Wilco took a break from recording their fifth album over the Thanksgiving holiday. The group spent two weeks recording in New York City before returning to its native Chicago to put the finishing touches on the record, which is slated for a spring release.
Wilco have recorded thirty songs -- including "Wishful Thinking," "At Least That's What You Said," "Kicking Television," "Panthers," "Hell Is Chrome," "Muzzle of Bees," "Theologians" and "Company in My Back" -- that might make the final cut for the album, which has been tagged with a pair of tentative titles including "Wilco Happens" and "dBpm." The latter was also the name put on a set of improvisational songs the group recorded over the span of a week in 2002.

Whatever the name, the group is co-producing the effort with Jim O'Rourke, who engineered Wilco's last release, 2002's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. And in addition to frontman Jeff Tweedy, bassist John Stirratt, drummer Glenn Kotche and keyboardist Leroy Bach, the group has also been recording with keyboardist/laptop twiddler Mikael Jorgensen, who has toured with Wilco, but didn't play on Foxtrot.

"We've been recording for so long we're trying to figure out what it's going to be," Stirratt told Rolling Stone. "It has elements of that Yankee Hotel Foxtrot dryness and kraut-rock vibe but [some] sessions have been a lot more of a live organic, live vocal vibe. We're just waiting to see what kind of record pops out."


http://www.rollingstone.com/news/newsartic...e.asp?nid=19058

This is going to be good. From the shows I've been to, there' very little to argue with in "Muzzle of Bees," "At Least That's What You Said," "Company in my Back," or "The Late Greats." "Kicking Television" is golden when they hit it, unlistenable at other times.

But if "Spiders (kidsmoke)" isn't on the new record, I'll lock myself in a closet somewhere and cry for weeks.

Will

I've said all along: this album will be the True Test of the relevance of post-J. Bennett Wilco. He was all over Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.

We've seen how uh, good Wilco is on stage without him, now we'll see how they fare in the studio.

I wish J. Tweedy et al the best of luck.

i am not going to assume anything. i think it could wind up being great and mark a consistant progression or it could wind up being pretensious crap. i love wilco, but i always have this little nagging feeling that tweedy will someday lose his mind and start putting out stuff that makes sense in his head but just sounds like a lot of pointless noise to everyone else.

wait...he hasnt already?

I know what you mean. Part of why I think Jay Bennett was so important to Wilco in general, and Jeff Tweedy in particular, is that he kind of balanced out Tweedy's smug pretentiousness with his unabashed poppiness and love of melody. Pardon the worn cliché, but he was the yang to Tweedy's yin.

(Edited by jamiecarroll at 1:56 pm on Dec. 10, 2003)

update:

from billboard.com:

Wilco is at London's Abbey Road Studios mastering its next studio album, "A Ghost Is Born," due June 8 via Nonesuch. The 12-track set was recorded in New York with producer/Sonic Youth member Jim O'Rourke and engineer Chris Shaw, best known for his work on Bob Dylan's "Love and Theft." It will feature contributions from multi-instrumentalist Leroy Bach, who left the group last month.

That next record (or should we say "cd"?) is now entitled "A ghost is born" and will, if the schedule holds, be released by Nonesuch in North America on June 8 and their affiliated labels virtually everywhere else in the world that same week.The track listing is as follows:

At least that's what you said
Hell is Chrome
Spiders (kidsmoke)
Muzzle of Bees
Hummingbird
Handshake drugs

Company in my back
I'm a wheel
Wishful thinking
Late greats
Theologians
Less than you think

found this on my old staple, somethingawful...and thought it was fitting. at least made me laugh this monday morning.

"In a battle for the alt-country superstar, who would win between Ryan Adams and Jeff Tweedy?
-Stick_Fig


I've never had much of a grasp on what exactly constitutes "alt-country," but judging by these two names, I'm guessing it's a synonym for "massively overrated." As for Jeff Tweedy, Wilco has taken the crown as the current kings of NPR-Rock; they're one of those inoffensive, classicist, faux-important bands that Fresh Air can really get excited about. Think about all the well-to-do 40-year-old professionals who went out and bought Yankee Hotel Foxtrot thinking it was the totally hip thing to do. If any of them actually listened to it more than once before putting it on their shelf to impress their kids, I commend them. They have superhuman mental defenses against terrible lyrics.

As for Ryan Adams, I studiously ignored him for as long as I could due to his irritating music and personality, but I was amused to hear his new single, "On Your Side," on the radio- you truly are a maverick, Mr. Adams. It takes a brave soul to retread the sort of shitty dramatic pap that's been making failures of mediocre pop bands like Remy Zero for years."

You're just trying to get someone to act pissy towards you again, aren't you? Well I won't be bated. Despite knocking one of my favorite bands and quoting somethingawful, I won't get snappy. I'll just state that Jeff Tweedy wins, and Ryan Adams would concede this point...

