August 14th, 2008 12:39pm

Keeping Things Clean

Wilco @ McCarren Pool 8/13/2008

Via Chicago / Blood Of The Lamb* / You Are My Face / Hummingbird / I Am Trying To Break Your Heart / A Shot In The Arm / Side With The Seeds / Misunderstood / Far, Far Away / Impossible Germany / Pieholden Suite* / California Stars* / Handshake Drugs / Pot Kettle Black / Poor Places / Spiders (Kidsmoke) // Jesus Etc. / Can’t Stand It* / Hate It Here* / Walken* / I’m The Man Who Loves You* /// Heavy Metal Drummer / The Late Greats* / Kingpin* / Monday* / Outtasite (Outta Mind)* / I’m A Wheel * = features The Total Pros horn section.

I’ve liked Wilco for a long time, but it wasn’t until last year that I learned that I actually love Wilco. It’s been a slow, insidious process. I liked a few songs on Summerteeth, and then, out of nowhere, I fell for Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. I went back, found a few tracks I enjoyed off of Being There, and left it at that for a while. A Ghost Is Born came out, I got heavy into a few off of that, but kinda backed off from the rest. I was scared. You have to dive into love, and I just wasn’t ready. Maybe I wasn’t old enough yet? When Sky Blue Sky was released last year, everything lined up. Not right away, but it fell into place, right around the time when the circumstances of my life became simultaneously quieter and more stressful.

Wilco’s later albums are exceptional in the way they navigate the subtleties of negative emotions that have been diluted somewhat by perspective and maturity. Many of the songs border on angst and confusion, but keep a distance from the most intense feelings, like an act of self-preservation. The love songs all come from the perspective of long-term monogamy, and deal with negotiation, compromise, comfort, and commitment. In this context, Jeff Tweedy’s declarations of love seem more powerful — it’s not some fresh, impulsive expression, but rather something profound that has weathered innumerable hardships.

The lyrics are only the half of it. A lot of it comes down to the very sound of Tweedy’s voice conveys delicate emotional nuances even when he’s singing inscrutable gibberish. Even more of the band’s appeal, most certainly on their more recent albums, is their knack for arrangement, and collective ear for texture and tone. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and A Ghost Is Born take more obvious chances, but Sky Blue Sky is their most richly detailed effort to date, and it contains some of the finest instrumental solos I’ve ever heard. Throughout the album, there’s a quiet tension between the sections led by Tweedy’s vocals, which express thoughts, and the instrumental passages, which express emotions. The words seem truthful, but come out of rationalization, diplomacy, and stoicism, but when the band enter into the carefully composed solo sections of songs like “Side With The Seeds” and “Impossible Germany,” they hit on the sort of feelings that run deep, but are best not articulated with something as clumsy and easily misunderstood as language.

Wilco “Hate It Here” (Live in Troutdale, Oregon 8/22/2007) – This show last night was my second Wilco show — I saw them on a bill with Sonic Youth on the tail end of their tour for Yankee Hotel Foxtrot — but my first as a real fan. I was lucky; they played almost everything I wanted to hear. (I would’ve preferred “Muzzle Of Bees” or “Radio Cure” to “Via Chicago” or “Far, Far Away,” but that’s a minor quibble.) The band played for two and a half hours, gradually building up from a rather mellow opening sequence to a spirited, energetic final hour bolstered by the Total Pros horn section. I was especially fond of the way the fanfare amped up the humor and drama of “Hate It Here,” and made “Kingpin” seem even more grandiose and majestic. Aside from that, I don’t know what to tell you other than that I spent a majority of this show smiling, or looking at Nels Cline with awe. (Click here to buy the studio version from Amazon.)

Jennifer O’Connor “Always In Your Mind” – I knew Jennifer O’Connor was a cool lady from the moment she got on stage last night wearing a navy blue t-shirt with the cover of the Geraldine Fibbers’ Butch album on the chest. (Not coincidentally, Nels Cline was the lead guitarist of that band too.) O’Connor’s music is nearly as ferocious or flashy as the Fibbers, but her songs

have a solid, modest charm. As far as I could tell, much of the audience shrugged her off in the way most people do when it comes to opening acts, but I enjoyed her set, and was especially impressed by her voice, which is assertive yet understated. She tends to sing her verses in a smoky tone, but when she gives way to higher notes, as she does on the chorus of “Always In Your Mind,” it’s pretty and heartbreaking without getting particularly saccharine. Her craft is strong, but I do wish she would wild out a bit more. There’s something about her that seems unnecessarily restrained. (Click here to buy it from Matador Records.)