I didn't get my Wilco CD and T-shirt and tote bag yesterday. Perhaps they will be delivered today. I sure hope so! I want to wear that t-shirt. I'm going to be like Courtney with her red boots. When she was two, she got a pair of red cowboy boots as a gift and wore them day and night--even to bed over her footed pajamas. There was no dissuading her. So I will be with my KimberlyAnn (The Fan) t-shirt. Watch out!
Having looked forward to Wilco's new CD for so long, I couldn't wait one more second than necessary to hear it. I waited up 'till midnight last night and attempted to download it from Kungfustore's site but the link was broken, whatever that means. I tried everything. I finally ate a few strawberries and waited a bit to see if the link would be repaired and thankfully it was. At 1:00 am I downloaded Wilco (The Album) and listened to it for the first time. Amazing.
These are first impressions, having heard each song only two or three times, but sometimes first impressions are the best so I thought I'd jot them down. I can always change my mind if I want.
I worried I'd not enjoy the new album as much as the others, but I was wrong. I LOVE this album. There's not a dud on it, so far as I can tell. Even Wilco (The Song) is growing on me and at first, I didn't like it. Deeper Down reminds me of Hummingbird. Very nice. One Wing is so very sad that I could only listen once. One Wing (One Time). I do like it, but I'm not so sure I want to listen again for a while. I can't quite put my finger on why, but that song makes my heart ache.
Bull Black Nova is almost too much. Don't get me wrong, I like it, but I'm good with it ending when it does. It's like I'm on the verge of a headache from the repetitive chords or something. It was better live than on the album, IMO, but still a great intense tune.
I love Feist. Leslie has such a unique voice. I am a bit disappointed that the uniqueness of her voice didn't come across as well as it might have on the track You and I. That nitpick aside, I adore the song. Yeah, I know, it's kind of a silly love song and a bit on the light side, but as Sir Paul said, "What's wrong with that?" It's catchy, for certain. It's the one I've been humming all morning.
I also love the pop-ish You Never Know and I'll Fight and Sonny Feeling. That's what is so great about this album--the variety.
Country Disappeared is, at the moment, my favorite from the album. That will change by tomorrow, I'm sure. But I intend to pound this one out on the piano by nightfall. With Courtney and Chloe's help, at least. They've better ears than their mom.
Solitaire and Everlasting Everything are heartbreaking. Beautifully heartbreaking. Especially Everlasting Everything. It's like the pinnacle of Tweedy's album. It seems to perfectly represent the overarching sadness of his music. The ending of the song is butterflies.
Anyway, those are my initial thoughts. I've been torturing myself with Schopenhauer lately. Though he comes across as quite the downer, I must agree with him when it comes to music. Nothing else moves me like music does. There are emotions that are inexpressible in any other way. "Music, since it passes over the Ideas is...quite independent of the phenomenal world, positively ignores it, and, to a certain extent, could still exist even if there were no world at all...." I've often thought that I'd be thrilled to die and exist eternally as a sound. A note. In a minor key. I am B flat.
What a deep well Tweedy gave me with his new album. I love it. Thanks, Jeff.
Kimberly Ann
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Songs I'm Embarrassed to Love
I can't help it. I suffer from an occasional lack of music morals. I know I should not like certain songs--songs that are puerile or undisciplined or overly pop-ish. Certain country songs usually only listened to in trailer parks, such as the BrokenWinds Trailer Park my kids made up on the way to Oklahoma City the other day. (They even created profiles for the residents of BrokenWinds Trailer Park, the most interesting being Sunflower Husklicker, who would probably love the song list I'm about to share.)
Anyway, I may as well get on with it and share some of my most beloved crappy music. I apologize in advance.
I love Dolly Parton. And I loved her duo with Kenny Rogers when I was a little girl, and I still love it to this day. So what?
This song makes me happy every time I hear it. The last ten seconds are bliss.
Merle and Tammy. I could listen to them all day long.
I feel like snorting pixie sticks when I hear this song. I love it.
