Read on CMJ's website that the latest album from Wilco will finally get a release on the Nonesuch label in April - hooray!

Good news. Thanks.

Yeah, I read that on their website. I was able to hear some of the new stuff live in Austin a few months ago and it is incredible.

Their Fall/early Winter tour stop in DC sold out really quickly - missed out on it, unfortunately. Took me a really long time to really accept the splintering of Uncle Tupelo, those many years ago, and get into either Wilco and Son Volt, but ultimately decided that Wilco was vastly superior to Son Volt.

I agree that the new stuff for Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is awesome. Luckily for me, I got to see them perform quite a few songs from it in Atlanta back in September.

Giles--> Not that I hate Wilco (they're actually my favorite band) , but I don't see how you could say SonVolt is inferior. One of the biggest problems Uncle Tupelo had was creative differences between Jay Farrar and Jeff Tweedy. It is very obvious that they were going in different directions stylistically by listening to the latter Uncle Tupelo albums, but I think the changes are too different to be compared on a inferior/superior level. Jeff Tweedy and Jay Farrar are both excellent musicians, but saying one is better than the other is like saying jazz is better than classical, or vice versa.

I think the comparison is inevitable. Wilco definately progressed to challenge musical styles, where Son Volt relied on the tried and true.

It's Beck vs. Lynard Skynard. If you like Beck, Wilco has progressed nicely. If you're a Skynard person, Son Volt fills the void.

I agree with you. I just don't think it sound to say that one is better than the other musically just because you prefer a different sound. They're both awesome musicians, IMO. It's just that "Windfall" takes me to a completely different place than does "Via Chicago." Right?

Loving Skynyrd, I guess that would explain why I love Son Volt so much then.

Now if only somebody could explain to me why I love Son Volt's music, but why I think Jay Farrar's solo cd was a disappointment.

May have something to do with a nonsensical lyric about "a voodoo candle."

I absolutely loved Son Volt's debut CD and thought it was one of the best discs released that year. But the next CD and the one after that were like photocopies that faded a little more each time - no real progression in sound or ideas. I still think "Trace" rules but have lost interest in their and Farrar's newer work; meanwhile, Wilco has really grown and changed in fascinating ways, which is something I really like in my bands.

I guess that's one of the things that I actually LIKE about them. I don't think they faded, but I like my favorite bands to stick with what they know. Son Volt had that sort of music perfected; I'd hate if they TRIED to be experimental, and ended up screwing everything up. 90% of the time, I want a band that's reliable- it's okay to make wide swings off their baseline music, as long as they're orbiting the center that made fans like them in the first place.

Very rarely do I think bands that experiment get it right; I'll give Wilco credit for doing it well, and I LIKE the newer stuff, but I LOVED the older Uncle Tupelo stuff.

Maybe the fact that they repeated that nonsensical lyric close to 30 times?

I don't know about you guys buy I love Jay Farrar's new solo album.

Jay Farrar's Sebastopol is actually my favorite thing he's done since Son Volt's Trace, and, even though I like Wilco way more than Farrar/Son Volt, Trace was a much better album than A.M (with the exception of a few songs). Nothing he does seems to even approach what Wilco is doing nowadays though. Wilco is moving forwards by leaps and bounds...Farrar is taking baby steps.

I like it okay, except for that one song. It just drives me nuts. I'm tempted to burn a copy of the rest of the cd minus that one song, just so I can listen to the good music without being irritated.