Beautiful or No?

Andrew Bird Concert Poster

Bonnie Prince Billy Poster

The Sleepy Sun
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Sleepy Sun Poster

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Citizen Cope Poster

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Explode Poster

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Stray Cats Poster

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OO Soul Poster
Can you say BlackSploitation ?
But in a cool way.

OO Soul Poster

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The Legendary Swagger
Looks like an evil throwback magician
Houdini’s dark side maybe?

The Legendary Swagger Poster

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Disco Biscuits Poster

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Lesbo Nuns - King Diamond

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Muse Poster by Rodrigo Muller

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Muse Poster Portland 2010

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Muse Poster Wrestling

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Polymix poster

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Stone Relic Poster

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BloodSpasm Poster

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Wilco Poster by Adam Stockton

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Willie Nelson Poster

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Wilco Poster by Matt Thomas

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Sonic Youth Emek Poster

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Emek – Aaron Horkey Collab
The Decemberists with Andrew Bird

Decemberists Emek Horkey Collab

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Them Crooked Vultures Poster
For their NYC Roseland Ballroom show.

Them Crooked Vultures Poster

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This post will highlight 15 concert posters out now that deserve a look. IMO.
_________________________________________________________________
Kings of Leon
by Tara Mcpherson

Kings of Leon by Tara Mcpherson

Kings of Leon
by Ken Taylor
Australian shows

Kings of Leon By Ken Taylor

KOL by Ken taylor

Dave Matthews Band by Guy Burwell

Dave Matthews Band by Doublenaut

Dave Matthews Band by Methane Studios

Pearl Jam by Ames Bros

Pearl Jam by Ames Bros

Guttermouth By Mark Sgarbossa

The Jesus Lizard

Crosby Stills and Nash

Back to the future

Isis by Seldon Hunt

Mike Gordon

Mars Volta
by Jared Connor

Mars Volta

another by Jared Connor

Mars Volta 2

Misfits

BucketHead Concert Poster

Poster for a
BucketHead Concert
in California

BucketHead Concert Poster

Size 11 x 17 Inches (28 x 43 cm) Flyer Size
price $11.99

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Death Cube K and Giant Robot

In 1994, Buckethead released an album called Dreamatorium under the name of Death Cube K (an anagram of “Buckethead”). The name was created by Tom “Doc” Darter to circumvent legal complications with Sony Music Entertainment. About his style, the official FAQ says,

Many believe, however, that Death Cube K is a separate entity that looks like a photographic negative version of Buckethead with a “black chrome mask, like Darth Vader.” This apparition haunts Buckethead and appears in his nightmares.

Science fiction author William Gibson later borrowed “Death Cube K” as the name of a bar in his novel Idoru (1996). Gibson explained the reference in an interview for Addicted to Noise:

Death Cube K is actually the title of an album. I’m sorry I can’t remember the name of the group, but Bill Laswell, who I don’t really know but out of the kindness of his heart occasionally sends me big hunks of his output, groups that come out on his label. And Death Cube K was the title of some vicious ambient group that he had produced. And when I saw it, I thought: a Franz Kafka theme bar in Tokyo.

Also in 1994, Buckethead released his second studio album, Giant Robot, which features many guest appearances by artists such as Iggy Pop and Bill Moseley. The name of the album came from the Japanese series Johnny Sokko and his Flying Robot, of which Buckethead is a fan.[14] He also released two other albums with Praxis, their second and third studio efforts: Sacrifist and Metatron.

According to Anthony Kiedis’ autobiography, Scar Tissue, Buckethead once auditioned to play guitar for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, shortly after John Frusciante left the band, without having heard any of their songs.

The band’s bassist Flea noted that:

When he finished, the band applauded raucously. He was “sweet and normal”, but they wanted someone “…who could also kick a groove.”

Taylor Swift Concert Poster

Concert Poster for
a Taylor Swift show in
Portland Oregon

Taylor Swift Concert Poster

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Taylor Swift on Wikipedia

Taylor Alison Swift (born December 13, 1989) is an American country pop singer-songwriter, guitarist and actress. In 2006, she released her debut single “Tim McGraw”, which peaked at number six on the Billboard country charts. Later in October 2006, she released her self-titled debut album, which produced five hit singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts and was certified 3× Multi-Platinum by the RIAA. The New York Times described Swift as “one of pop’s finest songwriters, country’s foremost pragmatist and more in touch with her inner life than most adults”.

