VW commercials - Wilco

[rthomas]

I haven't really liked whole Wilco cds - a few songs here and there were ok.

But after hearing/seeing several Wilco-VW ads on tv, I decided to take a listen to the new cd 'Sky Blue Sky' and I have to say- it's pretty damn good. In fact, I listen to this cd alot recently.

The VW ads have worked as far as I am concerned. Wilco, woohoo. Maybe I'll buy a Scirocco. Does VW make those anymore? Oh, maybe a Super Beatle.

[NovaScotian]

the new wilco is indeed quite good. aside from a few throwaway tracks, it probably ranks as one of the top however many of the past year. i think the addition of nels cline recording with them adds a sick sick level of musicality that they havent had, but still, it really doesnt compare to the rest of their catalogue i'm surprised you havent enjoyed yhf or a ghost is born, two truly fantastic listening experiences.

on the vw note, i do always cringe when i see a band i like in a television commercial, but it doesnt always turn out that bad. plus, it looks like wilco is a bit over the hill anyway, so i dont think them 'selling out' would be a big problem

[Mal]

I can't believe you just called Wilco over the hill. That just makes me feel so old. In reality, though, Cline's 50+ and Tweedy's got to be close to 40, so in rock n' roll terms, he's absolutely right, I suppose. Heck, No Depression's closing in on 20 years now. Regardless, on the VW thing, I was a little worried at first but (a) it's a band that's shown a pretty significant desire to not be corporate slaves so they're owed a little leaway here, and (b) everybody's in ads today. If Spoon can do a car ad, then so can Wilco.

As for Sky Blue Sky, I generally agree with NovaScotian - it's good and Cline adds a whole different dimension, but it feels a bit like an album in transition to me and can't hold a candle to YHF. Some of the songs are direct outgrowths from YHF and Ghost, but others are throwbacks to Summerteeth or even Being There. It just wasn't as overall congruent as the last couple albums. That said, Impossible Germany is a killer tune. The first minute and a half of Cline's solo is a thing of rare beauty.

If rthomas likes the more tuneful VW songs instead of the more sonically ambitious experiments of Wilco, I'd suggest going all the way back to Being There and the Mermaid Avenue albums, if he wasn't already familiar with them. I could see a non-"fan" liking those front to back more than the more recent stuff.

[hc5duke]

I can't believe you just called Wilco over the hill.

Doesn't that require that they were at some point on top of the hill? I had never heard of Wilco until they came to play at Duke (2003 last day I think? IIRC they were opening for Better than Ezra)...

[NovaScotian]

i think the hill we're referring to is the hill of excellence, not necessarily the hill of popularity.

w/r/t wilco being over hill, i dont mean it in a real negative way - i'm sure theyre still a tremendous live act in spite of their 'age'. i was just noting that i think their musically past their prime.

Mal: spoon in a car commercial was weird too, right? but that song stinks anyway, and doesnt really fit in well with the rest of their catalogue, even the other songs on gimme fiction.

[Mal]

Gotcha. I'm just sensitive to the age issue lately, I guess. :^)

It was startling to hear Spoon in a Jaguar ad, of all things. I do like "I Turn My Camera On" though. It doesn't sound totally of a piece with everything else they've done, but it's a great groove, and I can't think of anyone else writing a song like that. So in that respect, at least, it's very Spoon-like, I think. What freaked me out more was when my wife was watching Grey's Anatomy and I heard Rilo Kiley.

In the age of chat rooms, blogs and wikipedia, where people can hear a song on a television show and both find out who performed it and buy the album the next morning online, getting your catchy tune on TV is a seriously awesome access point. I may have hated The O.C. and Gilmore Girls with a passion, but I can't blame all the artists lining up to get their songs played on them for 10 million college kids. I don't think that phenomenon's going anywhere, either.