Autumn de Wilde
Autumn de Wilde
Mary Ellen Matthews
Anton Corbijn
Photo: Frank W. Ockenfels
Michael Segal
News
- Friday, July 3, 2009
NY Times: Wilco's Latest a "Splendid" Album from a "Band at the Height of Its Powers"
Jeff Tweedy is the subject of a feature article in this Sunday's New York Times, about the making of the new record, the band's story, life as a family man, and the much healthier, more content place in which he now finds himself. The Times calls Wilco (the album) a "splendid" record from "one of alternative rock’s most consistent and respected bands." It's a sign that, "unlike the rock trope that only chronic agony produces important music, the absence of mayhem has been good for the work." To that end, the record serves as "a kind of compilation of a band at the height of its powers." Jeff also answers a very eclectic set of questions in the Times Magazine.
- Thursday, July 2, 2009
American Songwriter: Wilco (the album) "Another Great Record from a Band Who Seems Incapable of Making a Bad One"
Wilco's Jeff Tweedy is front and center on the cover of American Songwriter's 25th Anniversary issue out now. In an interview with Tweedy, the magazine says the story of the band since 2002's groundbreaking Yankee Hotel Foxtrot "has been a fruitful one," describing its latest, Wilco (the album), as "another great record from a band who seems incapable of making a bad one." BBC 6 Music has named it Album of the Day for Friday. Aquarium Drunkard asserts that it "not only succeeds but stands near the top of Wilco’s extremely distinguished catalogue ... And if the sound of six of the world’s best musicians banging out spangled and bejeweled pop-rock doesn’t get you off, then you may want to reconsider your record collection."
About Wilco
The Chicago rock band Wilco—the group formed by guitarist and songwriter Jeff Tweedy in the mid-1990s—release their seventh studio album, Wilco (the album), on Nonesuch Records in 2009. It follows their Grammy-nominated 2007 recording, Sky Blue Sky (which followed their 2005 double Grammy winner A ghost is born). Recordings were underway at the band’s Chicago studio, The Loft, early in the year, with the band emerging from Chicago’s deep freeze with a completed album released on June 30.
The new offering by the Chicago sextet features, among other things, eleven new songs, a duet with Canadian songwriter/vocalist Leslie Feist and a camel named Alfred as its cover star. The new songs find Tweedy juxtaposing heady, heavy themes like disillusionment (“Country Disappeared”), martyrdom (“I’ll Fight”) and homicide (“Bull Black Nova”) with acceptance (“You Never Know”), love (“You and I”), humor (“Wilco (the song)”) and more. Sonically the album draws on many of the best elements of Wilco's wide-ranging previous work, while incorporating Tweedy's objective to "use the studio as another instrument.” The result is a unique, complex endeavor.
In April 2009, Nonesuch released Ashes of American Flags, a new film presenting the band live in concert during their 2008 tour. Culled from concerts in five quintessentially American venues—Cain’s Ballroom in Tulsa, Tipitina’s in New Orleans, The Mobile Civic Center, The Ryman Auditorium in Nashville and the 9:30 Club in Washington DC—the film captures the energy, poignancy and musicality of a Wilco concert and tour.
Latest Release
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Wilco (the album)
June 30, 2009Wilco (the album), the band's seventh studio album, "is all about a great band playing great original music on an album filled with great songs," says NPR. The Independent gives a perfect five stars to the "magnificent" album, which finds Wilco "at the peak of its powers." BBC says the band's latest features "some of their most charming pop rock ensemble playing" and asks, "Best live band? How about plain old best band in the world right now?"
Releases
On Tour
- July 8, 2009 – 08:00 pmWolf Trap, Vienna, VA
- July 10, 2009 – 07:30 pmFrawley Stadium, Wilmington, DE
- July 11, 2009 – 07:00 pmLeLacheur Park, Lowell, MA
- July 13, 2009 – 08:00 pmKeyspan Park, Brooklyn, NY
- July 17, 2009 – 07:00 pmMaine State Pier, Portland, ME
- July 18, 2009 – 07:00 pmDutchess Stadium, Wappingers Falls, NY