Chit-Chat Check-In #122 • Transcript
Hello, everybody. I just got back from Europe and I’m in the control room at the Loft with Mark and Tom, reacclimating to the bridge and getting a feel for the controls again.
One of the ways I like to recalibrate myself for home is to set up a drum machine and give myself a time limit to improvise something. In this case, about 20 minutes before Tom had to leave for the day, to try and build a song from start to finish. It’s a good exercise because you just get what you get, and sometimes it’s interesting and beautiful.
This one has five or six guitar parts, playing along with myself, trying to remember what I did the time before. I ended up liking it quite a bit. It stuck in my head—I woke up the next morning thinking about it. Maybe it was something I was carrying around with me for a while.
I wanted to share it here because I don’t think I’ve ever put up something like this here before. It’s almost like doodling, except that I might take this doodle and figure out a way to make into more of a vehicle for some lyrics later, a song shape.
I don’t know how it all works, and I don’t really care to. But that’s what this is, and it’s just called “GTR CHECK” for now.
Anyway, have a lovely weekend celebrating our nation’s independence from tyranny. Carry on. OxO—Jeffy
P.S. Since we’re celebrating the United States of America, here’s a pretty good one.
This Week in Wilco, Etc.
2009 / June 30: Wilco (The Album) is released by Nonesuch Records.
2006 / July 2: The Black-Eyed Snakes open for Wilco at the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center in Duluth, MN. Wilco plays a 21-song set that opens with “Misunderstood” and closes with “The Late Greats.”
2024 / July 5: Wilco appears at the Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua, NY with Cut Worms opening. The band closes the show with a cover of the Grateful Dead’s “U.S. Blues.”
GTR CHECK 7-1-2025
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