I had never heard the EP version of "Handshake Drugs" until I got Alpha Mike Foxtrot. I will post later on the Ghost is Born discussion. I prefer that version (probably ue to familiarity) but I like the EP/early version as well.
I gotta say, Handshake Drugs to me, whatever version, is one of the most vanilla “meh” songs in the Wilco catalog
I remember being surprised that Wilco re-did "Handshake Drugs" for their next album as I had already become familiar with it via this EP. I liked it well enough but it never fully grabbed me....until I heard the AGIB version, which blew this one away as far as I was concerned. Still, this is a nice, somewhat shambolic version with some very Tweedy guitar work. Agreeably messy, this version would have fit nicely on a Golden Smog album.
I like Jeff’s possible juxtaposition in the lyrics with the obvious getting drugs with a handshake. I also think about anxiety drugs to stop someone’s “hands shaking” and needing the drugs to overcome shaking hands. Just my opinion of course.
Next: Woodgrain 'Woodgrain' seems to pretty much be solo Jeff with some additional textures added. What is that one instrument? Is that a melodica again? It's a brief song, not even reaching two minutes, but I like it. It is another piece of self-doubt/self-loathing that reflects on the writing process in a meta way. It opens with the couplet "I'm not a poet / And I know it" which I know is a play on a common phrase, but it reminds me of Bob Dylan playing with that same phrase on I Shall Be Free No. 10 (I'm a poet and I know it / Hope I don't blow it!) Where Dylan was confident and comical, Jeff is unsure. This is a good song, though perhaps not particularly melodic. I think a bonus EP is a nice place for it. It's worth hearing but maybe not ready for a prime time slot on an album. More raw honesty from Jeff, though.
Yes, this little snippet is another of Jeff’s self-depreciating “I’m not worth **** as an artist” songs, coming back to the folk ultra-simplicity of Someone Else’s Song or Childlike and Evergreen. All through Jeff’s career, I’ve enjoyed these little reminders that in his mind, he never really ceased to be the apprentice songwriter of those early tunes. The lyrics are like a little haiku, a form Jeff could be a master of, and the music wonderfully matches their minimalism : just two broken approximative chords strummed clumsily on the verse, then an understated “chorus” – can it even be called a chorus when it’s not repeated ? You need a thread like this to notice this passing mirage of a song (especially when it’s sandwiched between two biggies like Handshake Drugs and Magazine Called Sunset), but if you care to listen attentively, you’ll find it’s a drop of nicely distilled Tweedy-ism.
Woodgrain: It becomes interesting when he sings about taking a look at the woodgrain in his kitchen. I agree that it’s not prime time worthy but thrown on here, it’s okay.
Woodgrain Starts with more of that numbers station Morse code type sound effects. It’s interesting to me that the songs on this EP are mixed together with overlapping sounds. Who else does something like that? This song is barely there. Less than a couple minutes long, and seemingly a few lines of random musings interspersed with more of the “migraine soundscape“ from YHF. I think you could actually put this on YHF in between Poor Places’ sudden ending and the long fade-in of Reservations, and it would maintain the mood.
Wood grain. The verse is about the worst thing Wilco have ever done. It’s the kind of garbage I would try to write as a teen trying to be clever... a couple of chords that are deliberately dissonant. Of course, I never progressed beyond that as a songwriter, while Jeff Tweedy... well, he’s Jeff Tweedy. The chorus is better. A fun b-side, though. And I like the hesitant melodica or synth at the end.
I really enjoy the “intermediary” feeling we get from these recordings. There’s a certain emotion to Jeff’s “young” voice that got lost somewhere between Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and this EP. The grain of his voice is not the same. The aching/breaking quality (“braching” ?) that was such an important part of his appeal as a balladeer in the first years (from Uncle Tupelo’s Black Eye to Ashes of American Flags) is gone. Woodgrain is the first song where it’s unmissable. I remember he talked about a sinus operation between A Ghost Is Born and Sky Blue Sky to explain the change in his singing style but a first shift is already apparent here, and on this EP’s other slow/stark songs (Bob Dylan’s 49th Beard and More Like the Moon). But I see it as a lose some/win some situation. From then on, he’d sound less like a self-complacent teenager romanticizing his pain, and more like a grown man trying to come to terms with his own self.
My scribbled Ghost thoughts make a note of the change in his vocals. That’s a good catch that you spot it here.
