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What I guess I never got about Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, and the documentary only skimmed over it (unless I missed something) -- what was so, um, "difficult" about it? There is a wee bit of noisiness and some keyboards or whatever, but the songs are straightforward as hell... actually, the album kinda has a lot of melodies, riffs, and production that reminds me of Crooked Rain Crooked Rain by Pavement! (was it because of that, perhaps? Since the band was more known for an alt-country type of sound before then?) Anyway, it just doesn't seem like an album that really would offend or challenge anyone, yet my understanding is the original record label hadn't made any money off of Wilco, ever, but still released their albums -- and this, their "challenging" album was the last straw?
The irony is A Ghost is Born is a much stronger album in every way, and is more experimental (and I still suspect that working with O'Rourke, they had to have heard Gastr Del Sol and O'Rourke's solo stuff, which seems like a clear influence on the album), and is quite frankly better -- but gets almost no recognition, strangely. The other irony is that the "label kicking Wilco off" thing is actually probably why the band and album is more well-known today. Funny.
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