The Whole Release! (Plus Updates and Other Cool Stuff)

It’s been quite a few weeks since the last update, so I figured I’d give you guys a kind of Wilco News Lightning Round (patent pending).

The moment we’ve been waiting for since it was announced almost four months ago has finally come. The result? The Whole Love is pretty awesome.

Many of us were treated to a 24-hour streaming party of the album a few weeks ago, but as many Wilco fans know, every album requires a few listenings to really get into it; now that it’s been out for a couple of weeks, I’m surprised that my vinyl copy of The Whole Love isn’t just a pile of string by now.

I thoroughly dig the new album (it goes without saying), as does almost everyone else, apparently.

• Rolling Stone gives The Whole Love 4 Stars, picking it as the editor’s pick of the week two weeks back.
• Spin gives it an 8/10, saying “Whoever has been dismissing Wilco as “dad rock” must have pretty complicated relationships with their fathers.”
• The LA Times gives The Whole Love 3.5/4 Stars. “Nearly every song contains some tangential surprise, odd hook, sonic back flip or midsong redefinition.”
• Reuters claims that The Whole Love shows shades of Beatles, stating that “[The Whole Love] thoroughly [summarizes] the disparate sides the beloved band has developed over the last 16 years.

Critics’ opinions are always welcome, but what really matters is what the band thinks of the record.

Jeff Tweedy, the Wilco frontman himself, discussed a select few tracks from The Whole Love in a recent interview:

“I Might”— The music that always feels the most like home to me is ’60s garage band music, “Pebbles”- and “Nuggets”-type (garage band compilation albums) of one-hit-wonder garage band music. That’s just the stuff that’s the most deeply ingrained in my DNA and my blood. It’s kind of weird that it doesn’t shine through that much. But it seems like it does on this record. That Farfisa (organ) sound is a pretty major part of that. It wasn’t even directed, actually. Mike (keyboardist Mikael Jorgensen) is just a big fan of that sound too. So that’s what he went for.

Art of Almost”— It was always the first track, from the second we started working on it. It opened the door the widest to the rest of the record. I think it’s the least categorizable song. We’ve had a string of records that have really hammered home this theory that whatever you put first on a record basically becomes the shorthand that that record has to endure critically. “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” would be talked about very differently if “Heavy Metal Drummer” was the first song on that album. “Either Way” was the first song on “Sky Blue Sky,” and of course that’s the “really mellow” record. I thought this was a chance to say, “What is this? You tell me.”

I also thought (it) would be interesting to start a record with hard drives starting up. The way it was described in the studio is the sound of data dying. The record kind of moves from that to the opposite end of the spectrum, to the most organic and pastoral kind of sound that you can put on a record.

“One Sunday Morning (For Jane Smiley’s Boyfriend)” — “Art of Almost” is a collage, and “One Sunday Morning” is one long performance. We never really played it again. That was just the one time we played it.It really doesn’t have much to do with Jane Smiley. I have met her boyfriend. The best I can do to explain it is I really like the guy, and we had a really poignant conversation for two guys that don’t really know each other. I did my best to reflect what I thought was powerful about that discussion.

You certainly know how to cut to the core of us, Tweedy.

In other Recent Tweedy-related interview news, The AV Club put out an outstanding interview with J. Tweed (I imagine he’d be cool with me calling him “J. Tweed”) last week. In it, he discussed the new record, Nirvana’s Nevermind, Wilco’s success and stability as a band, and the idea of “monoculturism.”

It seems like we have very fractured perceptions of reality. People shop for their own realities to reinforce the way they feel already, politically or—I don’t know. I guess there is a sense that you can kind of use the way the media works now to just build your own little universe. – Jeff Tweedy

Check out the whole interview here.

WilcoTube

Yeah, that’s right. Last week, the boys from Wilco curated YouTube. Just nod and pretend you know what that means.

Basically, the guys picked bunch of cool YouTube videos from around the interweb and put them in a sweet playlist.

