wilco (2 Viewers)

[Lord Damian]

why the jeff tweedy hate? he's very funny.

i have a soft spot in my heart for Jay Bennett; also, i think JT occasionally takes himself far too seriously. truth, he's probably not that bad of a guy - he just left a bad taste in my mouth when he fucked Bennett outta the band. good call on hiring Kotchke (sp?) - great musician.

 

[Anthony]

In this order:

Ghost Is Born
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Summerteeth
Being There
A.M.

they only have some tour edition of Ghost is Born with 4 songs on it. YHT it is so.

 

[coast to coast]

i have a soft spot in my heart for Jay Bennett; also, i think JT occasionally takes himself far too seriously. truth, he's probably not that bad of a guy - he just left a bad taste in my mouth when he fucked Bennett outta the band. good call on hiring Kotchke (sp?) - great musician.

agreed about kotche but i have no soft spot for jay bennett, even if he was a bit of a whiz on the keyboards. i think he acts a bit of a spa in that film they did, though obviously it could've been edited as such.

 

[Lord Damian]

agreed about kotche but i have no soft spot for jay bennett, even if he was a bit of a whiz on the keyboards. i think he acts a bit of a spa in that film they did, though obviously it could've been edited as such.

hmmm...yeah, i see yr point, he did seem a bit hard to work with, but like you said it may have been edited to show that...i just think he was an all-around great musician (guit/keys/vox) that lost a battle of egos. whatever...seems to be doing OK now.

 

[Jim A. Morrish]

JAY BENNETT (ex-Wilco)

releases debut solo album

THE MAGNIFICENT DEFEAT


out on Rykodisc 25th Sept.2006


Rykodisc is thrilled to announce the signing of songwriter/producer/multi-instrumentalist Jay Bennett. His long-anticipated solo opus The Magnificent Defeat (RCD10880) is set for release on September 25.

This marks the first artist signing for Rykodisc as a Warner Music Group company. Jay was attracted to Rykodisc, and furthermore to WMG’s “independent” mentality because of its continued commitment and dedication to developing artists. Jay commented, “We love the small label focus and attention that Rykodisc can give us.”

Jeff Rougvie, Rykodisc VP of A&R says, "Jay's incredible songwriting and unique production vision have meshed perfectly on this new collection of songs. His career so far has been one artistic triumph after another, and I daresay this is his most accomplished and satisfying work to date."

Largely recorded at Private Studios in Urbana, IL, and tracked at Jay’s home studio in Chicago, The Magnificent Defeat represents the finest of a massive creative outpouring. Following his production work on Blues Traveler’s 2005 release Bastardos!, Bennett’s songwriting floodgates were unhinged and the subsequent result was the writing and recording of some seventy songs, the best of which are showcased on this release. The album was produced by Bennett and David Vandervelde. Highlights include “5th Grade,” “Replace You,” “Wide Open,” “Survey The Damage” and “Good As Gold.”

Jay Bennett was a significant force behind the evolving sound, increasingly mature songwriting, and critical success of the twice Grammy-nominated Wilco. Jay made his studio debut with Wilco on 1996's Being There, and stayed through the final sessions of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Bennett also contributed heavily to Mermaid Avenue, Volume I and Volume 2 - a joint project with British songwriter Billy Bragg - which brought previously unreleased Woody Guthrie lyrics to light and to life. Since leaving Wilco, Jay teamed up with his long-time friend and musical collaborator, Edward Burch, to release 2002's critically-acclaimed The Palace at 4 a.m. (Part 1).

In addition to his well-regarded Wilco and solo work, Jay is also a highly skilled and respected producer and sought after session musician. He has made musical contributions to a long list of artists that includes Sheryl Crow, Jellyfish, Tommy Keene, Allison Moorer, Adam Schmitt and Billy Joe Shaver.



For more information contact Ken, Sarah, Ali or Alison (for regional) at Hermana PR
Hermana pr, Room 244, BonMarche Centre, 241-251 Ferndale Road, Brixton, London, SW98BJ
tel: 020 7733 8009 fax: 020 7733 0037 email: [email protected]


