Spotlight On…
Jim O'Rourke & Wilco: Serving The Song
Jim O'Rourke, appropriately headphoned.
"Working with Jim and Glenn really opened my eyes to something I had intuited for a long time but had not honored. And that is musicians inspire and help each other. The best thing you can do is open yourself to their inspiration and creativity and learn." -- Jeff Tweedy, from Wilco: Learning How to Die, by Greg Kot
O'Rourke & Wilco:
As you can learn from our column on the Wilco-infused super group Loose Fur, the friendship of Jeff Tweedy with fellow musician, former Sonic Youth band member and producer Jim O'Rourke began as a couple of guys who played together because they admired and were interested in each other's music. That friendship was the catalyst for a new and exciting direction for Wilco; O'Rourke became the creative spark that encouraged Jeff Tweedy to mine a then-untapped well of creativity, freeing him to embark upon one of the bands most artistically fertile periods.
O'Rourke The Influencer:
Jim ORourke is anathema to some Wilco fans, the noisy outsider who infiltrated the ranks and ruined Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Others consider ORourkes involvement with the groupthrough YHF and its 2004 follow-up, A Ghost is Bornto be revelatory. I fall within the latter camp, as ORourkes versatility, musical virtuosity, and collaboration with a veritable whos who of the avant garde have cemented him as the one artist and musician to whom I most frequently return, and whose work I most enjoy.
Tweedy and ORourke first collaborated at the 2000 Noise Pop festival. In preparing for their performance, they surprised each other with their understanding of and reverence for some of their seemingly disparate influences. In an interesting inversion of expectations based on the nature of their respective works to date, ORourke had an intimate knowledge of, among many things, more obscure singer-songwriters, and Tweedy was well versed in the avant garde. The two found common ground in musicians such as the British folk singer Bill Fay, whose largely under the radar solo records from the early 70s became compelling touchstones. (Tweedy would go on to cover Fays Be Not So Fearful in many of his live solo shows, in part a reaction to the horrors of 9/11.)
More importantly for the future of Wilco, however, ORourkes inclusion of his preferred session drummer, Glenn Kotche, would galvanize Tweedys convictions that Wilco was in need of a sea change. The jam sessions leading up to the festival would culminate in what would become the bulk of the first Loose Fur record, and would open the floodgates for a new direction for Wilcos music.
O'Rourke The Turning Point:
Despite feeling energized by the collaboration with ORourke and Kotche (who had by now joined Wilco as a full-time member), Tweedy still felt that the new tracks that Wilco had committed to tape to that point (which would eventually become Yankee Hotel Foxtrot) were missing something, and sounded too similar to the bands prior work. Tweedy turned to ORourke to see if he could try his hand at mixing what would become the albums opening track, I Am Trying to Break Your Heart. ORourke (and Kotche, in large part through his prior work with ORourke) imbued his mix with tangible manifestations of one of his mantras: serve the song. If something didnt fit the overall feel, mood, structure, pacing, or theme of song, then it had to go. No extraneous parts, no matter how compelling or well played, should make the final cut.
ORourkes mix of I Am Trying to Break Your Heart, which actually removed some of the noisier elements of the song and which made it a more cohesive whole, convinced Tweedy that his new friend and collaborator had divined the essence of what Tweedy was striving for in the new material, and the band agreed to let ORourke mix the remainder of the record. As Tweedy focused more consciously on that which would best serve his songs, it became increasingly clear that Jay Bennett was on his way out of the band. Bennett, while an undeniably talented musician, was the antithesis of the serve the song philosophy, rankling Tweedy by lobbying for parts that featured his playing. Tweedy and the rest of the band had finally had enough of Bennetts kitchen sink approach, and he was asked to leave the band shortly after the completion of YHF.
O'Rourke The Producer:
Following the overwhelming critical success of YHF, the band wasted no time in starting work on a follow-up. For 2004s A Ghost is Born, ORourke returned to the fold, co-producing the record with the band and also playing on nearly every track. The band embraced a looser, more organic feel, and stretched out within the cozy confines of fabled Sear Sound Studios on several lengthy tracks. ORourkes recording accentuates the more communal aspects of the band, a warmly recorded document of the band that closely approximates Wilcos live sound. Tweedy described ORourke as taking a more traditional producers role for the record, one in which ORourke encouraged Tweedy to stretch out with his guitar playing, just as he had with Loose Fur, now that Bennett had left the band.
O'Rourke The Friend
ORourke was only tangentially involved with this years Sky Blue Sky, and he has since moved to Tokyo to pursue a long-standing interest in film, though he has not given up music entirely. For Wilco fans not yet sold on the extent to which ORourke touched and influenced Wilcos direction, ORourke himself described the nature of his connection with Tweedy in The Wilco Book from 2004:A lot of it between Jeff and me isnt verbal. We just understand each other. A lot of it, for me, was empathizing with what Jeff saw and relating to it as though I were in a parallel storyline. My records are thematically similar to what Jeff does, even though I do it differently than he does. The theme isnt negative, per se, its more like a description of the negative its trying to articulate a way out of it.
So if youre a Wilco fan looking to broaden your musical horizons, and are exhilarated by the search in the same way that Tweedy was, an exploration of O'Rourkes immense catalog will be immensely gratifying, I guarantee it.
