The good fellows over at Wilco recently posted solo improvised sets by Jeff Tweedy, Nels Cline, and Glenn Kotche for Experimental Sound Studio on Twitch. You could go over and watch them there, but come on, you know you’d rather just hang out here and watch them all in one place.
Experimental_Sound_Studio went live on Twitch. Catch up on their Music VOD now.
Experimental_Sound_Studio went live on Twitch. Catch up on their Music VOD now.
Experimental_Sound_Studio went live on Twitch. Catch up on their Music VOD now.
Here’s a Quarantine-inspired playlist. With a story arc of sorts. Sort of like a concept album, except it’s a mix.
Curious? Why don’t you give it a listen. I’d like to hear someone else try and describe the journey of discovery I was trying to capture here. What do you think? How would you tell this story?
Playlist:
“Cold Hard Times” by Lee Hazlewood
“Don’t Come Around Here No More” by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
“We Will Become Silhouettes” by the Postal Service
“T.B. Sheets” by Van Morrison
“Sorry You’re Sick” by Ted Hawkins
“It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)” by R.E.M.
“American Heartache” by the Wood Brothers
“Down With Disease” by Phish
“Down With Desperation” by Sammy Brue
“Sometimes It’s Hard” by Rainer
“Consider the Ravens” by Dustin Kensrue
“Love Is Everywhere (Beware)” by Wilco
“Shelter From The Storm” by Bob Dylan
“Love Knows (No Borders” by Howe Gelb
“I’ll Be Your Shelter” by the Housemartins
“Sisters and Brothers” by the Vespers
Browse other Holiday at the Sea playlists.
2019 has been a great year for music. From 30-minute mind-melting jams to Tuareg guitar and all kinds in between. I LOVE year-end lists. I love seeing what other people loved, especially if I can find something I hadn’t heard before. And to a lesser extent, who doesn’t like having their tastes confirmed by people much cooler?
But I don’t necessarily like ranking everything. After all, every list is subjective. And is there really any music that is “best”? Maybe you preferred one album to others, but does that really mean it’s “better”? Excuse me while I step off of my soapbox.
And I don’t like not hearing what people recommend. So, as you already know, I made a four-volume mix of some of my favorite music of the year, which I hope you’ve already checked out. If not, feel free to do so here and here and here and here. Also, just one more time of review, I chose 50 songs this year but only 49 albums since ‘Sideways’ by Seryn was released as a single.
Now that you’ve had a chance to to hear the songs, here is the complete list in alphabetical order.
I Was Real by 75 Dollar Bill
Mandatory Reality by Joshua Abrams & Natural Information Society
Ancestral Recall by Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah
U.F.O.F. by Big Thief
Sahari by Aziza Brahim
RE_CORDIS by Bruno Bavota
i,i by Bon Iver
V by The Budos Band
African Giant by Burna Boy
Shepherd In A Sheepskin Vest by Bill Callahan
Ghosteen by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
All My Relations by Cochemea
A Good Time by Davido
Grow Towards The Light by Dire Wolves
Sun Cycle / Elk Jam by Elkhorn
Pianoworks by Eluvium
Blue Values by Eamon Fogarty
All Time Present by Chris Forsyth
Gold Past Life by Fruit Bats
One Of The Best Yet by Gang Starr
One Step Behind by Garcia Peoples
The Unseen In Between by Steve Gunn
Back At The House by Hemlock Ernst and Kenny Segal
The Gospel According to Water Joe Henry
Terms of Surrender by Hiss Golden Messenger
More Arriving by Sarathy Korwar
Miri by Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba
Sauropoda by L'Eclair
Ilana (The Creator) by Mdou Moctar
Stars Are The Light by Moon Duo
Three Chords and the Truth by Van Morrison
All Mirrors by Angel Olsen
Desire Path by One Eleven Heavy
Phoenix by Pedro the Lion
Rainford by Lee “Scratch” Perry
Purple Mountains by Purple Mountains
Rose City Band by Rose City Band
‘Sideways’ by Seryn
Out of Darkness by Some Dark Hollow
Illegal Moves by Sunwatchers
Amankor / The Exile by Tartit
Amadjar by Tinariwen
Preserves by Matt Valentine
Father of the Bride by Vampire Weekend
Remind Me Tomorrow by Sharon Van Etten
Come On Up To The House: Women Sing Waits by Various Artists
Water Weird by Wet Tuna
Ode To Joy by Wilco
The Sisypheans by Xylouris White
Walk Through The Fire by Yola
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Listen to Volume 01 of my 2019 Year-End Playlist
Listen to Volume 02 of my 2019 Year-End Playlist
Listen to Volume 03 of my 2019 Year-End Playlist
Listen to Volume 04 of my 2019 Year-End Playlist
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My Favorite music label of the year would have to be, without a doubt, Brooklyn’s Beyond Beyond is Beyond. Self-describes as: "“Music for Heads, by Heads,” which just about sums it up. More a vibe than a genre. A way of thinking than a particular style.
