Brian F.

In its first week of wide release, Cruel Country sold 7,000 copies across all formats (LP, CD and downloads).* That would include direct sales by the band as well as sales by retailers set up for tracking by Luminate (which will exclude some independent record stores). That number is slightly lower than it would have been but for the "white label" CD release on Record Store Day. (There were a total of 8,000 copies of that release available.) In its first week of release, the Yankee Hotel Foxtrot box set sold 13,000 copies (8,000 vinyl, 4,500 CD and 500 digital downloads). That incl

I noticed something interesting on the packing slip that came with my Wilcoworld preorder. For the LP, it says: BATCH PRINT: 119, PREORDER: 1000, R03: 881 For the CD, it says: R03: 427 I wonder if these numbers are sequential as orders were filled. It's interesting that the LP numbers 119 and 881 add up to 1000, which is also shown. What numbers do other people's slips show? I'm wondering if we can read anything into this about how many preorders there were. It seems plausible to me that they would have ordered a batch of 1,000 LPs to satisfy

A "First Listen" of Cousin with Jeff providing commentary is airing right now (9 a.m. PDT) on indie88.com. It will reair at 5 p.m. PDT.

https://jefftweedy.substack.com/p/chit-chat-check-in-71-prince-ted

Big fan of "On and On and On" here. When they played it at Port Chester this year, it moved me so much as I thought about the loss of loved ones in 2017 and 2021 that I started sobbing right there on the rail. I was in tears well before the song got to the "go ahead and cry" part. Per Jeff on Starship Casual today, "Ten Dead" is being retired from the live set because it's "despondent and numb and unfeeling," which is pretty much the vibe that led me to say that nine of the ten Cousin tracks grabbed me right away, with the unstated part being that "Ten Dead" was the outlier. Each t

I'm really looking forward to standing throughout the seated shows at the Ace next week. I'm not postponing my happiness. My fingers are crossed for sets consisting of nothing but songs from Cousin and Cruel Country.

I retract all of my whining. The package arrived today. Tracking still shows it in Raleigh, but it's here. What an infinite surprise (h/t coldasgasoline).

One of the things that made Ode to Joy such a chore for me was its lack of melody, so we'll have to agree to disagree. When I said at least nine of ten tracks grabbed me right away, the one I wasn't sure about was "Ten Dead," so we'll have to agree to agree.

I just gave it two full listens, and I am very pleased with it. I was worried this was going to be in the vein of "Ode to Joy," but it is not. There are a lot of highlights on this album. At least nine of the ten tracks grabbed me right away.

Who plays clock on "Infinite Surprise"?

Well, my Cousin remains in "label created" limbo, so I don't think I'm going to have it by tomorrow. I might be lucky to have it by Wednesday. (You had one job, Wilcoworld.)

I certainly hope you're right that the Cousin floodgates are just waiting for the official release date to be opened. With six shows in my immediate future, I would be kind of let down if the set lists looked like this one. There are a lot of old standbys in this set-- too many for my preferences (though I'm sure they sounded great.)

Probably so but I don't have access to any of them and, even if I did, I can't listen to them on my stereo or in my car. I just got teased by an email that my order has been shipped, but when I clicked to track the shipment, it's only at the "a label has been created" stage.

It just occurred to me that they will probably send out a download by Friday to those of us who have purchased it, so I can burn that onto a CD and have that to listen to assuming the actual CD hasn't arrived. I forgot that's what I did with Cruel Country since there was no physical release (and, in that case, they sent the downloads about a week in advance of the release date since the release date was the first day of Solid Sound).

One of the reviewers started out by writing that "Wilco has settled into a more straightforward musical style defined by stripped-back, acoustic instrumentation and Jeff Tweedy’s confessional songwriting" since Sky Blue Sky, but I don't think most of The Whole Love fits that description. Nor does Star Wars. I think sometimes these critics, who have to listen to a lot of material, have only a passing familiarity with the catalogs of the artists they review. Or things just disappear down the memory hole. I feel like every review of every album by my favorite veteran acts declares it a "welcome r

On the one hand, I'm encouraged by the fact that they've shipped some of these out to arrive before Friday. On the other hand, I'm discouraged because I still haven't gotten a shipping notice. I really need this no later than Friday so I can have some familiarity before the shows starting Wednesday.

This reviewer sells Wilco (The Album) and The Whole Love really short, not to mention Cruel Country. Does anyone else have trouble reading reviews of music that they've never heard? I have difficulty formulating an idea of what something sounds like from a written description without actually hearing it. It makes me think of that line, "Writing about music is like dancing about architecture."

Did you get an email notification? Did you preorder from Wilcoworld? I was trying to remember whether previous Wilcoworld album orders just showed up unannounced or whether they were preceded by a shipping notice.

There is a good possibility, if my preorder from Wilcoworld doesn't arrive by September 29, that I will need to go out and buy a copy of the album to be able to listen to it in anticipation of the run of shows that starts five days later, so it wouldn't necessarily be a problem that this Amoeba thing would require me to buy a second copy of the album (actually a third since I bought the CD and LP) except for the fact that they apparently won't give it to you until the day of the signing. Meanwhile, if the two copies I ordered from Wilco arrive on time, I'm apparently not allowed to bring them

I recognize the similarity the original poster identifies. Olivia Rodrigo is really talented, although this song, with the speak-singing and the Avril Lavigne chant choruses-- I'm not really sure what to think of it. One thing that's refreshing about her is that she is very much a rock-oriented artist. There aren't many pop stars today that would fit right in on '90s alternative-rock radio, but Rodrigo would.

The lyrics definitely seem like they're from the "ransom note" method Jeff described in his second book.

I wasn't nitpicking! I really thought I was missing something.

Am I missing something? I see a review of a performance that mentions the new album, but I don't see a review of the album.

"Crawling is screw faster lash I blow it with kisses..." I'd elaborate, but it's pretty self-explanatory.

It's Wilco's only number one song! (It hit No. 1 on Billboard's Triple-A chart, which means it was a big fish in a very small pond.)