This is the trashiest most embarrassing song of all my favorite embarrassing songs. When it comes on during kick-boxing class, I almost break into Britney's dance routine. I have a Catholic Schoolgirl outfit. That alone says it all, doesn't it?
For some reason, I cannot embed the video. You'll have to click the link. But for God's sake, don't do it at work lest your co-workers think you like the song.
Baby One More Time
One more. A little Waylon. I think he was so freaking hot. Mmmm...mmmm.
Sorry.
Kimberly Ann
Anyway, I may as well get on with it and share some of my most beloved crappy music. I apologize in advance.
I love Dolly Parton. And I loved her duo with Kenny Rogers when I was a little girl, and I still love it to this day. So what?
This song makes me happy every time I hear it. The last ten seconds are bliss.
Merle and Tammy. I could listen to them all day long.
I feel like snorting pixie sticks when I hear this song. I love it.
This is the trashiest most embarrassing song of all my favorite embarrassing songs. When it comes on during kick-boxing class, I almost break into Britney's dance routine. I have a Catholic Schoolgirl outfit. That alone says it all, doesn't it?
For some reason, I cannot embed the video. You'll have to click the link. But for God's sake, don't do it at work lest your co-workers think you like the song.
Baby One More Time
One more. A little Waylon. I think he was so freaking hot. Mmmm...mmmm.
Sorry.
Kimberly Ann
Thursday, June 18, 2009
On and On and On: More Wilco Than You Ever Wanted
First, a few things I remembered about the concert but didn't include in my original report.
Tweedy mentioned that he and the band had been watching DragonForce videos all day. I didn't know what DragonForce was until I looked it up on YouTube after the concert. DragonForce sucks. I think they need to find something better to fill their time. Like reading or something. Anyway, after watching those videos, Glenn apparently told Tweedy that he couldn't play overhand, so Tweedy proved him wrong for a short bit during Handshake Drugs.
Tweedy did a Springsteen impression with the sleeves rolled up on his sweaty shirt and his guitar slung behind his back. Not that effective, but dorkily endearing.
Also, Tweedy let some dude in the front row play his guitar. He just held it down in the crowd and some guy or gal (I couldn't see very well) played it. Made some racket and everyone cheered. I wish I could have seen. I saw a little but I heard a lot. That's what counts.
Courtney says I need to give more love to the opening band, Heartless Bastards. She liked them. Here's one of their videos from YouTube:
Now to what I promised: More Wilco than you ever wanted.
I found a site that has a nearly overwhelming Wilco song archive. Keep scrolling down and there are audio recordings of Wilco concerts from April 24, 1995 to the end of 2008:
Owl and Bear Wilco Archive
There is a download necessary to listen to the files. I'm basically computer illiterate, but I downloaded the suggested file (check out the link at the top of the website) and will soon check to see if it works for me. I hope it does, because I'll be able to listen again to the March 8, 2008 concert at Cain's. Outtasite!
Kimberly Ann
Tweedy mentioned that he and the band had been watching DragonForce videos all day. I didn't know what DragonForce was until I looked it up on YouTube after the concert. DragonForce sucks. I think they need to find something better to fill their time. Like reading or something. Anyway, after watching those videos, Glenn apparently told Tweedy that he couldn't play overhand, so Tweedy proved him wrong for a short bit during Handshake Drugs.
Tweedy did a Springsteen impression with the sleeves rolled up on his sweaty shirt and his guitar slung behind his back. Not that effective, but dorkily endearing.
Also, Tweedy let some dude in the front row play his guitar. He just held it down in the crowd and some guy or gal (I couldn't see very well) played it. Made some racket and everyone cheered. I wish I could have seen. I saw a little but I heard a lot. That's what counts.
Courtney says I need to give more love to the opening band, Heartless Bastards. She liked them. Here's one of their videos from YouTube:
Now to what I promised: More Wilco than you ever wanted.
