WILCO 26 June 2003 Philadelphia *mastered soundboard*

Several posts back, I suggested that the "4-piece" incarnation of WILCO from 2001-2003 was my favorite brand of Wilco, at least live. Frail band post-Jay Bennett, audibly searching for their place behind Jeff Tweedy choosing to carry the torch on lead guitar, performances completely challenging audiences, amazingly-dynamic performances, etc.

I'm not changing that opinion, but I've found an even better gig from that era that really shows the depth the band was able to develop relying solely on Jeff Tweedy as the lead guitar.



From June 28, 2003, this Philadelphia, PA soundboard recording - as good as it gets regarding non-official live Wilco - features the 4-piece lineup as a 5-piece, with the soon-to-officially-join-band Mikael Jorgenson on keyboards and laptop duties. Jorgenson enhances Tweedy's Television-esque guitar skronk with Mission of Burma-style loops and feedback (see the segue between "Reservations" and "I Am Trying To Break Your Heart", for example), and adds occasional piano and keyboards to the performance as well.

This gig has a really good early version of "Muzzle of Bees" done up electric style, in contrast to the stunning acoustic beauty of the recorded version on the band's 2004 LP A Ghost Is Born.

"At Least That's What You Said" ends on a very long, very impressive Tweedy electric guitar wigout, obviously influenced by the New York 1970's No Wave scene (think Richard Lloyd/Television). It's otherworldly, and probably the best pre-2004 performance of this track I've ever heard.

Furthermore, longtime band friend (and producer) Jim O'Rourke joins the participants onstage for a spectacular Loose Fur raveup on track 17 "Laminated Cat" (or "Not For The Season", call it what you will). It's by FAR the best performance of this track I've come across, and I've searched for many as it borders on my favorite live Wilco track of all time.

"Spiders (kidsmoke)" is (relatively) close to the version they'd capture on the Ghost LP, with a heavy Krautrock influence that would only get stronger on the LP version. And any Wilco fan will love the full-on guitar assault starting with "Red-Eyed and Blue" and ending on the vintage "Casino Queen".

This show betters the Tampa gig from 2002 that I previously posted, in all ways. And furthermore, it's been fixed up from what was circulating in the past, if you're at all even remotely a fan of the band I strongly suggest you grab this.

Lossless FLAC, even!

There is only one small, minute problem with this otherwise-spotless recording - apparently Tweedy is suffering from a loose guitar cable during the first 1/4 of "Misunderstood" which leads to ugly crackling in the right channel. But it would have sounded the same at the gig, too, so you take what you can get! Needless to say it does clear up and all ends up great.

WILCO
28 June 2003
Penn's Landing, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania USA
*mastered soundboard recording*



01 I'm Always In Love
02 Muzzle Of Bees
03 I'm The Man Who Loves You
04 Poor Places
05 Reservations
06 I Am Trying To Break Your Heart
07 War On War
08 At Least That's What You Said
09 Via Chicago
10 Jesus, etc.
11 Spiders (kidsmoke)
12 Red-Eyed and Blue
13 I Got You (At The End Of The Century)
14 We've Been Had (Uncle Tupelo)
15 Monday
16 Casino Queen
17 Not For The Season (or Laminated Cat, you choose) (with Jim O'Rourke)
18 Kicking Television
19 Misunderstood
20 California Stars

Split across 6 RAR files here.

enjoy!

Wilco: 2 Nov 02 Tampa FL *mastered soundboard*

Unlike New Order or Joy Division, I don't have nearly as much to say about Wilco. Which is a bit odd seeing as how I believe they're the best band in America today, a position they've held since R.E.M. lost drummer Bill Berry in 1997.



Part of this was the amazing guitar firepower the band had in the late Jay Bennett, responsible for much of the guitar "crunch" Wilco had from 1995-2001. Yet Bennett also caused the supremely talented guitarwork of founder/frontman Jeff Tweedy to become subsumed in the mix - an outcome Tweedy perhaps encouraged for a time, but at the eventual detriment to the growth of the band.

Tweedy, already extremely talented, began taking guitar lessons in the early part of the decade from Television maestro Richard Lloyd. So it was no surprise that after the trainwreck that was the making of their 2002 record Yankee Hotel Foxtrot had ended, Tweedy took the chance to start afresh. Re-establishing himself as frontman and taking control of the Wilco reins, Tweedy fired Bennett in late-summer 2001, then shortly after the tragedies of 9/11/01 took the band on the road as a 4-piece.

