catapult magazine

has anyone else heard the new wilco album, “yankee hotel foxtrot”? if not, i highly recommend it; it’s really quite amazing. it almost sounds (at times) like a mix of avant-garde jazz and rock. they do some great stuff with drums, sometimes creating more melody than rhythm with them.

wilco also went through quite an ordeal to release this record. their original label, reprise (a subsidiary of time warner), dropped them after hearing the album because the record executives didn’t think it had any radio hits. wilco got to take the album with them for free when they left the label, no strings attached (which is rare in the music business because the label pays the artist up front for the album). then, after being “courted” by several new labels for almost a year, they signed with nonesuch records (a subsidiary of time warner). so essentially, the same company paid the same band twice for the same album.

while they were in between labels, the band put up the entire album on their website for download. the whole napster thing still scares the crap out of record companies because they think people will stop buying CDs if they can just download music online.

during the first week of its release, “yankee hotel foxtrot” sold more than 50,000 copies and debuted at number 8 on the billboard charts.

wilco. stickin’ it to the record industry man.

Mine should be comin’ in the mail today! Highly anticipated…

I’m desperately looking for any info to support my general thesis that Tweedy should be included in my “Christian Musicians” list. Has anyone heard stories, have interpretations of lyrics, or articles that support my hope?

You actually have a list, don’t you. On a piece of paper.

I’ve been looking for some interviews with Tweedy. So far they all predate Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and I’d like to read something a little more recent.

I DID find out that Wilco are coming to Omaha this month, and there are tickets left…! I’m going.

Also, who is on your list? Besides Bono.

I haven’t actually written the list down yet, but I should. I know for sure that these particular musicians ought to be canonized:

Bach, Bruce Cockburn, U2, John Coltrane, Mendelssohn (if only for the Elijah), Bob Dylan (John Wesley Harding, Saved, Oh Mercy, etc.), Over the Rhine, Bill Maloney and co, Johnny Cash….

I still don’t know what to do with:
Stevie Wonder, Charlie Peacock, BB. King, Emmy Lou Harris, Prince, Jars of Clay, Burlap to Cashmere, Rich Mullins etc.

This album is a gem. Tweedy is in top form— writing songs with heart-wrenching poetry and amazing melodies. We’re seeing Wilco at the end of the month here in Minneapolis and I’m curious to see how it goes without Jay Bennet.

And yes, I think their internet experiment certainly worked. We had been listening to the album for many months, but when the actual album was released, we went straight out to buy it. Supporting good bands (especially the local bands) is a big thing for us.

What do you mean about Jars of Clay? Why are they on your “don’t know what to do with” list?

I thought that they were a christian band. I mean I don’t see anything that would tell me otherwise, except for the fact that they’re on the radio all the time, transforming culture.

There even in christian bookstores thoughout the country.

Enlighten me?

It is precisely because Jars of Clay is a cut above the rest of the CCM industry that I don’t know what to do with them. I sort of used Jars of Clay as a representative of numerous bands, made up of Christians, whose music happens to sound Christian too.

But I think what might make me hesitate to put Jars of Clay in the same company as Cockburn, U2, Cash and Bach is that it seems to lack some of the musical richness of these artists. I’d like to see in CCM a bit more recognition of the reality of the messiness and complexity of sin and less of the bright, slick and pretty inspirational songs that present a lie about how Christians are supposed to feel all the time.

And I wouldn’t say that everything with the “Christian Family Bookstores” stamp of approval automatically enjoys a special place in God’s cd collection just as I can’t canonize certain musicians by my own authority. I think we can only make such claims about Christian musicianship based on Scriptural guidance and I would say that Scripture doesn’t exactly condone the selling of sentimentalized kitsch and moralistic products in the name of Christ. In addition, basing our claims about Christian music on whether or not a group is transforming culture is also not reliable unless we ask if this cultural activity is consistent with the guidelines given in Scripture. I certainly don’t think Amy Grant is a performer of Christian music just because she was one of the first to “crossover” to a broader market, paving the way for Michael W. Smith, D.C. Talk, Creed and P.O.D.

Ever heard of Pedro the Lion?

Thanks, now I understand where you?re coming from.

I guess I don’t distinguish between " ‘Good’ Christian Music" and “Family Christian Music” or music for the Christian Community and Christian Music for the World.

So your qualifications for your list of Christian Music is it has to be of a certain standard of quality and it has to not only agree with scripture but it has to be a presence in culture as well. (I agree with that now that I know your reasoning.)

I have another question for you Grant, and anyone else who happens to have an answer.

I remember exactly when Amy Grant “crossed over” and I remember many Christians around me suddenly have doubts about her Christianity, Albeit I don’t think that they were Reformed Christians.

But this happens every time I hear a CC artist on the radio, someone around me says “Well I guess they aren?t Christians anymore” or “man, why did they have to go secular?”

Is this widespread? Do Christians around the country feel that if a Christian Artist is played on Secular Radio (or radio that is not specifically religious) they are no longer Christian.

Well I guess I’m not asking a specific question but I am looking for an answer. Sorry.