I found a site that has a nearly overwhelming Wilco song archive. Keep scrolling down and there are audio recordings of Wilco concerts from April 24, 1995 to the end of 2008:
Owl and Bear Wilco Archive
There is a download necessary to listen to the files. I'm basically computer illiterate, but I downloaded the suggested file (check out the link at the top of the website) and will soon check to see if it works for me. I hope it does, because I'll be able to listen again to the March 8, 2008 concert at Cain's. Outtasite!
Kimberly Ann
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Wilco: Now With 10% More Nothin'!
Last night I attended the Wilco concert in Oklahoma City. The venue was Bricktown Events Center, which didn't have much ambiance compared to Cain's Ballroom in Tulsa, where I saw Wilco last year, but it served its purpose, I suppose. There were five robot-looking apparatuses hanging from the ceiling above the stage, which had small moving lights where their little robot wenises should have been. Those kept me entertained while the opening band played. "Heartless Bastards." They were alright. The lead reminded me of a blonde Joan Jett, but a little less gritty.
Oh, I should mention before I get to describing the actual concert that I arrived a few hours early and while walking around the venue I came across a large garage door. I pressed my ear to it and heard Wilco practicing. I heard the entirety of Side With the Seeds, and after Nels's amazing ending solo, I clapped and screamed. To my happy surprise, one of the band members, maybe Nels, said, "Hi, out there!" And I said "Hi!" back. Fun, huh?
Anyway, I was standing about ten people back from left center holding my five dollar can of Corona and completely unable to see when Wilco finally took the stage. I mean there wasn't a man in front of me who wasn't at least six feet tall. No kidding. Next to me, on my left, was a dude named Charles who was a pothead, I think. I liked him muchly. He was really furry--his longish beard had beads in it, lol! He had lots of odd paraphernalia in his pockets which he kept fingering and taking in and out of his pants. Super Glue. Band-Aids. Paper clips. Wadded five dollar bills. He asked me to help him put a band aid on a little cut on his finger and I did. He called me "Yellow" because I was wearing a yellow shirt.
Charles pushed forward and helped me secure a more advantageous position so that I could see. He was a really nice fella. When he lifted his arms to clap during Spiders I could smell his stinky arm pits, but what else could be expected from a dude with beads in his beard?
Also, just to note, the place reeked of marijuana. Charles kept saying, "Pass some of that on down Heee-rrreee!"
So, Wilco took the stage. Tweedy looked a bit ragged. His hair is shaggier than the last time I saw him live, but overall, he still looked okay. That's the best I can give him in the looks department. Okay. Nels was dorky as ever. I love him for it. They started with Wilco, The Song. I don't know why, but I just can't get into it. Still, it was better live than I expected and everyone else seemed to love it.
Here's the rest of the set list:
I Am Trying To Break Your Heart
Pot Kettle Black
A Shot in the Arm
One Wing
At Least That’s What You Said
Side With The Seeds
Bull Black Nova
Handshake Drugs
War on War
Sonny Feeling
Jesus, etc.
Impossible Germany
California Stars
Forget the Flowers
Misunderstood
Spiders (Kidsmoke)
Hummingbird
—————–
The Late Greats
Hate It Here
Walken
I’m The Man Who Loves You
Hoodoo Voodoo
My favorite song of the night was Misunderstood. I counted a run of forty "nothin's", which is four more than they shouted at the Cain's concert. A gain of just over ten percent nothin'. I think that's something to cheer about so I did! I lost a bit of my voice doing it, too. Well worth it.
Spiders lasted a whopping seventeen minutes by my count. It just kept going and going and going. It could have lasted longer. I'd not complain. It was a great song. Probably my second favorite of the evening.
During the show some idiot threw a Sharpie marker at Nels, which raised the ire of Jeff. Immediately after the Sharpie incident, someone (Jeff called him a "Douchebag") flashed one of those laser pointers at the band members. Good grief. None of that happened at Cain's, proving once again that Tulsa outclasses Oklahoma City by a country mile. Well, more like one hundred and twenty of them. :)
I was disappointed that they didn't play Via Chicago. That was my favorite of last year's set. Oh, well. I suppose I'm like the guitar player that got taken for a ride. Never satisfied. They played four songs from the new album. I should be thankful.
