Tunesday Thread - Volume 897,436, Issue 42

[ForeverAutumn]

My week in review....

Saga - Greatest Hits '78 - '93
Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot - (what does this title mean, anyway?)
Wilco - Summerteeth - Should I buy A Ghost is Born? I've heard such varying reviews.
Elbow - Leaders of the Free World - I like.
A Perfect Circle - Mer De Noms
A Perfect Circle - Thirteenth Step
James Bedlam - Back to Bedlam - The jury's still out on this one.

Now Playing - Maximo Park - A Certain Trigger - This is my first spin. I picked this up based on a rec from Mike. I'm liking it a lot. Kind of a cross between The Killers and The Kaiser Chiefs. Very good so far.

I went CD shopping on the weekend. Can you tell? hehehe.

Other purchases, not yet listened to:
Death Cab for Cutie - We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes
Tool - Lateralus
Soundgarden - Superunknown

[Duds]

While breaking in my beautiful new Von Schweikert VR-1's in the African Hazelwood finish, I have been listening to

A Perfect Cirle - Thirteenth Step
Opeth - Damnation
Neil Young - Greatest hits
Ozric Tentacles
Andreas Vollenweider
Tori Amos - beekeeper
Tool - Lateralus

My week in review....

Saga - Greatest Hits '78 - '93
Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot - (what does this title mean, anyway?)
Wilco - Summerteeth - Should I buy A Ghost is Born? I've heard such varying reviews.
Elbow - Leaders of the Free World - I like.
A Perfect Circle - Mer De Noms
A Perfect Circle - Thirteenth Step
James Bedlam - Back to Bedlam - The jury's still out on this one.

Now Playing - Maximo Park - A Certain Trigger - This is my first spin. I picked this up based on a rec from Mike. I'm liking it a lot. Kind of a cross between The Killers and The Kaiser Chiefs. Very good so far.

I went CD shopping on the weekend. Can you tell? hehehe.

Other purchases, not yet listened to:
Death Cab for Cutie - We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes
Tool - Lateralus
Soundgarden - Superunknown

[Davey]

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot - (what does this title mean, anyway?

It's from the phonetic alphabet that the military uses for radio communications to avoid confusion with the spoken letters. Shortwave operators as well. For instance my initials, dbi, would be delta bravo india. You can hear a woman's spoken voice over the radio at the end of the "Poor Places" repeating yankee hotel foxtrot over and over. But I don't know the significance of the letters yhf.

Been on a David Kilgour binge myself. I'm really an addict. No help in sight. Lost. The Heavy Eights have taken over my mind ...

[ForeverAutumn]

It's from the phonetic alphabet that the military uses for radio communications to avoid confusion with the spoken letters. Shortwave operators as well. For instance my initials, dbi, would be delta bravo india. You can hear a woman's spoken voice over the radio at the end of the "Poor Places" repeating yankee hotel foxtrot over and over. But I don't know the significance of the letters yhf.

Been on a David Kilgour binge myself. I'm really an addict. No help in sight. Lost. The Heavy Eights have taken over my mind ...

Sorry, I should have been more clear in my question. It was the significance of YHF that I was after. Thanks for your detailed response though.

[Jim Clark]

A couple of bootlegs from the Editors. Awesome stuff if you like the Interpol doing their best to channel Joy Division stuff, which of course I do. At times he goes into the same steely voiced singing a la Interpol, making the similarities even more pronounced. Personally I love it and am going to see if the local disc shop has it in the isles.

Spent some time with the new BSS and at present am liking the freebie EP a lot more than the disc proper.

Grabbed the latest Calla CD and should pressed Stone more for a review first. The clips I hit at random at All music.com must have been the few tracks that really soar. When a track takes off, it really flies but overall a little too much time on the tarmac for me to recomend this disc.

And of course the new Depeche Mode. What can you say- it's a Depeche Mode album following the tried and true formula that always bears at least some fruit. Not a top 10'er but not a let down either.

some other boots like from My Morning Jacket, a reasonably good sounding recording of their "Hot"lanta gig that was the first of the new tour. All the new songs made the set save one. I wasn't mesmerized but a few more spins may encourage me to grab the new album.

