Beltmann

And yes, nice to see Wilco show up in unlikely places.

It was spit-take worthy when Entertainment Weekly placed "Taste the Ceiling" on their list of "Hot Midsummer Jams," alongside Taylor Swift, A$AP Rocky, Miguel, Vince Staples, and Carly Rae Jepson.  Strange company.

OMG, Entertainment Weekly managed to squeeze in a short review of Star Wars between their adulation articles about Kayne, Taylor Swift & Beyoncé. They even gave it an "A-".

We can now all rest easy.

"Star Wars" was the featured review in this week's print version of EW, which was surprising.  Besides the "A-," they also stamped the album as the "Rock Record of the Summer."

There's a pivotal plot moment in the movie Paper Towns that involves Woody Guthrie and then "Walt Whitman's Niece" from Mermaid Avenue.  The vinyl album cover is prominently displayed in the shot.

I'm betting that the people who discovered Wilco after Summerteeth or later are more often the ones who have AM and Being There ranked lower. 

That's likely true, but I got on board with YHF and would place BT in my top three.

The next thing that I want to find on YouTube is the 3hr 8 min Salkind cut of Superman that was shown on ABC in 1982.

Same here.  That's the version that seared itself into my memory as a child.  (If I remember right, it was aired over two nights, with a cliffhanger-style break when Lois Lane fell from the helicopter.  I also remember having nightmares about Miss Teschmacher being thrown to the lions.)  I never saw that version again.  In fact, years later I watched a DVD and wondered whether certain vivid scenes had disappeared or perhaps had only existed in the dreams of my 8-year-old self.

Both the 1978 theatrical release and the 2000 expanded edition are included in the excellent "Superman Anthology" blu-ray box set.  (The set also has two versions of Superman II, including the Richard Donner cut.)

*(Sorry for the error in the title, I can't edit :/)

Fixed it for you! 

Gotta say, I'm really feeling the love. Feels good man.

Indeed.  After all these years, it still feels good.  I'm happy to be able to love a band this much.

He is the person who really fed my Wilco addiction early on by sending me lots of DVDs which I still treasure. Thank you Jesse!

Same here.  Jesse has been generous to so many of us in so many ways!

The Atlantic's Spencer Kornhaber: "Star Wars, the band’s ninth album, released by surprise and for free on the Internet, reminds that Wilco aren’t just reliable, safe rockers; they’re some of the most generous experimentalists to ever pick up guitars."

Is it safe to assume that "Where Do I Begin" is about Sue's health?  That track is an early standout for me partially for the melody but mostly because of the palpable, raw emotion; it reminds me a little of "On and On and On," in that it feels like I'm listening to an exposed nerve.

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night 

Overall I was lukewarm towards A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, but I'm thrilled/fascinated that it exists and the ethereal scene scored by White Lies' "Death" would make my list of favorite fragments of the year.

We started a running list of strong movies last summer, too.
 
Here are my five favorites of 2015 so far, based on availability in southeast Wisconsin (which means I haven’t yet had a chance to see many likely contenders):
1. Leviathan / Andrey Zvyagintsev / Russia
2. The Homesman / Tommy Lee Jones / USA
3. When Marnie Was There / Hiromasa Yonebayashi / Japan
4. Mommy / Xavier Dolan / Canada
5. Love & Mercy / Bill Pohlad / USA
 
Best Short Film: World of Tomorrow / Don Hertzfeldt / USA
Best Summer Movie: Mad Max: Fury Road / George Miller / Australia
Most Unfairly Dismissed: Far from the Madding Crowd / Thomas Vinterberg / UK

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpawdA34HNk

Quality is good?

Yes, it looks and sounds fantastic.

Dropbox link works great.  Downloaded in about 15 minutes, and after putting it on a flash drive, it looks beautiful played through my Blu-ray player on my big TV.  I'm on "Art of Almost" and no glitches so far.

Interesting tidbit: the Parks and Rec season finale features "Pickled Ginger" as a Land Ho song. Couldn't find it on YouTube, otherwise I'd post a link.

I remember watching that episode when it first aired and thinking, Gee, that's what I wish new Wilco sounded like.

 i signed up for this site because of that show.

Welcome!  This is a great place.

So pat plays guitar on every track and Jeff uses a capo on only 1 tune.

My wife also noticed that about Pat.

Chromecasting on my large TV.  Looks and sounds fantastic.

The Barn Presents

Wilco released an unannounced album today titled Star Wars. The album features 11 previously unreleased compositions, and is available for free at www.WilcoWorld.net for a limited time.

As the silly name and feline album-art might make one suspect, the record isn’t a proper follow-up to The Whole Love, but sounds self-recorded and produced.

 

However, this isn’t to say the material is weak.

 

While instrumental opener “EKG” feels like a bit of a throwaway, “More…” sounds like a fully realized Wilco track, full of great guitar lines and a bouncy feel provided by drums and organ.

 

“Random Name Generator” is a guitar-based track similar to “I’m A Wheel,” while “The Joke Explained” focuses on Tweedy’s rambling vocals, though again giving way to heavily distorted guitar.

 

All of the tracks are short and sweet until “Satellite.”

