New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Nonesuch releases seven special editions of Wilco's landmark 2002 album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot on
September 16, 2022. The now-classic record has been remastered and will be available as part of each set. The Super
Deluxe version comprises eleven vinyl LPs and one CD-including demos, drafts, and instrumentals, charting the making of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot-plus a live 2002 concert recording and a
September 2001 radio performance and interview. That box set includes eighty-two previously unreleased music tracks as well as a new book featuring an interview with singer/songwriter/guitarist Jeff Tweedy, drummer
Glenn Kotche, and Jim O'Rourke, who mixed the acclaimed 2002 album; an in-depth essay by journalist/author Bob Mehr; and previously unseen photos of the band making the album in their
Chicago studio, The Loft. For the Yankee Hotel Foxtrot recording,
Wilco was Jeff Tweedy, John Stirratt, Leroy Bach,
Glenn Kotche, and Jay
Bennett with
Craig Christiansen, Ken Coomer,
Jessy Greene, Fred Lonberg-Holm, and Jim O'Rourke.
A live version of "Reservations" from a legendary concert contained on Snoozin' at The Pageant - Live 7/23/02 at The Pageant, St. Louis, MO-a recording that is part of the Super
Deluxe LP and CD sets as well as the
Deluxe LP and digital sets-is available now. Full details of each of the seven versions is below; album pre-orders are available now. A limited-edition vinyl 7" with versions of "I'm the Man Who Loves You" and "War on War," from the Super
Deluxe box set, is available now from wilcostore.com.
Wilco marked the anniversary of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot—which was released commercially on April 23, 2002, after a circuitous and storied gestation, including a period of streaming for free on the band's website-with a performance of the album's "Poor Places" on last night's Late Show with Stephen Colbert, which may be seen now. The band is currently performing Yankee Hotel Foxtrot in its entirety (plus a mix of concert favorites and rarities) in two limited runs at New York City's United Palace and Chicago's Auditorium Theatre. The
Chicago show on April 23 will be available as a live stream.
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was widely acclaimed as one of 2002's best albums, appearing in year-end lists of Mojo, NME, Q, Rolling Stone, and Uncut, among many others. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot also was featured in multiple decade-end lists, with Rolling Stone naming it #3 Album of the 2000s, as well as many Greatest Albums of All Time lists, including in the NME.
Among Yankee's inspirations was a recording
Tweedy bought at Tower Records in the late 1990s, The Conet Project: Recordings of Shortwave Numbers Stations. As Bob Mehr points out in his new album note, the record got "deep under Tweedy's skin."
Tweedy said in his 2017 memoir, Let's Go (So We Can Get Back), "It was as fascinating to me as anything being made by actual musicians using actual instruments … I wanted to know why it was so hypnotic to me. Why could I listen to hours of this stuff, even though I had no clue what any of them were saying. That question became the foundation for Yankee Hotel Foxtrot … the way people communicated or ultimately failed to communicate." The album takes its title from a haunting recording of a woman repeating those words that is included in The Conet Project; that recording is sampled in the penultimate song on Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, "Poor Places."
"Conceptually,
Tweedy had decided to focus on a big idea for the next album: the state of America. His lyrics—often distilled from scribbled pages of free verse or poetry—became a form of inquiry," Mehr continues.
Tweedy said, in 2004, "I wanted to write about the stuff right in front of my eyes, microscopically looking at
America and asking questions about each little thing … How can there be all these good things and things that I love about America, alongside all of these things that I'm ashamed of? And that was an internal question, too; I think I felt that way about myself."
Mehr says, "Exploring those questions, while weaving in strands of Eastern philosophy and bits of autobiography—Yankee lyrics would be loaded with the pained imagery of someone suffering from migraines and mental health issues—Tweedy would conjure a deep examination of both country and self."