Here’s a little taste of the selections:

Os mutantes – Fuga Nº 2

Reggie Watts – Big Ass Purse

Rock Vocals, Part 2 – May

Want to see more? Of course you do! Check out Wilco’s playlist, “Wilco Says: Watch!“

Hipstamatic Cassette Contest

Because vinyl is getting “too mainstream” for most hipsters, Wilco has announced a limited edition cassette release of The Whole Love. In fact, they have partnered with Hipstamatic on a contest to create the cover art for said cassette!

All anyone has to do for this contest is submit photos to Hipstamatic titled with the song from The Whole Love. The top five pictures, selected by members of Wilco themselves, will be on the cover of The Whole Love’s limited edition cassette!

I’m not much of a photog, but I call this one “Art of Almost”

See, because I had to wait a long time for UPS to get here. Never mind. It’s a “think-piece.”

Anyway, to submit a photo, or for more info on the contest, check out Hipstamatic.

Also, if anybody is interested in entering the cassette contest, send me your pictures on Twitter @WilcoNews, and I’ll retweet the best ones!

Other tidbits:

• Didn’t get tickets to see Wilco in concert this year? The good folks at NYCTaper were kind enough to record these incredible quality bootlegs of the New York gigs at Summerstage. Download them here!
• ‘Art of Almost’ one of the (many) standout tracks from The Whole Love has quite a history. Check out the band members’ thoughts on the track here.
• Check out Tweedy and the gang on “Talk Stoop,” just in case for some reason you doubted their talent or wit.
• Here’s another excellent article from The AV Club, discussing Wilco’s label as “The American Radiohead.”   “If anybody wanted to model themselves after us, they better be fucking be patient,” says Tweedy.
• Dig the artwork for The Whole Love? Check out this sweet interview with Joanne Greenbaum, the artist behind the album artwork on wilcoworld.net.

Tour Updates!

Wilco has announced yet another (!) Chicago performance, bringing their grand total to 4 shows at 4 different venues in Chi-Town this year. Tickets for their show at The Metro go on sale at 10 AM this Saturday, October 16th. Get ‘em here!

Another leg of the North American tour has been added: West Coast dates for the  early 2012 have been announced. More info about tickets will be provided as it becomes available. For now, here’s the dates so far:

1/19 Denver, CO – Fillmore

1/21 Tempe, AZ – Gammage

1/22 San Diego, CA – Copley Symph. Hall

1/24 Hollywood, CA – Palladium

1/28 San Jose, CA – Civic Aud

1/29 San Francisco, CA – Warfield

1/31 Oakland, CA – Fox Theatre
2/1 Davis, CA – Mondavi Center

2/3 Eugene, OR – Hult Center

2/5 Vancouver, BC – Orpheum

2/6 Spokane, WA – INB Performing Arts Center

2/7 Seattle, WA – Paramount Theater

2/8 Portland, OR – Schnitzer Theater

2/10 Santa Barbara, CA – Arlington Theater

And the remaining shows for this year:

10-24 Glasgow, Scotland – Glasgow Royal Concert Hall
10-25 Manchester, England – Manchester Academy
10-27 Bristol, England – Colston Hall
10-28-29 London, England – Roundhouse
11-01 Madrid, Spain – Teatro Circo Price
11-02 Barcelona, Spain – Palau Musica Catalana
11-03 San Sebastian, Spain – Kursaal Auditorio
11-04 Vigo, Spain – Pavillon das Travesas
11-07 Basel, Switzerland – Kaserne Basel
11-08 Frankfurt, Germany – Alte Oper
11-09 Munich, Germany – Circus Krone
11-11 Weissenhauser, Germany  - Rolling Stone Weekender
11-12 Berlin, Germany – Tempodrom
11-13 Utrecht, Netherlands – Vredenburg Leidsche Rijn
11-14 Tilburg, Netherlands – 013
11-29 Dallas, TX – The Music Hall at Fair Park
12-01 Austin, TX – Austin City Limits Live at the Moody Theater
12-03 Kansas City, MO – The Uptown Theater
12-04 De Moines, IA – Val Air Ballroom
12-06-07 Minneapolis, MN – The State Theatre
12-09 Milwaukee, WI – The Riverside Theater
12-10 Detroit, MI – The Fillmore Detroit
12-12 Chicago, IL – Civic Opera House
12-13 Chicago, IL – Riviera Theatre
12-15 Chicago, IL – The Vic
12-16 Chicago, IL – Metro

Well, that’s enough out of me. I now leave you with this clip of Nels Cline playing Duane Allman’s ’57 Les Paul  during a performance of California Stars on 9/29/11. Enjoy it.

