I bought the deluxe edition of Wilco’s new “Sky Blue Sky” so I could get the DVD, featuring “Shake It Off,” a 45-minute documentary directed by Christoph Green and Fugazi’s Brendan Canty, the filmmakers behind Sunken Treasure and the documentary series Burn to Shine.
The picture opens on a low key monologue from Jeff Tweedy layered over snowy images from Chicago. He says, “I wanted a lot of the songs on the records to be really kind of direct. I think that the world is so mysterious and so scary and kind of terrifying right now, it just felt really weird to try and write puzzles, and kind of disjointed, non-sequitur-type imagist kind of lyrics. I kind of think right now is a pretty good time to sit down and sing people some mother fuckin’ songs. I’m sorry, that’s all I really I want right now. I just want somebody to sing me a song. You know? I really was consciously trying to just write these crystalized ideas kind of songs. You know, like this is just one idea. I’m just gonnna try to get it across.”
Tweedy says later in the film that he’s singing directly to his wife, former talent booking agent Sue Miller. He also talks about being sober for the first time while making an album. Tweedy sought help for his addiction to pain killers in 2004 and has been open about the fact that he suffers from clinical depression and panic attacks.