Sorry,feeling cranky.Long Live The Mekons!

― Scott Seward, Saturday, 14 December 2002 00:19 (twenty-three years ago)

i've just been listening to some of these songs for the first time and they seem pleasant enough. does anybody else think he sounds a little like jerry garcia

― ron (ron), Saturday, 14 December 2002 00:19 (twenty-three years ago)

Tweedy sounds like he's smoking way too much dope. +swirly synthes bubbling over in the background = right down my alley.
Screw this Alt.Country tag, I claim the last two albums for the Kingdom of Psychedelia!

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Saturday, 14 December 2002 00:24 (twenty-three years ago)

I never seem to be able to give more than a cursory listen to their albums (although I haven't heard Summerteeth at all). In fact, the pattern seems to be that I like the first song (eg, "Must Be High" which is GRATE, and "Misunderstood", and whatever the first song off of the new one is called) and then get promptly bored with the rest of the CD. I don't get the hubbub either. They're pretty pedestrian/predictable in their arrangements.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Saturday, 14 December 2002 00:31 (twenty-three years ago)

He sounds *exactly* like Jerry Garcia.

― Sean (Sean), Saturday, 14 December 2002 00:32 (twenty-three years ago)

Yeah, "Misunderstood" is the best thing they've done. I really like "She's A Jar", "I Got You" and "Forget the Flowers", too. Overall I think they're a good band, very enjoyable live, but often pretty boring on record. I know people who really love them, and that doesn't baffle me at all.

― Adam A. (Keiko), Saturday, 14 December 2002 00:51 (twenty-three years ago)

I saw Califone open for Wilco actually. I discovered that they were actually sort of like Wilco, run through a Retard Filter. They were really awful.

I can't imagine a song like, say, California Stars, ever boring me.

― David Allen, Saturday, 14 December 2002 01:20 (twenty-three years ago)

i never liked any of their albums prior to yankee hotel foxtrot much at all but decided to buy that one because it was mixed by jim o'rourke.

after 6 months of listening, i love about 1/2 of it but the rest bores me silly - mostly the stuff that isn't weirded up at all. i tried the earlier releases again but they still sound dull.

however, now waiting in anticipation for the tweedy/o'rourke thing next year.

― phil turnbull (philT), Saturday, 14 December 2002 03:17 (twenty-three years ago)

i'm bored by Wilco's previous releases - it's all sort of hunkydory country-rock, sometimes popped up, but still kind of samey. Nothing resonant on an emotional level. YHF on the other hand, is a masterpiece. It's simply the way they've broken open some great pop-folk songs, adding all this space to move around in. it's a very big, interesting and poignant record. my faves, though, are "radio cure" and "i am trying to break your heart", both of which are loathed by much of the OldSchool wilco-fan contingent.

also, the "indie MOR-as-insult" thing seems very, uh, rockist or poppist or something. not cool.

― Sean@tangmonkey (Sean M), Saturday, 14 December 2002 06:22 (twenty-three years ago)

dude, indie-anything as an insult is still cool as of now (mid Dec 2002)

― Aaron A., Saturday, 14 December 2002 07:18 (twenty-three years ago)

I personally love "indie MOR" (if we're gonna go with that phrase) if it's creative, and a few years ago could definitely imagine a dream radio station playing Randy Newman's Bad Love, Billy Bragg/Wilco, Rufus Wainwright's first album, Elliot Smith's XO, the Flaming Lips's "Waiting For Superman," etc.

Yankee Foxtrot's problem is not its sound but the fact that it listens like the musical equivalent of writer's block. It's not stoned: Its "about" getting stoned. It's overcooked, overthought, underconceived music. Better luck next time, Wilco...