It's this arrangement of Wilco that we find ourselves enjoying in this latest installment on the blog. With ultradrummer Glenn Kotche on drums and percussion, John Stirratt on bass and harmonies, Leroy Bach on keyboards and additional guitar, and Jeff Tweedy on lead guitars and vocals, this incarnation of Wilco is neither the bombastic all-guitar-assault of the Jay Bennett era, and nor the studied technical brilliance of the band post-2004 (with the admittedly-brilliant Nels Cline taking over on lead guitar).

Rather, this period of Wilco I find fascinating for its frailty. Tweedy is obviously finding his place in the mix, there's no bombast to hide behind, and nobody in the band wants to step out and take control. The performances are obvious exercises in dynamics, with simple man-with-an-acoustic-guitar songs coalescing out of chaos and noise.

The roots of modern Wilco are in these performances. Tweedy's Television-esque guitar skronk (ref: the latter third of "Not For The Season") plays out here, a sound carried to fruition on Wilco's 2004 LP A Ghost Is Born - a confidence on his instrument that only emerged with Jay Bennett's dismissal. Furthermore, Tweedy's ongoing involvement with confidante Jim O'Rourke - in their collaboration Loose Fur (Tweedy/O'Rourke/Kotche), as well as O'Rourke's production efforts on the Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and Ghost LPs - is very much on display in the loose experimentation, weirdness and clarity of these performances.

I've chosen to feature the band's November 2, 2002 performance - in stunning, crystalline soundboard clarity, mastered for this presentation by your humble blogger - because of all the 2002-era Wilco soundboard recordings available (and there are many), very few are mixed well. Which is understandable - these recordings often take PA mixes meant for the hall, as evidenced by many with Stirratt's bass mixed so low as to be inconsequential (hall PA mixes for small-to-midsize venues often rely on the onstage bass amp to provide all the bass needed for the audience, therefore there is often little-to-no bass in the resulting hall PA mix used for a lot of soundboard recordings).

This performance is well-mixed (including Stirratt's bass), features a GREAT setlist, and it's perhaps my favorite recording of this band from this era. My only niggling complaint is that this was one of the nights they didn't perform "Spiders (kidsmoke)" - the song was in a continuous metamorphosis during this period, and it was performed completely different to that which features on the Ghost LP.

Lossless FLAC files here - split across multiple RAR files.

WILCO
2 November 2002
Tampa Theatre, Tampa, Florida

01 intro ("Animals of Africa")
02 Hesitating Beauty
03 One By One
04 Sunken Treasure
05 Less Than You Think
06 I Am Trying To Break Your Heart
07 War On War
08 Kamera
09 A Shot In The Arm
10 How To Fight Loneliness
11 Not For The Season
12 Jesus, etc.
13 (audience instructions for the next song)
14 Heavy Metal Drummer
15 I'm The Man Who Loves You
16 Poor Places
17 Reservations
18 Misunderstood
19 Far, Far Away
20 Monday
21 Outtasight (Outta Mind)
22 Red-Eyed and Blue
23 I Got You (At The End Of The Century)
24 California Stars (with Damon & Naomi from the opening act)

enjoy!

RIP Jay Bennett (Wilco): 11/15/1963 - 5/24/2009

So I just heard the news that Jay Bennett, ex-Wilco, died in his sleep over the weekend.

I had the pleasure of seeing Jay perform quite a few times with Wilco (and once at an instore as a solo gig after being booted from the band), and got the chance to chat with him a few times as well. One of the nicest guys I've ever had the pleasure to meet in the industry.

I even saw his last gig with Wilco, on the 4th of July at Grant Park, Chicago in 2001 - and briefly chatted with him as well after that gig. Little did anyone know what was to come.

Oddly enough, even before this weekend, I haven't been able to stop listening to another Bennett-related gig (which I'm posting) - a fantastic soundboard recording of Jay and Jeff Tweedy performing at the Old Town School Of Folk Music Festival in July 1999, the first Wilco-related gig I saw (with my friend Brad).

