Please be patient with me

Perhaps I need more time. I'm having a real problem trying to get my head 'round Wilco's new Sky Blue Sky album. I'll be going to see them play on Monday 21st May @ the Shepherds Bush Empire, so I feel like I need to be up to speed by then. At the moment the songs are just drifting over my head. Thankfully there are some good recent posts over at That Truncheon Thing that are helping to unmuddle my opinion of the album.

Actually, thinking about it, I was equally perplexed when I first heard Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and A Ghost Is Born when they were released. Those albums were quite different from the earlier Wilco that I knew and loved and it's only now that I'm starting to appreciate them fully. Strangely though, the last Loose Fur album, supposedly even more 'left field', I 'got' straight away.

So who knows? I'll probably absorb Sky Blue Sky properly at some stage, maybe not by Monday night but I'm sure I'll still enjoy the show. Apparently it's going to be broadcast live as a webcast from wilcoworld.net - so look out for a guy, five yards from the front, looking kinda puzzled.

New Wave

I've just started getting into a couple of CD's that I bought a month or two ago. Now seems to be the perfect time for them, ideal music for long Summer evenings.

First off there's Born Again In The USA - the 2nd outing from Loose Fur (Jeff Tweedy, Glenn Kotche and Jim O'Rourke).


Being a Wilco/Sonic Youth member side project I was expecting/fearing something along the lines of Wilco's A Ghost Is Born - but with even more abstract dissonant noises. Thankfully it's not. Yes, it's texturally interesting and challenging but the good news is that there are some great catchy songs as well.

Neat Summer disc number 2 is Nouvelle Vague by Nouvelle Vague.

The band's name is a clue to what lies in store. 'New Wave' or 'Bossa Nova' (translated into English and Brazilian Portuguese respectively).

Yes there's 13 (old) new wave era tunes, each performed in a bossa nova jazz style with cool breathy (very sexy) French female vocals.

Tracks include: Love Will Tear Us Apart (Joy Division), This Is Not A Love Song (PIL), Guns Of Brixton (The Clash), Teenage Kicks (Undertones) and a marvellous Too Drunk To F*ck (Dead Kennedys). Just Can't Get Enough (Depeche Mode) is on the Get On The Beam Jukebox.