According to Nielsen SoundScan, Swift was the biggest selling artist of 2008 in America with combined sales of more than four million albums. Swift’s Fearless and her self-titled album finished 2008 at number three and number six respectively, with sales of 2.1 and 1.5 million.[4] She was the first artist in the history of Nielsen SoundScan to have two different albums in the Top 10 on the year end album chart.[4] Fearless has topped the Billboard 200 in 11 non-consecutive weeks.

No album has spent more time at number one since 1999-2000. It also was the first album by a female artist in country music history to log eight weeks at #1 on The Billboard 200. In mid-January 2009, Swift became the first country artist to top the 2 million mark in paid downloads with three different songs.[6] As of the week ending February 8, 2009, Swift’s single “Love Story” became the country song with most paid downloads in history and the first country song to top the Mainstream Top 40 chart.

Swift then subsequently went onto replicate the feat, reaching #1 again on the Mainstream Top 40 in September 2009 with “You Belong With Me”, making it just the second country song in the chart’s history to reach the top.

According to the 2009 issue of Forbes, Swift is ranked as the 69th most powerful celebrity with over $18 million in earnings this year.

Swift was born in the borough of Wyomissing, Pennsylvania. She is the daughter of Scott, a stock broker, and Andrea Swift, a homemaker. She has a younger brother, Austin.[11] When she was in fourth grade, Swift won a national poetry contest with a three page poem entitled “Monster In My Closet”.

At ten, Swift began writing songs and singing at karaoke contests, festivals, and fairs around her hometown. During one summer, Swift devoted herself to writing a 350 page (unpublished) novel.[14] She was a member of Kirk Cremer’s SNL-inspired kid’s sketch comedy group, TheatreKids Live!, where she was a natural comedic talent. After seeing her karaoke performance at one of the cast parties, it was Cremer’s mother who first suggested that Swift seemed more of a natural to pursue a career in country music, rather than theatrical performing.

Cremer soon leased space at a local mall and began to showcase his young protégée in weeknight performances of country songs with karaoke backing tracks. Emboldened by her performances and growing audiences, she began to perform in other local open mike and karaoke nights. Her first major show was a well-received performance at the Bloomsburg Fair, arranged by local performer Pat Garrett.[15]
Songwriting interest

Swift first learned to play guitar from a computer repairman who showed her how to play three chords. After learning those three chords, she wrote her first song, “Lucky You”. She began writing songs regularly and used it as outlet to help her with her pain from not fitting in at school. Other kids would react badly to her so she wrote songs about them.

Early work

Swift’s greatest musical influence is Shania Twain.[16] Her other influences include her grandmother, LeAnn Rimes, Tina Turner and Dolly Parton. Although her grandmother was a professional opera singer,[17] Taylor’s tastes always ran more toward country and she developed a love for Patsy Cline and Dolly Parton at an early age.[18] She also credits the Dixie Chicks and Shania Twain for demonstrating how much impact can be made by “stretching boundaries”.[19]

At age 11, Swift made her first trip to Nashville hoping to obtain a record deal by distributing a demo tape of her singing with karaoke songs. She gave a copy to every label in town.[20] Swift faced rejection, not just from record labels, but also from her peers.[21] After Swift returned to Pennsylvania, she was asked to sing at the U.S. Open tennis tournament; her rendition of the national anthem received a lot of attention.[22]

Swift started writing songs and playing 12-string guitar when she was 12. Swift began to regularly visit Nashville and wrote songs with local songwriters. By the time she was 14, her family decided to move to an outlying Nashville suburb.[23] When Swift was fifteen, she rejected RCA Records because the company wanted to keep her on a development deal.[24] Swift then performed at Nashville’s songwriters’ venue, The Bluebird Café, catching the attention of Scott Borchetta[25] who signed her to his newly-formed record label, Big Machine Records. She also became the youngest staff songwriter ever hired by the Sony/ATV Tree publishing house at 14.
Music career

2006–2008: Taylor Swift

Swift performing at a café with a koa wood guitar in June 2006

Swift’s first single, “Tim McGraw”, was released to radio in mid-2006 and reached number 6 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart during the week of January 27, 2007.[27] Swift said, “I wrote the song in my freshman year of high school. I was dating a guy who was about to go off to college. I knew we were going to break up so I started thinking of all the things that I knew would remind him of me. Surprisingly, the first thing that came to mind was that my favorite country artist is Tim McGraw.”