 

Placed at the center of the tracklist, “Satellite” is a five-minute piece featuring layers of jagged guitars. An extended, spacey jam seems to spin endlessly onward, building to a noisy height, an experimental track by Wilco’s standards.

 

On songs like this, the ‘live recording’ feel works in the band’s favor, demonstrating the group’s cohesiveness in playing together.

 

The murky “Pickled Ginger” shows a minimalist punk influence, the entire song impossibly simple. “Where Do I Begin” may feature Tweedy’s best songwriting in the batch of songs, but remains a simple and straightforward ballad until it’s explosive finale.

 

“Cold Slope” boasts a hard-rocking groove, similar to much of A Ghost Is Born, and is paired perfectly with “King Of You,” which features a similar guitar-based groove. Of all of Star Wars, these are the tracks that Wilco fans will most likely latch on to.

 

“Magnetized” is a perfect album closer, a cinematic piano ballad with a simple vocal hook.

 

Though Wilco’s reasoning for releasing this album for free is uncertain, there’s no denying that it’s a good batch of songs.Star Wars feels like Wilco simply jamming songs out, doing their thing and chasing ideas as they come. The raw production is something fans aren’t used to, but may actually help the guitar-oriented album establish the right vibe. Like the production, this is Wilco at their rawest.

 

For those having trouble, it's now available for free at Amazon, too.

Too early...but at least the reviewer admits it. That seems like a "premature evaluation" then an album review...although it's well written

Eventually first impressions give way to more measured opinions, but there's value in discussing first impressions, too.  Kot has a special interest in Wilco--he literally wrote the book--so it's a first impression that carries some interest.  I'm definitely looking forward to real analysis pieces, though.

When was the last time Wilco was "trending" on Facebook? 

March 30, 2015.

Text grab? There appears to be a paywall on the site (at least from AU)

Added to original post!

"I kind of like it when I make you cry."

First review?  Greg Kot gives "Star Wars" 3.5 stars.

After four years of vault-emptying archival releases and scattered retrospective tours, Wilco got back to business on Thursday night and owned the Internet (music division) for a few hours. Their first album of new material since 2011 suggested the random appearance of a long-lost relative at the front door, unshaven, slouching, hands in pockets, but bearing gifts in his backpack from years of secret labor.

 

Wilco made its 11th studio album, “Star Wars” (dBpm), available on its wilcoworld.net website without fanfare. It arrives with its own inscrutable white Cheshire cat on the cover and an apparently tongue-in-cheek title. It’ll take a few more listens, at least, to parse how cover image and album title link to the music, and the music itself carries its own puzzle-piece refusal to be instantly figured out. It’s strange, grimy and alluring in a way that a Wilco album hasn’t been in a decade.

 

It’s difficult not to hear this album as an extension of the relaxed intimacy of the “Tweedy” debut album that Wilco singer Jeff Tweedy recorded with his son Spencer Tweedy on drums last year. At the time, Jeff Tweedy contrasted the family project to the more complex “committee” approach of recent Wilco albums, and how that led to more drawn-out recording sessions.

 

But nothing sounds particularly labored or fussy on “Star Wars.” Many of the songs blend messy guitars, recessed vocals and deceptively off-the-cuff arrangements. The 11 tracks, which zip past in 34 minutes, suggest a smart combination of live takes and studio-as-instrument experimentation. There’s nothing pristine or particularly clean about these sounds – and it’s thrilling to hear Wilco’s musicians (including virtuosos such as guitarist Nels Cline and drummer Glenn Kotche) so off-handed in their interplay, so unconcerned about how pristine or pure their tones might sound.

 

A terse instrumental, “EKG,” makes it instantly apparent that it’s not business as usual with its skewed, distressed guitars and off-kilter drums bringing back fond memories of the late, great Chicago art-punks U.S. Maple. “More…” swims with sighing vocals and woozy keyboards, punctuated by guitar fills that sound like cats in an alley fight, before a wave of noise overtakes everything.

 

The run of random violence and beauty continues over the next handful of songs. Low voices rumble and guitars agitate on “Random Name Generator,” all dense and menacing. “I kinda like it when I make you cry,” Tweedy sings. He adopts a Dylan-esque cadence and mirthful drawl on “The Joke Explained,” and “Your Satellite” becomes a tangle of guitars and chaotic drums. “Taste the Ceiling” offers a bit more clarity, almost a straight up folk melody, with a foreboding undertow. “Why do our disasters creep so slowly into view,” the singer asks.

 

This is an album full of trap doors and trick turns, disguising songs that probably would sound just fine on a lone acoustic guitar. But that also would come off as predictable and boring. This album isn’t that. “Pickled Ginger” (great title that) finishes a thrilling opening rush with subterranean guitars, episodic drums and sonar-blip keyboards. Tweedy gets his falsetto Prince on and the guitars sound like they’re being sucked backward into a worm hole.

 

After that, the ride smooths out a bit, but the album finishes strong with a relatively subdued grace note. “Magnetized” has a quirky, baroque pop sensibility with fake strings, orchestral drumming (a nice nod to the late-Beatles era tastefulness of Ringo Starr) and what sounds like a musical saw – imagine an operatic soprano belting it out with lots of reverb.

 

Final note: It’s impossible to assess an album this thick with twists and turns in a few hours. But at this early stage, it feels rich enough to reward more listens.