Shortly after the recording sessions for Mermaid Avenue Vol. II, Wilco purchased a studio in Irving Park, Chicago, which they named the Wilco Loft.^[45]
The band recorded some tracks in the studio in early 2000 for a fourth
studio album.
Wilco had recorded an entire album of music at this point, but Tweedy
was unhappy with the drum parts. Tweedy brought drummer Glen Kotchke in to re-record the drum parts. This angered the rest of the band as they felt they might be replaced also.

Although Bennett (Co-songwriter) sought to act as both mixer and engineer for Yankee Hotel Foxtrot,
Tweedy was unsure of Bennett’s abilities against those of Jim O’Rourke.
Tweedy and Bennett frequently argued over whether the album should be
accessible to a general listener, or attempt to cover new musical
ground.^[48]
Unbeknownst to Bennett, Tweedy invited O’Rourke to remix “I Am Trying
to Break Your Heart”, and the results impressed the other band
members—even Bennett. Tensions grew between Bennett and O’Rourke
because Bennett wanted to mix every song on the album. O’Rourke cut the contributions of other members on several of the songs. The album was completed in 2001, and Bennett left the band immediately afterwards.^[50] The recording of the album was documented by Sam Jones and released in 2002 as the film I Am Trying to Break Your Heart.

Time Warner, which owned Warner Brothers, merged with America Online
in 2001, leading to more pressure on Warner’s record labels to cut
costs. Over 600 employees of Warner Music Group were fired, including
Howie Klein, the president of Reprise Records. In absence of Klein,
David Kahne became the interim head of Reprise.^[51] Kahne assigned Mio Vukovic to monitor the progress of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and to offer suggestions. Music journalist Greg Kot claims that Vukovic
disdained the album and was unhappy that Wilco ignored his suggestions.^[52]
He brought the album to Kahne, who felt that there was no single on the
album. In June 2001, the album was rejected by Reprise and Wilco was asked to leave the label.^[53]

Wilco managed to negotiate terms to a buy-out from Reprise. Music
journalist Greg Kot claims that instead of financial compensation, the
band agreed to leave the label with the master tapes of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.^[54] The label was already receiving bad publicity for its treatment of the band and were willing to accommodate Wilco’s request.^[55] However, Allmusic claims that Wilco “bought the finished studio tapes from Warner/Reprise
for a reported $50,000 and left the label altogether” after Wilco was “[u]nwilling to change the album to make it more ‘commercially viable’”^[56]

As the band searched for a new label to release the album, they
decided to stream it at their official website to discourage illegal
trading of low-quality MP3s.^[58] The band signed with Nonesuch Records, another Time Warner subsidiary, and the album was released in the spring of 2002. When it was released, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot reached number thirteen on the Billboard 200, Wilco’s highest chart position to that date.^[59] Yankee Hotel Foxtrot sold over 590,000 copies, and to date remains Wilco’s best selling album.^[60] Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
was met with wide critical acclaim: it topped 2002’s Pazz & Jop
critics’ poll, was named one of the 100 greatest albums of all time by Q Magazine, and was named one of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time by Rolling Stone.^[61][62][63]

Thanks Wiki.  Now you know the story.  Here’s a song.

Wilco-Jesus, Etc.

There are some good things about May here in Heat City USA.  For one, it means we’re done with The House of Sand and Fog in our book club.  It was a good starting point for discussion, but now its time to move on to better books.  Books such as The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski.  I am truly excited to read this book, its been at the top of my reading list for a year now, it promises to be good.

May also brings with it a new classic album of the month.  I won’t spoil the surprise as to which album it is, but  feel free to guess.  OK heres a hint, the Artist will be playing a show on June 18th a mere 3 hours from my house.  They will be playing a one night only show with one of my favorite new bands.  The Artist and the new band they are playing a show with are both on my most anticipated albums of the year list.  The show is only $32 per ticket and there’s no way I’m going to it unless I win the lottery.

I’m going swimming now.

Grainy

First off I want to hock my wares.  Wait, that sounds bad.  I would like to put my artisan bread officially up for sale.  As of tomorrow morning (Saturday May 2nd)  I will have 2 sandwich loaves of a wonderful multigrain bread and 2 or 3 boulés (pronounced bools (rhymes with fools)) to sell.  Fresh as can be.  I’ll be extracting them from a very hot oven beginning at 9:30 a.m.  If you would like to share in the reverie of fresh baked bread just e-mail me at chef.j.allen@gmail.com.

The Sourdough is the beautiful Arizona Rustic style that I bragged about here.  The wild yeast culture was started on April 11th so it still hasn’t hit the apex of its sourness.  Don’t let that dissuade you though, its fantastically complex and if you get it within2 hours of baking the crust is delightfully crunchy which is worth the price alone.  Oh yeah, the price.  Its $4 for a generous boulé.

