Down With Wilco

I received the Wilco live album, Kicking Television, for Christmas, and I was very excited. But after a couple of listens, I have to say I think Wilco might be heading into that "good at what they do but not really for me" category. Why reproduce the horrible noise from "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" live? Does anybody think, "You know, what I really love about that record is the unlistenable noise between the otherwise great songs. The parts that are almost impossible to listen to really make it. Boy, I hope they have a radio tuned between stations when they play live!" Also, would it kill you to rock just a little bit?

Well, maybe I'm just not in the right frame of mind for it right now. I've been listening to the Minus 5 a lot--several songs from "In Rock" are just fantastic. Interestingly, though, with the exception of "Retrieval of You", which is a great stalker song, their worst album is "Down With Wilco". (Which should be understood like Run-DMC's "Down With the King", as in, "I'm down with Wilco," rather than, you know, down with Wilco) Comparing the tuneful, poppy version of "Days of Wine and Booze" on "At the Organ" with the slow, partially deconstructed version on "Down With Wilco", I can't help suspecting Jeff Tweedy's noise-lovin' influence.

My favorite Minus 5 songs are "Over the Sea," "In a Lonely Coffin," and the moronic/genius track "Lyrical Stance," whose lyrics I reproduce here:

"I've got a lyrical stance (3x)
Yeah yeah yeah yeah

I've got something in my pants (3x)
And it's a lyrical stance

I've got a coupla chords (3x)
And a lyrical stance

yeah yeah yeah yeah
A lyrical stance (3 or 4 repetitions of this couplet)

yeah yeah yeah yeah."

One minute and twenty-six seconds of rock and roll perfection.