I'm white, male, of a certain age, so...yeah, I'm required by law to be a Wilco fan. And I am, I'm not fighting it, but I'm not a super fan. Example: there's a 2 CD best-of Wilco comp out, and I'd bet I only know half of the songs. The box posted above is even more obscure to me: 4 CDs of live tracks, demos and one-offs that surfaced on various EPs and bonus discs over the years. It's a bit of a conundrum to me that there are so many of these songs that I like better than the tracks that made up some of the official albums. The liner notes indicate that some tracks didn't play well with the other album tracks, but Jeff's never had a problem throwing a spanner in the works and just piling noise onto Americana (as I noted very much earlier, faithful reader.) But there are album tracks that just aren't that good (to my ancient ears) and I mentally beg Jeff to put the guitar down and take a break. And then THIS comes out, and this collection of cast-offs sounds so much better than some of the official tracks -- what's up?
Jeff recorded a 'solo' album last year with his son on drums, and they're touring a bit in support.
I don't know, the 2 CD best-of, this 4 CD box -- it sure sounds to me like a "summing up", but maybe they're just taking a break for other projects. And there are tour dates this summer to celebrate 20 years of Wilco, so maybe they are just clearing the decks for the next 20 years.
Anyway, this box contains a lot of great music, and I think it might have the only officially-released-on-CD live version of "Impossible Germany" which has become (for me) Wilco's "Dark Star", the Grateful Dead song that Deadheads couldn't get enough of. Maybe it's because it was the first live version I heard, but for me, the version on the DVD "Ashes of American Flags" is still the one to beat.
And finally, props to the library for buying this so I could check it out!
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