The multigrain(pictured at the top of the page)(I need a catchy name for it) has quickly become one of my favorites.  I make mine a multi multigrain by including red quinoa (its a superfood), millet (not quite super, but close), polenta, oats and of course wheat.  The slight crunch of the quinoa and millet perfectly compliments the pillowy soft texture of the bread.  I add honey to give this bread a mildly sweet flavor.  Its perfect served warm with a slathering of butter or toasted with your favorite jam.  Oh year, I almost forgot.   This bread is technically a sourdough also, I used the same starter mentioned above, all wild Arizona yeast.  It gives this bread the perfect kick.  I’d marry this bread if the Arizona Constitution didn’t strictly forbid it.  $5 for a sandwich loaf, half price if you come up with a name for it that sticks.

Again, just email me at chef.j.allen@gmail.com if you’re interested.    Oh, you have to come pick it up, so if you live outside of Maricopa County, it probably not a good idea.

The Staff of Life

Remember, the next book is The Story of Edgar Sawtell by David Wroblewski.  Buy it, check it out, rent it, just get it.

I tell you this because this album is that door.  It opens to a beautiful, hopeful, desperate, chaotic, emotional world.   A world where there is a God  who can’t bear the weight any longer.  A world where there is a chemical in all of our bodies that links us all together and gives us the feeling we call love.  A world where we’ll never come up with all the cures we need and won’t be able to save the planet from dying one day.  A world where reality seems less and less real the more you think about it.

This Album is a work of art, a stunning masterpiece.  Listen to it, I beg of you, just listen to it.

The Flaming Lips-The Soft Bulletin (complete album)

The Flaming Lips-The Gash

I plan on finishing The House of Sand and Fog this week (Friday’s the 1st).  I haven’t read it at all for about 2 weeks.  I’ll get some more discussion questions up for it of course.

Thats All.

Here’s my favorite song so far from their Forthcoming album Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix (due May 26th). Sorry about the video, its yet another brat pack rehash, but at least you get to hear the song which is phenomenal.

And here are some videos from their recent live performance on SNL.

The Staff of Life

Its finished and I’m happy with it.  Here are some more pics.

Still notsure about the banneton.

I used a banneton for this boulé.  A banneton is a proofing (rising) basket.  As the bread rises, it takes on the shape of the banneton.  This one just made the bread look lumpy and made the surface of the dough too dry.  I need a good basket and a little practice, then maybe I’ll use it more often.

The Setup.

This is my oven setup.  The oven was preheated to 500 degrees for 45 minutes.  There’s a baking stone under the bread that you can’t see, it has been in the oven throughout the preheating along with the empty loaf pan in the upper right corner.  The bread is on parchment that has been floured lightly with bread flour and polenta (rough cut corn meal).

I placed the bread with parchment directly on the baking stone, poured a cup of water in the loaf pan, sprayed the top of the bread with a little water, then emptied the squirt bottle onto the sides and bottom of the oven to create steam.  I set the timer on the oven for 2 minutes.  After 2 minutes I sprayed more water on the bread, the sides of the oven, and the bottom of the oven.  I set the timer for 5 minutes.  After 5 minutes I repeated the spraying process.  I then turned the oven down to 450 degrees and set the timer for 15 minutes.   After 15 minutes I took the bread out and placed it on a cooling rack.  No eating for at least 30 minutes, the bread needs to rest.

I put the water in the loaf pan and spray the sides of the oven to create steam.  This steam collects on the surface of the dough and allows it to expand more in the oven.  It also creates a perfectly crunchy, golden crust.

Rustic.

I didn’t get the crumb (texture) I wanted out of it.  I’d like a more open crumb with bigger holes, but I used whole wheat flour for 1/3 of the flour.  This is always going to make a more dense bread.  Thats where the rustic part comes in, apparently when you use whole wheat flour it’s rustic.

As I said before, I began this bread on April 11 and finally finished it this morning.  It is 100% wild yeast harvested from the air, the flour, and some raisins.  It is among the best bread I have ever made.  Maybe I’ll start selling it soon.

The book club is still going strong, we recently reached a milestone, we gained our third member, hooray.  I haven’t commented in a few weeks, I’ve been away, but I promise some book club discussion later this week.

Beth found plenty of junk at the famed Kansas antique stores (and my mom’s collection) maybe I can convince her to post sometime.  Maybe.  She’s still doing much crafting and sewing, she’s just not posting about it.  If we could all join in and chant “We want Beth, we want Beth”  there’s an outside chance that she’ll post something.

I started a wild yeast sourdough barm (starter) on the 11th of April and I am nearing my first loaf.  It sure smells good.  Its a pretty involved process, but I would like to share some of it with you (the process not the bread).  The Ciabatta recipe I’ve been making is about a 3 day process and its fantastic, once I’m comfortable with that one I’ll share it with you.  If you want, we can have a hands on bread making class, you just have to bring the ingredients.

The album of the month is still Soft Bulletin by the Flaming Lips so there’ll be a post coming there.

I’m having second thoughts about next month’s book club book, The Soloist, it’s now a movie, and I don’t feel like reading another book thats been made into a movie.  Any suggestions?

That’s it for today.

Forcing it off with their hands
The trapdoor came undone
Above our heads it swung
The privilege had been won
Being drunk on their plan, they lifted up the sun

Yelling as hard as they can
The doubters all were stunned
Heard louder than a gun
The sound they made was love

The Flaming Lips-A Spoonful Weighs a Ton