As of today, Wilco’s new album, Wilco (The Album), is available for stream on the band’s official website. I already listened through the album once, but think we all need to listen a few more times before passing any real judgment. As we already knew from the songs that Wilco has performed live, the album drifts towards Sky Blue Sky as opposed to their older more experimental works like Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. All that I’ll say about the album right now is that I absolutely adore the song “You And I,” featuring none other than Feist on shared vocals with Jeff Tweedy.

I’m also incredibly impressed by the band’s email that they just sent out. Streaming an album before it has released has become a norm these days, but promoting the fact that the album has leaked is far from standard practice. It shows a certain understanding and maturity you just don’t see in the music industry yet. Hats off to you, Wilco.

Well, we made it nearly a month with copies of Wilco (the album) floating around out there before it leaked. Pretty impressive restraint in this day and age. But the inevitable happened last night. Since we know you’re curious and probably have better things to do than scour the internet for a download (though we do understand the attraction of the illicit), we’ve posted a stream of the full album at http://wilcoworld.net/records/thealbum/ . Feel free to refer to it as “wilco (the stream)” if you must.

We also have our usual guilt abatement plan for downloaders. If you have downloaded the record, we suggest you make a donation to one of the band’s favorite charities, the Inspiration Corporation — an organization we’ve supported in the past & who are doing great work in the city of Chicago. Information and donation button here: http://inspirationcorp.org/.

That’s all. Enjoy the stream. Tickets for summer shows, etc. http://wilcoworld.net/tours/ Note that we’ll be holding a free online midnight screening of the “Ashes of American Flags” film this Friday night (at both midnight US Central time and again at midnight Pacific). So get the popcorn or whatever together and be sure to log on and tune in on Friday.

Wilco (The Album) (2009):

Wilco & Feist – You and I

Site | Myspace

As much as I support the hype around Animal Collective’s Merriweather Post Pavilion, I’m a bit surprised that more people haven’t been talking about Andrew Bird’s superb new album, Noble Beast.  It releases today, and is likely going to be my favorite of this year–Noble Beast displays Bird’s progression as a musician, both instrumentally and lyrically.

It’s hard to pick only a few favorites off the album,  but some tracks that I do find myself seeking out are “Oh No” “Masterswarm,” “Effigy,” “Not A Robot,” But A Ghost,”"Anonanimal,” and “Natural Disaster.” Although I still think Mysterious Production of Eggs is Andrew’s best album to date, Noble Beast is definitely a close contender.

I find it really interesting that Bird maintains a column on New York Times’ “Measure by Measure” blog, where he writes extensively about his process, both in his head and the studio from before, during, and after the recording Noble Beast. For those who are interested in music, his posts are a must read. It feels like we sometimes take for granted the production side of things and only care about the finished product–whether it be a movie, album, book or any other form of art that stems from ones imagination. The inside access Bird provides on this album makes me appreciate his music on a whole new level.

Here is an except from one of his posts:

We [Martin Dosh] discuss a lot of things to help us get the songs just right — like not hitting cymbals because the crashes can be “cheap thrills.” Instead we favored the dark, walloping sound of the toms. Often times the choice becomes: Do you give the song what it wants? Or do you go against its demands? “Oh No” seemed to be asking for a 1970s Jackson Brown or Fleetwood Mac type of dead snare drum sound. That “everything’s gonna be just fine” sort of beat. The pitfall of approaching it like this is that your song can get hijacked by someone else’s record collection. I personally feel that the world has had its fill of 70s light rock. So we’re forced to be more creative. Not a bad alternative, though sometimes, you just say, “Why fight it? This just feels too good.”

Noble Beast (2009):

(mp3) Andrew Bird – Masterswarm

(mp3) Andrew Bird – Effigy

Useless Creatures (2009):

This is an instrumental record that Andrew worked on during the recording of Noble Beast. He calls it his “indulgent” record, and it comes with the deluxe edition of Noble Beast. He says in his latest post, “The piece on Useless Creatures I’m most excited about is called ‘The Barn Tapes.’ Three summers ago I had an engineer friend come out to my barn in western Illinois with an old quarter-inch tape machine. We opened all the doors and windows, hooked up my violin to six amps placed throughout the barn, put microphones inside and out and made four hours of ambient loops…“

(mp3) Andrew Bird – The Barn Tapes

Website | iTunes | Amazon (Useless Creatures) | Myspace (stream entire album)

Andrew is incredible live. See him if given the opportunity.

Jan 25 – Philadelphia, PA – Theatre of the Living Arts
Jan 28 – New York, NY – Carnegie Hall
Jan 30 – Boston, MA – Orpheum Theatre
Feb 3 – Washington, DC – 930 Club
Feb 4 – Atlanta, GA – The Variety Playhouse
Feb 6 – Orlando, FL – The Plaza Theatre
Feb 7 – New Orleans, LA – House of Blues
Feb 12 – Austin, TX – The Paramount Theatre
Feb 13 – Albuquerque, NM – The El Rey Theater
Feb 14 – Tucson, AZ – Rialto Theater
Feb 15 – San Diego, CA – SOMA
Feb 18 – Los Angeles, CA – The Orpheum Theatre
Feb 19 – San Francisco, CA – The Fillmore
Feb 20 – San Francisco, CA – The Fillmore
Feb 21 – Portland, OR – The Roseland Theater
Feb 23 – Seattle, WA – The Moore Theater
Feb 24 – Boise, ID – Knitting Factory
Feb 25 – Murray, UT – The Murray Theater
Feb 26 – Denver, CO – The Ogden Theater
Feb 27 – Omaha, NE – Slowdown
Mar 15 – St. Louis, MO – The Pageant
Mar 17 – Tulsa, OK – Cain’s Ballroom
Mar 21 – Houston, TX – House of Blues
Mar 22 – Dallas, TX – Granada Theater
Mar 23 – Oxford, MS – The Lyric Oxford
Apr 3 – Toronto, ON – Queen Elizabeth Theatre
Apr 4 – Montreal, QC – Le National
Apr 5 – South Burlington, VT – Higher Ground
Apr 7 – Pittsburgh, PA – Carnegie Music Hall
Apr 10 – Chicago, IL – The Civic Opera House
Apr 11 – Minneapolis, MN – The State Theater

Over the past few weeks I’ve been listening on and off to Roommate’s 2008 release, We Were Enchanted.  The album is a little on the darker side, and reminds me somewhat of John Vanderslice’s albums, such as Time Travel is Lonely and Emerald City. Both artists give off a paranoid feeling at times, but Roommate is even more eerie.

Truthfully, I’m a bigger fan of their lighter toned songs like “Day After” (half way through)  and “Night (Rhombus Cover).” Some of the songs that are more rigid are less appealing to me, similar to how I feel about some of Vanderslice’s work, but overall I would still recommend you check out the album.

Kent Lambert originally started Roommate as a solo-project in 2000, and after moving from Iowa City to New York, recorded an EP, Celebs. Soon after 9/11 he relocated to Chicago, and has been there ever since. In 2004, Lambert formed a live band with a variety of members–you can see the list on their Myspace. Members of the live band change based on availability, playing instruments such as musical saw, banjo, violin, theremin, Buchla Music Box, and bassoon, as well as hand percussion and traditional rock instruments.

For more on the band and recording check out Chicago Reader.

We Were Enchanted (2008):

Roommate – Night (Rhombus Cover) – This doesn’t represent rest of band’s music.
Roommate – Day After (wait through intro)

Songs The Animals Taught Us (2005; re-released 2006):

Roommate – Tuesday

 Site | Amazon | iTunes | Myspace

Bonus:

Emerald City (2007):

John Vanderslice – Kookaburra 

Credit: wbru.com

“Who are you gonna see, Wilco or Rage Against the Machine?” was the big question at Lollapalooza this year. It wasn’t a hard question to answer for many, as the two bands are, for the most part, on different ends of the musical spectrum, but it was still probably the biggest schedule conflict at the Festival. Even though I’ve seen Wilco perform plenty of times before, I couldn’t pass up seeing them again.

Wilco didn’t rock out at Lollapalooza nearly as much as when I saw them at the 9:30 club in DC earlier this year, but it was a great show nonetheless. The band wore awesome coordinating nudie suits that you can see in photos and videos I’ve linked to. They even played a new song, “One Wing,” which you can listen to below.

Setlist:

Misunderstood
I Am Trying To Break Your Heart
You Are My Face
Impossible Germany
It’s Just That Simple
Handshake Drugs
Pot Kettle Black
One Wing
Spiders (Kidsmoke)
A Shot In The Arm
Jesus, Etc.
Hate It Here
Can’t Stand It
Walken
Monday
Outtasite (Outta Mind)

To stream/download Wilco’s set at Lollapalooza, check out You Ain’t No Picasso. Listen to Wilco’s new song below.

Wilco – One Wing (Live at Lollapalooza ‘08)

Video: “Impossible Germany” Live at Lolla ‘08:

For more videos of Wilco at Lollapalooza, check out The Set List.

For more lolla coverage, visit my Examiner column.