Overall, it was a great concert. I'm not sure Wilco does other than great concerts. If they do, I'm unaware of it. I intend to count the "nothin's" at my next Wilco concert. If they continue to increase nothin's at the rate of ten percent a year, in ten year's time Misunderstood may just take up more concert time than Spiders.
KA
Oh, I should mention before I get to describing the actual concert that I arrived a few hours early and while walking around the venue I came across a large garage door. I pressed my ear to it and heard Wilco practicing. I heard the entirety of Side With the Seeds, and after Nels's amazing ending solo, I clapped and screamed. To my happy surprise, one of the band members, maybe Nels, said, "Hi, out there!" And I said "Hi!" back. Fun, huh?
Anyway, I was standing about ten people back from left center holding my five dollar can of Corona and completely unable to see when Wilco finally took the stage. I mean there wasn't a man in front of me who wasn't at least six feet tall. No kidding. Next to me, on my left, was a dude named Charles who was a pothead, I think. I liked him muchly. He was really furry--his longish beard had beads in it, lol! He had lots of odd paraphernalia in his pockets which he kept fingering and taking in and out of his pants. Super Glue. Band-Aids. Paper clips. Wadded five dollar bills. He asked me to help him put a band aid on a little cut on his finger and I did. He called me "Yellow" because I was wearing a yellow shirt.
Charles pushed forward and helped me secure a more advantageous position so that I could see. He was a really nice fella. When he lifted his arms to clap during Spiders I could smell his stinky arm pits, but what else could be expected from a dude with beads in his beard?
Also, just to note, the place reeked of marijuana. Charles kept saying, "Pass some of that on down Heee-rrreee!"
So, Wilco took the stage. Tweedy looked a bit ragged. His hair is shaggier than the last time I saw him live, but overall, he still looked okay. That's the best I can give him in the looks department. Okay. Nels was dorky as ever. I love him for it. They started with Wilco, The Song. I don't know why, but I just can't get into it. Still, it was better live than I expected and everyone else seemed to love it.
Here's the rest of the set list:
I Am Trying To Break Your Heart
Pot Kettle Black
A Shot in the Arm
One Wing
At Least That’s What You Said
Side With The Seeds
Bull Black Nova
Handshake Drugs
War on War
Sonny Feeling
Jesus, etc.
Impossible Germany
California Stars
Forget the Flowers
Misunderstood
Spiders (Kidsmoke)
Hummingbird
—————–
The Late Greats
Hate It Here
Walken
I’m The Man Who Loves You
Hoodoo Voodoo
My favorite song of the night was Misunderstood. I counted a run of forty "nothin's", which is four more than they shouted at the Cain's concert. A gain of just over ten percent nothin'. I think that's something to cheer about so I did! I lost a bit of my voice doing it, too. Well worth it.
Spiders lasted a whopping seventeen minutes by my count. It just kept going and going and going. It could have lasted longer. I'd not complain. It was a great song. Probably my second favorite of the evening.
During the show some idiot threw a Sharpie marker at Nels, which raised the ire of Jeff. Immediately after the Sharpie incident, someone (Jeff called him a "Douchebag") flashed one of those laser pointers at the band members. Good grief. None of that happened at Cain's, proving once again that Tulsa outclasses Oklahoma City by a country mile. Well, more like one hundred and twenty of them. :)
I was disappointed that they didn't play Via Chicago. That was my favorite of last year's set. Oh, well. I suppose I'm like the guitar player that got taken for a ride. Never satisfied. They played four songs from the new album. I should be thankful.
Overall, it was a great concert. I'm not sure Wilco does other than great concerts. If they do, I'm unaware of it. I intend to count the "nothin's" at my next Wilco concert. If they continue to increase nothin's at the rate of ten percent a year, in ten year's time Misunderstood may just take up more concert time than Spiders.
KA
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)