I missed the whole grunge thing in real time but, based on a hazy idea of what I think grunge is, don’t see the grunge connection to this song at all. Which might well be a ridiculous comment for me to make when I know not of what I speak! (Just Saturday morning banter).
Thread guide Introduction and Uncle Tupelo Mar 1995 AM I Must Be High Casino Queen Box Full Of Letters Shouldn't Be Ashamed Pick Up The Change I Thought I Held You That's Not The Issue It's Just That Simple - live Should've Been In Love - live 1995 Passenger Side - live 1996 Dash 7 - live 2010 Blue Eyed Soul Too Far Apart Outtakes Oct 1996 Being There Misunderstood Far Far Away Monday Outtasite (outta mind) Forget The Flowers Red Eyed and Blue I Got You What's The World Got In Store Hotel Arizona Say You Miss Me Sunken Treasure Someday Soon Outta Mind (Outtasite) Someone Else's Song Kingpin (Was I) In Your Dreams Why Would You Wanna Live The Lonely 1 Dreamer In My Dreams Blasting Fonda (outtake?) Live 1996 - televised version Snow Job 97 June 1998 Mermaid Ave (with Billy Bragg) California Stars Way Over Yonder In The Minor Key Birds And Ships Hoodoo Voodoo She Came Along to Me At My Window Sad And Lonely Ingrid Bergman Christ For President I Guess I Planted One By One Eisler On The Go Hesitating Beauty Another Man's Done Gone The Unwelcome Guest March 1999 Summerteeth I Can't Stand It She's A Jar A Shot In The Arm We're Just Friends I'm Always In Love Nothing'severgonnastandinmyway (Again) Pieholden Suite How To Fight Lonliness Via Chicago ELT My Darling When You Wake Up Feeling Old Summer Teeth In A Future Age Candyfloss Interview 1999 May 2000 Mermaid Ave vol 2 Airline To Heaven My Flying Saucer Feed Of Man Hot Rod Hotel I Was Born Secret Of The Sea Stetson Kennedy Remembering the Mountain Bed Blood Of The Lamb Against Th' Law All You Fascists Joe Dimaggio Done It Again Meanest Man Black Wind Blowing Someday, Some Morning, Sometime Mermaid Ave vol 3 Loose Fur Laminated Cat Sept 2001 Yankee Hotel Foxtrot I Am Trying To Break Your Heart Kamera Radio Cure War On War Jesus Etc Ashes Of American Flags Heavy Metal Drummer I'm The Man Who Loves You - live b-side Pot Kettle Black Poor Places Reservations b-side The Good Part Blasting Fonda The Minus 5 2003 More Like The Moon ep Camera Handshake drugs Woodgrain A Magazine Called Sunset Bob Dylan's 49th Beard More Like The Moon June 2004 A Ghost Is Born (inc. Kicking Tv versions) At Least That's What You Said Hell Is Chrome Spiders Muzzle Of Bees Hummingbird Handshake Drugs Wishful thinking Company In My Back I'm A Wheel Theologians Less Than You Think The Late Greats Nov 2005 Kicking Television + some b-sides and oddities March 2006 Loose Fur Born Again In The USA May 2007 Sky Blue Sky Either Way You Are My Face Impossible Germany Sky Blue Sky Side With The Seeds Shake It Off Please Be Patient With Me Hate It Here Leave Me (Like You Found Me) Walken What Light On and On And On Extra Tracks Tweedy Interview The Sun Came Out - 7 Worlds Collide June 2009 Wilco (The Album ) Wilco (The Song) Deeper Down One Wing Bull Black Nova You And I You Never Know Country Disappeared Solitaire I'll Fight Sonny Feeling Everlasting Everything Dark Neon Sept 2001 The Whole Love Art Of Almost I Might Sunloathe Dawned On Me Black Moon Born Alone Open Mind Capitol City Standing O Rising Red Lung The Whole Love One Sunday Morning I Love My Label + extras Sometimes It Happens Sept 2014 Tweedy Sukierae Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood High As Hello World Away Diamond Light pt1 Wait For Love Low Key Pigeons Slow Love Nobody Dies Anymore I'll Sing It Flowering Desert Bell Honey Combed New Moon Down From Above Where My Love Fake Fur Coat Hazel I'll Never Know Aug 2015 Star Wars EKG More Random Name Generator You Satellite Taste The Ceiling Pickled Ginger Where Do I Begin Cold Slope King Of You Magnetized Sept 2016 Schmilco Normal American Kids If I Ever Was A Child Cry All Day Common Sense Nope Someone To Lose Happiness Quarters Locator Shrug And Destroy We Aren't The World Just Say Goodbye June 2017 Together At Last - Jeff Tweedy Dawned On Me Nov 2017 Mavis Staples - If All I Was Was Black Nov 2018 Warm - Jeff Tweedy Bombs Above Some Birds Don't Forget How Hard It Is For A Desert To Die Lets Go Rain From Far Away I Know What It's Like Having Been Is No Way to Be The Red Brick Warm How Will I Find You? Apr 2019 Warmer - Jeff Tweedy Orphan Family Ghost And Then You Cut It In Half Ten Sentences Sick Server Empty Head Landscape Ultra Orange Room
I said it was an unusual comparison! The guitars in 'Ultra Orange Room' simply remind me of the guitars in the verses of 'Big Empty' by Stone Temple Pilots. And there is constant debate about whether STP should even be called grunge. They were grunge-adjacent at the very least.
