I could be totally wrong on this, but I always felt the comparison to Radiohead arose out of the fact that like Radiohead, Wilco was a band that was not afraid to drastically evolve and re-evaluate and change its approach/sound from record to record. I am a huge My Morning Jacket fan and I remember when Z came out there were a lot of Radiohead comparisons, not because of their sound, but because of the constant evolution in sound. Again, I could be totally wrong on this.
There are two sets of demos that circulate for Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. There's a 21-song demo, and then there's the 17-song "Engineer Demos". Here's "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart" from the Engineer Demos. You can hear Ken Coomer's bit at the beginning that made it onto the record. That bit wasn't on the earlier demo from the 21-song set, but I can't find that on Youtube, so you'll have to take my word for it if you don't have it. You can hear how Ken wasn't quite communicating what Jeff wanted when you compare to what Glenn brought to this song.
Well, you know what Richard Thompson sang: “I feel so good I'm going to Break somebody's heart tonight I feel so good I'm going to Take someone apart tonight”
Wilco played that week in Chicago (9/15) at the Abbey Pub (a very intimate club on the northwest side). We thought the show would end up being cancelled, but it went on as scheduled. It was a strange night. I'd say it was "very emotional," but that kind of short changes the experience. It was really one of those examples of Rock & Roll magic. It seemed like everyone, band and audience needed to be together to work through something. It wasn't a joyous show. It wasn't a depressing show. It was serious business. All of the songs had an extra resonance - the lyrics and music seemed to apply especially to that exact moment in all it's complexity. It was a night where everyone's emotions were all mixed up and present at the same time: sadness, fear, desperation, loss, hope. All of these emotions that we can usually control were right at the surface and reflected in the music. By the end of the night. I think everyone in the room had bonded through a shared catharsis. We all came out tired and feeling a bit better (maybe). So, that's my Yankee Hotel Foxtrot story. On this particular night, Wilco showed that the magic of Rock & Roll can happen anywhere, even in a nondescript, neighborhood pub on the northwest side of Chicago. 2001 09 15 / Abbey Pub - Wilco
Ahhhhh, have we even touched on the whole “numbers stations” aspect yet? It literally comes from here: An excerpt of this is buried under the final minute of “Poor Places” on the album. What is a “numbers station“? A numbers station is a shortwave radio station characterized by broadcasts of formatted numbers, which are believed to be addressed to intelligence officers operating in foreign countries. Most identified stations use speech synthesis to vocalize numbers, although digital modes such as phase-shift keying and frequency-shift keying, as well as Morse code transmissions, are not uncommon. Most stations have set time schedules, or schedule patterns; however, other stations appear to broadcast at random times. Here’s the Wikipedia entry: Numbers station - Wikipedia Jeff Tweedy became fascinated with the idea and apparently listened to a 4CD compilation of “captured” numbers stations recordings from the airwaves: The Conet Project (source of the YouTube recording linked above). Drugs may have been involved. Admittedly, they are kind of fascinating!
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot Criminally underlistened to by myself. I was a fairly big Wilco fan (saw them twice live on separate early tours) but from 200o onward got lost in all the endless wait for this album, plus a move and a new job and.... I somehow lost the mystique with these guys. I knew this thread would get here eventually and I figured it would be my “accountability partner” to help me catch up on the band post-2000. I like the album, and I like the next couple too, but I never got the time or motivation to really dive in hard and REALLY LISTEN if you know what I mean. Plus at some level I was a bit cheesed off at seeing Jay Bennett get let go. I was a student at Univ. Of Illinois in Champaign back in the late 80’s and once even saw Titanic Love Affair play. I think they opened for Poster Children, who were really really good. TLA was definitely.... an average college band at the time. But I rather liked their two releases on CD in ‘91-‘92. I thought it was cool that Bennett had ended up in Wilco a few years later and I liked what they had developed into from A.M. > Being There > Summerteeth. And knowing that Bennett was in a band named from a Billy Bragg lyric, and later got to write songs with him (!!) only to be dumped from the band a year later was kinda hard to understand at the time. Something this thread has helped me come to terms with though, is that I can now understand that it was very unhealthy to have two pill addicts in the band and that they probably had to split to have a chance at being healthy even if it meant no more working together. The documentary about YHF really makes it clear to me what a weird foggy daze Tweedy and Bennett were in. With all the mystique about YHF and all the extant songs and demos from this time period it also felt somewhat underwhelming to only get a single album of 11 songs for the final product. Expectations. Gotta focus on what’s there - not dwell on what’s not there. I know.
