at the movies
I love documentaries about almost anything. (The War Room on DVD? Of course.) And a love for music documentaries goes without saying.
In my music history class in college, we watched a lot of my favorites: Don’t Look Back, Gimme Shelter, 24 Hour Party People. The professor was a big Wilco fan, so I vaguely remember that we were supposed to also see I Am Trying To Break Your Heart. I’m not sure why we didn’t in the end — syllabus changes or something. I’m also not sure why I didn’t see it at any point in the next seven years or so, but I finally Netflix’d it yesterday and remedied all that.
Loved it, loved it. I got a bit more edumacated on my Wilco 101 history (RIP, Jay Bennett) and thought the simple black-and-white filming was beautiful. The theme of artistic integrity v. corporate greed really resonated, especially because those conflicts have only been amplified since the movie’s 2002 release. (Articles aren’t nearly as “artistic” as albums, but it reminded me of a similar struggle in the journalism/writing world. SEO and all that.)
And the concert footage interspersed through the movie provided an obvious reminder of why their show last year was one of the best ones I’ve ever seen. And why Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is one of the best albums ever. Just a humble opinion. I can’t imagine what sort of changes to it would have had to be done to please Warner Bros.
Bonus: The film also solved the mystery of how I first became a fan. (Sometimes I forget with certain bands. Is that weird?) A safe guess would’ve been “through The Wallflowers,” and guess what — it was through The Wallflowers. In the golden era of the WF message board experience (2002–2003-ish), the band members used to go online pretty frequently and talk with fans — banter about music, answer questions, give CD recommendations, muse about the state of the industry.
I remember someone — Jakob? Greg? — narrated the exact story shown in the film: how Wilco had made several great albums for a major label, didn’t sell “enough” copies, made what was arguably their best record yet, and got dropped from their label. The respect and appreciation was clear, so, obviously, I had to check out this band.
On a related note, I tried to play “kamera” in Words With Friends the other day. Kinda embarrassing for a middle-school spelling bee nerd champ, but maybe this is just the mark of a budding Wilco SuperFan. As long as I don’t try to use “assassin” as a verb in everyday speech.