Describing the uncanny, strangely prescient feeling of the album, which
Wilco began offering as a free stream on its website in 2001, Mehr notes: "In the wake of 9/11, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot would be burdened with unintended meaning. The disc had originally been scheduled for a
September 11 release. Its cover—a Sam Jones-shot image of Chicago's twin
Marina Towers angled in looming fashion—bore an eerie resemblance to the felled World Trade Center towers. And the songs—with titles like 'Ashes of American Flags' and 'War on War,' and lyrics about how 'tall buildings shake, sad voices escape'—took on a terrible new resonance."
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was the first
Wilco release on Nonesuch Records following the band's infamous split with Reprise (both labels are part of Warner
Music Group). It was also the first release featuring the line-up of drummer
Glenn Kotche and multi-instrumentalist Leroy Bach joining founding members
Jeff Tweedy and John Stirratt. The 2002 Sam Jones film I Am Trying to Break Your
Heart documented the fraught recording and mixing process, personnel changes, and label issues.
The relationship with Nonesuch would last nearly a decade and include three more studio albums—the Grammy Award-winning A ghost is born, Sky Blue Sky, and
Wilco (the album)—along with a live album and a live DVD, plus reissues of earlier records, before
Wilco began its own label, dBpm. The band's current lineup of Jeff Tweedy, John Stirratt,
Glenn Kotche, Mikael Jorgensen, Patrick Sansone, and Nels Cline has been together for nearly twenty years.
YANKEE HOTEL FOXTROT 2022 Editions:
11 LP & 1 CD Super
Deluxe Edition
82 previously unreleased tracks
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
I Am Trying to Break Your Heart
Kamera
Radio Cure
War on War
Jesus, Etc.
Ashes of American Flags
Heavy Metal Drummer
I'm the Man Who Loves You
Pot Kettle Black
Poor Places
Reservations
Remastered and cut by Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering
American Aquarium: Building Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Anniversary (Nothing up My Sleeve)
Venus Stopped the Train
Poor Places
I Am Trying to Break Your Heart
American Aquarium
Cars Can't Escape
Kamera
War On War *
I'm the Man Who Loves You *
Ashes of American Flags
Not for the Season (Laminated Cat)
Shakin' Sugar
Let Me Come Home
Poor Places
Reservations
*previously issued on a limited-edition vinyl 7"
Here Comes Everybody: Building Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Not for the Season (Laminated Cat)
Remember to Remember (Hummingbird)
I Am Trying to Break Your Heart
Kamera
Radio Cure
War on War
Venus Stopped the Train
I'm the Man Who Loves You
The Good Part
Pot Kettle Black
Ashes of American Flags
Poor Places
Shakin' Sugar
Reservations
Cars Can't Escape
The Unified
Theory of Everything: Building Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
A Magazine Called Sunset
Remember to Remember (Hummingbird)
I Am Trying to Break Your Heart
Kamera
Radio Cure
War on War
Jesus, Etc.
Ashes of American Flags (Stravinsky Mix)
Heavy Metal Drummer
I'm the Man Who Loves You
Pot Kettle Black
Poor Places
Reservations
Lonely in the Deep End: Demos, Drafts, Instrumentals, Etc.
Love Will (Let You Down)
Lost Poem Demo
I'm the Only One Who Lets Her Down
Has Anybody Seen My Pencil?
The Good Part
A Magazine Called Sunset
A Magazine Called Sunset (Backing Track)
Anniversary (Nothing Up My Sleeve)
Kamera
I'm the Man Who Loves You
I Am Trying to Break Your Heart
Jesus, Etc.
Reservations (Backing Track)
Let Me Come Home (Synth)
Ooby Dooby
Snoozin' at The Pageant - Live 7/23/02 at The Pageant, St. Louis, MO
I Am Trying to Break Your Heart
I'm the Man Who Loves You
War on War
Kamera
Radio Cure
A Shot in the Arm
She's a Jar
I'm Always in Love
Sunken Treasure
Jesus, Etc.