I began work on what would ultimately become The Magnificent Defeat over three years ago. In retrospect, I realize that the primary catalyst was a sequence of unfortunate events in my life. At the time, I was still living in Chicago, had owned my own studio for about a year, was busy producing other artists, and was two-years-healed from any sort of post-partum Wilco thing.
The sequence of events - four close relatives passing away in the span of one year, major illness in my immediate family, going through a divorce – brought me to a low point in my life. I stopped playing live, stopped recording other people, and basically retreated into my studio. I became kind of a musical hermit in both some healthy and unhealthy ways. But it kicked off a creative flurry of songwriting and recording of close to 70 songs. I needed to deal with all these events in my life, and the only positive way I could work through them was by writing and recording music.
The silver lining of this was that for the first time in my life, I wasn’t in a studio with any kind of time restriction, nor was I there to specifically make a record. I wasn’t producing a Blues Traveller record on deadline for a label; I didn’t have to write “one last song” for a Wilco album; come up with some music for a Woody Guthrie lyric; nor satisfy any other obligations, regardless of how rewarding they were. I could actually experiment in any fashion whatsoever, and could take whatever time I needed to work on one song, or even several at the same time. For example, it literally took two weeks to mix the first song on the record, “Slow Beautifully Seconds Faster.” I was able to be experimental, not just for the sake of being experimental, but for the sake of getting exactly what was in my head recorded. It all came together pretty haphazardly, with me playing all the parts – keyboards, guitars, bass, drums, you name it – exactly the way I wanted them played, which was imperfectly and emotionally. I had songs everywhere, with source material in different places and formats, and I didn’t bother organizing anything – I just wanted to capture the songs in the moment. In essence, it was my ultimate creative period, and I was in the perfect playground.

Like most studio obsessives, I have the requisite arsenal of vintage guitars, both acoustic and electric, and a lot of keyboards, but these aren’t even necessarily my preferences. In fact, I don’t even frequent vintage music stores. No, I’m “Master of the garage/yard sale.” And over the years, I have put together “The Land of Misfit Instruments” (to borrow a blast from the past), which includes beat-to-crap home organs, musical toys, and miscellaneous half-broken instruments. Indeed, some of my favourite sounds that I used on the record come from the toys. My favourite tambourine? A purple Playskool Tambourine. My favourite sounding bells? The bells on a pull-around Dog Toy. It’s all because I love an “instrument” when I don’t know what it’s going to sound like on any given day, or even at any given time. In fact, people thought I had finally gone completely mad when, at one point, I sawzalled one of my Farfisa organs to get to the oscillators. I only did that because the way they were made, you couldn’t tune them, or in my case, “manipulate” them to be in tune, or beautifully out of tune. But when you can get in there and do that to the oscillators, you get the most amazing sounds out of them. I found a cheap, old, upright Kay bass, and taught myself how to play it with a bow as to mimic a cello. I used all seven of my Hammond organs, most of them weird home models. I played some parts on a toy organ called an Optigan. I made a drum kit out of sheet metal ductwork. This all became cathartic for me, because I started to let the interaction between all these weird noises and the songs guide me.

So towards the end of this flurry of writing and recording, I found myself gravitating towards a core set of songs. To some extent, the 70-song output had become almost a burden, but by listening to this particular group of songs as music, instead of the entire outpouring, I began to hear “an album.” More importantly, I began to realize what an amazingly therapeutic experience this had all been, and that I had really worked through my low points. I had healed myself.
I didn’t do it all alone though – I need to make special mention of a new studio partner at that time, David Vandervelde. David was in the room next door, also in the middle of a creative flurry. Some of these songs would have gone half-finished had it not been for David’s encouragement and enthusiasm to see them through to fruition. And this partnership continued all the way to the completion of the record.
But to complete this, I had to emerge from my shell. So I threw all the songs I had in a big cardboard box, whether they were 2” tapes, ADATs, 8-track cassettes, hard drives, or 1/2” tapes, and went down to Private Studios in Urbana, IL, owned by my good friend, Jonathan Pines. I had worked with Jonathan a lot in the past (some Wilco records, some Titanic Love Affair albums, a few Tommy Keene records), and I knew if I had to go somewhere to “clean all this up,” that was the place. As the songs were all created spontaneously, we all – David, Jonathan, some other hand-picked and trusted Urbana folks and I - spent a majority of time at the beginning of the session, just organizing the songs/tracks that would go on the record, and getting them into one format. The album still remained this core group of songs, but “by committee” we chose which of the 70 would complete it. We did some editing, added in some background vocals as well as some new drum parts, and put some “icing on the cake.” We even wrote and recorded one new track, “Out All Night.” This culminated with the daunting task of actually having to mix the whole record, which we managed to accomplish as well.
I’m in a great place now after this whole experience, and am as proud of this record – if not more than - as anything else I’ve done to date. I sincerely hope people enjoy The Magnificent Defeat,
Jay Bennett - Summer 2006

 

[Jim A. Morrish]

P.S. – For anyone who was wondering, here’s my “official party line” on Wilco: As I reflect back on my seven or so years in Wilco, I’m extremely proud of the music we created and what I brought to the band, both in the studio and live. I still listen to the records and love the music we made together. It was only till close to the very, very end that I have any negative memories - that’s the honest-to-god truth - and it would be a shame to have three months of intra-band conflict tarnish what was an enriching experience for me. Those three months basically weren’t fun, and when it stopped being as fun and amazing as it had been musically and socially, on the road and in the studio, it didn’t make sense to be in Wilco anymore. For the guys still in the band that I really know, which is just John Stirratt at this point, I’m still on good terms with him, and I’m a fan of his work.

