informer

breaking news:

i just ate hot pockets for the first time in probably five years and they were good. they were some sort of quesadilla hot pockets and i ate them both. i think most people eat both of them. although, now that i'm done, my stomach is gurgling and i'm wondering where this is all going to end up.

are the sonic guys still funny? is the "hey bro" commercial considered a classic sonic guys commercial? i don't know. i like the "hey bro" but i don't think it's classic. there hasn't been a really good one for a while. i'm glad they're still trying though. keep working sonic guys. this country needs you.

i listened to the wilco album the other day, well most of it. i actually turned it off because i had other things to do and i was pretty disappointed too. there's some interesting stuff, like in bull black nova. it does somewhat sound like a television rip-off at some points, but speaking of rip-offs there is a total rip-off of george harrison's my sweet lord in one of the songs, i can't remember the name. you'll hear it. and the duet with feist, what is that about? i'm sure i'll come around and say i like it, but it's not classic and i feel it's a step-backwards in my opinion.

plus i've been having this conversation in my head about bands. it's like with most writers, there's a window. when that window is open, you come up with amazing stuff. but when it closes, you still come up with good stuff, but not like you did before. it doesn't come as easy and, if you're honest with yourself, it's not as good. now, take that theory and think about how few albums bands put out now-a-days. the beatles put out like an album a year. the beach boys, sometimes two. now, it takes bands two to three years to put out an album. therefore, the window is closing and because the band has put out so little product, we think the window should still be open. but it's not about product, it's about time. that time is passing and regardless of whether you've put out two albums or twelve albums, the window closes. my example is bob dylan. i love me some bob dylan. but look at his career. the real creamy stuff he did came from 1964 to 1966. that's it. two years! once he did blonde on blonde, that was it for that bob dylan. his music changed. his lyrics changed. he wasn't the same performer, he wasn't the same writer and he never was again. yes, blood on the tracks and desire have incredible moments, but you cannot for a second tell me that the lyrical imagery from those two albums compares with highway 61 and blonde on blonde. there's no way. so for dylan, his window was wide open until 1966 and then it started to close. that's peak production. it's hard to recognize when you're going through it. you really can only recognize it through hindsight.

wilco's put out, by my count, seven albums since 1993. and they've slowly built up an impressive catalog. but my thinking is that jeff's window is closing or has closed. he as a songwriter has peaked. i liked sky blue sky for what it was, but it was also a notice to me that things have changed. i really liked a ghost is born. some people didn't. it was weird and all over the place. but i can almost look back now and say, that was it. that was the point where wilco stopped making amazing, creative, perplexing, confusing records and started making records. and that's fine. the window was open for summerteeth, yankee hotel foxtrot and a ghost is born. i'll accept that. and i'll keep listening. but man, they used to be so good, they were sick.

by the way, argument number two, the band is better with jay bennett. it's not the same band. it doesn't have the same feel. i know he wasn't on a ghost is born, but look at the three albums since jay left and you have to notice the drop-off in melody, in production methods and varied instrumentation. i miss jay bennett.

any points?