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Wilco, All of Your Other Favorite Artists Contribute To Free Album Supporting Public Broadcast From ANTI-Records

Wilco, Tinariwen, Tom Waits, Neko Case, Man Man, Dr. Dog. Free. All you need to know.

Still haven’t heard Wilco’s latest single, “I Might” from their forthcoming album The Whole Love? Well, your laziness has finally paid off! ANTI-Records (home to Tom Waits, Neko Case, Dr. Dog, Nick Cave, and now Wilco’s independent label, dBpm) and 170 Million Americans For Public Broadcasting are offering a free, 16-track compilation of music from ANTI- artists to advocates for public broadcasting. It’s for a very cool cause, one that I think all of us can get behind (especially because it involves excellent free music!):

From the ANTI- site:

“The 170 Million Americans for Public Broadcasting campaign is a collaboration of public radio and television stations, national organizations, producers, viewers and listeners throughout the country who understand the critical need for a strong public media in the United States.”… “Public broadcasting offers millions of hours of free music, arts and cultural programming to American audiences, thanks in part to federal funding. From national music programs such as public television’s Austin City Limits and public radio’s Mountain Stage to the diverse local programming on public radio music stations throughout the country, public broadcasting is a vital part of our nation’s musical landscape. “

Read the whole announcement here.

Raise Your Voice is the title of the compilation, and features music from ANTI- artists like Tom Waits, Booker T Jones, Tinariwen (playing with Nels Cline of Wilco, in addition to Kyp Malone and Tunde Adebimpe of TV on The Radio), Wilco (0bviously) and, well why don’t I just show you the track list so you can kick yourself for not having downloaded it already:

Raise Your Voice!

1. Tom Waits – Make It Rain
2. Wilco – I Might
3. Lost In The Trees – Song For The Painter
4. Neko Case – Middle Cyclone
5. Marketa Irglova – Go Back
6. Booker T Jones – Progress
7. Tinariwen – Tenere Taqqim Tossam
8. Man Man – Life Fantastic
9. Mavis Staples – You Are Not Alone
10. Jolie Holland – Gold and Yellow
11. William Elliott Whitmore – Everything Gets Gone
12. Sean Rowe – Wet
13. Dr. Dog – Mirror, Mirror
14. Joe Henry – Odetta
15. DeVotchKa – All The Sand In All The Sea
16. The Swell Season – Low Rising

Anyone who signs up to join the campaign can download the compilation, but hurry up guys, it’s only available for a little while!

Hop to it and sign up here!

Want more free Wilco and Wilco-related tunes? Check out our past articles here and here.

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Free Listens: Downloads and Streaming

Looks like even our boy Jeff Tweedy is excited for September. What a rascal!

Man, even as September gets closer, it still feels far away. That sounded like something a very un-wise, very stoned philosopher might say. We’ve got less than two months until the release of The Whole Love and the sub-sequential tour, yet many of us Wilco fans are really in the mood for some new music. Even after listening to the latest single, “I Might”, on the radio, on our iPods, and on our way to court for pirating music, we still can’t get enough new Wilco.

Luckily, after snooping around a bit, I’ve found some more pretty great Wilco and Wilco-related tracks available for downloading and streaming. Consider this Round 2 of the free download post from July.