As for Jeff Tweedy, periodically I attempt to get in touch with him. So far, he has chosen not to respond. Though I wish this weren’t the case, I respect his decision.

- end -

 

[Flux]

I can't believe I'm after reading all that about Jay Bennett's bloody solo album...Jaze, Jay, you'd swear you were Moses coming down from the mountain with teh tablets.

 

[Jim A. Morrish]

t'was a bit flowery alright

 

[sweetoblivion]

In this order:

Ghost Is Born
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Summerteeth
Being There
A.M.

I first got into Wilco through a crappy taped copy of Summerteeth that my uncle gave to me, but I have a soft spot for Yankee Hotel Foxtrot because of the Corn Cobs buildings on the front - they're in chicago and I used to see them everday, they're amazing! Jim, you'll see them when you're at Touch & Go if you go downtown!!

Kicking Television is class too - never seen Wilco live but judging by this they're fantastic..

 

[Ciarán R]

love "being there" if only for Misunderstood. YHF is probably the best of what I've heard. Is Tweedy a royal prick or just misunderstood (ho ho, worst pun.ever)

 

[xrockridgex]

I was listening to Yankee Hotel Foxtrot non-stop around the time A Ghost Is born came out, and was all like "I got to get me some of that".

Two years on and I still havent heard it

 

[Mormon Nailer]

agreed about kotche but i have no soft spot for jay bennett, even if he was a bit of a whiz on the keyboards. i think he acts a bit of a spa in that film they did, though obviously it could've been edited as such.

I read an interview with Bennet somewhere (probably No Depression) where he said he was trying to take control of Wilco and much of the aggro on the video is about hime trying to wrest leadership of th band from JT.

it's kind of inevitable he got the boot if that was the case.

BTW is the film good - ive not managed to see it yet.

 

[Lord Damian]

I read an interview with Bennet somewhere (probably No Depression) where he said he was trying to take control of Wilco and much of the aggro on the video is about hime trying to wrest leadership of th band from JT.

it's kind of inevitable he got the boot if that was the case.

BTW is the film good - ive not managed to see it yet.

ok, i've never read that before but if it is indeed true then my opinion of Bennett will undergo a 180 degree turn.

the movie is tops, seen it 3 or 4 times and it never gets boring.

 

[hermie]

love "being there" if only for Misunderstood. YHF is probably the best of what I've heard. Is Tweedy a royal prick or just misunderstood (ho ho, worst pun.ever)

actually if you watch the film 'i am trying to break your heart' it's jay that seems like a bit of a spa, and you can totally understand why they ask him to leave.also there's some snippets of Jay's solo stuff on the film and if they're anything to go by this is going to stink bigtime.

i suppose tweedy writes all the songs so, naturally he'd have a bigger hand in the decision making.

 

[Lord Damian]

love "being there" if only for Misunderstood. YHF is probably the best of what I've heard. Is Tweedy a royal prick or just misunderstood (ho ho, worst pun.ever)

i suppose tweedy writes all the songs so, naturally he'd have a bigger hand in the decision making.

i've seen him act the prick, and i've seen him funny and engaging. whaddya know, he's a regular human being.

 

[Mormon Nailer]

Bennet's solo album got some good reviews. And I think he has a second at this stage

Back to Wilco though - Summerteeth is underrated. I think that would be my second favourite after Being There. There more substance in the alum than its pop sheen would suggest at first.

Nothing tops Still Feel Gone for me though - and Still be around is on my to 5 songs of all time though - though that's Jay Farrar one.

 

[Lord Damian]

Back to Wilco though - Summerteeth is underrated. I think that would be my second favourite after Being There. There more substance in the alum than its pop sheen would suggest at first.

summerteeth is the shit. "candyfloss" is a song that will stick with me to my grave and beyond. had the album on headphones one night drifting off to sleep and that song brought me back to a confused, beautiful conciousness upon which i decided that this was what will be playing in heaven.

plus the keyboards in "pieholden suite" are ejaculatorily good.

 

[Scientician 0.8]

Jesus Etc. is such a fuckin fantastic song. That whole album is a corker.

 

[Mormon Nailer]

If it hd been sequenced differently it would be much more highly regerded.
If songs like How to Fight Lonleyness, Via Cichago, My Darling and Pienholden Suiete were up font instead of Shot inthe Arm and Nothings ever.... the album would have a very different tone.

If you look at the tracklisting there are way more sombre songs than bouncy poppy ones on it.

Yet it is seen as their trying to go mainstream album

Funny

 

[Thebeard]

Just bought Being There today, never heard it before. Looking forward to hearing it. Good times.