get your ya-ya's out

Watching the brief section of the Wilco tour film Ashes of American Flags shown on UK TV the other night raised some interesting questions.

1. How drunk do you have to get in order to throw your underwear at Jeff Tweedy? Don't get me wrong, Mr Tweedy has written and co-written many of my favourite songs of the last almost two decades and he has a beautiful cracked voice. But seriously.
2. Why can't all gigs be by Wilco?

They're a fantastic live band, one of of only a handful that I've seen more then once and what I saw of this film showed how amazingly tight they still are. Is it a sign of age when you're impressed by the solid chops a band displays rather than their unpredictable "anything-can-happen" schtick?

Whatever, their albums are all great, 2007s Sky Blue Sky being my favourite. This album got quite a bit of stick at the time for 'playing safe' with its more traditional song structures and less outré sonic experiments.

But I know which of their recent releases I've enjoyed and listened to the most. And considering the talent in the current (and longest-serving) line-up of the band, I can't wait to hear what they do next.

Golden Smog - A Long Time Ago

 

I did a big post about Golden Smog way back in the early days of Domino Rally - follow this link to read it.

For the uninitiated, Golden Smog are an studio alt.country super-group that Tweedy used to be part of. This track is from the last album he was involved with, 2006s Another Fine Day, and is a really beautiful little song about the birth of a younger sibling and the ties of family. When we were listening to this the other Mrs Domino was quite overcome with thoughts about the birth of her younger sister many years ago, so this is for the wife and her lovely sis.

Maybe I am getting emotional in my old age, but I love anything like this; similarly, any songs about "Home" can set me off easily (I think I see a themed post coming up soon).

Wilco - The High Heat (A Ghost is Born outtake)

This is from the outrageously pretentious Wilco Book which came out just after A Ghost is Born and features essays about the philosophy of sound recording amongst other esoteric delights. Nice pictures tho', and this is a cool outtake from the AGIB sessions.

The new Wilco album is slated to appear June 30th. They'll hopefully be touring soon after so I'll be keeping my very best pants nice and clean in anticipation!

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