MIXTAPE: yankee hotel foxtrot demos compilation

okay, so i know i promised a new mixtape this week.  and i got piled on by work and lack of sleep and i haven't listened to anything new or started piecing tracks together.  but one thing i did do was dig into the demo sessions for wilco's yankee hotel foxtrot for the umpteenth time.  for some reason, though, this was the first time it really struck me that within the two or three readily available sessions from the recording of the album, there are nine songs that ended up on the cutting room floor.  not only is this an album-length number of songs in and of itself, but the quality of the songs all the way around are good enough that, though they might not stand up to the version of YHF that we actually got, they make a solid "album" on their own.

so i figured i'd pick what i thought was the best version of each of these tracks, put them in the order most beseeming a cohesive album, and upload them.  this collection actually includes a few of my all-time favorite wilco tracks: "cars can't escape" and "venus stop the train".  i also really, really like "not for the season" and "magazine called sunset".  to my ears, a lot of these songs actually strike a better balance between pop sensibility and sonic experimentation than the tracks that actually comprise YHF do, which is funny since that's what that album is known for.  then there's "venus stop the train", which just stomps on your guts at the end.  i included an alternate version of "alone" as a bonus track just because there are three or four versions, and while the one i included earlier in the playlist is most reminiscent of that YHF sound, the other version is also pretty great.

if you're a fan of YHF and haven't heard any of these demos before, i highly recommend getting both sets of demos (one is a 21-track set and i believe the other is an 18-track set).  a lot of the tracks that actually ended up on the album are on these demos in multiple incarnations and some are pretty incredibly different ("poor places" comes to mind).

note: the reason i'm making an exception to my usual rule here and uploading more than one song by an artist is because i've seen the sessions these songs are pulled from all over the place online, including a few very well-known wilco trading sites.  so i'm assuming this is kosher.  if it's not, of course let me know and i'll remove the link to the files right away.  

here's the tracklist:
01. Not For the Season (l/k/a Laminated Cat)
02. Magazine Called Sunset
03. Nothing Up My Sleeve
04. Alone
05. Cars Can't Escape
06. Let Me Come Home
07. The Good Part
08. Won't Let You Down
09. Venus Stop the Train

10. Alone (Alternate Version)

here's the tracks.