Heavy Metal Drummer
Pot Kettle Black
Ashes of American Flags
Not for the Season (Laminated Cat)
Reservations
California Stars
Red-Eyed and Blue
I Got You (At the End of the Century)
Misunderstood
Far, Far Away
Outtasite (Outta Mind)
I'm a Wheel
TRANSMISSION: 9/18/01 Sound Opinions WXRT - Chicago, IL, With Greg Kot & Jim DeRogatis
Interview, Pt. 1
War on War (Live in Studio)
Interview, Pt. 2
Interview, Pt. 3
I'm the Man Who Loves You (Live in Studio) *
Interview, Pt. 4
Should've Been in Love (Live in Studio)
Interview, Pt. 5
She's a Jar (Live in Studio)
Interview, Pt. 6
Ashes of American Flags (Live in Studio)
*previously issued on the "War On War" CD single in the UK
Booklet
New liner notes by Bob Mehr
Extensive conversation among Jeff Tweedy,
Glenn Kotche, Jim O'Rourke, and set co-producer Cheryl Pawelski
8 CD Super
Deluxe CD Edition
82 previously unreleased tracks
(see above track lists)
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2022 Remaster)
American Aquarium: Building Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Here Comes Everybody: Building Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
The Unified
Theory of Everything: Building Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Lonely in the Deep End: Demos, Drafts, Instrumentals, Etc.
TRANSMISSION CD: 9/18/01 Sound Opinions WXRT - Chicago, IL, With Greg Kot & Jim DeRogatis
Snoozin' at The Pageant - Live 7/23/02 at The Pageant, St. Louis, MO
Booklet
New liner notes by Bob Mehr
Extensive conversation among Jeff Tweedy,
Glenn Kotche, Jim O'Rourke, and set co-producer Cheryl Pawelski
7 LP
Deluxe Edition
39 previously unreleased tracks
(see above track lists)
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2022 Remaster)
The Unified
Theory of Everything: Building Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Performances from TRANSMISSION - 9/18/01 Sound Opinions WXRT-Chicago, IL with Greg Kot & Jim DeRogatis
Snoozin' at The Pageant - Live 7/23/02 at The Pageant, St. Louis, MO
Booklet
New liner notes by Bob Mehr
Digital Deluxe Edition
39 previously unreleased tracks
(see above track lists)
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2022 Remaster)
The Unified
Theory of Everything: Building Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Snoozin' at The Pageant - Live 7/23/02 at The Pageant, St. Louis, MO
Performances from TRANSMISSION - 9/18/01 Sound Opinions WXRT-Chicago, IL with Greg Kot & Jim DeRogatis
2 CD Expanded Edition
18 previously unreleased tracks
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2022 Remaster)
Alternate album version (The Unified
Theory of Everything) plus bonus tracks:
I Am Trying to Break Your
Heart (The Unified
Theory of
Everything Version)
Kamera (The Unified
Theory of
Everything Version)
Radio Cure (The Unified
Theory of
Everything Version)
War on War (The Unified
Theory of
Everything Version)
Jesus, Etc. (The Unified
Theory of
Everything Version)
Ashes of American Flags (Stravinsky Mix) (The Unified
Theory of
Everything Version)
Heavy Metal Drummer (The Unified
Theory of
Everything Version)
I'm the Man Who Loves You (The Unified
Theory of
Everything Version)
Pot Kettle
Black (The Unified
Theory of
Everything Version)
Poor Places (The Unified
Theory of
Everything Version)
Reservations (The Unified
Theory of
Everything Version)
Shakin' Sugar (American Aquarium Version)
Venus Stopped the
Train (Here Comes Everybody Version)
Remember to Remember (Hummingbird) (The Unified
Theory of
Everything Version)
A Magazine Called Sunset (The Unified
Theory of
Everything Version)
The Good Part (Here Comes Everybody Version)
Not for the Season (Laminated Cat) (Here Comes Everybody Version)
Cars Can't Escape (Here Comes Everybody Version)
2 LP version
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2022 Remaster)
Digital Edition
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2022 Remaster).
