 1) “Is That You?” “That song kind of popped up as the most relevant opener, just because of the punchy guitars and shit. Just that feeling you get when you’re at a bar, and you’ve been there maybe an hour and the first band hasn’t gone on yet. And you know you’re going to end up talking to this person, and maybe you’re gonna smooch or something. And it might or might not be the person you think it is. And you’re trying to be charming, but you’re maybe more of a mess than you are charming.”
 6)
“(Friends Don’t Let Friends) Drink And Dial” “I’m
the worst person in the world (at that). At La Mancha, we’d call people
and harass them, get angry calls from them the next day. But definitely, in
the last year, I’ve had some really bad ‘calling the ex’ times.
Either falling apart or letting them have it. It’s a song about something
that’s just happened too many times.”
8) “Nobody Writes Letters Anymore” “There was somebody
who was out of town for the last year or so, and there weren’t computers
involved, so we decided to write letters. Someone who actually re-energized
my writing—it was a good thing. It’s totally kind of a Traveling
Wilburys song in my head. It’s got those goofy background vocals and the
harmonies. (And Slim Dunlap), well, that’s the big one. I wanted him to
play on it, and it made so much sense to me that at the end of the song, we’d
have this big slide solo come in. I asked Slim to do it, and he’s like,
‘Aw, I’m not a slide guy,’ but he came in.”
9) “How To Be Alone” “That riff is all Josh Peterson,
man. That kid’s a genius. There’s so many guitars on there! It’s
pretty fun. For all the quirky things I do, Josh responds to the way I write
and comes back with these counter melodies on guitar that just fill the song
out in a beautiful way. And that’s a really good example of that.”
11)
“Outside Looking In” “That song has a weird, long history.
What you’re hearing on the record’s only one third of it. It started
off (picks up his guitar, plays a couple riffs) as a full-band, big league guitar
part. We were trying to do a rock song like Wilco circa Being There. And live,
it totally works out. And we recorded it that way, and it was just kind of a
boring rock song. So we stripped everything down ... then [Mark] played me what’s
on the record and I started laughing. We didn’t even get to the bridge!
He’s like, think about it. It’s gonna end and people are gonna be
like, what the fuck happened? It’s a good line to begin on (‘Welcome
to the worst of times’), and it’s a good line to end on (‘I
don’t think I like what I see’). It’s creepy.” ||
|