It's sad listening regardless - these two obviously shared a close bond at one point (and Jay's contributions to this gig are amazing - just listen to his piano and background vocals on "Via Chicago") - and doubly sad with the news of the hour.

So in memoriam... on Memorial Day in the US...



Jeff Tweedy & Jay Bennett
July 25, 1999
Old Town School Of Folk Music Festival, Chicago, IL

01 intro
02 James Alley Blues
03 She's A Jar
04 New Madrid
05 Blood Of The Lamb
06 Down In The Willow Garden
07 The Auld Triangle
08 Another Man's Done Gone
09 Hesitating Beauty
10 Via Chicago
11 Sugar Baby
12 I Got You (At The End Of The Century)
13 Forget The Flowers
14 I'm Always In Love
15 The Lonely 1
16 Summerteeth
17 Pecan Pie
18 True Love Will Find You In The End
19 Casino Queen
20 California Stars
21 Hoodoo Voodoo

part I
part II

- - - - -

Some video from other gigs/sources...

"Cars Can't Escape"
"Another Man's Done Gone"
"Monday"

the good part II: WILCO More Like The Moon

I referred yesterday to Wilco's MORE LIKE THE MOON EP, which was (and still is) freely downloadable from the band's website - as 192kbps MP3's. As far as I know, the only non-lossy source for these 6 tracks was a bonus "tour edition" CD that was included in some copies of the Australian CD release of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. It has also been referred to, by the band and others, as the Australian EP and the Bridge EP.

I have that disc, and here are the six EP tracks, lossless for your pleasure. You can download each of the three different covers (for the three different titles for the EP - Australian, Bridge or More Like The Moon) the band has up on the website.

Since they're freely available on the band's website, there should be no issue putting lossless versions here for you.



So onward....

01 Camera
02 Handshake Drugs
03 Woodgrain
04 A Magazine Called Sunset
05 Bob Dylan's 49th Beard
06 More Like The Moon

Part I
Part II
(need to grab both files to extract, RAR files as usual)

These are losslessly compressed using the FLAC format - conversion software (for WAV/AIFF/mp3 etc) can be found at flac.sourceforge.net (grab the FLAC frontend). Alternatively, you can just download mp3s from the band directly, but why not get it lossless from your humble blogger instead?

Tracks 1 and 4 are identical to tracks 6 and 32, respectively, in the YHF SuperDeluxe package in the preceding post - except they're glitch-free for starters. Oddly the "Camera" track on the EP has the same tape spinup sound as found on the Engineer Reference leak. Conspiracy theorists may say that when the band went to compile this EP, they pulled a copy of the Engineer Reference material to choose from (amongst other sources), and a copy of said material escaped the band's grasp at this point (hence 2 of these tracks appearing in identical form on the subsequently-leaked Engineer Reference material).

Nobody has determined, to the best of your humble blogger's knowledge, the provenance of the rest of the tracks. Were they leftovers from the YHF sessions? Were they recorded after Jay Bennett's firing, and therefore the first recorded output of the new 4-piece Wilco? The band stated in interviews post-YHF that they spent time in the studio working on a project they referred to as "Decibels Per Minute" (dBpm) but we don't know what happened to all that material - some of it may be some of these EP tracks, some might be material that was later included as a companion CD to a book the band put out, some might have been left by the wayside. Who knows.

But most consider this EP material as part-and-parcel of the YHF era, hence me blogging it now. Enjoy!

the good part: WILCO Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, etc.

Last week we featured the "Classic" Wilco, the band that still maintained (sometimes) tenuous ties to its alt.country lineage. This week we veer with the band into the more adventurous, undefined territory that dovetails nicely with the story of the band as well.

We left off at Wilco's SUMMERTEETH album, a lush, dense record that left the band at the "What now?" point that all bands seem to reach at some point in their careers. Given the chance to write a fresh batch of songs to match with more Woody Guthrie lyrics, the band then contributed a number of songs to the second MERMAID AVENUE record, one of which ("Someday Some Morning Sometime") was a key signpost to the path the band would take. Leaving the denseness of SUMMERTEETH behind, the sometimes-ghostly, ethereal "Someday Some Morning Sometime" was the first hint towards a more atmospheric, moody path the band would often revisit, refine and expand in the 2000s.

Then everything went berserk.



