Screen Shots: Wilco@TinyDesk

Jeff Tweedy and Wilco perform in NYC for NPR's Tiny Desk unplugged sessions.

Wilco, naming itself in Chicago in 1994 after the aviation acronym for "Will Comply", is an American alternative rock band based in Chicago who released The Whole Love on September 27th 2011 - a follow-up to their unexpectedly brilliant Wilco (The Album) which placed band leader Jeff Teedy into a class of commercially and critically successful artists such as Arlo Guthrie, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Neil Young, Thom Yorke, Scott Weiland and Kurt Cobain. In other words: pretty damn good company to be in.

Wilco is currently on a year long world concert tour that brought them to Louisville's 3-day Forecastle Fest on Sunday July 15th, in Chicago for the Hideout Block Party September 15th and in Columbia, Missouri for Live on Ninth Street before heading into the West Coast portion of the tour in Oregon and California.


References:

• NPR, Wilco @ Tiny Desk
• Wilco, Home
• Wikipedia, Wilco
• Forecastle Fest, Line-Up/Acts

Deep Cuts: Alt-Rock

Since rebooting with their 7th record simply entitled "the album" in summer of 2009, Wilco has been creating a consistently warm, appealing, crowd-wowing sound from incredibly well-written lyrics and ensemble musical performances. This continues with the group's 8th album, The Whole Love.

A band with a 25 year of history, Wilco boasts a large following and influence on rock/alternative music, their new album features stand-out tracks like The Whole Love, Born Alone and Dawned on Me. These outrageously good tracks are a great mix of folk-rock, raucous guitar melodies and song-writing full of wryness and winding roads that recall Yankee Foxtrot Hotel's (2002) seminal song War On War.

The deluxe version contains 16 tracks (12 on the original release) including I Love My Label, Message From Mid-Bar, Speak Into The Rose and an alt-country version of song Black Moon.

Wilco - Whole Love

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References:

• Wilcoworld.net, Wilco Music
• Pitchfork, The Whole Love

Deep Cuts From Bloggy's Vault: Rock

I tried to get into Wilco, Internet, I really did. I sat down with their lyrics sheets that only seemed to baffle me into believing that the band echoed an "alty-er" version of Counting Crows or even the Black Crows with the smallest scoop of Bright Eyes thrown in - just to confuse the issue.

Then I heard Wilco, the album, a 2009 release on a local radio program. The album has just enough of Spiritualized's insight and bare boned approach to song-writing: in "I'll Fight" Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy writes: "I'll die alone, on some forgotten hill, abandoned by the mill, all my blood will spring and spill, I'll thrash the air, then be still" and the album's key track, "You Never Know", Tweedy gets even more morbid by writing: "it's a dream down a well, it's a long heavy hell, I don't care anymore..."

With rich melodious instrumental accompaniments and moments of strong lyricism Wilco surprisingly hit the exact right chords in the second half of this 2009 release.

Wilco - You Never Know.mp3 (4.9mb)