The Official Needles and Grooves 1001 Album Generator Project (aka Preachin’ about the Preachers if today’s selection sucks)

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So, I really love a YouTube channel called Polyphonic. Guy does video essays about music. He recently did one about the death of genre.

Anyhow, he does a podcast with another YouTuber called 12 Tone. This guy did a response video on how genre is still useful.

In this second video he says Dad Rock is Boomer music. Now Wilco is the epitome of Dad Rock to me (along with War on Drugs) and my Dad, an actual boomer thinks Wilco is a gas station and WoD is one of few things Reagan got right.

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Wilco is actually how I came to be with all you fine folk. When my daughter graduated high school we bought her a fancy Crosley. This resulted in me getting my 75 original records from my dad’s attic which lead to my wife getting me the lp60 for Christmas that year. I decided to join VMP because I had been seeing the ads for AM on Facebook. I joined with Lapsley and bought Wilco and Paranoid when I joined.
 
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TrainFan73 said:
6/14/24
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Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot



www.allmusic.com

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot - Wilco | Album | AllMusic

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot by Wilco released in 2002. Find album reviews, track lists, credits, awards and more at AllMusic.
www.allmusic.com www.allmusic.com
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An all time favorite of mine. It’s beautiful, dense ornate, and heartfelt the production work of Jay Bennett. Jim O’Rourke, and Tweedy almost rivals Brian Wilson’s best (though these guys had the benefit of ProTools). I have listened to this album numerous times and it’s can still surprise me all these years later.
 
TrainFan73 said:
Hey good job book, they mention that you should watch I Am Trying to Break Your Heart. I may dust that and Ashes of American Flags out over the weekend.
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Are any other Wilco albums on the list? For me, Being There, Summerteeth, and YHF should all definitely be on the list. and if they were to kick off a few other questionable albums, I would not really complain if A Ghost Is Born and/or Sky Blue Sky made the list as well.
 
TrainFan73 said:
Yeah TLK, I am a firm Being There guy. On any given day I might say Summerteeth beats this. The older I get, the more I realize everything that was revolutionary here was in those two records.
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If you've never stumbled across this, you're in for a treat. I recorded this back in '97 when I got MuchMusic on the ol' Sony Hi-Fi VHS machine. They had some really neat live sets.

This is short and sweet and features all Being There songs.

This sums up the giddy joy Jay brought to the band in 30 minutes. A great watch...

 
TrainFan73 said:
Yeah TLK, I am a firm Being There guy. On any given day I might say Summerteeth beats this. The older I get, the more I realize everything that was revolutionary here was in those two records.
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I get that to an extent. Though I feel like it all crystallized with YHF. Personally, I feel that O’Rourke was integral to pulling Trweedy and Bennett into a new space. There is an added dissonance on YHF that isn’t present on Summerteeth or Being There. With Summerteeth Jay Bennett took ProTools and the Brian Wilson playbook and created beautiful orchestral pop arrangements (not completely different from what Dave Fridmanm and Jon Brion were masterminding around the same time). Where YHF takes it to the next level is they were still creating these beautiful orchestral pop pieces but Jim O’Rourke was ripping these pieces apart and put back together again. I love O’Rourke, his solo work along with addition to Sonic Youth a responsible for some of my favorite albums over the past 30 years but Bennett, O’Rourke, and Tweedy creating together really made magic happen.
 
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I’ve seen Wilco once - when they were supporting Sky Blue Sky. My Eldest went with me. She would have been 11 or 12. Bon Iver opened. I’d never heard of Vernon at that point. Been a fan of him ever since.

Wilco tore it up that night. They rocked. It was at Koka Booth.

We had front row seats. I remember some knucklehead threw the seat cover from their chair. Tweedy was like “if you’re gonna throw things at me, it’s dumb to throw something that tells me exactly where to find you.”
 
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