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ARTS
24
'Yankee Hotel' a gift from the band who loves you
By Keith N. Dusenberry
Daily Music Editor
jaded modem youth!), he comes close.
First, though, let us praise Wilco for giving - yes,
giving - this record to their fans. Foxtrot has been
finished for almost a year. Wilco's (former) label,
Jeff Tweedy, Wilco's frontman, is trying - he has Reprise, wouldn't release it, so tht
been for a while. He's trying to get his record out to master tapes from the label and
the people, he's trying to make a good album, he's available for free download on the
trying to change Wilco (and therefore alt-country's praise the basic ideas of e-comm
core) as we know it. And as he sings on Yankee apparent (and probably intentiona
Hotel Foxtrot's opening track, he's trying to break standing of them. See, the band pa
your heart. And though he doesn't quite do it (You money to buy the record from Re
.F U T 0
e band bought the
made the album
eir website. Let us
erce and Wilco's
al) lack of under-
aid their own cash
prise so that they
could turn around and make the album available for peak of "I'm the Man Who Loves You" to the sound-
fr-ee to anyone who happened by their webpage. scape break down of "Reservations," Tweedy and the
(What is it about bands whose names begin with "W" boys project confidence in their flaunted fragility
and overly generous audio-video download pages?) and light heartedness in their seemingly dour
For this act alone, Wilco deserves a Grammy. demeanors.
But they will never get one, of A lot of the old Wilco sound
course. This artist support of fan- remains recognizable on Foxtrot.
based bands goes against everything "Kamera," "War on War" and "Pot
that stupidly stern-looking Californ- * * * ]Kettle Black" could fit on any record
ian lectured about during this year's from A.M. on up. Strum, drum, sing
awards ceremony. The industry would WILCO (and throw in a pedal steel or fiddle
like you to believe that there exists for good measure) - the alt-country
only one way for you to access a band Yankee Hotel Foxtrot formula survives. But other, more
and it's music, and vice versa. But Nonesuch adventurous tracks (these are the ones
alas, the little man behind the curtain that must have scared off Reprise) like
has been called out. "I'm Trying to Break Your Heart" and
And Jeff Tweedy knows that there's more than one "Radio Cure" sound as though Tweedy has been
way to seduce a listener, although it seems like he casually listening to early Neutral Milk Hotel sound
made Foxtrot to please himself and is just letting the salads: Jumbled collages punctuated by heartbreak-
rest of the world in to enjoy along with him, if they ingly sung, slightly wandering melodies.
should so choose. And so they - The most important
should choose. (Side note: I have , advances for Wilco musically
never understood the critical dis- involve, oddly, their new sub-
missal of an album based solely dued groovy-ness. Not that
on its level of self-indulgence.) they groove like a jam band
It's rather cinematic, [xro now, but on a few Foxtrot
is, with a well-sequenced series songs, the band learns to musi-
of rising and falling intensities cally maneuver a little more
From the sweepingly najestic "lwhile remaining within their
am Trying to Break Your Heart context - like Leonard Cohen
to the punchy "War on War," did with New Skin for the Old
through the moody "Ashes om Ceremony. Call it departure,
American Flags" and romping . call it growth -call it Foxtrot.
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