The Concert/Gig poster scene is a thriving scene. It is a tradition that started in the 60′s and is still going strong. Posters are a sound investment, a nice memorabilia and often a true piece of art. I have collected posters for some years and look for original works, preferably numbered gig posters.
The majority of indie bands (and also a few on major labels) have a growing collection of poster art that is just too incredible to simply throw away once the show has ended.
Wilco has always had great posters, I have collected my 13 favorite (among hundreds I think….) Wilco posters. Enjoy.
But the paradox is that while Sky Blue Sky is the smoothest sounding Wilco album, it also takes the longest to absorb and understand.
~Michael Metivier (popmatters.com)
..Wilco’s sixth studio album, Sky Blue Sky, sounds like the long-awaited follow-up to 1996’s Being There — while it lacks the ramshackle shape-shifting and broad twang of that earlier album, Sky Blue Sky represents a shift back to an organic sound and approach that suggests the influence of Neil Young’s Harvest and the more polished avenues of ’70s soft rock. Sky Blue Sky also marks Wilco’s first studio recordings since Nels Cline and Pat Sansone joined the group, and they certainly make their presence felt …
~Mark Deming (allmusic.com)
Impossible Germany (Live – from the DVD “Ashes Of American Flags”):
From Wikipedia:
Released
May 15, 2007
Recorded
November 2006 – January 2007 at The Wilco Loft, Irving Park, Chicago,Illinois, United States
Genre
Alternative rock, folk rock,alternative country
Length
50:56
Label
Nonesuch
Producer
Wilco
Sky Blue Sky is the sixth studio album by American rock band Wilco, released on May 15, 2007 by Nonesuch Records. Originally announced on January 17, 2007 at a show in Nashville, Tennessee, it was the band’s first studio album with guitarist Nels Cline and multi-instrumentalist Pat Sansone. Before its release, the band streamed the entire album on its official website and offered a free download of “What Light”.
Sky Blue Sky was Wilco’s highest debuting album on the Billboard 200 at number four. The self-produced album received mostly favorable reviews by critics. Publications such as PopMatters and Rolling Stone praised its maturity, while PlayLouder and Pitchfork Media criticized its “dad-rock” sound. While some critics praised the direct lyrical approach, others criticised it when compared to previous Wilco albums. The band licensed six songs from the Sky Blue Sky sessions to a Volkswagen advertisement campaign, a move that generated criticism from fans and the media.
You Are My Face (Austin City Limits 2007):
The album was recorded by TJ Doherty at The Loft in Irving Park, Chicago, where Tweedy had recorded Loose Fur’s Born Again in the USA and most of Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. In an interview with Billboard, the band revealed that the album would be less experimental than the two previous albums and more influenced by The Beatles, The Beach Boys, and The Rolling Stones. Also, unlike the previous albums, the album was made with only minimal involvement of Jim O’Rourke; the album which was produced with very few overdubs.
Release & reception
Nonesuch released the album on May 15, 2007; the following week became Wilco’s best-ever sales week. The album debuted at number four on the U.S. Billboard 200, selling 87,000 copies domestically in its first week. Sky Blue Sky was also an international success, peaking at number 7 in Norway, number 21 in Belgium, number 23 in Australia and Ireland, number 26 in Sweden, number 32 in New Zealand, number 36 in Germany, and number 39 in the United Kingdom.
The album received varied critical reception upon its release.
Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone pondered in his review whether Wilco had ever made a song as good as “Impossible Germany,” praising how the song builds into a “twin guitar epic” in the mold of Television and Peter Green-era Fleetwood Mac.
Michael Metivier of PopMatters commented that while the album took a while to understand, it was full of “exquisitely beautiful melodies and performances”.
Allmusic writer Mark Deming called the album “Wilco’s strongest album as an ensemble to date,” and found the return to roots rock music a fresh new method for the band.
The album received a nomination at the 50th Annual Grammy Awards for Best Rock Album.
It placed 12th in the 2008 Pazz and Jop Poll.
This album was #42 on Rolling Stone‘s list of the Top 50 Albums of 2007, and the song “Impossible Germany” was #71 on Rolling Stone‘s list of the 100 Best Songs of 2007.
WXPN named “Impossible Germany” as the #1 song of 2007 and named the album as a whole the #1 album of 2007.
Sky Blue Sky was named one of the ten best albums of the year by Billboard, Paste Magazine, Uncut Magazine, and The Onion A.V. Club.
