wilco (the album) is dad rock

the number one criticism of wilco's previous work, sky blue sky, is that it sounds like dad rock. i never really bought into that as a fault because i can appreciate a good cubicle album. to an extent, wilco has always been kind of a 'dad friendly band' with their woody guthrie tribute albums and wholesome yet creative alt country sound.

i once held a theory that once a band releases a live album, they are done from a creative standpoint. this rule certainly applies to wilco. they didn't sell out. they didn't change their style. they simply doesn't have the chops.



i love wilco but i see no reason for b(r)and loyalty here. so i probably won't be standing in line june 30 when the new album comes out. but i am pretty excited about the new phoenix and grizzly bear albums. i've heard them and they sound great. i'd like to get a physical copy for my vinyl library.

this is the video for 1901, the latest single off of wolfgang amadeus phoneix:



if it wasn't for the song, i probably would not watch the whole video. at its heart, it is a pretty standard live band music video. what i do like, however, is the combination of creative lighting in production and masking effects in post production. think i could learn how to do this in after effects cs4?