I like this song, but this is the first one that really struck me as needing to be fleshed out more. I wish it was longer and had a few more curveballs thrown in. I like the line "There is no mother like pain", but it seems to go against Jeff's statements on great art not needing to come out of suffering, so maybe he is talking about something else. I have some news to share about the "theremin" on Sick Server. Last night Jeff was taking questions on The Tweedy Show, so I asked if that was a theremin and Susie read my question! Jeff said that it was a synthesizer called a "Therevox". It's an analog synthesizer that is based on the Ondes Martenot, which is a rare instrument invented in the 1920's. Jonny Greenwood from Radiohead has an Ondes and uses it on several of their songs. I've always loved the sound of it. Anyway, mystery solved! Therevox - Wikipedia Ondes Martenot - Wikipedia
"Ultra Orange Room"- @Parachute Woman made me reluctantly click on a Stone Temple Pilots song. I can definitely hear the similarities. Good call, but maybe that's part of the reason this song doesn't do much for me. Never been a big grunge era or STP fan. Not that either of these songs are grunge. I can also hear a small amount of Pink Floyd like @Fortuleo mentioned. However, it's not enough to save a song that never takes flight. It ends abruptly before I can even decide if I like it or not. Maybe this one would grow on me a bit, but I gave up after three listens. It's ok, but my least favorite on the album so far. This is a song that could have been worked on and made more far out by a band called Wilco. It sounds too much like a demo even on on album that mostly sounds like a demo. 2.5/5
Thanks for asking that - awesome! As for Orange... @Parachute Woman ’s STP comparison is hilarious, but I can see it. Most grunge albums had some kind of sulky, downtempo dirge time break it up. This song is probably my least favourite on the album but functions well as a track 8... a quiet number as we come into the home stretch. There’s a actually some cool, noisy guitar buried between the verses which is typical of the atmospheric stuff that Nels tends to bring now. Fun Fact: this was actually the first Warmer track released. It plays over the credits of the audiobook of Let’s Go. Functions well in that regard (“Let’s Go is published by...”, etc, etc).
"Ultra Orange Room" definitely songs like a song that has a lot in common to the songs on Ode to Joy. It sort of has the same overall sound to me.
In the previous song, Jeff expressed his hope for a future when the people of the world would join hands and board the Love Train, or words to that effect. Now, in "Ultra Orange Room," he muses, "love might make no difference/ there is no mother like pain." Meanwhile, he doubts his own perceptions and beats himself up for the things he did when he was young. This verse is interesting: When I was young I wanted a masterpiece Every thought I'd come across Never would belong to me I guess that he once waited on the inspiration for the perfect idea before committing himself, but now he likes to just get down the rough ideas and put it all out, like a therapeutic purge? Just as I suspected! IDK, the lyrics don't really speak to me, and that bland country dirge is just too much like the sound of so many other tracks from the sessions. The best thing about it is that the next tune, in contrast, comes off as a more upbeat, refreshing change, even though it's not really a happy, breezy song, either.
Exactly. (I do have an oil can that says “Wilco.” Picked it up at an auction because...it says Wilco.)
I haven’t, no. I found the red oil can in Michigan. Have moved a couple of times but always carry along the oil can. Still with oil inside! (The things a Wilco fan will do. )
I've gotta start listening to these songs - I miss you guys!! I just never got Warmer when it came out and have been too busy at work right now
Evergreen I will be honest with ya'll. I feel I have lost the ability to say anything interesting about these Warm/Warmer songs. It's a lot of information, all coming from a similar space both sonically and emotionally. And I like these tracks for the most part, but I now feel confident saying that I definitely a bigger fan of Warm than its sequel (and a bigger fan of Love is the King than either of these). That said, "Evergreen" is a breath of fresh air here near the end of the album. This is sweet, pretty and even catchy in a way a lot of the rest of the album often isn't. This was always a highlight of Warmer, but Jeff pulling it out to sing with his kids from their bathroom on Jimmy Kimmel at the very beginning of the pandemic has solidified this in my mind as a wonderful little heartwarming song.
