Saturday, June 25, 2005
Trying to Break your Heart
I have this obsessed fascination with watching artsy people create stuff, to watch something beauty arise out of nothing. I think maybe its a deep-seated jealousy that I can't creative like that.

I watched the documentary film I Am Trying to Break Your Heart the other day. It follows the band Wilco as they write and record their album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, an album they consider a creative labor of love. Upon delivering it to the record label, they learn the executives want to make changes. When frontman Jeff Tweedy says he's not altering his final product, Reprise/Warner drop Wilco, leaving the band with a finished album and no way to distribute it. Imagine David and Goliath, only with songs instead of stones. Band members get fired. Oh, the drama.

Nearly a year after its completion, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was released to extreme critical acclaim. Rolling Stone called it an "American Classic."

I think the part that sticks out most to me is a scene where Tweedy is explaining how the band writes a song. They spent a year in their loft crafting the songs for YHF. First, they would record a straightforward, definitive version. Then spend the next months taking the song completely apart.

Hmm... creative deconstructionism.

posted by Peter at 11:34 AM
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