With five out of my favorite 49 albums of the year; (Dire Wolves, Garcia Peoples, L'Eclair, One Eleven Heavy, and Matt Valentine (plus, if I had expanded my list or included an “Honorable Mentions” section, this list would have expanded even more. That De Lorians is really good to mention only one more), no other single label presented as much music that I wanted to hear this year.
I can’t wait to hear what’s next.
As I’ve explained, rather than just give a context-less list, I’ve made a four-volume playlist of some of my favorite music of 2019. Each mix is as close to an hour as I could get it.
Today we dive in to Volume 03. Also, just to review again: there are 50 songs, but only 49 albums represented, since ‘Sideways’ by Seryn was released as a single. After lots of finagling, I just decided to leave it alone and enjoy the music. It is what it is and it is all great. I hope you enjoy this third installment.
Volume 03 Tracklisting:
‘Shadow Conductor’ by Joshua Abrams & Natural Information Society from the album Mandatory Reality
‘Ptah, The El Daoud’ by Sunwatchers from the album Illegal Moves
‘Spider Web Pt. 1’ by The Budos Band from the album V
‘One Step Behind’ by Garcia Peoples from the album One Step Behind
‘Water Bearing One by Dire Wolves from the album Grow Towards The Light
‘Telephone Song’ by Xylouris White from the album The Sisypheans
‘Love Is Everywhere’ by Wilco from the album Ode To Joy
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I keep thinking about what it means that Wilco titled their 11th album ‘Ode to Joy’.
The album often finds Jeff Tweedy in a reflective, even meditative, if not somber state. The topics aren’t exactly what you’d bring up at a dinner party (Or, if you did, most people wouldn’t invite you back).
Whether being startled out of staring at the knives in the kitchen drawer by the sound of the front door ringing through his guitar against the wall (‘Bright Leaves’), or feeling his blood run cold at the passing through of the sad ideas of losing a loved one (‘White Wooden Cross’). But if Tweedy is stuck inside his head, at least he lets us know what he’s thinking about. Life is hard. Relationships are hard and sometimes a person just feels stuck. I’m not sure I can change. I’m not sure you can change, but somehow, deep down, I know it’s all worth it, even if I don’t know why.
It’s a meditative, spacious record that doesn’t work as background noise. It is best heard either through headphones or really loud. It’s a record that asks for and rewards your attention. It’s not a big rock record but neither is it a quiet folk record. Anchored by Glenn Kotche’s skittering percussion, the record traffics in restraint (every guitar is denied) and asks you to immerse yourself. Largely eschewing cymbals, the album feels is initially jarring because it leaves out the high/bright splashes we’ve come to expect from so many records. It leaves us looking up in places we didn’t expect.
If relationships are the currency of life, then Tweedy understands that sometimes the account feels overdrawn. Relationships often feel more taxing than anything else. The album opens with Tweedy lamenting “I don’t like the way you’re treating me” and recognizes that sometimes when we argue, we’re not even sure which side we’re on, we’re just stuck in relational holding patterns that feel like we can never change (‘Bright Leaves’). So much so, that Tweedy recognizes that “Deep inside everyone hides some of the time” (‘Everyone Hides’).
But what happens when we’re tired of hiding? That seems to be a theme Tweedy is interested in exploring. Sometimes we know we’re stuck. Sometimes we know we’re not helpful and we certainly know that we don’t have the solution, even if we’re convinced that one exists. The album opener ends with the blunt statement: “You never change,” forcing us to ask whether we are prisoners of our own nature. Are we doomed to unhappy lives with unfulfilling relationships? Tweedy picks up this thread in ‘One And A Half Stars’, singing:
“There is no mother like pain
I'm left with only my desire to change
So what I stay in bed all day?
I can't escape my domain”
Even if we want to change, it feels like we can’t escape our natures or our circumtances.
But for all the isolation Tweedy might feel, there is also the notion that we cannot live alone, even when it frustrates us. Tweedy says in ‘One And A Half Stars’: “You mean too much to me I'm angry I could need so much.” Even when he is alone, he is/we are tied to those who have come before us (‘Before Us’) and we’ve got family “out there” (‘Empty Corner’). We all feel alone and yet we are all tied together.
This sense of what to make of our need for others is a theme throughout the record. ‘White Wooden Cross’ finds Tweedy again in his thoughts, but this time wondering to what he would do if a white wooden cross on the side of road meant that he had lost someone dear to him; even someone he’s angry that he needs. Even when we feel weighed down by our relationships, we’re not sure we would want to be without them.
Death, loss, failed relationships, the inability to change our circumstances; they are all present. And it’s not just relationships that seem to weigh Tweedy down. The album addresses riots, never-ending wars, the inability to change ourselves (or others), and self-deception. It’s not just inter-personal relationships that get us down because Society is made up of relationships. It’s all about us. We’re all in this together. And sometimes it feels like society is a mess. It’s easy to think in depressing terms. Vice says “The music is weary.” Vulture chooses the word “glum” while NPR says the album has a “heavy atmosphere.”
But the beauty here is that there is beauty to be found at all.
The full Vice quote reads: “The music is weary, but it's also the prettiest entry in the Chicago outfit's vast discography, one that synthesizes every era of the band's career into something forward-thinking and essential.” As my friend Jason Woodbury points out at Pitchfork, Tweedy “populates the album with surprise flashes of brightness, too. These are love songs about possibilities and the way our vision may be limited by our vantage point.” This leaves us to ask: “What might a shift in position reveal?” What if we don’t give in to despair?
I keep thinking about what it means that Wilco titled their 11th album ‘Ode to Joy’.
Of course there is the reference to Friedrich Schiller’s poem which was co-opted by Beethoven’s “Symphony No. 9”, whose opening stanza reads:
“Joy! A spark of fire from heaven, Daughter from Elysium, Drunk with fire we dare to enter, Holy One, inside your shrine. Your magic power binds together, What we by custom wrench apart, All men will emerge as brothers, Where you rest your gentle wings.”
There are certainly repeated themes if you read Schiller’s poem and listen to Wilco’s album, but we are all products of our times and I can’t help but wish that Tweedy meant more than literary allusion here. He looks frustration in the eye and chooses not to blink. These are difficult times. People are choosing politics over family. Our current president seems more intent on dividing than uniting. May of us feel alone.
And yet, in spite of it all, despite how hard it all is, Tweedy chooses not to give in to despair or hopelessness. He’s still got a desire to change that we should all hold on to. After all, society doesn’t change if individuals don’t change.. And there are things still worth believing in and fighting for. He sings on ‘Hold Me Anyway’:
Are we all in love just because?
No! I think it's poetry and magic
Something too big to have a name
And when you get it right it's still tragic
And when you die who's to blame?
Did you think everything would be okay?
Even knowing that it all feels tragic and it might not turn out okay, love is “poetry and magic, something too big to have a name.” Even when things don’t make sense, “Love is Everywhere,” and it’s power can be frightening (‘Love Is Everywhere’)"“
So many things I do
I can't explain to you
Right now, right now
Love is everywhere
Right now, I'm frightened how
Love is here, beware
In ‘One And A Half Stars’, Tweedy admits that he is worried about the way we’re all living. But he doesn’t respond with anger. He doesn’t give up. Instead, he says: “I'm worried about the way we're all living, and this is my love song.” He responds with a “love song.” He responds with love. Even when it doesn’t come naturally and certainly doesn’t come easy.
Love ties us all together. Love brings us out of ourselves into community. We are bound together for good or for ill, so why not choose joy even if those we are tied to don’t? We can name our shortcomings and we can acknowledge other people’s failings, but we’re all in this together.
The tension between individual and community seems to lie at the heart of ‘Ode to Joy.” On ‘Before Us’, Tweedy knows that even when he is physically alone, he belongs to those that came “before us’ and that we are part of a lineage. We are part of a community. This theme is repeated throughout the album, most notably in the closing track ‘Empty Corner’. Even if you don’t care, “You've got family out there.” Family transcend circumstances. Love ties us together. There is always reason to choose joy. Especially when things seem their bleakest.
Relationships, immediate and far are what make the world go around, even if no none likes it. We can’t escape this, so we have a choice. We’re left with only our own desire to change (‘One And A Half Stars’) and maybe that’s the point of this record. Things suck. But what are we going to do about it? What will each of us choose? Maybe, the best that we can hope for is to declare with Tweedy: “I tried, in my way, to love everyone'“ (‘Quiet Amplifier’). What more would you ask of your neighbor in difficult times?
It takes maturity to own our faults and name our difficulties. It takes wisdom to choose joy anyways.
Wilco week continues by pulling more from my live show stash. This time we get to bask in the infamous glory of Uncle Tupelo’s last show. A whopping 31 songs. All killer, no filler. Well, except that the last two songs here ‘Stay Free’ and ‘Wherever’ don’t seem to be part of the show, but they’ve always been on the discs I have and I’m not sure their lineage. They’ve just always been a part of this set for me so I’ve simply passed this show along to you as I’ve had it for lo, these many years.
