Blackberry Rust

I was there! We'd come over from Adelaide for the third night. This was the first time I'd seen Wilco in *checks notes* ...21 years. Over a decade ago, I regularly pass on making the trip over to the eastern states thinking: "Oh, they'll include Adelaide on the next tour..or the one after that." After passing us again on the 2013 tour, I was ready to commit to a Melbourne or Sydney trip, not knowing that it would be over ten years before they'd dip down to the Antipodes once again. I really feel for New Zealand and Perth who missed out completely. I thought it was an excellent gig.

Damn, that's a great track! One thing I've enjoyed about "Evicted" and especially "Cousin" is that Jeff's writing solid bridges/middle-eights into songs again. Less verse/chorus/verse; more verse/chorus/weird twist/chorus/verse.

Strong Cate Le Bon influence on that.

It's been ten long years...no Adelaide (their only visit was in 2003) so looks like Melbourne is the go. https://www.abc.net.au/doublej/music-reads/music-news/wilco-announce-australian-tour-2024-dates-tickets-leah-senior/102841264 Wed 13 March - Princess Theatre: Turrbal Jagera Land, Brisbane Fri 15 March - Canberra Theatre: Ngunnawal, Canberra Sun 17 March - The Forum: Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung, Melbourne Thrs 21 March - Sydney Opera House: Gadigal Land, Sydney

Via a Hoffmann Music Forum user: From Uncut: 9/10 review: “If there’s any criticism to be leveled at Le Bon’s production work, it’s that her fingerprints are often audibly all over the albums she produces. However, that’s not the case here: Cousin is deliciously weird and intoxicatingly angular, but it still sounds like a Wilco album, not a Le Bon collaboration. There are crisp drums, bone-dry guitars and woozy synths – of course – but as always with Wilco the material is the thing. No matter how strange they get, these songs could all be played on acoustic guitar, and indeed Tw

Absolutely delighted (and relieved) an external producer has been brought in. Over the moon that the producer is Cate Le Bon, who - IMO - is one of the most interesting and compelling artists out there at the moment. As for the preview track: breezy and mid-tempo (as per usual since Schmilco), however the production touches are really nice. The stacked guitar/keyboard counterpoint moments in the chorus/outro are pure Cate Le Bon, so that bodes really well for the rest of the album.

I am absolutely stoked that "Soldier Child" made the cut. This bodes very, very well.

Any Australians here? I ordered the CD version SDE via the AU Wilco Store back in April and prior to receiving the advice that the release had been delayed to 30/9, the method of delivering pre-release tracks has been through SendOwl. It's been a day now and there's been no notification from the web store as to what's happening re: mp3s. Anyone in the same boat? Advice?

Hints - "Rivers rounding ridges in our fingerprints" That's an absolute pearler, Jeff. Reminds of some of the most beautiful semi-surreal and poetic Wilco/Tweedy lyrics from songs like "She's A Jar", "Chinese Apple", "Panthers", et. al.

So, thoughts on the album - it's a bit on the long side: I'll be upfront and say that I'm simply thankful for Cruel Country because it's given us "Country Song Upside Down". When this landed behind the paywall on Starship Casual, I must have listened to it repeatedly on a loop for at least 30 times. For me, it's one of the most beautiful, perfect songs that Wilco's ever recorded. I remember hearing it and being astonished. Everything about it is perfect: its length, lyrics, delivery, the instrumentation. A world within a world within two-and-a-half-minutes. That instrumentation: th

The album's really, really good (more thoughts later) and I'm watching the live stream from Solid Sound from here in little old Adelaide, SA. These live renditions really bring some of the more subdued songs to life. Can we also please have a round for Pat? His playing on this album and on stage at Solid Sound is nothing short of brilliant.

I think it's the strongest of the bunch so far, and that's really saying something!

Great! Yeah, it's got a very Byrds-y feel to it - really emulating Roger McGuinn's 12-string style. Speaking of the Byrds, if I were to place a pin of where I think Cruel Country is sitting, what I've heard/read so far is firmly planting it in late-period 1969-1972 Byrds territory (Ballad of Easy Rider, Untitled, Byrdmaniax, Farther Along) with some Gram Parsons and Jackson Browne vibes. Given McGuinn and the Byrds are a big influence on Tweedy that's not really a surprise. A fifth pre-release track, "Country Song Upside-Down" just dropped behind the paywall on Starship Casual and

Read somewhere that it's definitely Pat on the left channel playing a Telecaster with a Parsons/White B-bender. Certainly suited more to Pat's background. Brilliant guitarist in my opinion, his 12-string solo on Emma Swift's Dylan cover of "Queen Jane Approximately" (Blonde On The Tracks) demonstrates just how good his sense of phrasing and space is.

Based on that review and the preview of the tracks I've heard so far, I'm getting very excited about the new album. For me, "Tired Of Taking It Out On You" expresses some of the things I liked the most about Sky Blue Sky and WTA. I really hear a lot of 90's/2000's Neil Young in it. There's such a richness and warmth to these arrangements and Tweedy's singing with a really gritty, throaty, open-voiced tenor, which we haven't heard on record in AGES. The review's mentions of synths and a little skronk also allay any concerns I might have had about this being a one-note genre exercise. Bring it