Can-co, Should-Co, Wilco! Not content with simply turning in 10 classic albums and calling it a good career, Chicago’s indie rock sextet are back touring their 2019 release Ode to Joy. They were supposed to tour it in 2020, but apparently something big came up that year which prevented it. Ode to Joy sees the band paring down arrangements, turning to airy, subdued songs that shake up their classic country-inspired sound without forcing anything uncalled for. For these guys, exploration truly feels effortless. This long overdue show comes to San Jose Civic Saturday night.

Wilco
Sat, 7:30pm, $45+
San Jose Civic, San Jose

Bob Dylan is back on the road this summer, this time with Wilco and My Morning Jacket coming along for a show billed as the “Americanarama Festival of Music.”

The show kicks off June 26 in Florida and continues until its last stop at Shoreline Amphitheatre on August 4. Tickets go on sale May 4 at 10am.

Tour Dates:
6/26 West Palm Beach, FL – Cruzan Amphitheatre
6/27 Tampa, FL – Live Nation Amphitheatre
6/29 Atlanta, GA – Aaron’s Amphitheatre at Lakewood
6/30 Nashville, TN – The Lawn at Riverfront Park
7/02 Memphis, TN – AutoZone Park
7/05 Noblesville, IN – Klipsch Music Center
7/06 Cincinnati, OH – Riverbend Music Center
7/7 Columbus, OH – Nationwide Arena
7/10 St. Paul, MN – Midway Stadium
7/11 Peoria, IL – Chiefs Stadium
7/12 Chicago, IL – Toyota Park
7/14 Clarkston, MI – DTE Energy Music Theatre
7/15 Toronto, Ontario – Molson Canadian Amphitheatre
7/18 Darien Center, NY – Darien Lake Performing Arts Center
7/19 Bridgeport, CT – The Ballpark at Harbor Yard
7/20 Mansfield, MA – Comcast Center
7/21 Saratoga Springs, NY – Saratoga Performing Arts Center
7/23 Columbia, MD – Merriweather Post Pavilion
7/24 Virginia Beach, VA – Farm Bureau Live at Virginia Beach
7/26 Hoboken, NJ – Pier A Park
7/27 Wantagh, NY – Nikon at Jones Beach Theater (My Morning Jacket does not perform)
7/28 Camden, NJ – SusquehannaBank Center
7/31 Denver, CO – Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre
8/01 Salt Lake City, UT – USANA Amphitheatre
8/03 Irvine, CA – Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
8/04 Mountain View, CA – Shoreline Amphitheatre

Bob Dylan

Wilco

My Morning Jacket

http://youtu.be/oPYQHQ4-kKo

Who knew Record Store Day would make it to is fifth anniversary? When it made its debut in 2007, it was a fairly revolutionary concept: ask famous musicians to support honest-to-god, brick-and-mortar independent record stores by giving them exclusive releases to sell.

But it shouldn’t be that much of a surprise that it caught on, since indie record stores made the careers of many of the biggest artists who are now known for championing Record Store Day—like Wilco, who this year will be releasing an exclusive deluxe vinyl box set edition of their last album The Whole Love.

Other top Record Store Day releases this year include the first 7” single from the upcoming album of unreleased Joey Ramone tracks. Featuring an intense, anthemic delivery from the late Ramones lead singer, “Rock ‘n’ Roll is the Answer” almost sounds like a sequel to “We Want the Airwaves.” Iggy Pop, Taking Back Sunday, Fun and Richard Buckner are among the other artists contributing releases.

Jeff Tweedy brought his iconic alt-country band Wilco to the San Jose Civic on Saturday night for the first of three sold-out shows in the Bay Area, and expectations were high. After long being one of those bands that seemed to tour perpetually, they’re back on the road after a lengthy (for them) self-imposed break. The new album, The Whole Love, is one of their best, and the band’s lineup, which has been in constant flux since Tweedy formed it in the wake of Uncle Tupelo’s break-up, has been stable now for something like three entire albums.

And yet, something told me the show couldn’t live up to it all.

Before last night, I’d only seen Wilco once before, about three years ago. It was an outdoor festival, and though I’m a longtime fan, it was underwhelming in the worst way. So relentlessly mid-tempo and mellow that it quickly got monotonous, it made a band I’ve always considered rather unpredictable and exciting seem sadly one-dimensional.

That’s why I braced myself for a long night yesterday when their first song upon hitting the stage was “One Sunday Morning,” the last song on the new album. It’s not a bad song, per se—supposedly written for author Jane Smiley’s boyfriend, it has some interesting struggling-with-spirituality type lyrics. But it’s also super mellow, musically repetitive and 12 minutes long. This was exactly what I didn’t want from a Wilco show.

Luckily, they dived immediately after into “Art of Almost,” also from the new album. Okay, this one is also long, but it’s maybe the best song on The Whole Love. They really ratcheted up the distorted guitars and electronic pulse for the live version, pushing into a far darker, more intense place.

The San Jose Civic hosts Wilco Saturday, January 28, for the first of the band’s three sold-out Bay Area Shows.

A lot of rock stars want to be outlaws, but their heroes tend to be tragic cowboys. Gram Parsons and Townes Van Zandt are just two of the ill-fated Americana icons to get their own cults when dissatisfied alt-rockers started covering their songs.

Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy was almost one of those brilliant country-rock train wrecks. As part of Uncle Tupelo in the late ’80s, he was on his way to being the classic better-to-burn-out-than-fade-away story.

Even as they defined a new alt-country sound, Uncle Tupelo had the worst luck imaginable, with label disputes, band infighting and Tweedy’s alcohol problems just a few of the problems that piled up over the course of four studio albums. The band’s breakup was infamously brutal, with a paper trail of lawsuits and tales of bandmates behaving badly. Jay Farrar left to start Son Volt, while Tweedy kept the rest of the group together as Wilco.

Looking back now, it’s amazing that almost 20 years after the breakup, Tweedy seems to have just now found some drama-free happiness in his career. After Wilco’s 1995 debut A.M., he gained a new level of success with the near-perfect alt-country record Being There in 1996, and 1999’s Summerteeth, an equally masterful record that explored a new pop sound. In between, he got another boost from Mermaid Avenue, the album of Woody Guthrie sounds that Wilco recorded with Billy Bragg.

What Tweedy and Wilco had done in a larger sense was make country music cool for the indie-rock set, ushering in an era of rootsy chic that would see singer-songwriters like Bright Eyes, Iron & Wine and Andrew Bird thrive.

But the revolving band line-up hadn’t changed, and neither did the label troubles. In 2001, the music world was stunned when Reprise Records refused to release Wilco’s feverishly anticipated album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, claiming it wasn’t commercial enough, and dropping the band immediately. To this day, it’s considered one of the record industry’s all-time stupidest moves. When the album finally came out, it was another game-changer for Wilco, quickly becoming their best-selling record and finding its way onto critics’ best-of lists for 2002.

Ten years later, Tweedy finally has stability, keeping together the same Wilco lineup for an unheard-of three albums now. And their latest, last year’s The Whole Love, is possibly the best Wilco album since Being There. Part alt-country, part rock and roll, part experimentation, it captures all the qualities that have made Wilco great in equal quantities. It also captures Tweedy sounding like he’s finally having fun, and considering this guy’s history, that’s maybe the most remarkable thing of all.

Wilco plays the San Jose Civic on Saturday, January 28 at 8pm; tickets are $45.

Click here to view the embedded video.