MP3 of the Week

Two weeks ago, I posted Paul Duncan's "You Look Like An Animal" to my MP3 of the Week.

A few hours later I got an email from his record label thanking me.  I was shocked and thrilled that someone in the music business understood the value of what I am doing with this weekly feature.

We exchanged a couple emails and the guy at the record label told me:

what you guys do is absolutely wonderful  .... any label or artist who doesn't feel that way is crazy...it's digital  word of mouth, a short review, a kind phrase, just a simple link  sometimes...but it allows someone who might not normally hear one of  our artists to be given a little nudge in their direction...and I  can't thank all of you guys enough :)

Of course, one of the first artists who figured this out was Jeff Tweedy when he put Yankee Hotel Foxtrot up on the web for free after his label wouldn't release it.  He's become a hero to millions of web music listeners and rightly so, because he's an amazing musician too.

So with that intro, I am going to post a Wilco song this week.  It's called A Magazine Called Sunset and I first heard it on the Yankee Hotel Foxtrot Demos Bootleg which I found on bit torrent last year.  This song did not make the final cut and get on the Yankee Hotel Foxtrot record.

But it did get on the Australian version of the record and is now available as the Bridge or More Like The Moon EP (six great songs) for free on Wilco's website.

So here is A Magazine Called Sunset.

btw - I posted this one at 192kbps since its already available for free on Wilco's website (as an ftp download or i would have simply linked to it there).

Comments

[Raj Bala]

Being the music nerd that you are (a compliment actually), you probably already know this. But for those that are motivated by an underdog story, this is a good one with some analogical start-up stuff as well.

Reprise (div. of Warner) chose not to release Yankee Hotel Foxtrot on the grounds that it didn't have a single nor was it mass market friendly.

Tweedy remained steadfast to his art and purchased the masters from Reprise for $50K which resulted in hysteria amongst the indie labels who all wanted to release the record.

Irony ensues and Nonesuch (div. of Warner) ends up signing Wilco to release YHF in addition to two records afterwards.

The record becomes huge. People love it. Reprise is left looking like a chump. Warner looks like a bigger chump in some ways. Nonesuch is a hero.

The Oliver Stone side of me questions whether or not this was well orchestrated marketing on the part of Warner. But the Ramones side asks whether it matters or not since YHF was an fantastic record with or without the under dog story.

By the way, to really appreciate YHF, you need to hear the demos that were rejected by Reprise.