Year of the Wilco

Earlier today I was at the office listening to Wilco while doing some stranger's tax return when it occurred to me that Jeff Tweedy has had a tangible effect on my life. This fact, along with the huge amount Starbucks coffee I had just finished drinking, made me start thinking about how Tweedy's lyrics may have indirectly and subconsciously affected my mood in the past, and how I can correlate certain albums to certain events and points in my life.

Instead of coming up with clever and descriptive names for periods in my life a la Picasso's art, my life can more aptly be classified by albums. The way I tend to digest and experience music is to try several new and different albums and artists until I find one I enjoy. After which I tend to listen to said album or artist constantly (almost obsessively). I once recall thinking, and possibly telling someone, "I don't think I'll ever get sick of Linking Park. I can listen to Hybrid Theory forever" Well a few summers later the band was off of my radar screen and still hasn't reappeared. Although, I did move to a neighborhood which, phonetically shares the same name. The point: Avoid the new prog-rock band 'Garry Indiana'.

The details surrounding my Wilco period will remain vague and indiscreet so I don't sound too autobiographical (but mostly because you'll think it involved much cooler things than it actually did). However, when looking back its as if the events of the roughly 8 month period were structured in the same way as the album. This makes me wonder if I'm currently projecting my past onto Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, or if the album itself, constantly streaming into my ears over the course of the time period, was ingrained so deeply in my subconscious as to actually have caused certain events in my life. Did Jeff Tweedy's lyrics, augmented by the band's quality music, manifest themselves as events of my life? Was my behavior a result of the overall tone of the album? Weren't there other things influencing me at the time?

Maybe, most likely and definitely.

I think the bottom line is that I drank too much coffee today. (But is this because I listened to "Pot Kettle Black"?????)