Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Wilco

I was trying to make a "My Favorites" playlist (sidenote: it still feels a little weird to say "making a playlist" instead of "burning a CD." Hopefully I'll eventually come around.) of Wilco songs from all the albums I have by them (Wilco [the album], Sky Blue Sky, A Ghost Is Born, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, and Summerteeth), but I couldn't do it. Not because I got distracted (although I did get distracted multiple times, just never to the point of giving up) (sorry for all the parenthetical asides) but because...well, I had too many favorites. Sure, there are a few that stand out, but overall it would be more efficient to just type "Wilco" into iTunes and play every song I have by them.

This isn't exclusive to Wilco. It would be tough for me to do with, say, TV On The Radio as well. Also with Ace of Base, but that's because I only have one song by them. I do think it's particularly funny that my Wilco fandom has proven so all-encompassing, though, because they're also the only band I've ever actively boycotted.

It was based on a Jeff Tweedy quote in a Rolling Stone article that I can no longer find but that I think came out sometime in high school. He was talking about older bands that he still either liked or didn't like, and he said that The Who's records hadn't held up very well. At the time, liking The Who was a bigger part of my identity than it had any right to be, so the fact that Jeff Tweedy had the nerve to say this was a personal affront to me. I vowed to never listen to Wilco right after reading that line. It actually lasted for about two years, following which I mentioned it to a friend during one of our countless conversations about music. He promptly told me I was an idiot and sent me Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Honestly, I was still reluctant to give it a try--how could a band who didn't like The Who be worth listening to?--but this particular friend knew a lot about music, so I figured I should give it a shot. And now I like literally every song of theirs I have. So, y'know, keep an open mind about things.

Having said that, if you told me I had to pick a favorite, I would tell you to start reading things more carefully because I said earlier that doing so was basically impossible. So here are two: