A Ghost Is Born

[.:.impossible]

Listen now! Click here.

That first track has some foaming-at-the-mouth, spiral-eyed guitar riffs that are killing!

Wilco rocks. I love the way they've evolved as a rock group from the alt-country beginnings. Still haven't seen them live!!!

[Jazzdog]

I can't wait!!

I sincerely hope Jeff Tweedy conquers his demons and has a LONG, LONG career...if Hotel Yankee Foxtrot is any indications of this mans talent I have no douts he will!

[DrJ]

I have long maintained an interest in trying to keep up with good pop bands, but have not been very successful with new ones since my son was born - just not enough hours in the day, and jazz usually takes priority.

Can anyone clue me in on some of the influences for Wilco, and maybe give some idea of who they most sound like? I've heard nothing but praise for HOTEL YANKEE FOXTROT but don't think I have heard anything off it that I could place as being them...

[.:.impossible]

PM sent.

[alankin]

Nels Cline plays guitar on the CD.

[jones]

I was slightly underwhelmed on first listen, honsetly. But, sometimes good stuff requires a little sinking in. I'll give it that chance.

Summerteeth and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot are one of best one-two punches in years. (Plus, the Billy Bragg Mermaid Ave. album...) Also, you really have to admire their dedication to their fans.

I recently immersed myself in two other great smart pop/rock bands: Beulah and The Pernice Bros. Though neither are carbon copies of Wilco, they both are sincere purveyors of pop music with a brain. Following their catalog shows growth in each album, and though I've listened to each of their albums about 5 billion times, I'm not sick of any of them.

[Aggie87]

I mentioned this album in the "listening" thread yesterday, but if anyone is interested in a Wilco project that was done after YHF, but before the new one, check out the Minus 5's "Down with Wilco". Sort of a hidden Wilco album, and well worth checking out.

Wilco teamed up with Scott McCaughey and Peter Buck of R.E.M. (the only regular members in the revolving Minus 5 lineup) and put this one out. Reading the AMG write up, this album suffered a similar fate to YHF, in that it was recorded in 2001, slated to be released on a major label, got shelved, and then released on the indie Yep Roc label.

[.:.impossible]

I wasn't sure if it was Nels playing guitar on A GHOST IS BORN or not, since Tweedy and Bach have both proven to play a pretty mean electric guitar. He has become an official member of Wilco. I noticed that Bach is no longer in the band? Tweedy and Stirratt are the only original members. Here is the newest lineup:

Jeff Tweedy: gtr, vox

John Stirratt: bass gtr, vox

Glenn Kotche: drums, percussion, etc.

Mikael Jorgensen: keys, laptop

Pat Sansone: keys, gtr, vox

Nels Cline: gtr

Everybody: cowbell

I'm guessing the cowbell thing is a Bruce Dickensen joke.

My first listen to the songs on the website didn't immediately click. The more I listen, though, the more I love these songs. Tweedy seems to have expanded upon his already expressive voice. Even without all the great extra-musical elements, these songs are sweet and genuine, in typical Wilco fashion. I'd love to see a demos collection released some day.

[.:.impossible]

Related Stories:

Rolling Stone Article, below

Downloaders Pay Back Wilco

Site facilitates donations to band's handpicked charity

A movement is born

When Wilco superfan Ronen Givony downloaded a copy of the band's fifth album, A Ghost Is Born (not due for release until June 22nd), from the Internet two weeks ago, he felt simultaneously elated and indebted.

The Boston-based Web master of bemydemon.org -- a Wilco lyric site that singer Jeff Tweedy has occasionally consulted backstage in moments of forgetfulness -- the twenty-five-year-old Givony transcribed the new songs' lyrics and sent them to Tweedy with an apology for having the album early, a promise to purchase it when it is commercially available and a solicitation for lyric corrections.

After Tweedy complied, Givony dreamed up a unique way of showing his gratitude: the just-launched justafan.org, a site set up specifically for fans who download copies of the new Wilco album and want to show their appreciation by making a donation to the band-selected charity Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres. In less than a day online, with nothing more than word-of-mouth publicity, donations exceeded $1,500.

"If you have a community or a fan base that is vocal and has real enthusiasm for the bands and music they love," Givony says, "a project like this can really work."

The fact that the album was in circulation so early surprised no one, including Wilco manager Tony Margherita.

"How do I feel about the record leaking on the Internet?" he says. "Well, that's a little bit like asking me how I felt about the sun coming up today. It's an inevitable thing and not something we ever perceive as a problem. We were -- to be honest -- surprised it took as long as it did [about ten days]. Basically, once the first batch of promotional CDs began circulating at record companies and in the media, we knew it was just a matter of days. It's just something you plan for and assume at this point."

Margherita's matter-of-fact approach to the downloading issue stems in part from the success Wilco had after streaming their previous album, 2002's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, while it was in limbo during Wilco's well-documented exit from Warner Bros. At last count the album had sold 440,000 copies in the U.S. alone, Wilco's best-selling release to date.

"The band and I think this idea is great because it just underscores something we believe very strongly: that real music fans are prepared, even anxious, to prove their loyalty and support their favorite artists," Margherita says. "They want to participate. These people are not the enemy . . . They're the backbone of what we all do. Plus, we get to support a charity that we think is very important, and I'm certain that a vast majority of the people who are downloading the record are going to want the real thing when it comes out in June."

COLIN DEVENISH

(April 2, 2004)

Edited April 14, 2004 by .:.impossible

[.:.impossible]

You've heard the album, now check this out.

[GregK]

I must be in the minority. I really like Wilco early, and especially like Tweedy's work in Uncle Tupelo and even Golden Smog, but with Summer Teeth I've gotten off their bandwagon, ever since Tweedy has been trying to turn into Brian Wilson. I really think their poppish sound now is so much worse than their country sound. I'm sure these recent records are fine, but nowhere near as interesting as AM parts of Being There

[.:.impossible]

Greg, the way I see it, we have witnessed through recording, Jeff Tweedy grow away from one of those alt-country guys from the early nineties. I'd much rather hear innovative rock music these days.

I wouldn't compare Jeff Tweedy with Brian Wilson any sooner than I would with Ray Davies.

I like Uncle Tupelo, and I like Golden Smog, but I don't think those were Tweedy bands. He just happened to be in them. And he wasn't so much himself with those bands as he is with Wilco.

Its all good music though.

[jones]

"...real music fans are prepared, even anxious, to prove their loyalty and support their favorite artists...These people are not the enemy . . . They're the backbone of what we all do."

That's what I'm talkin' about with regard to fans. If only record exec's understood that.

The "Alt Country" thing seems a bit constricting, almost like "Jazz." You know, this psuedo-religous following that curses people for straying from the accepted forms. Seems like good American (and British, really) rock draws from the history of American music, be it blues, jazz, country, yadda yadda. Not trying to start a brawl, just thinking out loud. What did Duke say? If it sounds good, it is good.

That said, "Alt Country" has really opened my eyes to country in general, something I had always stayed away from. In the right hands, country can be wonderful. In the wrong hands...well. I never dug Being There, though. Thought it was too unfocused. I occasionally go through stretches where I listen to 2 or 3 Uncle Tupelo albums endlessly.

Is it me, or does it seem like there's been a little Rennaisance of good alt-pop-whatever-rock the last couple years? I've been in the rock section a lot more lately.

p.s. regarding my previous post: Pernice Bros. and Beulah