Also, if you haven’t seen Wilco’s performance on NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert series, I implore you to take a gander. Dig Glenn Kotche’s drumming instruments!
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
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.
Die Rolling Stone Die! That's German for "The Rolling Stone. The," because it's a German Rolling Stone. See how that worked out?
Man. It’s been a while, hasn’t it? I apologize for my inconsistencies with updates, but between moving, setting up internet in a new apartment, problems with said internet set up, and starting classes (and the work that goes into them) I haven’t had a whole lot of time to update the site.
Anyways, as many of you probably already know, much has happened in the world of Wilco lately.
Last Saturday, September 3rd, Tweedy and the boys were cool enough to let all of us stream The Whole Lovein its entirety on the WilcoWorld site. General consensus, at least from The Twitter (that’s what the kids are calling it now), is that it’s everything we could have hoped it would be and more. Don’t believe me? Check out these handy Twee-views (whether I made that word up or not, let’s please never use it again.):
I think it’s their White Album. Weird and pop in the best ways. Jeff’s best singing since Ghost. – @MHarrell
What we’ve all been waiting for. Awesome! - @tclarke34
One Sunday Morning (for Jane Smiley’s Boyfriend) might be the best song Tweedy has ever written. And by might be I mean is. – @AlexMcCourt19
Listening to new Wilco. It’s nice. Some of it has sort of an OK Computer meets ELO vibe. @CYMBLS_EAT_GTRS (From Cymbals Eat Guitars – an outstanding new band.)
I’ve listened three times now. No holes in this album. Tweedy & Co. are the non-sports equivalent of Mariano Rivera. – @JoeCheckler
Amazing!! Very solid. I felt like there was a little bit of Jay reincarnated. Can’t wait to hear it live in less than 2 weeks! – @sayumsme
New Wilco is excellent! Awesome. – @rpecknold (Robin Pecknold of Fleet Foxes)
Also, not surprisingly, Wilco has announced an extension on their North American tour! After traveling overseas, the boys will be back in the States playing 9 more dates in cities from Dallas to…wait for it…Chicago! It’s a good thing, too; now those of us from Chi-town have time to let our forehead bruises heal from constantly bashing our heads against the wall, cursing our Moms for not letting us hitchhike to St. Louis to see the show at The Pageant. What? Don’t give me that look. Like I’m the weirdo. Anyway, here’s what the late fall is going to look like for Wilco (the band):
Details on tickets and pricing will be posted as they become available. Stay tuned!
Need to brush up on your Wilco history before the release of The Whole Love? Amazon’s got deals on the the entire Wilco catalog, throughout the entire month of September, with some MP3 albums starting at $5. Check it out here.
Wilco has joined with Farmer Foodshare, Triangle Local Businesses and Ten Farmers Markets in the “Farmer Foodshare Challenge.” Read about it here.
Some awesome videos for new tunes have surfaced
Wilco - I Love my Label (Live in Studio)
Jeff Tweedy - Dawned On Me(Acoustic version of song on The Whole Love)
**UPDATE: NEW MUSIC VIDEO ALERT! In characteristically surprising fashion, the boys have released a video for Born Alone, a track off The Whole Love today. Check it out!
Also, there’s this. If this video signifies the end of the world, I think I can die happy. Don’t ask, just watch.
Jeff Tweedy - I Gotta Feeling (At Dan Sinker’s “The Fucking Epic Twitter Quest of Mayor Emanuel,” book launch party, September 6)
What more could one ask for? Jeff Tweedy reciting the lyrics to My Humps, William S. Burroughs-style, you say? Good call.
Jeff Tweedy – My Humps
In case you couldn’t get enough (and who can?) Tweedy-Peas covers, here’s another!
Jeff Tweedy – Rock That Body
Can somebody please get Tweedy to play “TiK ToK” Next? Maybe get Nels to lay down some tasty licks on the Theremin in the background?
