Alabama Shakes- “Hold On”
Volcano Choir- “Alaskans”
The Beatles- “Get Back”
Of Montreal- “Little Rock”
Foxygen- “San Francisco”
Bob Dylan- “Man of Constant Sorrow”
Superchunk- “Connecticut”
Before there was Wilco, there was an alternative country band named Uncle Tupelo which enjoyed moderate success with the dual lead singers Jay Farrar and Jeff Tweedy. The issue with Uncle Tupelo proved to be that the label “dual” only ended up being true in terms of song credits because Farrar and Tweedy grew to detest each other as they spent more time in the project, continuing up until Farrar decided to quit the band in 1994. This left the remaining group members in a bit of an awkward situation, but likely one that Tweedy was glad to find himself in as all of the other members of Uncle Tupelo sans-Farrar decided to stick with him post-split. The band got renamed to Wilco, a purposefully ironic term which is short for “Will Comply”, and released their debut album A.M. in 1995.
A.M. stayed true to the alternative-country sound that the band had been accustomed to playing in Uncle Tupelo in many ways, but don’t get that classification confused with the travesty of what is today called country. It was more Americana then that and by many accounts a successful debut album for the group which lent the band some credibility that they would still be releasing good music. Tweedy took over full ownership for vocals and song-writing, but a lot of people at the time held the opinion that Wilco would prove to be the less successful group in comparison to Farrar’s new project Son Volt and their better reviewed debut Trace.
Top Tracks: “Box Full of Letters“, “That’s Not the Issue“, “I Must Be High”
The opening track for Being There is named “Misunderstood”, and that track is infinitely more ambitious than anything that A.M. could claim. The message is sent that the band was going to try and take a step away from their previous sound and try to create a more meaningful brand of music, and it was met with better reviews and more album sales than their debut, an impressive feat for a double album which was written and recorded in the span of a year. In hindsight I actually end up preferring to listen to their debut over this, but the reason for that is because in terms of Wilco’s discography they went on to progress way past what was being accomplished on Being There. Still, this album served as a good starting point for the sound which would evolve into Summerteeth.
Track Picks: “Misunderstood“, “Forget the Flowers“, “The Lonely 1”
Mermaid Avenue was a projected that started when Woody Guthrie’s daughter approached Billy Bragg and asked him to record songs using a collection of never-before-recorded lyrics which Guthrie had composed. Bragg obliged and recruited Wilco to help out with the project, and today it’s actually evolved to include Mermaid Avenue, Mermaid Avenue Vol. II, and Mermaid Avenue Vol. III (which get combined into the box set Mermaid Avenue: The Complete Sessions). Good recordings to listen to, but unfortunately not-overly significant for the purpose of this article as it was a two artist collaboration where neither one was responsible for the lyrics.
Continue reading The Full Picture: Wilco
Avi Buffalo
Fleet Foxes
Ryan Adams
Sufjan Stevens
When you join our radio station, after you go through the process of shadowing shows, working the board, and passing the written test you come up to the final test: on-air clearance. This is about a fifteen minute long period of time where you are going to be left on your own, and you have to show that you’re capable of doing everything that will be required of you on your show. It’s a simple process to look back on because all that it truly tests is whether or not you feel comfortable being on the air yet, but it also provides you with a bit of a defining point. This is the first chance that you have ever gotten to choose a song to play over the radio.
This ‘defining first song’ theory admittedly doesn’t mean much in the grand scheme of what your show will be, but I would bet that 90% of our DJs they would say that the first song that they played over the air meant something to them. For me I didn’t choose to go with a classic or something trendy at the time to define myself, I went with a message: “Most People Are DJs” by the Hold Steady.
This was a comforting notion in my mind. There was a bit of doubt about whether or not I was actually qualified to be a DJ, to be the guy who decides for other people what music they are going to listen to next. In reality it takes a lot of confidence in your music taste to be able to take this step, and while I knew I had a good taste in music I wasn’t sure if it was going to be good enough for me to feel deserving. I knew it was something that I wanted to do badly though, and I entered the station despite my fears with the mentality that most people in this world are DJs, and I was going to find my way at the station in time.