From a recent post Ryan made on his board:

"...because somehow jeff has stayed on this true path of trying to percieve art the way he would like it to be and has dodged many disasters by being so true, i checked out wilcoproject. this online diary of the set lists of what jeff has done for along time and it just bowled me over. he seems to be constatly learning and growing and in such a natural way and that is so very hard to do witrhout grounding.
i suppose alot of hard work i have put into my art has been lost in the fight i have put up to try and deal with expectation from my press agents and label interest until when i officialy rebel against this thing i start becoming that i dont want to be looks like an assault on myself or fans or even my own records. how i wish i couldve had more foresight.
needless to say for guys like me people like jeff tweedy and steve pride and greg sage ect. are the ones far ahead in the weeds with the long splint blades parting the jungle, making a path for us ruffians, but really...where am i anymore in my own art?"

Which totally contradicts much of what he's said about Tweedy in the past. Surprise, surprise, Adams is unstable.

Will

trust me, starting a war against me yet again is the last thing i wanna do. i personally enjoy some parts of both musician's music so i wouldnt knock either one of them randomly. i just think somethingawful is funny and im sure other people do too.

In my original message I'd meant to put in some kind of indication as to the total lack of seriousness on my part.

And you're right about somethingawful. I'm just not one of them.

Will

Stop right there. WTF? I think this has come up on the board before. I know I've addressed it but maybe not here. There is absolutely nothing resembling kraut-rock on YHFT. I remember reading somewhere that Tweedy made this statement along with comparing the album to Captain Beefheart. Captain fucking Beefheart?! Unless I'm crazy I would maintain that there is nothing that sounds remotely like Beefheart on YHFT. Don't get me wrong, I like the record very much. It's great. This just seems like a desperate play at trying to be hip to me. It rings horribly false. There's nothing as groundbreaking on that record as things Beefheart did on Trout Mask, et. al., or the best music by Cluster, Can, Neu!, Kraftwerk, Faust, et. al. Let's face it, YHFT is a pop album top to bottom. There's nothing revolutionary about it, nothing that hasn't been done before. Just because you wrap your pop songs in some noise doesn't mean they're not pop songs. I don't object to Wilco's artistic direction. I just think Tweedy should pull his head out of his ass. I do think Wilco lost a lot on certain levels with the departure of Jay Bennett. They're certainly not the polished pop juggernaut they were on Summer Teeth. However, anyone who's seen Jay Bennett solo has to question how great that detriment really is. His classic rock guitar wankery is certainly not missed.

Agreed. And I like that they aren't the polished pop juggernaut anymore. Cliche as it sounds, I enjoy the "rawness" that they've taken on.

And I know we'll go back and forth about this, but post-Bennett live Wilco evolved into something very tight and wonderful. Now that Leroy's gone, I bet they'll be back to square one in terms of live performance. Too bad. Just glad I saw those two shows in September.

Will

I enjoy the rawness as well, though I still think Summerteeth is a wonderful album aside from the first track. I have to say though, I've seen them a couple of times and feel that they're an uncompelling live act.

I agree with everything that you have said, neuboy. there is absolutely nothing on YHFT that sounds even remotely beefheartish or even remotely kraut-rockish. It's a good album, but all of the supposed influences that journalists like to associate with it seem to be quite a bit hackneyed and, to an extent, false.

That quote came from a story on rollingstone.com, and is obviously not up to the normal standards that would be aligned with such a fabulous publication as rolling stone (tongue in cheek).

Yeah, Rollingstone is a shitter. What a fucking joke.

call the plumber - we've got a leak.

My interest in Wilco has been sparked since my guitar hero, Nels Cline, has joined the band for their latest string of dates. If they came nearby (other than Bonnarroo) I'd even go see them.

A lot of you might know this already, but the release date of this record has been pushed back a bit because Jeff Tweedy is in rehab. I think some of the tour dates at this point are tenuous as well. So sad.

(Edited by etcetera at 10:41 am on Apr. 5, 2004)

Very sad. I hope they can make bonnarroo though since they were one of the main reasons I bought a ticket!

ive heard the album and with the exception of 3 songs, its really boring.

Not to be a "stick in the mud" but I really wish Uncle Tupelo we're still together ... I think Jeff Tweedy has gone off the deep end. ATTENTION JEFF TWEEDY : you are not Lennon! I love him ... but get over it ... get back to the roots and simple shit.

So sad indeed. Alot of people paint him as an ass, but every experience I've had with him or friends have had with him (*mostly* as a spectator, but a few face-to-face affairs) he's been nothing but a stand up guy. And I really love what he's doing for charity regarding donations for the new record, for a number of reasons.

Will