Live Review: Solid Sound Festival 2011

It's been wonderful watching Wilco break away from the music industry over the past few years, taking with them their seemingly ever-growing entourage of devoted followers. The group has come to a point in their career where the confines of record label are no longer a necessity, where the band no longer takes their music to people but rather brings their fans to them. Nowhere was this more evident than at the second iteration of the Solid Sound Festival--nestled in the somewhat remote town of North Adams, MA on the campus of the world class Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA). The facilities were transformed in a Wilco-mecca of sorts, finding concert posters and homemade instruments nestled next to work from luminaries such as Sol LeWitt and Katharina Grosse. And then there was the music——handpicked by the folks in Wilco and encompassing everything from garage rock to brass bands. But why stop there? With a comedy cabaret curated by John Hodgman, a falconry demonstration, a pop up record store and a menagerie of local vendors, there was no excuse not to fill every moment of the weekend. Not to mention two headlining sets from everyone's favorite convention-defying rock band. The perfect weekend for this diehard Wilco fanatic? Yup.

Solid Sound Plans Solidify

One of my biggest regrets of last summer was having neither the time nor the resources to make it out to Wilco's inaugural Solid Sound Festival. From what I heard and read, it was an incredible experience, gathering a slew of Wilco fans in the beautiful confines of MASS MoCA for three days of music and art. This year, the independently organized festival is happening almost two months earlier than it did last summer (June 24-26), which means I'll be in attendance for the first time.

Of course, the undeniable highlight of the weekend's festivities are the two sets that Wilco will play over the course of the weekend's first two evenings. I expect they'll be debuting material from their upcoming record in addition to their usual live offerings. Today the band confirmed via Facebook that they'll be releasing an exclusive 7" single at the festival via their newly formed dBpm Records, featuring a brand new Wilco tune entitled "I Might."

Once again, various Wilco side-projects will also be performing, including The Autumn Defense, Pronto, Pillow Wand and Glenn Kotche on solo drum kit. Other notable artists on the bill include the Levon Helm Band, Thurston Moore, Sic Alps, Here We Go Magic and the Handsome Family. There will also be a comedy stage curated by Daily Show correspondent John Hodgman featuring comedians Wyatt Cenac, Eugene Mirman and Morgan Murphy. Additionally, there will be workshops with members of the group and their cohorts as well as the return of the charity dunking booth, which gives you the chance to drench your favorite member of Wilco.

I'm beyond excited—it's going to the well-deserved end to an almost year-and-a-half drought of live Wilco. Fellow fans, I'll see you in Massachusetts!

Jim O'Rourke and Thurston Moore Cover Burt Bacharach

The Jim O'Rourke helmed Burt Bacharach tribute record All Kinds of People ~Love Burt Bacharach~ dropped exclusively in Japan last week. While it is available on the Japanese version of iTunes, short of importing the record, there's no way to legitimately access it in the US. Fortunately, one of the tracks from the record featuring Thurston Moore on vocals and Glenn Kotche on the drums surfaced this week on YouTube. It's a well-crafted cover of the Bacharach standard "(There's) Always Something There to Remind Me", showcasing O'Rourke's unique brand of straight-forward production. Hopefully we'll get a few more listens via YouTube in the coming weeks and, god willing, a US release of the record by the end of the year.