Enjoy.
The notes that came with the show read as follows:
This is the legendary final Uncle Tupelo show. Haven't seen it posted here before, and it is a thing of beauty, so here you are. Enjoy!
Source: SBD (lineage unknown)
Quality: A
Uncle Tupelo
The Final Show, St. Louis, 01 May 1994
Disc 1: (64:34)
01 No Depression
02 Chickamauga
03 Watch Me Fall
04 Grindstone
05 Satan,Your Kingdom Must Come Down
06 Fifteen Keys
07 The Long Cut
08 Anodyne
09 New Madrid
10 Slate
11 Atomic Power
12 Postcard
13 Gun
14 High Water
15 Acuff Rose
16 True To Life
17 We've Been Had
18 Give Back The Key To My Heart
Disc 2: (57:53)
01 Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
02 Whiskey Bottle
03 Looking For A Way Out
04 Gimme Three Steps
05 Sandusky
06 Steal The Crumbs
07 Nothing
08 Life Worth Living
09 Willin'
10 Truck Drivin' Man
11 Effigy
12 Stay Free
13 Wherever
Loose Fur
12.07.02
St. Ann's Warehouse Brooklyn, NY
Loose Fur was (is?) a Jeff Tweedy side project with Jim O’Rourke and Glenn Kotche. They put out two albums, 2003’s self-titled release and the 2006 follow-up Born Again in the USA.
I have a few Loose Fur shows but I pull this one out to listen to more than the others because it’s a longer show than some of the others and the songs get a little more room to breathe here, and, I just really like this version of ‘Chinese Apple’ and I dig the longer ‘Chelsea Walls Theme’. This was night two of a two-night stand. I also have night one if you’re interested.
Enjoy.
In 2014, Wilco’s Nels cline partnered with Medeski Martin and Wood to record and release Woodstock Sessions, Vol. 2. Allmusic says of the release:
“Medeski, Martin & Wood have always played well with others. They did a string of great records in collaboration with John Scofield, and many of their albums have had invited guests; DJ Logic was practically an adjunct member for a while, and they even play on an Iggy Pop album (not exactly Iggy's finest moment, but that's another matter). Nels Cline also plays very well with others. Collaboration and improvisation were his stock in trade since long before he picked up the Wilco gig, and he continues to actively guest and collaborate while leading his own Nels Cline Singers. As good as the albums with Scofield were, Nels Cline is a very different type of player, and his affinity for effects really opens up the possibilities as far as pure sound. Cline can move from spacey ambience to raging leads to swirls of electronic-sounding madness and beyond. Pairing them seems like a great match on paper but it's even better recorded live in a studio with a small invited audience. Perhaps the most amazing thing is just how well Cline fits in with MMW's M.O.”
In honor of Wilco Week here at Holiday at the Sea, here is an excellent video of a full 2016 set featuring Nels Cline with Medeski Martin and Wood live at the Auditorio Stelio Molo RSI Lugano in Switzerland as part of the Cully Jazz Festival.
Enjoy!
Visit Wilco’s official website.
Follow Wilco on Facebook.
Follow Wilco on Twitter.
Purchase Wilco’s music at Amazon.
Visit Nels Cline’s official website.
Follow Nels Cline at Facebook.
Follow Nels Cline at Twitter.
Purchase Nels Cline’s music at Amazon.
Visit Medeski Martin and Wood’s official website.
Follow Medeski Martin and Wood at Facebook.
Follow Medeski Martin and Wood at Twitter.
Purchase Medeski Martin and Wood’s music at Amazon.
As we celebrate Wilco Week here at Holiday at the Sea, here is a live show I’ve held on to for years. This one features Wilco live at Chicago’s Grant Park as part of the “Taste of Chicago” festival.
The band was in fine form for the home town crowd and his was originally broadcast on WXRT FM and the sound is good, but the real reason I’ve held on to this one is that it was Jay Bennett’s last show with the band.
Enjoy.
Setlist:
01. I Am Trying to Break Your Heart
02. War on War
03. A Shot in the Arm
04. She's a Jar
05. I'm Always in Love
06. Airline to Heaven
07. Feed of Man
08. Remember the Mountain Bed
09. California Stars
10. Kamera
11. Ashes of American Flags
12. Red-Eyed and Blue
13. I Got You (At the End of the Century)
Encore:
14. I'm the Man Who Loves You
15. Sunken Treasure
16. Outta Mind (Outta Site)