Her self-titled debut album Taylor Swift was released on October 24, 2006.[28] Swift wrote or co-wrote all of the songs on the album, which debuted at number 19 on the Billboard 200 and sold 39,000 copies during its first week.[29] It later peaked at number one at Billboard Top Country Albums and number five on the Billboard 200.[30] It also spent eight consecutive weeks at the top of the Top Country Albums charts[31] and remained at the top for 24 out of 91 weeks.[32] The only other country artists this decade to achieve the number-one sales position for 20 weeks or more are The Dixie Chicks and Carrie Underwood.[33] As of November 2008, Taylor Swift has sold over three million copies and 7.5 million single downloads.

Swift has surpassed the 200 million mark for music streams on MySpace. She is currently ranked in the Top 10 for the most MySpace visits for all genres of music, and is MySpace’s current top-ranking Country artist.[35][dead link] Swift is the most searched musical artist on MySpace in 2008.[36] The music video for “Tim McGraw” set a record by appearing for 30 consecutive weeks on GAC’s fan-voted weekly Top 20 music countdown show, and reached number one on CMT’s video charts. The video also won Swift an award for Breakthrough Video of the Year at the 2007 CMT Music Awards.

Her pursuit of country music stardom was the subject of “GAC Short Cuts”, a part-documentary, part-music-video series airing since the summer of 2006 on the country music channel.[38] On May 15, 2007, Swift performed “Tim McGraw” at the Academy of Country Music Awards. She sang the song to Tim McGraw in the audience, and introduced herself for the first time to him. Swift has been an opening act for Tim McGraw and Faith Hill on their Soul2Soul 2007 tour. She has opened in the past for George Strait, Brad Paisley and Rascal Flatts as well.

On August 21, 2007, Swift performed live on the season finale of America’s Got Talent.[40] The second single from the Taylor Swift album, “Teardrops on My Guitar”, was released February 24, 2007. The song originally made its peak positions in mid-2007, peaking at #2 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart and #33 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song was re-released to the Hot 100 and Pop 100 in late 2007 with a pop remix that brought “Teardrops on My Guitar” to #13 on the Hot 100 and #11 on the Pop 100. In October 2007, Swift’s songwriting peers at the Nashville Songwriters Association International honored her with their Songwriter/Artist of the Year Award, making her the youngest artist ever to win the award.

On November 7, 2007, Swift won the 2007 CMA Horizon Award and also performed “Our Song,” the third single from her album, which would go on to become her first #1 song the week of December 22, 2007, where it leaped up from the #6 spot. This was the biggest jump to Number One since January 1998, when Tim McGraw’s “Just to See You Smile”, also jumped from #6 to #1.[42] “Our Song” spent six weeks at #1 on the Country charts and also peaked at #16 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #24 on the Billboard Pop 100. Swift also recorded a holiday album, Sounds of the Season: The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection, which was released October 16, 2007, exclusively available at Target stores.

The album, which was not as successful as her self-titled debut, featured both holiday classics such as “Last Christmas” and original songs written by Swift. Swift was nominated for a 2008 Grammy Award in the category of Best New Artist, but lost to Amy Winehouse. Swift’s successful single, “Picture to Burn” was the fourth single from her debut album. The song debuted early in 2008 and peaked at #3 on the Billboard Country Chart in the spring of 2008.

Swift performing at Yahoo HQ in 2007

Big Machine Records announced the release of “Should’ve Said No” on Monday, May 19. The song is the fifth and final single from Swift’s debut album. She performed it on the 43rd Annual Academy of Country Music Awards.[43] The performance started off with her dressed in a hooded sweatshirt and jeans, but soon after a short black halter dress was revealed. In the last minute of the song, she went backstage to perform the final verse under a cascading waterfall. Swift had wanted to do that performance on stage with the water and the change of clothes since she was ten years old.[44] “Should’ve Said No” became her second Number One single for the chart dated August 23, 2008. In June 2008, at the CMA Music Festival held in Nashville, Swift signed autographs for nearly eight straight hours. It was the longest autograph-signing session since Garth Brooks’ 23-hour marathon in 1996.[45] In Summer 2008, Swift released Beautiful Eyes, an EP sold exclusively at Wal-Mart.[46] In its first week of release, the album sold 45,000 copies, debuting at #1 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart and #9 on the Billboard 200. With her self-titled debut album at #2 the same week, Swift became the first artist to hold the Top 2 positions of the Top Country Albums chart since LeAnn Rimes did so in 1997.[47] Swift plays a custom-made Taylor acoustic guitar made of koa wood.[48]