• From Spin.com – Remember in Cline Time when I mentioned that Nels Cline of Wilco would be collaborating with a band called Tinariwen (“who are, I kid you not, a group of nomadic Tuareg tribesmen who fought in Mali’s civil war”) on an all-acoustic album called Tassili? Well, Spin has got the premiere track from the album, a track called “Imidiwan Ma Tennam” (Hey! That’s my mother’s name!), and it is, as expected, very awesome. According to Spin, “Tinariwen and Cline crafted the song separately on two different continents. The group worked up basic groove in Algeria, while Cline recorded his parts in Wilco’s Chicago Loft studio. Cline’s producer Ian Brennan says the guitarist’s concept was to “be like a UFO landing in the desert.” Curious as to how that sounds? Dig it here.

• From nyctaper.com – This is a lossless download for the entire 6/25/07 Wilco performance at the Hammerstein in New York.

• This is a download of The Autumn Defense (side project of John Stirratt and Pat Sansone of Wilco)’s “Back of My Mind.” It’s fantastic, and if you haven’t listened to their cover of “Paradise” (originally by Mark Mulcahy) on the Ciao My Shining Star album (the entire album is incredible), get to it.  Spotify it, if you have the means.

• From Indieshuffle.com - This is something you may have heard before: it’s Jeff Tweedy’s acoustic rendition of “Yesterday” by a small, little-known band called The Beatles, in honor of Sir Paul McCartney’s recent gig at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

• From OwlandBear.com – Woah. This is the mother-lode. This is a live Wilco archive (compiled by the very cool members of Via Chicago) of almost every live show ever recorded from Wilco, members of Wilco, and other incarnations of the band. From The Autumn Defense to Golden Smog to Seven Worlds Collide, there are enough free downloads here to make you want to strand yourself on a desert island just to listen to all of them.

OwlandBear.com say something on the Wilco Archive page that I think is important to keep in mind when we download stuff for free:

… don’t forget to buy any Wilco-related recordings and merchandise that you can get your hands on; these are great people with big hearts who love to give, so please don’t just take from them.

I believe that many of us do realize this, and that’s why we do things like preorder albums and glow-in-the-dark yo-yos, travel 200 miles to see a show that’s not even in the state we live in, and make our own music videos. We fans that truly appreciate the band and the work it does do not want to see great music thrown into a pile with Ke$ha and Justin Bieber CD’s in the $5 bin at Wal-Mart. We download and listen to these tracks not simply because they’re free, but because we love and enjoy the band’s art so much that we simply can’t get enough of it.

This is not meant to be a guilt trip in any way, just a little ramble on the current issues of music downloading legality.

Anyway, Enjoy!

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Cline Time (Featuring Free Songs!)

You can play the guitar with your teeth you say? Good for you. But can you be Nels Cline and play the guitar with your teeth? Didn't think so.

In the same vein as The Tweedy Feed, I decided to create Cline Time, a source for the latest dirt on our favorite Cline: Nels. It’s kind of like the Frasier to The Tweedy Feed’s Cheers; kind of a spinoff, but very much it’s own thing (though I did try to get that delightful dog to appear in here. He said no.). Actually, it’s a lot more like The Colbert Report to The Daily Show. That’s a much better analogy; I don’t know why I said that other thing. Forget that I did, all right?

In any case, forgetting all sitcom spinoffs, many of us Wilco fans have gotten so caught up in the frenzy of anticipation and anxiety (what, you don’t have anxiety?) for The Whole Love and Wilco’s upcoming tour, we overlooked another major album release earlier this summer: BB&C (Tim Berne, Jim Black and Nels Cline)’s live album, The Veil. To many of us Wilco fans, Nels Cline is the underrated, under-appreciated, incredibly talented guitar god from Wilco; however, what many of us don’t realize is that he is one hell of an experimental free Jazz-rock musician. And he’s out there. Like Sun Ra On Jupiter out there.

Don’t believe me? Take a pull on this: It’s called “Caved-In Heart Blues” from Cline’s 2007 album, Draw Breath. It has come close to replacing Neil Young’s For The Turnstiles as the song I will hear in my head just before I go insane. Which is pretty high praise coming from me.