― Pete Scholtes, Saturday, 14 December 2002 07:22 (twenty-three years ago)

"Adult-contemporary indie" is only really an insult if you have something against adult-contemporary. I don't have a problem with M.O.R. indie as a concept -- it seems as sensible of a genre as anything else, and I've liked a decent amount of it. But it does strike me as getting progressively duller, or at least suffering from a serious case of diminishing returns. I can't think of any of these records released in the last year that's seemed entirely worth it, though I'll looking forward to hearing the Delgados' newest.

― nabisco (nabisco), Saturday, 14 December 2002 07:40 (twenty-three years ago)

Califone's roomsound would be psychedlic alt-country done right in my book. Try as I might, the appeal of Wilco escapes me as well. And I love a lot of the adult-alternative artists that get clobbered on ILM. Wilco seems to have all these half-finished songs that they fill in with some of the most bland experimentation I've ever heard. It reminds me of Guided By Voices with more twang, less drama.

― bnw (bnw), Saturday, 14 December 2002 08:30 (twenty-three years ago)

I adore the last two albums, and "Being There" to a lesser extent. I really don't think there's anything to get. Either you like the melodies and songs and the way they're sung, or you don't, just lie with any other kind of pop music.

― edward o (edwardo), Saturday, 14 December 2002 09:13 (twenty-three years ago)

Admittedly it kind of falls to pieces in spots. Not a masterpiece by any stretch. But overall I do genuinely find YHF to be inspired, fun, moving and completely unexpected. I listened a couple times and it clicked... I'd been familiar with the band for years but never felt a sense of true satisfaction with what they were doing until this. Subsequently I have been reading heaps of "I don't get it/it's boring" commentary which I find as hard to grasp and confusing a trend as (recent) critics do the appeal of this record.

However I think nabisco's take on the whole thing contains a lot of insight and provides me a clearer point of reference for those who find this whole sound and approach slightly repulsive.

― gazuga (gazuga), Saturday, 14 December 2002 11:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I don't know if I would be a Wilco fan if I had started with YHF. Trying to put myself in that scenario makes my head explode, though, since I came of age in a region where Uncle Tupelo/Wilco had extremely strong support. They've been a part of my life for a long time. Even given that, though, I only really liked them until Summerteeth, which took about six months to sink in, and then I loved them, on a level which few other artists have reached in my mind. I guess I don't have any useful advise other than yeah, it takes a while for a Wilco record to sink in.

― teeny (teeny), Saturday, 14 December 2002 15:23 (twenty-three years ago)

Also, I saw Wilco live, and they have a hugely diverse group of fans. It was odd, a lot of college professor looking types, some hardcore punk looking kids... it was odd.

― David Allen, Saturday, 14 December 2002 16:32 (twenty-three years ago)

I prefer Summerteeth (the mood is a little less ponderous, more fun tracks), but I do really enjoy Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Think of it more in a Radiohead way then in a roots-rock way.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Saturday, 14 December 2002 19:04 (twenty-three years ago)

Earlier this year I had to drive four hours into the middle of nowhere for work -- YHF sounded really nice on that drive, sitting in the car by myself going through the mountains. It's a very consistant album, that's for sure. But it's not the sort of thing I put on at home are on the bus, so I don't listen to it much.

― Mark (MarkR), Saturday, 14 December 2002 21:49 (twenty-three years ago)

if you have something against adult-contemporary

What, and you don't? (Then again, I regard it as a chimeric label. I'm adult, I'm alive and therefore contemporary, and I'd rather listen to Soft Cell than Sheryl Crow, so fuck my peers.)

The entirety of the whole Uncle Tupelo and related bands phenomenon has passed me by now for well over a decade, and I'm more than content to keep it that way.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 15 December 2002 00:28 (twenty-three years ago)

"I found this stuff fairly interesting at one point, but over the past three years it seems to have rapidly mutated into some form of indie adult-contemporary, and in the process reached a point of terminal dullness."

Inverted rockism at its finest.