And of course rehashing lots of stuff like Le Tigre, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Wolf Parade and such. Good week overall.

jc

[newtrix1]

doesn't make me want to share, but I guess it's better than just lurkin' right?

Lambchop - what another man spills: I ordered this cd after reading AMG's description of the album. Quite disappointing, because I was expecting something very different, they really didn't describe it well IMO. Reminded me a lot like what I've heard from Tindersticks, another band that left me a bit cool.

Stars - Set Yourself On Fire: A few tracks got better with more listens, but overall the disc is not exactly jumping into my cd player by itself.

Toy Matinee - s/t: Picked this up based on a rec here on Raverecs. Thought maybe I'd missed a classic from the last decade, I didn't.

Oh, I listened to a good audio book on a recent road trip: Montana 1948 , does that count?

[noddin0ff]

(smog): Dongs of Sevotion, Knock Knock – a hybrid of Lou Reed and Leonard Cohen except with melody? Strayed from DoS; Held, Cold Blooded Old Times from KK outstanding.
Dire Straits: Dire Straits
Stanton Moore: Flyin the Koop
Iggy Pop: Nude & Rude (Best of)
The American Seasons (Mark O’ Connor): Very pleasant
Lounge Lizards: Queen of All Ears, Voice of Chunk
Herbie Hancock: Speak like a Child (my fave.), Head Hunters, Maiden Voyage
Schoolhouse Rock: Since I figured out how to rip audio from DVD, I’ve been listening to the complete collection of Schoolhouse Rock from the 30th anniversary DVD. Forty-six (46) tracks! Rufus Xavier Sarsaparilla (pronouns) may be displacing my childhood fave, The Preamble.

[Mike]

A couple of bootlegs from the Editors. Awesome stuff if you like the Interpol doing their best to channel Joy Division stuff, which of course I do. At times he goes into the same steely voiced singing a la Interpol, making the similarities even more pronounced. Personally I love it and am going to see if the local disc shop has it in the isles. jc

Good to see The Editors making inroads across the water, that debut album is a good un' dare I say it more Interpol than Interpol at times.

Plus glad you like Maximo Park FA. It's always a downer when you rave about something and people don't like it.

My listens since last week

Sinead O Connor - Throw Down Your Arms, Sinead does reggae? not as bad as you might think with her folky voice it brings a new dimension to these classic songs, me likes.

Mars Volta - Frances The Mute
Bloc Party - Silent Alarm
My Morning Jacket - Z (anybody managed to rip this? I struggled)
Kaiserchiefs - Employment
Bedouin Soundclash - Sounding A Mosaic
Richard Thompson - Front Parlour Ballads
The Verve - Greatest Hits (forgot just how good this band were)
James - Greatest Hits (another lost gem, they went off a bit near the end though)


Cheers
Mike

[ForeverAutumn]

Stars - Set Yourself On Fire: A few tracks got better with more listens, but overall the disc is not exactly jumping into my cd player by itself.

I put this into a listening station while I was out CD shopping last weekend. It didn't make it to the cash register.

[SlumpBuster]

That Lateralus record is good stuff. I've been listening to it alot on headphones while playing Doom 3... very scary stuff.

In heavy rotation on the turntable:
Oasis - "Don't believe the truth." Oasis returns to form.
Yaz - "You and me both." Still, for my money, one of the best produced synthpop records of the 80s.

The car changer is loaded with some guilty, but solid, pleasures. This newer crop of rock bands has gotten me a little warn out already. The Killers, Decemberists, Kaiserchiefs, ect are just not standing up to multiple listenings with me. Although Deathcabn for Cutie is really starting to grow on me.

Gwen Stefani - LAMB
Reel Big Fish - Why do they rock so hard?
Bloodhound Gang -Hooray for Boobies.
Insane Clown Posse - Great Melinko
Ash - Meltdown
Gadjits - Today is my day (The best universally ignored death rattle of a band that practically never was. A recording so raw to can smell the cigarettes, alcohol, and purple haze.)

[Jim Clark]

Gadjits - Today is my day (The best universally ignored death rattle of a band that practically never was. A recording so raw to can smell the cigarettes, alcohol, and purple haze.)