"Woodgrain" has the germ of an interesting idea in the chorus melody, and Tweedy deploys some more internal rhyme there, too. But the lyrics are pretty terrible, and this just sounds unfinished. It's a bit surprising they released it, even as a free download/bonus disk. Jeff doesn't offer any commentary specific to this song in the Alpha Mike Foxtrot liner notes, but he does say this for "Bob Dylan's 49th Beard," which immediately precedes "Woodgrain" in that set: These are some of my favorite recordings that Wilco has ever done. This one is from an exercise we did a lot in the studio around the time of A Ghost Is Born, where I would just play through a whole reel of tape and not listen to anything other than my acoustic guitar and my voice. I'd make up songs out of my notebooks while the rest of the band played along with songs they'd never heard before, mostly on synthesizers and noise devices, and then we would listen to the tape one time and mix it and that would be it. We would call each one of those a Fundamental. There are nine Fundamentals. This is a track off of Fundamental 3, or something. I've always hoped that someday a lot of that material will come out. If I'm not mistaken, the Loft experiments that were included on the CD that came with The Wilco Book were also part of the Fundamental series.
Jeff's vocals are definitely a win-some, lose-some proposition as we get to modern Wilco. His recent singing habits irk me sometimes, though the songwriting itself never wavers. But you make a good point about his early-'00s changes. Every album had something a little different. YHF was the "under glass" vocals. AGIB featured a lot of "near whispering" like he was mid-migraine. And SBS was soulful, full-throated singing.
I like how his vocals have evolved over the years. His newer, strained, whispery approach works for me, but I also recognize that it can be heard as very laughable. The opening phrase of If I Ever Was a Child is an example. For me it just works, but by any objective standard, that’s some terrible singing. You can say the same for Tom Petty and of course Dylan and Young. They Each have a style that’s all their own, but when you step back for a minute, it can be quite hilarious to listen to.
"Woodgrain" has been very rarely played live; a handful of times by Jeff solo and twice by the quartet lineup. For Jeff Tweedy solo shows during this time, with some rarely played songs like "Woodgrain," "Old Maid," "Dear Employer," "Chinese Apple," the Loose Fur reject "Millionaire," the Bill Fay cover "Be Not So Fearful," and the Daniel Johnston cover "True Love Will Find You in the End," check out 2003/01/06, 2003/01/08, and 2003/01/09. In excellent sound from a taper who plugged into the soundboard.
I actually love "If I Ever Was a Child"! There are some other songs from that album however I have vocals issues with. But back to the More Like the Moon EP, I've always loved the moment in time it represented. Right after YHF was a super exciting time to be a Wilco fan. It just felt like anything was possible but nothing could be predicted, both in the live shows and speculation about new albums. There was this wide-eyed openness about the future. Seeing a concert at this time, you'd be peppered with a bunch of new songs. They opened a lot shows in 2002 with the original version of "Spiders," which was my favorite song. They'd throw a dash of "I'm a Wheel" in the encore. I remember seeing them close a set with an early version of "Less Thank You Think." This is a full two years before A Ghost is Born came out. Then in 2003, both Jeff Tweedy solo shows and Wilco shows were filled with tons of new stuff. And every new song felt so special. It's hard to describe, but I think I have more fondness for this late-'02-through-'03 era than any since.
Absolutely, 100% agree. At my first show, 2002/10/14, they opened with the first version of "Spiders" and played "Less Than You Think" late in the encore, before the big string of rock songs to close. At any given show in 2003, you might get the early version of "Muzzle of Bees," or "Kicking Television." You'd almost certainly hear "At Least That's What You Said." You might hear "Handshake Drugs" or "Company in My Back." Very few songs from A Ghost Is Born weren't played before 2004. Edit: listening now to 2003/01/06, and Jeff is playing a solo version of "Hummingbird."
The publisher has the book listed as coming out November 2, 2004. A Ghost is Born came out June 22, 2004. So the album was first.
Yeh I remembered getting the book after the album came out for sure ... I haven't gone back to listen to that book CD for a long time though!!
As others have said, Woodgrain is an interesting little piece, enjoyable for what it is. I'm glad it's on thie EP but it didn't belong on YHF.
While we’re between Yankee and Ghost, Wilco backed up REM sideman Scott McCaughey for the Minus 5’s Down With Wilco. I’ve never warmed to this album, but it was probably good for the band to play together in a new context. The album has a Pet Sounds/Summerteeth vibe to it. Jeff co-wrote the single and sings a very Day in the Life style bridge:
