I put a question to the group: as we go through the albums would you prefer we go through each song individually or simply have a period of discussion for each album in general? I have seen album by album threads done both ways and I've seen it work both ways. I'm a bit torn and thought I would get the input of the group.
My vote is for album by album. Song-by-song seems like it will take forever and cause people to lose interest.
I really like when it goes song by song. The Morrissey thread was done really well. Everyone rated every song and the host even added up all of the scores at the end. I realize that's a tremendous amount of work! It was fun though to see what everyone thought of every song and what came out as the overall favorites. It's your choice! It will be a good discussion whichever route you choose.
I've never been in a song by song thread, but I imagine it would make the thread a lot longer, and move probably slower in terms of covering an album, and I've got the time ... But I'll be happy with either approach.
Yep. The mid-90s were the glory years of alt country and, living in Wisconsin, I was in a great place to be able to see most of these bands live several times. Trips to Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Chicago, St. Louis, Indianapolis, etc. were fairly easy to make and my first CD Discman made it a blast to do those often-lengthy road trips throughout the alternately snowy and hot/humid Midwest while cranking all of these great albums. Between alt country and Britpop, my 1990s musical needs were mostly met! Can't tell you how many times I saw The Jayhawks - they even played a free album release show at the U of Wisconsin Student Union the day before Tomorrow the Green Grass was released. Richard Buckner was another alt country artist I took a deep shine to right away. Joe Henry, the Bottle Rockets and the Gear Daddies as well, in addition to the bands you've listed. That was a great time in music for me.
I reckon song by song. a) it gives any interested passers by something to check out and perhaps discover a new band b) albums and songs are very different animals and need to have their own space. For example, there are albums I love that don't necessarily have stand out songs. There are great songs on pretty iffy albums. Edit: it also generally keeps a thread focused
I prefer song by song. It's too much for me to write about an entire album at once, especially if it is one that I love and have a lot of specific memories or thoughts about. Doing one song per day makes it far more manageable for me. It also tends to focus each day's discussion more. It's nice to start each album by having a day to talk about the album in general before diving into the first song, or, alternatively, you can start right in with the first song but then take a day after all of the songs have been covered to have people sum up their thoughts on the complete album. Either way works, I've found. I suppose the downside of the song-by-song approach is that it will take longer to get through everything and people who are less patient by nature will probably tune out at some point. One of the song-by-song threads I'm in has been going for almost a year and a half now and we are still only up to 1998. I'm in no hurry so that approach works fine for me but I suspect we've ended up with less participation in the thread than we might have had if we had moved more quickly.
Elvis has been running for about 2 years now or something, we're about to hit thread four on it, because the folks didn't want one mega-thread
That's amazing. How did I miss this one? It is nice to jump in along the way, but it's hard not to want to discuss the songs from 6 months ago. Before I joined this site and started posting I would mainly just read it for those long discussions about albums and songs. Now I have 8 months of reading material on the Elvis thread!
I read a blurb about Uncle Tupelo in Rolling Stone in 91. Then heard their song "I Won't Forget" on the Matter of Degrees soundtrack. Liked it enough to go see them at T.T. the Bear's Place in Cambridge, MA, and that show blew me away. Bought the Still Feel Gone album the next day, the song "Gun" still stuck in my head from the night before. I was living in Boston with friends from high school. We were in a band together and still smarting from the Replacements breaking up. Uncle Tupelo was a band you could really get behind and believe in, if you were young enough at heart to invest in such things, which we were. They were young and passionate and real and wrote such good songs. Saw them only three times. The best was at Club Babyhead in Providence opening for Teenage Fanclub. Was devastated when I heard from someone that they broke up. I called the guy from Rockville Records on the phone to confirm that it was true. I saw Wilco at Johnny D's in Somerville, MA before A.M. came out. I've seen Farrar/Son Volt 6 times, Wilco well over 20. I check in now and again with what Farrar is putting out, and follow Wilco closely.
Thank you for everyone's feedback! I've considered it and I am going to go song by song. That was my original intention but I really wanted to confirm most people wouldn't hate it if I did it that way! I ran song by song for Joni Mitchell's entire catalog and it took seven months but it was tremendously rewarding. I will also have a time for general discussion on each album (at the end) for collecting thoughts overall and for anyone who may just want to post once per album. But I'm not going to be super thread police, just keep things running smoothly and coherently. We'll kick it off tomorrow morning with "I Must Be High."
Album by album. Song by song gets repetitive and tedious, especially for CD-era albums like Wilco's. I would strongly urge you to not go song-by-song for Wilco. One album, one week, simple as can be. Nobody dies of boredom and everybody knows when the next album gets discussed.