You're not from Kansas City by any chance are you? Surprised to see a Gadjits mention is all.

jc

[Jim Clark]

I put this into a listening station while I was out CD shopping last weekend. It didn't make it to the cash register.

It's official - you guys are just plain goofy!

Actually given that FA is the resident Prog Queen and Rick is the resident, well whatever you are the King of (loud headache inducing Rock?) you probably wouldn't be my most likely candidates for liking this record. But the truth of the matter is that this joint is for checking stuff out and that you did is cool.

jc

[SlumpBuster]

You're not from Kansas City by any chance are you? Surprised to see a Gadjits mention is all.

jc

Ahhh... Kansas City. Home of world reknowned BBQ and strip joints where your allowed touch the girls.

Nope. Not from KC. Just been there a bunch. First saw the gadjits in 97 as a support act in Detroit. Can't even tell you who the headliner was now. They had been on some punk samplers so I was familiar. But the show was such a balls out trainwreck (thats a good thing) that I was hooked.

[noddin0ff]

From wikipedia
The album features recordings from numbers stations, and is named after one of them: a looped recording at the end of the song "Poor Places" of a mysterious female voice reciting "yankee hotel foxtrot" over and over. The woman recorded in the clip is alleged to be a Mossad agent.

The sample came from the Conet Project.There was a lawsuit for copyright infringement
http://www.irdial.com/conet.htm

Here's a link to an NPR 'All Things Considered' report about the Conet Project(audio)
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...toryId=4167689

Very interesting!

[GMichael]

Sorry, I should have been more clear in my question. It was the significance of YHF that I was after. Thanks for your detailed response though.

Music Archives: Most Recent | Highest Rated | Alphabetical | Highest Rated 2005

Calling All Stations
Wilco: Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

Nonesuch, 2002

Rating: 5.0




Posted: May 7, 2002

By Laurence Station

Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (YHF) comes with a lot of baggage. Recorded during the first half of 2001, the album was initially slated for a summer release by the band's label, Reprise, only to be pushed back, and finally dropped altogether. Certain executives at Reprise felt the record was too inaccessible and needed changes. Wilco staunchly refused to alter a single note. Fortunately for the group, and the rest of us, Reprise allowed Wilco to buy back the master tapes and shop YHF to other labels. Enter Nonesuch (ironically, like Reprise, a Warner Brothers subsidiary), which agreed to put out the record as Wilco intended. Chalk one up for those who stick to their guns, because YHF is not only Wilco's finest achievement to date, but a bona fide masterpiece as well.

Drawing inspiration from such diverse sources as Chicago's famed Marina Towers (which eventually wound up as the cover shot) to the Conet Project, a four-disc collection of mysterious shortwave radio transmissions that may or may not be Cold War-era governments passing coded messages to remote agents, YHF is the culmination of Wilco's musical vision as well as a fascinating mediation on how we communicate in an increasingly complicated world.

Whereas Wilco’s Being There (1996) was a refinement (of quantum leap proportions, actually) over the band’s 1995 debut, A.M., (thanks primarily to the addition of multi-instrumentalist Jay Bennett), YHF can be seen as a clearer distillation of the marvelously listenable but overproduced Summerteeth (1999). YHF clarifies all the ideas about chaos, love and the perils of success that ringleader Jeff Tweedy's explored on earlier efforts, while Jim O'Rourke's production reigns in the indulgent tendencies evident on the prior releases, making for a tightly focused yet intricately layered work. Sadly, Jay Bennett left Wilco after the completion of the record and the future sound of the band will certainly be measured against the lack of his presence.

"I Am Trying To Break Your Heart" opens YHF with a brooding, drum-laden buildup that bears similarities to, and improves on, Being There's bombastic lead track "Misunderstood." A ringing alarm clock and disquieting piano bars tickle unpleasant memories from our narrator after he awakens from an all night bender ("American aquarium drinker") and recalls -- with stinging clarity -- his actions from the previous evening. After venturing off to torpedo a budding relationship ("I assassin down the avenue"), he eventually passed out, but not before proclaiming his true feelings for the person he'd just pushed away ("I'm the man who loves you"). "I Am Trying…" perfectly encapsulates a man who's only happy being miserable, working hard to cripple an otherwise promising relationship.

