Down With Wilco is definitely not a Wilco album. It's a Minus 5 album, and good one. But I would never consider it part of their discography.

I'm not really a big Billy Bragg fan. I mean, I have nothing against him but I've never checked out any of his solo albums. I only really know him as the guy who made these Woody Guthrie albums w/ Wilco. But that's fine. Mermaid Avenue was one I heard pretty early in my Wilco love. I first discovered them thanks to Summerteeth and went back to this and Being There quickly. This album is really cool. There's a good mix of Wilco sounding stuff with the other vocalists. But also I think this album helped Wilco think outside the box even more than they had done on Being There. To get outside of comfort zones. There's some pretty weird shit here really. And that's fun. More importantly there are great tracks like the sunny "California Stars," or the soul-crushing heartbreaking beauty of "One By One." This is definitely a great album.

The MA version of "Way Over Yonder in the Minor Key" is one of the most beautiful, heartbreaking songs I've ever heard.

Scandal, Best Album

And yet any true Wilco fan should have it, as it is part of Jeff's discography, the way Golden Smog albums are. Three songs are by McCaughey and Tweedy; one of them, "The Family Gardener", is sung by JT, who's also been performing live "Dear Employer (The Reason I Quit)" —a McCaughey-only composition— for years.

Holy shit the new Arca record is OUT y'all.

Listening to this epic track "Saunter" that sounds like Mozart played with switchblades.

Arca - "Saunter" (YouTube)

Listen up friends!

Oh fuck yes, "The Family Gardener" is PEAK TWEEDY. That's my favorite song on the album (just barely edging out "The Old Plantation," which fucking helped define my 2003).

I totally agree that Wilco fans and/or Tweedy fans should goddamn well own Down With Wilco just as they should own Loose Fur's brilliant, perennially underrated self-titled and Born Again in the USA albums ("Elegant Transaction," "Laminated Cat," "Pretty Sparks" ... Fucking gold.) So no worries — we are in the same page there.

I just meant that it's not a Wilco album. I wasn't speaking to its quality at all. I bought that album the day it came out at Cellophane Square in Seattle and didn't stop playing it for a year. Haven't heard it in a while, but I fucking love it, and it owns a bit of my soul.

"You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to The Soup Nazi again."

Really? Still?

So when you say it's not a Wilco album... Does it sound like Wilco ?

Well, it sounds like The Minus 5. ;):) Which is to say that if you like ornamented classicist rock-pop music you'll most likely dig it, and if you like Summerteeth and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and Pet Sounds and those damn Beetles (sic) you'll certainly dig it.

A Ghost Is Born is my favorite Wilco album. Everything potentially great about that band is realized in full there.

Its great that Wilco is a band of discussion here. As a relative newbie to this forum, aside from the O'Rourke connection I've been pleasantly surprised by the Wilco love here.

This weekend its been a much needed Built to Spill binge for me

Sounds like I will dig it then!

Actually, you may have just caught a lucky break from the "Wilco Sucks" crowd!

Yah, dood.

@NR ... if you aren't versed in Minus 5 get yourself versed.

Cult band, but goddamn good. Ornate is right. Peter Buck of REM is a frequent collaborator. See also: Young Fresh Fellows.

Minus 5 and YFL are big in the Pacific Northwest, with Scott McCaughey hailing from Portland and the "band" having connections with other established Northwest acts like the Posies.

Down with Wilco does have moments that sound like Wilco (see the aforementioned "The Family Gardener"), because it was technically a collaboration between the two bands, though not a 50/50 one. It's definitely a Minus 5 record, and definitely not a Wilco one, but it's very worth hearing, whether you think it sounds like Wilco or not.

And of course Scott McCaughey + Pete Buck + Bill Rieflin = The Venus 3, the mighty Robyn Hitchcock's oftentimes backing band!

I had the M5/YFF split album. Quasi versed. Huge Posies fan tho.

No shit.

That crowd is weird. I don't get them.

A Ghost is Born is about as perfect an album for Sonic Youth fans as the '00s had to offer. "Spiders (Kidsmoke)?" Are you kidding me? That song is MADE for folks raised on SY, Can, Velvets, etc.

Fuck the haters!

Fo' sho'

Setting Wilco etc. aside for a moment to return to the question of the thread...

In preparation for the release of Kendrick Lamar's Album IV (which I truly hope is not called "ALBUM"), I have been spending a fuckton of time with Kdot lately, and I'm currently blasting this bad boy:

Kendrick Lamar - Section.80



I don't think I realized it until very recently, but the opening track on this album, "Fuck Your Ethnicity," might just be my favorite Kendrick song ever, weird as that may sound considering what followed. It's just... wow... talk about a fucking proper introduction.

I love Section 80 so much. It rivals Good Kid for me, and my opinion on which is my favorite Kendrick album varies by day.