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Wilco/ Nels Cline: news & free album preview

Wilco fans - the band is offering a free online streaming preview of their new album this sunday Jun 14, midnite sat to midnite sunday - via the bands website.

We have tickets to see them shortly - wonder if they will pay some fitting tribute to their former band member Jay Bennett who just died under fairly sad conditions.

I'm a huge fan of their new guitar player Nels Cline who has been a part of LAs jazz scene for decades. Just saw him at an excellent show at Disney/REDCAT in Los Angeles. Didn't realize he had an identical twin brother Alex - an accomplished drummer. Nels and Alex both released their own Cryptogrammophone-labeled albums and this show had plenty of material from both.

Triva: Cline's new solo album "Coward" is named for the a***ole who murdered another LA jazz guitarist and friend of Cline's - Rod Poole and the album contains a long tribute song to him.

Check out wilco and both Cline brothers if you have not already - fairly interesting and innovative music.
gdoodle
loomisjohnson
1,949 posts
 
t6hanks for the headsup on nels' new release--among the greatest guitarists in the known universe. i dunno what he's doing with wilco, which has always seemed somwehat overpraised to me, but i guess the guy has to eat...
dgarretson
2,599 posts
 
Well, Wilco has improved markedly through Cline's tenure.
loomisjohnson
1,949 posts
 
i agree that wilco is more innovative and bigger-sounding with nels cline; however i don't think it's it in the band to produce the giant, important statement they're obviously striving for. in my (wholly unsolicited) opinion, at core jeff tweedy is a folkie, and a pretty good one--his woody guthrie albums and solo acoustic stuff are just fine. unfortunately, his ambitions are much larger than his ability to execute them--i.e. his wilco records still sounds like simple folk songs, albeit with lots of electronic flourishes and production bombast. i'm happy that he's so successful--he seems like a very hardworking guy, but (while many may disagree) i don't think they acheive greatness.
bostonbean
241 posts
 
Greatness is overrated. You look at all the great bands, too many to list, in the past. The best music was on the way to greatness. Once they achieve "Greatness" it was all down hill from there.

Wilco puts out I believe the best music right now. I am eagerly waiting for their new album. Financially I wish them all the best. Musically...I selfishly hope they never make what some call "Greatness".
dgarretson
2,599 posts
 
Some related things to consider are that the level of musicianship in rock is generally better than in earlier times(with more professionalized influences from popular music degrees obtained at institutions like Berklee), the personnel and session playing of top bands has become more changeable & collaborative, including crossover projects, jazz influences(think Cline, Eels, Dirty Projectors, Bonnie Prince Billy, etc.) The power of collaborations really struck me while listening to recent Wilco albums and also the new U2-- an amalgam of U2/Eno/Lanois in which you can pull the fabric apart and clearly recognize the individual contributions of each of these three principals-- and yet an album which unquestionably coheres as U2 and U2 in top form. IMO the older paradigm of a rock band as a monolithic entity is best exemplified by Pearl Jam. No others I can think of-- except perhaps Metallica if you like that kind of stuff.
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