Short version:

Band starts writing songs for their next record, and starts recording them in their own loft studio space with their own Jay Bennett (guitars/keyboards/songwriting) engineering the sessions.

Band agrees to be filmed during the recording sessions, for a future feature-length film on the band and the making of this record.

Band then fires their original drummer Ken Coomer, replacing him with (admittedly superior) Glenn Kotche. This happened the very same day filmmaker Sam Jones showed up with all his gear to start making the film.

Band finishes the record (after a long, drawn-out mixing process pitting multi-talented Jay Bennett against Tweedy's choice to mix, avante-gardeist Jim O'Rourke, in which what was initially sounding like SUMMERTEETH Part II became much more intimate, experimental and unique), turns it in to their label Reprise (an arm of Warner Bros Records), and promptly gets dropped from the label. This conversation - where Reprise drops the band, and tells manager Tony Margherita so - is caught by Sam Jones' cameras. Initially the band was to pay $50,000 to get the rights to the new record back for themselves, but eventually Reprise lets them go for free.

Before signing a new deal, band fires the aforementioned Bennett - losing a key songwriter, guitarist, and superb keyboardist. They're now down to a four-piece: Jeff Tweedy (songwriter/guitars/vocals), John Stirratt (bass), Leroy Bach (keyboards/guitars) and Glenn Kotche (drums/percussion).

Band then signs to another Warner Bros imprint Nonesuch, essentially getting Warners to pay twice for the new record - which eventually sees release in April 2002 entitled YANKEE HOTEL FOXTROT.

This post was initially to feature your humble blogger's favorite Wilco tracks from the immediate post-SUMMERTEETH era through today - but after writing the above, I've decided to go a bit more out there.

We will be recompiling the said YANKEE HOTEL FOXTROT record, but from the various demo/engineering sample versions that leaked out shortly after the record's release. I'm excited to do this post, because this record (as it was released) is easily my favorite Jeff Tweedy-related record, by a country mile.

Taken from two unique demo/engineering leaks, and the final record versions as well, this is a fascinating listen - especially if you compare the "befores" to the "afters". The befores often feature the track as it sounded with former drummer Ken Coomer, while the afters feature Glenn Kotche. Furthermore, if you sequence the record including the tracks that ultimately were dropped from the final running order, you really do have what could have been SUMMERTEETH Part II - which, obviously, Jeff Tweedy had no interest in making.

In fact, I'll make it easy. I'll compile 'em all here - including the versions on the record as it was finally released.

So on with it, links down there somewhere....

KEY:

"Demo" - taken from the 21-track leaked demo CD, supposedly from tracks recorded before drummer Ken Coomer was fired and replaced by Glenn Kotche. The drumming, to me, is much more Ken-ish than Glenn-ish, which is hard to explain beyond that the drums are less, say, nuanced than Glenn's drumming.

"Engineer Reference" - taken from an unknown-lineage leaked CD that supposedly was used as a mixing reference during the final mixdown sessions with Jim O'Rourke. It is unknown who the drummer was on these tracks, I suspect it's Glenn but I have nothing to back that up - though the drums do sound more Glenn-ish than Ken-ish, and they sound far closer to the final mix versions than the earlier demo versions. Please note that these are taken as-is, and that the Engineer Reference disc did feature some glitches as initially leaked (and no better source has turned up). I present these tracks warts-and-all, including the tape spinup sounds you hear at the beginning of some of the Engineer Reference tracks.

- - - - - -

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart
01 Demo
02 Engineer Reference
03 Final album track

Kamera
04 Demo, take 1
05 Demo, take 2
06 Engineer Reference
07 Final album track

Radio Cure
08 Engineer Reference - vocal, entitled "Corduroy Cutoff Girl"
09 Final album track

War On War
10 Engineer Reference
11 Final album track

Jesus, etc.
12 Final album track
(no known demo version has leaked)

Ashes of American Flags
13 Demo
14 Engineer Reference (Glenn drums?)
15 Final album track (Jay Bennett drums - it's been confirmed Jay's rough-mix drums were used on the final album track)