For those of you who missed the stream on Saturday (what were you busy doing, working?), the songs from The Whole Love have been uploaded to YouTube. Check ‘em all out here while you can, before Jeff Tweedy comes to your house and kicks you in the head.
Well, I suppose that about wraps ‘er all up for now. I’ll keep you posted with any new info on tour dates, etc, as they become available.
By the way, does anyone have a favorite song off of The Whole Love so far? For my money (which I spent on the pre-order), Art of Almost is quite an achievement.
More Fuji Rock videos have surfaced. Now you can really regret not moving to Japan when you had the chance.
Missed Wilco’s set at the Fuji Rock Fest July 31st? Me too. I’m totally bummed about it. Or at least I would be if I couldn’t live vicariously through those who were there with more of these excellent videos!
For more pictures and videos of the performance at the Fuji Rock Fest, put your cursor over here and click….now!
Here’s the set list for those of you interested (all of us):
Fuji Rock Festival Set list
I Might (new song)
Bull Black Nova
Side With the Seeds
I Am Trying to Break Your Heart
One Wing
Ashes of American Flags
War on War
Via Chicago
Impossible Germany
Born Alone (new song)
Handshake Drugs
Jesus Etc.
Dawned on Me (new song)
Shot in the Arm
Heavy Metal Drummer
I’m the Man Who Loves You
Late Greats
Red Eyed and Blue / I Got You (At the End of the Century)
Outtasite (Outta Mind)
I’m a Wheel
And here are some videos from the set for your viewing pleasure:
Fuji Rock Festival. Japan. Almost worth flying the 106 hours to get there.
I don’t think Japan has been this happy since it convinced some Americans that Digimon was as cool as Pokémon (it totally wasn’t). The Fuji Rock Festival took place last weekend at the Naeba Ski Resort in Japan, featuring bands from all around the spectrum of great music. Bands from Arctic Monkeys to Beach House to Big Audio Dynamite to a little indie band only your weird underground friend at the Bodega has heard about: Wilco (I hope I’m pronouncing that correctly). After this summer’s Solid Sound Festival and announcements of an upcoming tour to go along with the new album, The Whole Love, it’s safe to say that many Wilco fans are jones-ing for some more live Wilco performances. Some fans in Japan got their wish yesterday, enjoying (what I assume was) a killer set from Tweedy and the gang, along with other performances throughout the weekend from:
Arctic Monkeys
Asian Dub Foundation
Atari Teenage Riot
The Avett Brothers
Beach House
Best Coast
Big Audio Dynamite,
Buddy Guy
Cake
Chemical Brothers
Coldplay
Congotronics vs Rockers
Cornershop
CSS
Dark Star Orchestra
Deerhoof
digitalism
The Faces
Feeder
Four Tet
Funeral Part
G. Love & Special Sauce
Incubus
The Kills
Manu Chao
Mogwai
The Naked & Famous
New Mastersounds
Noah & The Whale
The Pains Of Being Pure Heart
Queens Of The Stone Age
The Sisters Of Mercy
Tangerine Dream
Tinarwen
Todd Rundgren
Warpaint
Wu Lyf
Yellow Magic Orchestra
Anyway, for those of us who (many of us who reluctantly) missed the festival, here’s the set list from Wilco’s July 31st set:
Fuji Rock Festival Set list
I Might (new song)
Bull Black Nova
Side With the Seeds
I Am Trying to Break Your Heart
One Wing
Ashes of American Flags
War on War
Via Chicago
Impossible Germany
Born Alone (new song)
Handshake Drugs
Jesus Etc.
Dawned on Me (new song)
Shot in the Arm
Heavy Metal Drummer
I’m the Man Who Loves You
Late Greats
Red Eyed and Blue / I Got You (At the End of the Century)
Outtasite (Outta Mind)
I’m a Wheel
Here’s a few videos (big time thanks to Mariana-mrnnr.tumblr.com – for finding the first one) of surpirisngly great audio and video quality from the Fuji Rock Festival. The first is the band playing I Got You (At The End of The Century), from the Being There record, the one below it is particularly rockin’ version of the now-iconic song, Heavy Metal Drummer from Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. To be completely honest, I’m not 100% sure what the third video is; it’s definitely very cool, though. Maybe we could play “Name That Solo?” The game in which Wilco fans watch the 42-second clip, and if they guess the correct song, they win a comment with their name on it!
