'Music is my saviour / I was maimed by rock'n'roll'

good Wilco related story over at Aquarium Drunkard

Wilco (the response)

there's a great, strident, response to the album over at Aquarium Drunkard here that's well worth a read

While I may not be quite as glowing, yet, i'm enjoying the album (after a couple of shrugged shoulder listens). Unlike most reviewers though i find Nels Cline a problem, and it's particularly striking on this album, coming in late and over-filling songs with his j**z-like guitar (and he often sounds like Mike Oldfield for god's sake!). That said, there are some great songs on here, 'I'll Fight', 'You & I' (with Feist), 'Solitaire' and 'Sonny Feeling' (the latter two of which would have comfortably fit on Summerteeth - their most underrated album)

Anyway, Tweedy's voice and melodies are, as ever, great and it's a marked step-up lyrically from Sky Blue Sky, so definitely recommended.

Really sad news about Jay Bennett (ex-Wilco)

who died unexpectedly yesterday. Here's a clip of him with Jeff Tweedy, that i made reference to in a post just a couple of weeks ago...

Day-dreams...

I've been listening to Wilco since the release of their second album Being There, and while they continue to be critical darlings and release quite good records, i'm surely not the only fan out there who yearns for the days when they were a great band. With Jay Bennett still a member they truly hit their stride with the run of albums that followed Being There, Summerteeth, Mermaid Avenue (their Woody Guthrie collaboration with Billy Bragg) and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.

The acclaimed film that charts the breakdown of Tweedy and Bannett's relationship - I am trying to break your heart - is a fascinating if sad movie, and a weird thing to watch as a fan. I re-watched it recently and it just makes you realise what the band lost when he left, even if he was argumentative. The two disc version of the film includes some gorgeous extra footage of the two of them playing songs, just guitar and piano/organ, that sound amazing and are genuinely moving. Tweedy of course has form in this regard though - having similarly fallen out with his Uncle Tupelo partner Jay Farrar prior to Wilco - and I guess the just reported lawsuit for unpaid royalties, being filed by Bennett, makes my daydreams of a re-union more than a little unlikely...