Did you listen to it? Pretty out there, right? Yet it’s somehow very soothing. It might be the molasses-drippingly slow tempo. Which is kind of a good thing.

Here’s a pretty sweet video of Cline performing with the Les Paul Trio in New York at Iridium last Monday:

Awesome distractions aside, The Veil, the latest from Cline, Black, and Berne (or BB&C, as they’re also known, which I like because you can hold the Shift bar the entire time you type it in) has been getting some pretty great reviews so far, and judging from Railroaded, the free MP3 download from last month, (which you can download here), they all seem justified in their praise. Here are some reviews for the record so far:

The Veil is a rapturous performance from three of New York City’s most electrifying talents at the last vestige for improvisational music left standing in Manhattan following the Blue Condo-ization of the Lower East Side.

-Jambands.com

Cover from The Veil. Anybody else getting a Tom Waits-y vibe?

From the opening passages you can tell that these are masters at work. Behind the doors of their industrial space, they are wrapping Waterford crystals in sheet-metal and playing catch. They are sprinkling machine nuts in the gears watching it sputter and spit out twisted scraps and unanticipated treasures.

-Allaboutjazz.com

… [The Veil performances were]  mostly two continuous improvised performances from musicians who have no fear of going into simultaneous improvisation that might scare other musicians back to law school. The kind of meeting of minds that both jazz and bands like Wilco need.

-BuffaloNews.com

The combination of the three, which for a time went under the name Sons of Champignon, makes for an alchemical fusing of explosive out-jazz and apocalyptic rock punctuated by moments of delicate beauty.

-JazzTimes.com

This is Tinariwen. They are going to make beautiful music with Nels Cline. I'm going to buy it. Probably.

As if all this wasn’t enough for Nels, he’s also recorded an all-acoustic album called Tassili with a band called Tinariwen (here’s a little taste), who are, I kid you not, a group of nomadic Tuareg tribesmen who fought in Mali’s civil war. Also featured on the album are Tunde Adebimpe and Kyp Malone of TV on the Radio and the horn players of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band. Is it cool if I speak for everyone on this one? Well I’m going to: “If I don’t get to hear this soon, I’m going to do something drastic. Like cancel my Spotify subscription. Which I don’t have.”

You’ve got time for one more awesome video before you go to bed, or work, or some other website, right? Good. Because this one’s pretty wild. I will end this edition of Cline Time with a video of Nels Cline playing the (kickass) solo to “Impossible Germany,” which so far is the frontrunner for this week’s poll. Please enjoy:

Nels Cline with Wilco – Impossible Germany

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The Tweedy Feed: Tour, Deerhoof Collaboration, Folk Festival, and More!

It took every ounce of resistance I had not to call this the “Tweedy Feedy”

What a past couple of months this has been for Jeff Tweedy and the gang. First came the release of Wilco’s latest single from their upcoming album, I Might. Soon after, the band announced details on said album, The Whole Love, scheduled to drop September 27th, along with a list of tour dates for the fall. The Solid Sound Festival took place at the end of June, where Wilco along with a number of other artists from the music, art and comedy world, performed for what has been described by younger fans as a “swag-tastic” 3 days.

One would think that in the wake of all this hubbub, the members of Wilco would take the remainder of the summer to relax, maybe have a Mojito, and gear up for the fall. Fortunately for the fans, they have not; Tweedy may be keeping busier than any of us, in fact. Along with the tour dates with Wilco, Tweedy has also announced a series of solo performances this summer, most of which have already taken place. Tweedy most recently headlined at the Winnipeg Folk Festival to a crowd of an estimated 60,000 people during the five-day event.