Most of us are DJs in some way. We all have found songs that worked really well back to back while we walked with headphones on from class to class. We’ve all been at a party and thought about what track would be perfect to hear right now. What more is a radio show than organizing a set-list, a mix tape, and letting that play itself out. If the masses like it, than great, if not, who cares? The wisest advice I’ve heard since joining the station came from DJ Show at a meeting when he stated to just play what you like, and other people out there will like it to. You don’t need to know what the public is hoping to hear because for the most part they don’t know what they’re hoping to hear, all that they want is good song selection and good transitions. If they want to hear a song, they can use the request line.
Continue reading Revisiting a Viewpoint: Are Most People DJs?
Continuing from where we left off last week, here are numbers 90-81 on my list of favorite songs
“I’ll miss the boredom and the freedom and the time spent alone.”
I like the idea of a band growing up into stardom and not getting a say in it. It’s hard to complain because of how fortunate you are just to continue to be relevant for the time being, but the lifestyle robs you of some of the best parts of being alive. “Time to Pretend” dives into this mindset really well and covers a lot of the awful parts of the lifestyle, along with the necessity to pretend that things are never going wrong to maintain the image. In reality, MGMT never wanted to be the pop superstars, and that envious.
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“The closer you are/ The quicker it hits you.”
High energy, quick punching song to capture the awesomeness of Guided By Voices. It’s amazing to think about how talented Pollard is at working his way to choruses, and it’s how they always fill forty minute rock albums with twenty-two tracks. This one was one of the first GBV songs I loved when I re-dove into their discography, and it stays on the list because of the rock mentality message. The closer you are to a person/situation, the quicker it will hit you.
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“If she happens to suggest/ A love based on trust and respect/ Tell her I’ve been wasted since last week.”
It’s crazy to me how this is just the beginning to a bonus track on Stay Positive. It’s the ultimate dodger anthem; the guy who’s not really doing anything with his life right now, but wants to keep that a secret so people don’t have to worry about him. Lie about what we already did, come up with an excuse for why I never answer the phone, and try to get them to send more stuff.
Continue reading Kyle’s Favorite 100 Songs: 90-81
I’d like to state before anyone tries to declare anything wrong in these posts that I’m not trying to tell you what the 100 best songs of all time are. I’m not qualified to do that despite being familiar with a lot of music, I’m just trying to come up with a list of my 100 favorite songs and share that. This needs to be mentioned so that you understand that any time I talk about a song’s meaning or an artist’s intention, it could be completely against what is commonly thought of as what the artist intended to do. I don’t expect this situation to arise to often, but understand that all the writings are about how I’ve chosen to interpret the song and what it means to me (which is truly the only sensical way to approach the task).
With that being said, I do welcome conversation if you disagree with my interpretations, placement, inclusion or omission. I actually really hope that people provide continuous feedback, so that the process is a worthwhile endeavor, just don’t take any of my choices personally.
There will be updates every Monday featuring the next batch of songs, but for now I’m glad to start off with the Honorable Mentions, or the songs that I considered but didn’t land in the top 100.
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The Beatles- Norwegian Wood (The Bird Has Flown)
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The Beatles- With A Little Help From My Friends
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Daniel Johnston- Funeral Home
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Death Cab for Cutie- The Employment Pages
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The Decemberists- Raincoat Song
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The Decemberists- The Rake’s Song
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The Flaming Lips- Waitin’ For A Superman
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Fleet Foxes- Blue Spotted Tail
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Frightened Rabbit- The Modern Leper
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The Hold Steady- How A Resurrection Really Feels
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The Hold Steady- You Can Make Him Like You
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The Long Winters- Cinnamon
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Los Campesinos!- The Sea Is a Good Place To Think About the Future
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The Mountain Goats- The Best Ever Death Metal Band In Denton
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The National- Green Gloves
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Neutral Milk Hotel- In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
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Portugal. The Man- Do You
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The Postal Service- Such Great Heights
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Ryan Adams- To Be Young
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Spoon- You Got Yr Cherry Bomb
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The Strokes- Someday
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The Yeah Yeah Yeahs- Modern Romance
WCDB Airwaves 