The album was placed at #97 on the Rolling Stone 100 Best Albums Of The 2000’s list.
Track Listing:
All songs written by Jeff Tweedy except as indicated.
“Either Way” – 3:05
“You Are My Face” (Tweedy, Cline) – 4:38
“Impossible Germany” (Tweedy, Wilco) – 5:57
“Sky Blue Sky” – 3:23
“Side with the Seeds” (Tweedy, Jorgensen) – 4:15
“Shake It Off” – 5:40
“Please Be Patient with Me” – 3:17
“Hate It Here” (Tweedy, Wilco) – 4:31
“Leave Me (Like You Found Me)” – 4:09
“Walken” (Tweedy, Wilco) – 4:26
“What Light” – 3:35
“On and On and On” (Tweedy, Wilco) – 4:00
Personnel:
Wilco
Nels Cline – electric guitar, 12 string guitar, lap steel guitar
Sticky Fingers was never meant to be the title. It’s just what we called it while we were working on it. Usually though, the working titles stick.
~Keith Richards 1971
While many hold their next album, Exile On Main St., as their zenith, Sticky Fingers, balancing on the knife edge between the 60s and 70s, remains their most coherent statement.
~Chris Jones (bbc.co.uk)
#1 – Brown Sugar:
Wikipedia:
Released
23 April 1971
Recorded
2–4 December 1969, Muscle Shoals Sound Studio, Sheffield, Alabama; 17 February, March – May, 16 June – 27 July, 17–31 October 1970, and January 1971,Olympic Studios, London, UK; except “Sister Morphine”, begun 22–31 March 1969
Genre
Rock
Length
46:25
Language
English
Label
Rolling Stones
Producer
Jimmy Miller
Sticky Fingers is the ninth British and 11th American studio album by English rock band The Rolling Stones, released in April 1971. It is the band’s first album of the 1970s and its first release on the band’s newly formed label, Rolling Stones Records, after having been contracted since 1963 with Decca Records in the UK and London Records in the US. It is also Mick Taylor’s first full-length appearance on a Rolling Stones album, the first Rolling Stones album not to feature any contributions from guitarist and founder Brian Jones and the first one on which Mick Jagger is credited with playing guitar.
The album is often regarded as one of the Stones’ best, containing songs such as the chart-topping “Brown Sugar” and the folk-influenced “Wild Horses”, and achieving triple platinum certification in the US.
Spanish Cover
#3 – Wild Horses:
During the tour of the States we went to Alabama and played at the Muscle Shoals Studio. That was a fantastic week. We cut some great tracks, which appeared on Sticky Fingers – You Gotta Move, Brown Sugar and Wild Horses – and we did them without Jimmy Miller, which was equally amazing. It worked very well: it’s one of Keith’s things to go in and record while you’re in the middle of a tour and your playing is in good shape. The Muscle Shoals Studio was very special, though – a great studio to work in, a very hip studio, where the drums were on a riser high up in the air, plus you wanted to be there because of all the guys who had worked in the same studio.
~Charlie Watts in 2003
Recording:
Although sessions for Sticky Fingers began in earnest in March 1970, The Rolling Stones had recorded at Muscle Shoals Studios in Alabama in December 1969 and “Sister Morphine”, cut during Let It Bleed’s sessions earlier in March of that year, was held over for this release. Much of the recording for Sticky Fingers was made with The Rolling Stones’ mobile studio unit in Stargroves during the summer and autumn of 1970. Early versions of songs that would appear on Exile on Main St. were also rehearsed during these sessions.
#9 – Dead Flowers:
To my mind the things that Ry (Cooder) plays on have a kind of polish that the Stones generally began to develop around that time. The rough edges came off a bit. Mick Taylor started putting on the polish that became the next period of the Stones out of the raw rock and blues band.