Tweedy also played the Door County Community Auditorium (which is much cooler than it sounds) last week, reportedly performing the rarities Gun and Pecan Pie from the Uncle Tupelo and Golden Smog days respectively. Tweedy also rocked out acoustically with Wilco fan favorites Passenger Side, The Late Greats, Heavy Metal Drummer, Shot in the Arm, and I Am Trying to Break Your Heart. Tweedy’s Fargo, ND show on Saturday mainly showcased performances from his extensive catalog of Wilco songs, and even included a second encore performance (because you can never have enough Tweedy). For those curious bunches of you, here’s the set-lists for both shows: (via I Got Your Setlist Right Here)

7/8/11 Door County Community Auditorium, Fish Creek, WI

Spiders (Kidsmoke)
Remember The Mountain Bed
Muzzle Of Bees
Open Mind
Deeper Down
IATTBYH
One Wing
I’ll Fight
I Might
The Ruling Class
Not For The Season
Pecan Pie
Hummingbird
Born Alone
Jesus, etc.
Bull Black Nova

Encore:

The Late Greats
I’m The Man Who Loves You
Dawned On Me
Gun
Passenger Side
Heavy Metal Drummer
A Shot in the Arm
Walken (performed at edge of stage w/o PA system)
Acuff-Rose (performed at edge of stage w/o PA system)

7/9/11 Fargo Theater, Fargo, ND

“(In A) Future Age”
“Born Alone”
“Via Chicago”
“Forget The Flowers”
“I Am Trying To Break Your Heart”
“Sky Blue Sky”
“Someday, Some Morning, Sometime”
“Not For The Season”
“So Much Wine” (The Handsome Family)
“Hate It Here”
“Summer Teeth”
“You Are Not Alone”
“Dawned On Me”
“Radio King”
“I’m Always In Love”
“Theologians”
“Heavy Metal Drummer”
“I’m The Man Who Loves You”
“A Shot in the Arm”

Encore:

“I’m A Wheel”
“Bull Black Nova”
“Airline To Heaven”
“California Stars”
“New Madrid”
“The Late Greats“

2nd Encore:

“Walken” (performed at edge of stage w/o PA system)
“Acuff-Rose” (performed at edge of stage w/o PA system)

In addition to these solo shows, the San-Franciscan, electronic alt-rock gurus from Deerhoof have also tapped Jeff Tweedy and his two sons, Spencer and Sam, for a collaboration on their split 7″ series. Information on this single will be posted as it becomes available, but it seems unlikely that there is any way it will be anything other than completely ethereal (sorry, it’s a “word-a-day” word).

For those  unfamiliar with Deerhoof, here is the latest from their newest album, Deerhoof Vs. Evil.

Deerhoof – The Merry Barracks

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Free Rare and Exclusive Wilco-Related Stream and Download Tracks

A Little Free (legal) Wilco Never Hurt Anybody

Because we all love free music, here are a few free Wilco and Wilco-themed tracks and sets from around the ‘net. It’s also legal, so don’t fret. I definitely just accidentally made a rhyme.

From NPR Music:

• Stream Wilco’s entire set at Sasquatch Music Festival
• Download a live cover of “I Shall Be Released” performed by Wilco

From The Steam Engine:

• Gem from 2001: Download Wilco’s Live WXRT July 4th concert in Chicago, IL, featuring Jay Bennett’s last show with the band
• Download Wilco’s engineer demos from the Yankee Hotel Foxtrot sessions
• Download Wilco’s entire live set from 6-25-11 at Solid Sound Fest

From Tauthal.com:

• Another early rarity: Download Wilco’s entire live set from July 20, 1995 in Nashville, TN

From 88.9 Radio Milwaukee:

• Download Pat Sansone (of Wilco)’s remix of Jamie Lidell’s “Gypsy Blood”

From Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right:

• Download Volume 1 of Jeff Tweedy’s Letters to Santa

From ElephantBackup.com:

• Download a crazy, rock-jazz fusion track from Wilco’s Nels Cline – Railraoded

From ArtistDirect.com:

• Download Wilco’s Glad It’s Over, from NBC’s Heroes Soundtrack

From TheMidnightCafe.com (but through MegaUpload, which I can’t vouch for)

• Quite a thing: Download a live version of every single Wilco song in the catalog, even the Mermaid Avenue albums with Billy Bragg.

And of course, you can always stream live shows from Wilcoworld.net via Roadcase

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