Two things about Son Volt’s new album, American Central Dust, to start: First, there’s little here Son Volt hasn't shown us before. Second, it’s one of the best albums I’ve heard this year.
The record finds Jay Farrar back on the road, searching for meaning beneath America’s fingernails. He gives us grainy portraits of Rust-Belt Americans, [...]

Here's what our dear, dear Jule Banville–just gimme a sec to dry my eyes–had to say about tonight's musical offering at the Rock & Roll Hotel:
If Elizabeth and the Catapult hit its debut a touch sooner—and landed an iPod commercial, of course—it’d be Elizabeth Ziman, and not Leslie Fiest, singing with Tweedy on the new [...]

The critical buzz around Wilco’s latest, self-titled album has centered on the notion of identity. Some have heralded Wilco (the album) as a reclamation of the insouciance of the band’s early albums, while others—particularly City Paper’s own Aaron Leitko—have described it as a tour of the band’s sonic arc over the last decade. But aside [...]

Steve Kolowich has a full review of Wilco's sold-out show at Wolf Trap last night coming tomorrow; here are some photos to tide you over while you wait. (There's probably some unwritten rule against starting a post about Wilco with anyone but Jeff Tweedy, but so be it—above, guitarist Nels Cline.) Also, my one thought [...]

John Stirratt joined legendary alternative country pioneers Uncle Tupelo as a bass player in 1993 for their final release, Anondyne. After Uncle Tupelo's ugly divorce, Jeff Tweedy was awarded custody of Stirratt and they went on to form the much-lauded Wilco.
In a band that used to have a reputation for shedding members, Stirratt has remained [...]

Wilco's new album leaked yesterday, a month and a half ahead of its release date–which actually isn't bad, considering the band's last two albums leaked two months prematurely, and the one before that slipped out nine months earlier than planned. But album leaks don't seem to piss off frontman Jeff Tweedy nearly as much as [...]

For some reason, everybody wants to make a movie about Wilco. The Chicago based band has been the subject of, or at played a significant role in, two full-length documentaries already. And during most of that screen time, the band is grumpy. Remember the scene in The Man In The Sand where singer-songwriter Jeff Tweedy [...]

Music fans and demolition aficionados alike are already well aware of filmmaker Brendan Canty (of Fugazi fame) and Christoph Green's Burn to Shine DVD series–which generally involves the duo traveling to a city, getting a bunch of bands to perform in a house, then videotaping that house as it's getting knocked down by city authorities.
However, [...]

You haven't had enough of the lists yet, have you? Good. Here's one more quick one: my list of favorite shows of the year, mostly in D.C. but also ranging north to Baltimore and south to Charlottesville (links all lead to photos):

St. Vincent at Rock & Roll Hotel, February 26
Nels Cline Singers at the [...]

"Wilco The Song" debuts. Watch it:

This has to be their most jammy song they've done in a while.