The U2 one is going well for an album-by-album thread, but it moves fast and there’s always a lot of catchup reading to do. The Morrissey thread is a great song-by-song thread, and it tends to have about two pages per day at peak. Two considerations I’d posit about the song-by-song approach: -most bands have one (or more) cutoff points for fans and Wilco is no different. I stayed with the Morrissey thread for a long time because I have at least a passing interest in most of his material. But I have found him pretty uninspiring over the last four or so albums. I might have been inclined to go through four posts for those albums I don’t care for if it’s on an album basis... but that becomes fifty or so posts when it’s a song based thread. I imagine we’ll lose people over time (not me... I love the whole catalogue) if it’s song based. -a Wilco song by song will take several months given the size of their catalogue. I’m up for the challenge, but you’re the host and I recognize it’s a lot of work!
Very envious of you my friend....I woulda loved to see them back then, but I just wasn't wise yet. All those venues you mentioned, I coulda been there if I had only known then! Oh well. Good stories man, and we should mention the Uncle Tupelo/Massachusetts connection, recording the first two albums, at Boston's Fort Apache, and North Brookfield's Long View Farms.
I was first exposed to Wilco when they opened for R.E.M. at Red Rocks back in 2003. I'd never heard their music before and they completely blew me away! (R.E.M. also played a superb concert that night, it turned out to be one of my favorite concerts ever.) Since then I've bought all their albums and seen them several more times, and they've always got something to offer. I'll definitely be joining this thread. I prefer song-by-song because I often get insights from other people. In the current Rush thread I've gained a real appreciation for several tracks I've overlooked in the past.
I'm not going to do it strictly chronological with all the outtakes. Just album by album in the main discography with a section dedicated to Alpha Mike for all the extra stuff. I wish I could please everyone with the song by song or not question. I've gone with my gut and my personal preference. It will be slower but I hope rewarding and if it doesn't go well we can always switch. I hope folks will give it a shot with me.
I was never an Uncle Tupelo fan. Sometime around 1999 I got the Weird Tales cd by Golden Smog. That CD got me into Wilco and the Jayhawks which were huge favorites, ever after. Summerteeth and Sky Blue Sky are 2 of my favorite albums by anyone! Ever!
50% chance I was at that same show (I believe they played two nights and I went to one - can't remember if first or second night).
Well done Parachute Woman I’m along for the ride. Intro to Wilco was seeing Being There real cheap in ‘99 at a deep discount music store. Not sure what the impetus was, but could have been R.E.M. mention them or when they toured with them in ‘99 and as it was cheap BINGO ! More discussion on Being There as we get to it. Somewhere along the line I’ve backtracked to Uncle Tupelo (maybe Buck’s production?) and their are moments that Jeff showed the signs that he would come out of the split, intact. I haven’t deep dived into UT but from what I have heard it’s Jeff’s songs that I love apart from Grindstone. My UT playlist is: Grindstone, Wait Up, Black Eye, Sandusky & New Madrid. Also Loved how they covered I Wanna Destroy You by the Soft Boys.
I grew up in St. Louis. UT broke up my freshman year of high school and I knew of them but didn’t know their music at all. A couple of years later and we were regularly seeing Son Volt play. Wilco didn’t play St. Louis for the better part of a decade. I think it was YHF tour when they came back for the first time, but maybe they played around when AM was out? Huge fan of Jeff and Jay and I found so much great music after they drew me in to the genre. I see a lot of live shows and obviously everything has been cancelled (including my first trip to JazzFest) but I’m really bummed the most about those Wilco shows at the Fox in Oakland. It’s been a few years since I’ve seen them. I moved to California 3 years ago and they haven’t played in the Bay Area since. I was lamenting to a friend last fall about the dry spell and then *bam* they drop 4 shows in the area. Looking forward to this thread. I’ve been spinning their catalog a lot while stuck at home.
Thanks for invite @Parachute Woman . I know very little about Wilco. This is very odd as I listen to a lot of Americana. I must confess something: one of my oldest friends encouraged me to like Sun Volt & Uncle Tupelo. I somewhat tried, but gave it a nah. I never tried to enjoy Wilco although I am very familiar with the name. About a year and a half ago,this old friend swindled me out of some money. He'd been struggling with mental health issues for years, and without my knowledge left his wife & family. Just went AWOL. I received a weird call & wired him some cash. Long story short, if possible at this point, he is on the road to recovery and asked me if I wanted to see Wilco on their April 2020 date. I kinda said sure, but then COVID 19, cancelled date, and now I feel bad that I have let my old friend down. Not only as I going to follwo the thread, but I am going to text my friend right now for being an ass. I do believe Wilco is right in my Americana wheelhouse.
Saw Uncle Tupelo many times in college and was shocked when they were breaking up. Love all of their albums and thought Jeff and Jay were great foils in the same band. Trace was GREAT, but I love AM as well and saw very early Wilco shows, along with countless more including November of last year. I will see Son Volt any time they are in town too. Like most of the albums, but Summerteeth and Sky Blue Sky are faves. Will be a great thread!