I don’t either, unless the comparison is simply between two bands who became known in one style and then shifted away from that. When YHF came out, I had been listening heavily to Radiohead’s Kid A and Amnesiac but I never heard any similarities to Wilco on either one.
Jeff's interest in this reminds me of the part in his book when he talks about how his dad loved to listen to recordings of trains. Literally just the sounds of the train going. Getting obsessed with weird audio stuff must be in his blood!
I Am Trying To Break Your Heart A real statement of purpose here. The drums in parts remind me of those heavily treated ones in “Strawberry Fields Forever”. The piano plinks and plonks - is it even being “played” or is it just there to sound weird? The lyrics are sing-songy and somewhat drugged out themselves, operating in a zone of loose word connections made by a brain barely half awake because it’s tired to the point of exhaustion. It even ends with bursts of noise. Not too dissimilar to “Misunderstood” actually. This is a weird stew that ends up tasting pretty good, or great even. Best opening album track yet from Wilco. And this song makes sooooooo much more sense after having listened to Loose Fur over the weekend.
Jay’s description of what he plays on this track (as said to Glorious Noise): Pump organs Wurlitzers A piano (normal) A ‘prepared piano’ — many folks playing it together Noiz section (including toy piano) — many folks making noiz together Distorted synth Manual re-amped drum effects
“One person who has shuddered over the “American Radiohead” tag is Jeff Tweedy, who’s been periodically asked about it in interviews for years. In 2004, he used “American Radiohead” as an excuse to take a jab at lazy music journalists, calling it “critical shorthand for ‘I don't know what to tell you it’s like, but trust me you’ll like it.’” Earlier this year, in an interview with the Honolulu Weekly, he seemed more accepting of that shorthand, even while admitting, “I don’t really see it. I don’t really hear it. I know that when people say it they’re saying it as a compliment… I think?” Radiohead and “The American Radiohead”: Filling the R.E.M. void
I wanted to give I Am Trying to Break Your Heart a proper listen before commenting on it. It's impressive how effectively the layers work, with acoustic guitar, synths, the great drumming, and the noise all somehow complementing each other. And a cool set of melodies on top of it all! It's an amazing start to this album, and to top it off it sounds fantastic on my stereo.
My history with Wilco at that point: Had Mermaid I and II. Borrowed Summerteeth from the library a lot and really liked it. Picked up AM in a $5 bin and liked it too. Knew that Being There was an ambitious double Americana album. I was into moody alt stuff at the time (Low, Godspeed You Black Emperor) and was starting to explore 60s country. Picked up Yankee in a 2/$15 deal about a year after release. I can still remember listening to I Am Trying... on the drive home. Wow. I still don’t know what the lyrics mean, but I feel them every time I hear them. This was the song that put Wilco into the stratosphere for me. I don’t have much to say except that it’s perfect. I love that it’s an acoustic song at heart yet is dressed up in so much noise. Yet the noise never overwhelms. Instead it conveys the emotional anguish of the lyric. Summerteeth tried to fight those dark emotions by masking them in sunshine. This album embraces the frustration and confusion of the darker times.
YHF was released as a CD on April 23, 2002, and I Am Trying to Break Your Heart debuted on June 21. I probably saw the movie, which I know I saw in Buffalo, NY probably the first week it was showing, because rock documentaries never seemed to last that long at the theatre. Anyway, I probably bought the CD after I saw the movie. I'm pretty sure I wasn't clued-in to the download. The only computer I used was my work PC, and I didn't get my own laptop until 2005. I skipped over Summerteeth, so my only other Wilco album at the time was Being There. So why did I go to the movie? Probably because I saw them in '99 (and only because the Old 97s were opening), had one album, and the local indie weekly told me they were in a documentary playing at a theatre near me. They probably gave it a positive review. The first time I heard "I Am Trying To Break Your Heart," I thought it was awesome. This was the first Wilco album I really cared about.