UPDATE: The third song is a clip of Ashes of American Flags. Big ups (yes, that’s a thing. Just go with it) to @AlexHansonman for pointing that out!
If any other videos surface, I’ll be sure to throw them up here as soon as I can.
Wilco -Red Eyed and Blue / I Got You (At The End of The Century)
Wilco – Heavy Metal Drummer
Wilco – Ashes of American Flags
UPDATE: Here are 3 more videos that have surfaced of Wilco at the Fuji Rock Festival:
Wilco – Dawned on Me (new tune!)
Wilco – One Wing
Wilco - Side With the Seeds
There are also some fantastic pictures from the show, which you can take a gander (or a goose, if you’d rather) at below (from fujirockexpress.net and newaudiogram.com – thanks (once again!) to Koji Kumada and Time Out Tokyo for keeping me in the loop).
Can’t wait to see Wilco live and hear the newest tunes? Check out last week’s poll here to vote for your favorite live Wilco performance, and listen to some of the latest tunes from The Whole Love here.
Hope everyone got their tickets last week for Wilco’s upcoming fall tour. If you haven’t already purchased said tickets, chances are you’re S.O.L… or areyou?
...and Wilco. The best combo since pretzels filled with cheese?
Wilco has partnered up with Record Store Day to bring us the “I Love My Record Store” contest. Before everybody gets all up in arms trying to decode this mysterious title for a contest, let me explain:
Wilco’s latest single from their forthcoming album The Whole Love is entitled “I Might.” The B-side to that single is a cover of Nick Lowe’s “I Love My Label,” a wink to the fact that Wilco recently dropped Nonesuch, their previous label, and created their own: dBpm. Henceforth, the Record Store Day contest is called “I Love My Record Store,” which is in and of itself a wink to the Wilco cover of “I Love My Label.” Everybody on board? Good. I’m not explaining that again.
Write down the name of your favorite record store and why it’s your favorite
Pray to Uncle Tupelo, The Wilco (and Son Volt) God of tunes, that your name is selected to go see Wilco Live At Central Park on September 22! (Contest ends 7/31, so hurry up! And don’t forget to include the name of the store, as well as the city and state so we can share the love!).
I Might need to start making tour update posts every week
Woah. That was fast. With Wednesday and Thursday’s presales behind us, many of us scrambled to get tickets for Wilco’s upcoming The Whole Lovetour yesterday when they went on sale to the general public. Since then, a few shows have sold out, a show has been added, and cries of “Whyyy?” from Chicago were audible throughout the country due to the loss of alternative rock radio station Q101, and there still not being a Wilco show scheduled for the fall.
There may be hope, though, for those of us without a fall Wilco show to look forward to. Some shows have sold out too damn fast (the St. Louis show at the Peabody Opera house sold out in 25 minutes!). As a result, Wilco has added a second show in New York at Summerstage on 9/23, and I’m hoping more dates will be added soon.
*Update: Both New York City shows have been sold out as of 7/22
*Update:Both Nashville shows have sold out as of 8/1
*Update: For the Madison, WI show on Oct. 5 – A select few, limited view seats have opened up for the Madison show on Oct 5th. These tickets are not available online, you can purchase via box office or inquire by phone (608.258.4141)
If any new dates are added, I’ll post info about them (I’ll steal info) as soon as I can. For now, here are the remaining tour dates (prices don’t include fees) with tickets still available. I’ve whined about there being no Chicago show enough. What dates would you guys (and girls) like to see added? Or are you the kind of over-achievers that have tickets already?