"Radio Cure" could be about the same man, sober now and trying to get back what was lost; not self-pitying, but owning up to his obvious shortcomings, taking responsibility for his actions and acknowledging that "distance has no way of making love understandable," as radio static crackles in the background. "War On War" tackles optimism in the face of adversity, its opening acoustic strum giving way to radio squawks and hissing bleats interwoven with feedback drenched turmoil. Through all that hope shines through: "You have to learn how to die/If you wanna wanna be alive." "Jesus, Etc." with its soulful horns and earnest plea that "our love is all we have," reinforces the album's central theme of the stark division between the loved and unloved, contrasting it with a celestial hierarchy separating bright stars from dying suns.

"Ashes Of American Flags," sporting a windswept, spaciously played and patiently introspective structure, exposes Tweedy at his most profoundly understated ("I know I would die/If I could come back new") and with a penchant for making the most mundane observations sound positively epic: "I could spend three dollars/and sixty-three cents/on diet coca-cola/and unlit cigarettes."

The peak track (and thematic center) of YHF is "I'm The Man Who Loves You," a lurching coda to the album's opener. Reiterating the closing drunken slur from "I Am Trying..." the song's dirty, ragged guitar breaks punctuate the narrator's efforts to write a letter of reconciliation to his departed lover, crumpling up sheet after sheet but slowly gaining confidence in his titular statement of purpose by song's end.

The penultimate “Poor Places” contains some of the most insightful, heartfelt lyrics Tweedy’s yet penned, while the closing "Reservations" warbles drowsily in a slightly off-kilter, drifting-off-to-sleep as-the-TV-plays manner that offers a final promise, tinged with uncertainty as a brooding storm rolls in: "I've got reservations about so many things/But not about you."

There's an overcast density to YHF that makes for some heavy slogging at points. Fortunately, more upbeat tracks, like "Kamera," "Heavy Metal Drummer" and "Pot Kettle Black," are smartly sequenced and keep matters from becoming overly moribund.

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is weighty in its ideas and execution, but it's hardly dour, offering an optimistic outlook throughout. It does, however, demand close listening. Not to say that it should be relegated to the insular domain of "headphone music," but there's a lot happening here. It's to O'Rourke's and Tweedy's credit that the final mix never gets too top heavy. And, unlike the furtive numbers stations filling the Conet Project that inspired it, YHF does more than zip across the airwaves and then vanish -- a one-way communication offering no hope of a reply. It exists just as the band intended, spared from languishing in some anonymous vault for countless years before finally reaching the masses. That alone is a triumph worth broadcasting to all willing to listen.

[Mr MidFi]

About YHF, two things...

1. My brother and I have had a heated disagreement as to whether the person speaking that line on "Poor Places" is an English woman (as I say), or an English boy. After repeated listenings on some pretty good headphones, I have to say... meh, could go either way. Listen again and tell me what you think.

2. I recall reading something about the significance (or lack thereof) of those exact letters when the album came out. I believe the sound clip was used before they titled the album, and they just liked the idea of some message, in quasi-code, emerging from the noise and fuzz and clatter. (And by "they" I mean "Tweedy," of course.) I don't think the specific letters are meant to be meaningful.

I think the words "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" make a great album name, regardless of meaning. It sounds like some crazy dance step you can only do after multiple shots at the lobby bar of the Yankee Hotel.

[ForeverAutumn]

From wikipedia
The album features recordings from numbers stations, and is named after one of them: a looped recording at the end of the song "Poor Places" of a mysterious female voice reciting "yankee hotel foxtrot" over and over. The woman recorded in the clip is alleged to be a Mossad agent.

The sample came from the Conet Project.There was a lawsuit for copyright infringement
http://www.irdial.com/conet.htm

Here's a link to an NPR 'All Things Considered' report about the Conet Project(audio)
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...toryId=4167689

Very interesting!

That NPR report was fascinating. Thanks for posting the link.

[ForeverAutumn]

I don't think the specific letters are meant to be meaningful.