Here's Jeff, Spencer and Sammy Live from the Lavatory: This was really touching back in March of this year.
Ahah, yes, the WARM(ER) fatigue… In any case, (y)our beloved thread’s diminishing turnout seems to indicate that Jeff solo is not nearly as important for many Wilco fans as Wilco itself, which is totally understandable. Especially this WARMER record, that has been mostly ignored and/or seen as a bonus disc by many. Even though I paid BIG dollars for it after missing out on the RSD release, I can relate… up to a certain point. And that point comes with track 9, Evergreen, quite simply for me one of Jeff Tweedy’s most perfect and beautiful songs. Yes, the delicate troubadour is my favorite Tweedy of them all… For instance, I like Open Mind a lot because it aims at a kind of simple direct beauty. But not many songs in this more melodic style achieve the same level of grace and timelessness as Evergreen. That says a lot about the virtues of inspiration, as opposed to the workmanlike attitude towards songwriting that Jeff adopts and advocates. Or maybe it’s proof that he’s got it perfectly right: write every day and once in a while, an Evergreen will come to life, a song young Dylan would’ve been proud of, a song just as deep and deceptively obvious as something the wonderful Doug Paisley could write, a song that would be a highlight on any Wilco record and almost any record by any of Jeff’s heroes, with that sublime minor chord that lingers after the “I’ll Tell You all about where I’ve been” line, before coming back in the chorus. This is so achingly graceful and elegant… Apart from the exquisite “Therevox” touches (thanks so much for that, @fredyidas !!), the icing on the cake for me is Jeff’s very conscious throwback to the early days of his songwriting career, when he would come up with Childlike and Evergreen. Some twenty something years later, the “childlike” part is gone but Evergreen remains. And it more than lives up to its title.
During my initial due diligence run-through, Evergreen was the only song that I initially liked. (Since then there’s been another two.) Jaded already (?!), now it’s just alright. It would still make the cut but is very mainline early 70s, from the era when James Taylor made the cover of TIME, singer-songwriter. I did enjoy the bathroom session because of the Tweedy Kids harmony vocals.
Evergreen is a highlight of Warmer for me. Love the guitars, the melody, and Jeff's vocal. He's played it several times on The Tweedy Show, and I always love it when the kids join in. Those family harmonies are so perfect.
Thank you for admitting this! I have an old friend who was once stunningly, professional-model beautiful. Still very attractive, but not that "everyone stops talking when she enters the room" scenario that was once her norm. Her insecurities are such now that she will fish for positive comments about her looks and sometimes grow surly when I don't worship at the altar - hardly insulting her, but not playing the "oh, you're still so beautiful" game, despite her damn well knowing she's chasing her past with Botox, various expensive facial treatments, minor cosmetic surgery, etc. Not that I'm comparing Jeff/Wilco to her situation ... but I get the same vibe sometimes trying to come up with positive things to say about Jeff/Wilco! Warmer is the winter of my discontent with Wilco. It sank in around this time ... Jeff is no longer shifting gears. This is where he's at. I get the feeling he spends a lot of time wearing sweat pants and gazing out the window. (This perception is probably an over-simplification based on his internet shows from home, where he's not dressing for the stage ... or apparently even casual visitors.) He's still got it, but it comes through in this muted, echoey mix of folk and country. I'm willing to hang around, but I have to forage for what I like. And I like "Evergreen"! All of his solo albums have very good songs like this, mixed in with the spacey acoustic weirdness. The disconnect for me? For a guy who's found some type of resolution in his life in family, who is clearly in a much better place mentally and more comfortable with himself ... he sounds like someone suffering from ongoing, mild depression. It feels like a strong disconnect between who he is as a person (or who he presents himself to be through books, interviews, etc.) and the somber, more sedate persona he creates in his music, that was once a facet of the Wilco sound, but now seems to be overwhelmingly his and the band's sound.
I listened to Warm/Warmer a couple of times during the drive to and from our rental house. It was OK but didn't make much of an impression. Evergreen is the only song I know by name and could kind of hum. Like may of the later Wilco albums I only listened to this once before after buying the CD. I wouldn't say I have found any gems to return to on this set but maybe something will catch my ear when I return to it again someday.
He may be. Depression isn't conditional on having a happy home life or other good things going. I have a wonderful family and happy home life and I still have depression.