~Jimmy Miller in 1979
In 2003, Sticky Fingers was listed as #63 on Rolling Stone magazine’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
Mick Jagger – lead vocals, acoustic guitar on “Dead Flowers” and “Moonlight Mile”, electric guitar on “Sway”, percussion on “Brown Sugar”
Keith Richards – electric guitar, six and twelve string acoustic guitar, backing vocals
Mick Taylor – electric, acoustic and slide guitar (not present during “Sister Morphine” sessions)
Charlie Watts – drums
Bill Wyman – bass guitar, electric piano on “You Gotta Move”
Additional personnel
Bobby Keys – saxophone
Jim Price – trumpet, piano on “Moonlight Mile”
Ian Stewart – piano on “Brown Sugar” and “Dead Flowers”
Nicky Hopkins – piano on “Sway”, “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking”
Jim Dickinson – piano on “Wild Horses”
Jack Nitzsche – piano on “Sister Morphine”
Ry Cooder – slide guitar on “Sister Morphine”
Billy Preston – organ on “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking” and “I Got the Blues”
Jimmy Miller – percussion on “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking”
Rocky Dijon – congas on “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking”
Paul Buckmaster – string arrangement on “Sway” and “Moonlight Mile”
Engineers – Glyn Johns, Andy Johns, Chris Kimsey, Jimmy Johnson
Cover concept/photography – Andy Warhol
We made (tracks) with just Mick Taylor, which are very good and everyone loves, where Keith wasn’t there for whatever reasons… People don’t know that Keith wasn’t there making it. All the stuff like Moonlight Mile, Sway. These tracks are a bit obscure, but they are liked by people that like the Rolling Stones. It’s me and (Mick Taylor) playing off each other – another feeling completely, because he’s following my vocal lines and then extemporizing on them during the solos.
~Mick Jagger in 1995
His voice was so powerful — like a foghorn on the Queen Mary… It jumped out of the speakers and ravished my soul..
~Rod Stewart
One of the greatest lead singers the Motown stable ever had
~John Lowe (allmusic.com)
One of the greatest “Motown voices”.. and thus one of the greatest voices in recorded american music history.
The Temptations – My Girl:
From Wikipedia:
Birth name
David Eli Ruffin
Born
January 18, 1941
Whynot, Mississippi, U.S.
Died
June 1, 1991 (aged 50)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Genres
R&B, pop, soul, disco, gospel
Occupations
Singer
Instruments
Vocals, drums
Years active
1956–1991
Labels
Anna, Chess, Motown, Warner Bros., RCA
Associated acts
The Temptations, Eddie Kendrick, Jimmy Ruffin
Davis Eli “David” Ruffin (January 18, 1941 – June 1, 1991) was an American soul singer and musician most famous for his work as one of the lead singers of the Temptations from 1964 to 1968 (or the group’s “Classic Five” period as it was later known). He was the lead voice on such famous songs as “My Girl” and “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg.” Known for his unique raspy and anguished tenor vocals, Ruffin was ranked as one of the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time by Rolling Stone magazine in 2008. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989 for his work with the Temptations. Fellow Motown recording artist Marvin Gaye once said admiringly of Ruffin that, “I heard in [his voice] a strength my own voice lacked.”
Ain’t Too Proud To Beg – Live 1966:
His voice had a certain glorious anguish that spoke to people on many emotional levels
~Daryl Hall (of Hall & Oates)
I don’t know what kind of voice I have, I really don’t… it’s just about the feeling I get for the song.
~David Ruffin
And I don’t expect anyone can bring about a revolution in the way that Bob Dylan did – and really didn’t – in the 1960s.
~Michael Stipe
Super casual music listeners. That’s most of the people in the world. And you have to understand, that’s why Top 40 radio exists. It’s not there for people who seek out music and who love music.
~Michael Stipe
Eddie Vedder inducts REM Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductions 2007:
R.E.M. – Find The River – Live 2003:
From Wikipedia:
Birth name
John Michael Stipe
Born
January 4, 1960 (age 53)
Decatur, Georgia, United States
Genres
Alternative rock, college rock,jangle pop
Occupations
Musician, lyricist, producer, visual artist
Instruments
Vocals, guitar
Years active
1980–present
Associated acts
R.E.M.
Automatic Baby
John Michael Stipe (born January 4, 1960) is an American singer, lyricist and visual artist. He was the lead vocalist of the alternative rock band R.E.M. from their formation in 1980 until their dissolution in 2011.
Stipe is noted and occasionally parodied for the “mumbling” style of his early career as well as his social and political activism. He was in charge of R.E.M.’s visual image; often selecting album artwork and directing many of the band’s music videos. Outside of the music industry, he runs his own film production companies: C-00 and Single Cell Pictures.
R.E.M. – Man On The Moon (Live 2010):
Album of the day:
Reckoning (1984):
…Reckoning is clear, which doesn’t necessarily mean that the songs themselves are straightforward. Michael Stipe continues to sing powerful melodies without enunciating, but the band has a propulsive kick that makes the music vital and alive. And, if anything, the songwriting is more direct and memorable than before…
~Stephen Thomas Erlewine (allmuisc.com)