I think the words "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" make a great album name, regardless of meaning. It sounds like some crazy dance step you can only do after multiple shots at the lobby bar of the Yankee Hotel.

Now that I know the origin, I would tend to agree with you. It's just a great album name, no hidden meaning.

[newtrix1]

It's official - you guys are just plain goofy!

Actually given that FA is the resident Prog Queen and Rick is the resident, well whatever you are the King of (loud headache inducing Rock?) you probably wouldn't be my most likely candidates for liking this record. But the truth of the matter is that this joint is for checking stuff out and that you did is cool.

jc

I think the album has it's moments, but at this point it's not getting under my skin at all. You know the feeling.... when it's over, that's it, it doesn't call me back the next day.
And I'd bet that if everyone here got a copy to listen to, me and FA would likely be in the minority.

I guess I did put out several comps that would make me worthy of your title, but by no means is that my steady diet. (would insert a smiley here but I know you don't like them).

[audiobill]

.

My listens since last week

Sinead O Connor - Throw Down Your Arms, Sinead does reggae? not as bad as you might think with her folky voice it brings a new dimension to these classic songs, me likes.

Mars Volta - Frances The Mute
Bloc Party - Silent Alarm
My Morning Jacket - Z (anybody managed to rip this? I struggled)
Kaiserchiefs - Employment
Bedouin Soundclash - Sounding A Mosaic
Richard Thompson - Front Parlour Ballads
The Verve - Greatest Hits (forgot just how good this band were)
James - Greatest Hits (another lost gem, they went off a bit near the end though)


Cheers
Mike

Hey, Mike.

How are you liking Frances the Mute??

Btw., First Willie Nelson puts out a reggae album and now Sinead - What's this world coming to?? Leonard Cohen doen's have a reggae album, yet, does he? heh, heh,....

Oh,yeah. That Beadouin Soundclash -- any good?

Cheers,
Bill

[audiobill]

It's official - you guys are just plain goofy!

Actually given that FA is the resident Prog Queen and Rick is the resident, well whatever you are the King of (loud headache inducing Rock?) you probably wouldn't be my most likely candidates for liking this record. But the truth of the matter is that this joint is for checking stuff out and that you did is cool.

jc

Hey, JC.

That makes two of us. I really like the Stars release.

Cheers, I'm on fire,
Bill

[Jim Clark]

Hey, JC.

That makes two of us. I really like the Stars release.

Cheers, I'm on fire,
Bill

Well, yeah...but I already knew you were cool.

jc

[Jim Clark]

I think the album has it's moments, but at this point it's not getting under my skin at all. You know the feeling.... when it's over, that's it, it doesn't call me back the next day.
And I'd bet that if everyone here got a copy to listen to, me and FA would likely be in the minority.

I guess I did put out several comps that would make me worthy of your title, but by no means is that my steady diet. (would insert a smiley here but I know you don't like them).

I knew you were good for more than that but it's the closest thing I could put into words.

jc - where the smiley is alway on!

[ForeverAutumn]

It's official - you guys are just plain goofy!

Actually given that FA is the resident Prog Queen and Rick is the resident, well whatever you are the King of (loud headache inducing Rock?) you probably wouldn't be my most likely candidates for liking this record. But the truth of the matter is that this joint is for checking stuff out and that you did is cool.

jc

Like Rick said...it didn't suck hippo balls. But it wasn't intriguing enough to hand $13 over for either. I would have enjoyed it more if it was only male vocals. It lost some points as soon as the chick started singing.

Besides, I'm not as much as a Prog Queen as I used to be. You guys have been a bad influence on me.

Too bad. I like smilies and I'm using them.

[Zombie]

My week in review.... Elbow - Leaders of the Free World - I like.

Ooh, that's a good one, huh? Do you know their debut? Asleep In The Back? Great band. One of the best in the last few years. The new one really started to come together for me after about three listens, and now the glow just gets a little brighter with each listen. Really draws me back for more. Lots of depth to the songs, and lots of complexity to explore. Still lots of that Peter Gabriel "Red Rain" sound that I think most people like too from the first one. The new British Sea Power is pretty nice too.