My little Yankee Hotel Foxtrot story (part 2) Wilco was nothing here in France. I think they had played just once in Paris in the 20th century. I got all the records, listened to YHF extensively after it was shared on the band’s website. In April 2002, McCartney was playing the Madison Square Garden with no European tour scheduled in the near future. I decided it was worth spending a week holiday in New York again, after the trip we’d just took there in December 2001, when the city was just recovering from the 9/11 attacks. Anyway, it’s late April 2002 and surprise!, Wilco plays at the Bowery, two nights before the McCartney show. Of course, we buy tickets as well. The 23rd, day of our arrival, is the release date of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot ! We buy it on the spot (light blue cardboard sleeve, for those interested), as well as the Bennett/Burch Palace at 4AM disc, released on the exact same day. On the 25th, we see Wilco at the Bowery (where Jeff jokes about everybody knowing the words to most new songs, in spite of the CD being just released. “Who bought it ? Come on, please raise your hands !”). On the 26th, we’re in a bar in Hoboken, for a Joe Pernice solo show. Openers : Dolly Varden (whom I love!), then… Jay Bennett and Edward Burch ! Fantastic stuff, and we chat a bit with Jay, who says he’s proud of everything on Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, but « let’s be clear : all this talk about ‘deconstructing the music’, I don’t think it’s anything new or ‘groundbreaking’ » Then, on the 29th, we manage to see Wilco again at the Museum of television and radio, for a mini concert, where we get a chance to talk a bit with Jeff (“I don’t want us to be filed under ‘alt. country’, I’d rather be filed alongside Mercury Rev or the Flaming Lips”) and meet with Sam Jones, still around the band at the time. Well, on the 27th, I must say the McCartney show almost paled in comparison of what, to this day, we refer to as our “Wilco week” in New York…
I’m drawing a blank on where I bought my copy. I’m assuming it was in Japan but probably at Tower Records because it isn’t a Japanese release (with translated lyrics sheet, etc.). Says ‘Made In Germany by Warner Music Manufacturing Europe.’ Front is light blue-ish (?). Enhanced cd. I can’t recall what’s enhanced about it!
Wilco sound nothing like Radiohead, and I am not sure anyone thinks that. What they have in common is a distinct artistic move from earlier popular material to much more risky stuff that ended up in (arguably) their greatest achievements. And YHF is Wilco's greatest achievement, possibly the best album of the 21st century so far, or maybe it is Kid A?
See post #3463. Even Jeff Tweedy says, “I don’t really hear it.” Which suggests that he thinks critics (which he says are being lazy in same interview) are talking about similarities in sound. Anyway, yeah, I don’t think they sound at all alike, either (based on my minimal Radiohead exposure).
Amazing first day on Yankee Hotel Foxtrot everybody! Your stories and ideas are fantastic. Kamera After the disorientation of 'I Am Trying to Break Your Heart,' 'Kamera' feels a lot more normal. But is it? It has chugging guitars and rock solid drumming (punctuated by lots of pots and pans type percussion later in the song) and a pretty hooky melody, but things are still distorted and a bit off-kilter. I love how Jeff's close-up vocal is backed by vocals in the background that chime almost like they belong to a different song. Voices reassuring someone who is still cataloging all the ways his life is falling apart. He can't hide the lies he's telling and he's "driving in the dark," lost in the bleakness of depression and addiction. These lyrics are searing. Phone my family, tell them I'm lost On the sidewalk And no it's not okay When I listen to this song now I am reminded of some of the stories Jeff told in his book about some of the awful things he did while he was an addict and the shame he feels for them (#1 being stealing pain medicine from Susie's mother, who was dying of cancer). I always took the camera metaphor to be a wish for some distance or clarity on his own life. To be able to watch it like an observer, rather than suffer through it as the lead. But, of course, he "smashes" the camera and that objectivity and just sinks deeper. His desperation for his wife is all over this too. I'm counting on a heart I know by heart To walk me through this war I find that couplet really moving. And all of this riveting, dark emotional content is placed into a very well-constructed rock song with a great arrangement. It's like he's desperately trying to be "normal" but the cracks are still showing (represented in some of the odder noises and instruments coming in). Another great one, well-placed here in the second spot.
Kamera is one of the earliest YHF live song they did, played back for the first time in 1999. In fact I would love to hear one of a bootleg of the first live version of all the YHF songs and compare to the final album version Almost stripped-down live version :
On the surface Kamera sounds nice and pleasant, almost easy-listening. But it has a very dark undercurrent lyrically - the repeated "And no it's not okay" refrain should get through to even a casual listener. It's another great track.
I Am trying to break your heart 5/5, devastating song from a complete **** up. Probably heard it live more than any other WIlco song (seen them 22 times). Kamera is more run of the mill 4/5, actually think I may prefer "Camera".