Heavy Metal Drummer
16 Demo
17 Engineer Reference
18 Final album track

I'm The Man Who Loves You
19 Demo
20 Engineer Reference
21 Final album track

Pot Kettle Black
22 Engineer Reference
23 Final album track

Poor Places
24 Demo
25 Engineer Reference
26 Final album track

Reservations
27 Demo
28 Engineer Reference
29 Final album track

* * * * Bonus "unreleased" (see note below) * * * *

A Magazine Called Sunset
30 Demo, take 1
31 Demo, take 2
32 Engineer Reference

Not For The Season
33 Demo, take 1
34 Demo, take 2

Shakin' Sugar
35 Demo, take 1
36 Demo, take 2
37 Engineer Reference

Nothing Up My Sleeve
38 Demo
39 Engineer Reference

Venus Stop The Train
40 Demo

Cars Can't Escape
41 Demo
42 Engineer Reference
43 wilcoworld.net Roadcase official download version

Won't Let You Down
44 Demo
45 Engineer Reference

The Good Part
46 Engineer Reference
47 B-side to "War On War" released track

Corduroy Cutoff Girl
48 Demo - instrumental, take 1
49 Demo - instrumental, take 2

Let Me Come Home
50 Demo - instrumental
51 Engineer Reference - vocal


Split into 5 RAR files, as usual, you must download all of them....

Part I
Part II
Part III
Part IV
Part V

- - - - - -

Tracks 6 and 32 saw official release on the More Like The Moon EP (extra CD with some versions of YHF, also freely downloadable from the band's website)

Track 51 was released on the benefit CD Amos House Collection Vol. 3

"Not For The Season" was remade as a Loose Fur track (Tweedy/O'Rourke/Kotche) and retitled "Laminated Cat", with a much sparser sound

"Shakin' Sugar" and "Venus Stop The Train" were re-recorded and released by Jay Bennett on his debut solo release The Palace at 4 AM

- - - - - -

Jim O'Rourke's final mixes - as heard on the final album track songs - are clearly more defined, less sprawling, and, frankly, better than the original demo versions or the Engineer Reference variants. Just compare the three versions of "Poor Places" - the upbeat, honky-tonk Demo variant is miles away from the final album track - and it's much better for Jim O'Rourke's involvement.

Next posting will address the rest of Wilco's career to date. Enjoy!

box full of songs: Wilco 1994-1999

Ahh, the joys of self-publishing. I had this really nice, detailed (and lengthy, as usual) post all worked up about what I'd planned as the next featured band here on The PoIT, and this entry here isn't it.

Why?

Because I just wasn't feeling it, man.

I don't want to create any preconceived notions about that band I was going to blog about, so I won't divulge who they are. Just know that some entry, at any given point in the future (but not this band featured today), could be that already-written post about the band that just didn't strike me as post-worthy at the last minute.

However... by no means is this a substitute post, not at all. How could a post featuring one of my absolute all-time favorite acts be a substitute? There are almost zero bands I would suffer a cold Chicago January winter day outdoors, in line with nowhere really to go, all day from 7am until showtime at 8pm (maybe a bit later than 7am but it was definitely before lunchtime), for the chance to see them in a tiny, beloved shithole of a venue, performing as the world's greatest bar band.

Wilco, I did. And I'd do it again.

You know the story by now, or well you should. Smalltown act makes it "big" singing songs of the downtrodden man, carrying the weight of the world on their shoulders yet they're barely old enough to drink. Said band shatters on the precipice of fame, the two principals starting two new acts from the bloody remains. One act is said to be the torchbearer, the act the smart money is on to make it huge. The other act, well, we'll sign 'em too and see what happens, but who are we kidding?

The first act makes a record, the critics are falling all over themselves trying to see who can label it with the most superlatives, the songwriter is heralded as the second coming of, well, something.

The other act makes a record, it sells, but not with waves of tremendous critical acclaim. This other act takes their punches and cedes the first set to the first act.

The first act makes another record and while still really good, it doesn't really advance. More of the same but in different keys, so to speak. The critics love it too, but are a bit more reserved in their praise. Meanwhile, it doesn't sell appreciably more than the debut, in fact it may have sold less.

The other act regroups and recruits a fresh face into the band, a fresh face with amazing talent. With that new talent, they tour and make their second record. This time it's different. The world expects Debut Album Part II, instead the world gets Great Exciting New Beginnings, Part II. This time, it’s the other act the critics are fawning over, outdoing themselves with superlatives. The little band that could. Other band continues to record exciting albums, participates in a stellar project celebrating the words of perhaps the world's greatest folk songwriter, and continues to redefine themselves with every record.

