Barry Jenkins Brings the Yeehaw Agenda to Wilco’s ‘Yankee Hotel Foxtrot’

Barry Jenkins has remixed Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot in the style of a chopped-and-screwed Houston mixtape, dubbing it Yankee Purple Foxtrot.

The Moonlight director remixed the band’s 2001 breakthrough with the help of the Chopstars’ DJ Candlestick and OG Ron C. “NOBODY asked for this BUT… in a world where Jeff Tweedy and the boyz was from Houston, TX…” he tweeted. “Some Americana for the timeline given recent events. The #YeehawAgenda is alive and well.”

NOBODY asked for this BUT… in a world where Jeff Tweedy and the boyz was from Houston, TX… @candlestickem, @OGRONC and me present YANKEE PURPLE FOXTROT ☂️

Some Americana for the timeline given recent events. The #YeehawAgenda is alive and well 👌🏿https://t.co/Ez5YWkJcu3

— Barry Jenkins (@BarryJenkins) November 9, 2020

Jenkins’ Wilco remix follows his 2017 reworking of Grizzly Bear’s Veckatimest and Painted Ruins. He directed If Beale Street Could Talk in 2018, and is set to direct a sequel to Disney’s live-action remake of The Lion King.

Tweedy recently released his new book, How to Write One Song, and a new solo album Love Is the King, which he recorded at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic with his two sons, Spencer and Sammy. Last week, Wilco released a deluxe edition of their 1999 album Summerteeth. 

“I feel overwhelmingly grateful that there are any records still being listened to by anybody,” Tweedy told IndieLand last month. “I could never have imagined that. Or maybe if I had imagined, it would have been at the highest end of my aspirations my whole life, to have something that stays relevant to some people over time. And it’s not just that record [Yankee Hotel Foxtrot]. There are a lot of records, even Uncle Tupelo records, that have maintained some presence in the minds of music listeners for much longer than I would have anticipated. It’s really beautiful.”