― Dean Roberts, Sunday, 15 December 2002 07:27 (twenty-three years ago)

Good Lord, Dean, where are the "rockist" politics in opining that a type of record you used to like is getting a bit old? (And out of curiosity how would that be inverted rockist? Even if I were saying I had a problem with rock bands straying adult-contemporary, that would surely be straight rockist, no?)

― nabisco (nabisco), Sunday, 15 December 2002 07:43 (twenty-three years ago)

Which is to say that (a) words do actually mean specific things, and (b) God forbid anyone should be less than excited about Pretty Pleasant Middle-of-Road Indie Record #732936-C.

― nabisco (nabisco), Sunday, 15 December 2002 07:48 (twenty-three years ago)

Inversion: "To turn inside out or upside down." So inverted rockism would, I suppose, be popism. But since all you did was take the standard rockist argument and use it *against* rock (i.e. the album is not exciting because it appeals to a lot of people [MOR], and because I'm so over that stuff now), the term seemed appropriate.

If one were to make the same argument about, say, the Justin Timberlake album around here, they'd be immediately tarred and feathered. Elitism favoring pop music is still elitism.

― Dean Roberts, Sunday, 15 December 2002 19:21 (twenty-three years ago)

Jess and I had a long, long talk about the whole phenomenon about this record, and how had it been released as originally scheduled, it would have been damned with faint praise like so many other records.. but the whole marketing angle on its rejection-cum-RESURRECTION had been so transparent yet so eerily successful.

― donut bitch (donut), Sunday, 15 December 2002 19:47 (twenty-three years ago)

We should all create albums that will never be released by labels. Unfortunately, we all need to be signed to labels first.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 15 December 2002 21:07 (twenty-three years ago)

I think Tweedy's voice is beautiful on YHF. It does have a more hoarse sound than usual, but it sounds so sad and wracked with emotion. It's a good album, but Summerteeth is the masterpiece. "She's a Jar" alone can justify the existence of indie MOR. Hooray for Wilco.

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Monday, 16 December 2002 00:43 (twenty-three years ago)

While definitely think there would be "faint praise" (I mean, that's what Summerteeth got from most circles) without the Warner Bros. silliness, I don't think I'd like the album any less. I took it as a big evolutionary step for this guy to give up "roots-rock" and was excited to see where he'd go next (I definitely take Wilco over almost all Uncle Tupelo and certainly all of Jay Farrar's rustic anonymity). I'll admit that for shmucks like Jim DeRogatis, the major label hoo-hah was too chewy for them to resist.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Monday, 16 December 2002 01:01 (twenty-three years ago)

Tweedy pronounces "forget" as "fuck you up the" on "We're Still Friends".

― naked as sin (naked as sin), Monday, 16 December 2002 01:08 (twenty-three years ago)

I like them, but i haven't heard YHF and their version of "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" is boring.

― naked as sin (naked as sin), Monday, 16 December 2002 02:40 (twenty-three years ago)

Dean I'm completely failing to understand what you're talking about. First of all if you're trying to run with some supposed ILM application of "rockist" it would come down to "seeing all things through the rock paradigm," which when applied to rock is, well, appropriate: that's mystifying. Second of all this idea of "M.O.R.-indie" is a description of the sound and genre, not the number of people listening to it, not to mention that I've repeatedly said that I think M.O.R.-indie is as good an idea as any other. I said I think that genre's gotten pretty dull, something I'm in no position to be elitist about as my shelves are literally packed with this sort of record. That's half of why I'm so damn bored with it.

― nabisco (nabisco), Monday, 16 December 2002 06:31 (twenty-three years ago)

I mean, it is actually possible for people to be bored by records you like without some big agenda attached. It'll work out fine, I swear.

― nabisco (nabisco), Monday, 16 December 2002 06:34 (twenty-three years ago)

four months pass...

Wilco is a rip-off of Blango
from 1961 www.mp3.com/bogica

― BiB, Friday, 18 April 2003 20:55 (twenty-three years ago)

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