The first act ends up sputtering to a halt, regroups time and time again, but nobody jumps for joy when they put a new record out. Well, not like they do when the other act does.

I'm sure you don't need me to spell it out for you, but of course the smalltown act that shattered on the precipice of fame would be Uncle Tupelo (from Belleville, IL, on the outskirts of St. Louis), the first new act would be Son Volt (led by Jay Farrar), and the other act would be Wilco (led by Jeff Tweedy). Farrar (he of the world-weary outlook, with that voice from the depths of time) was the smart money pick for the two post-Tupelo acts, his Son Volt was expected to become alt.country's Rolling Stones or some such nonsense. Tweedy's bastard stepchildren leftovers Wilco was expected to be entertaining, but not much beyond. So nobody would have predicted it would be Tweedy and Wilco critics rave about today and the music-buying public embraces, with Jay Farrar on the sidelines watching the world pass him by.

What is it about Wilco that is so spectacular? The lineage - the direct point A to point Z progression of their records - explains it all. The sound of Wilco's second record BEING THERE doesn't sound at all like the record that would logically follow the debut A.M. - it's as if we aren't hearing two records that came between them, that explain the giant, majestic leap in songwriting, emotion and rawness from record #1 to record #2. And it doesn't stop there either - each Wilco record is a sea change from the preceding record.

It doesn't hurt matters either that Wilco was involved in the Woody Guthrie archive project with Billy Bragg, where Woody's daughter Nora asked Bragg to set some unseen Woody lyrics to new, contemporary music, and Bragg thought Wilco was the perfect rootsy, post-Woody and post-Dylan act to help bring it all back home. The results speak for themselves - the two MERMAID AVENUE records are among either act's top sellers ever, and breathe new life into the dustblown Woody Guthrie legacy.

We will celebrate the music of Wilco in two parts. Part I will focus on the 1990s, starting with 1994's debut A.M. (and the songs surrounding it), and wrapping with 1999's SUMMERTEETH.

So... we present, in 3 RAR files linked below (as usual, gotta grab all 3 to extract):

PROMISING:
Selected Wilco 1994-1999

01 The TB Is Whipping Me (Wilco & Syd Straw)
02 Promising
03 Box Full of Letters
04 It's Just That Simple
05 Passenger Side
06 Dash 7
07 Blue Eyed Soul
08 Thirteen
09 Misunderstood
10 Far, Far Away
11 Monday
12 Outtasite (Outta Mind)
13 Red-Eyed And Blue
14 I Got You (At The End Of The Century)
15 What's The World Got In Store
16 Hotel Arizona
17 Sunken Treasure
18 Someone Else's Song
19 The Lonely 1
20 California Stars (Wilco & Billy Bragg)
21 At My Window Sad And Lonely (Wilco & Billy Bragg)
22 One By One (Wilco & Billy Bragg)
23 Another Man's Done Gone (Wilco & Billy Bragg)
24 At My Window Sad And Lonely (Jeff Tweedy solo version)
25 She's A Jar
26 A Shot In The Arm
27 I'm Always In Love
28 Via Chicago
29 My Darling
30 In A Future Age
31 Student Loan Stereo

Yes there's a lot of Being There tracks, but it was a double record, and each track I pulled here is essential listening.

Sources:

01 released on the Red Hot and Country benefit CD, 1994
02 is a demo recorded in May 1994, ultimately released in 2002 on the soundtrack to the movie Chelsea Walls
03-07 from the debut LP A.M.
08 written by Alex Chilton (Big Star), recorded and released in 1997
09-19 from the LP Being There, 1997
20-23 from the Wilco / Billy Bragg collaboration Mermaid Avenue (unreleased Woody Guthrie lyrics set to new Wilco / Bragg compositions)
24 was a B-side on the "She Came Along To Me" CD single from the Mermaid Avenue sessions
25-30 from the LP Summerteeth, 1999
31 was a B-side on the "Can't Stand It" CD single from the Summerteeth sessions

Next entry we will focus on Wilco's 21st century efforts. Believe me the story gets even more fascinating from here - they even made a movie about it!

So enjoy. Oh yeah.... you need links don't you ;)

Part I / Part II / Part III (need to grab each one)