2008–present: Fearless

Swift’s latest studio album, Fearless, was released in the United States on November 11, 2008.[49] The album debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 Album Chart. Its sales of 592,304 were the highest debut of any country artists in 2008. This is also the largest opening U.S. sales week in 2008 by a female artist in all genres of music, and the fourth biggest overall behind Lil Wayne, AC/DC and Coldplay.[50] Its lead single “Love Story” became a hit on both the country and pop charts. During the first week of release, more than 129,000 of Swift’s sales were sold digitally. This gives Swift the best online start for any country album in history.[51] It also makes Swift the fourth biggest week for a digital album since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking them in 2004.[52] Through its eighth week of release, Fearless has sold more than 338,467 paid downloads, making it the bestselling country album in digital history. In second place is Swift’s debut Taylor Swift with sales of 236,046 downloads as of April 18, 2009.[53]

In its debut week, seven songs in total on Fearless were charted on Billboard Hot 100, tying Swift with Hannah Montana for the most by a female artist in a single week. With “White Horse” charted at #13, this gave Swift her sixth top 20 debut of 2008, a calendar year record for any artist in the history of the Billboard Hot 100. Of the 13 tracks on Fearless, 11 have already spent time on the Hot 100.[52] “Change”, a song from the album, was selected as part of a soundtrack supporting Team USA’s efforts in the 2008 Summer Olympics.[47] The song was also featured as part of the soundtrack of NBC’s broadcast package of the Olympics.

She also released the lead single from the album, “Love Story”, on September 12, 2008. The song is accompanied by a music video that is based on Romeo and Juliet. The song has reached number 2 on iTunes Store Top Downloaded Songs and number four on the Billboard Hot 100. It is also called as Taylor Swift’s signature song. Fifteen weeks after being added to pop radio, “Love Story” also became the first country crossover recording to hit number one on the Nielsen BDS CHR/Top 40 chart in the 16-year-history of list, as well as number one on the Mediabase Top 40 Chart.[54] The second single from Fearless, “White Horse”, was released on December 8, 2008.

The music video for the song premiered on CMT on February 7, 2009. Though it missed the #1 spot on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs as of the week April 11, 2009, “White Horse” claimed the #1 spot atop the USA Today/Country Aircheck chart (powered by Mediabase) in that week.[55] “Forever & Always”, another song from the album, was based on Swift’s relationship with singer Joe Jonas.[56]
Swift is Billboard’s Top Country Artist and Hot Country Songwriter of 2008; she is also country music’s best-selling artist of 2008.[57] Swift ranked seventh on Nielsen SoundScan Canada’s top-10 selling artists across all genres in 2008. Fearless and Taylor Swift took the #1 and #2 slots on 2008 Year-End Canadian Country Albums Chart.

Swift sang the Star-Spangled Banner at game three of the World Series in Philadelphia on October 25, 2008. On January 10, 2009, Swift made her first musical guest appearance on Saturday Night Live, making her the youngest country singer to appear as a musical guest on the show in its 33-year run.[59][60] Swift’s show achieved SNL’s highest adult 18-49 rating and overall viewer total since the November election (in 2008). It was tied for the #7 rating of that week among all broadcast and cable entertainment programs on all networks and outscored all its telecasts of last season in 18-49 and total viewers.

On February 8, 2009, Swift performed her song “Fifteen” with Miley Cyrus at the 51st Grammy Awards. Since the release of Swift’s second album, Fearless, she has released one new song “Crazier” for the soundtrack of the feature film Hannah Montana: The Movie. At the 44th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards, Swift picked up Album of the Year honors as a performer and producer for Fearless. She is the youngest artist in history to win Album of the Year award. Swift was also awarded the Academy’s Crystal Milestone Award, given for Outstanding Achievement in Country Music.

The Academy lauded her for career achievements including selling more albums in 2008 than any other artist in any genre of music, the breakthrough success of her debut album (which spawned five Top 10 hits, more than any in history for a female artist’s debut CD), and the worldwide crossover success of her #1 single “Love Story”. The Academy also cited Swift’s contribution to helping country music attract a younger audience.[62]
As of late April 2009, Swift has sold more than 14 million downloads, as well as three Gold Mobile Ringtones.[63] In June 2009, Swift performed “Thug Story” with T-Pain at the CMT Music Awards.

She went on to win two awards for Female Video of the Year and Video of the Year.[64] On July 14, 2009, it was confirmed Swift would perform at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards. “I’m so excited that MTV and the VMAs have invited me to perform, because I think this year’s show will be unlike anything they’ve ever done!” stated Swift. “I love incorporating theatrics into my performances, and the VMAs have always allowed artists to run with that,” Swift says. “MTV has been so good to me, and I could not be more excited about this year’s VMAs.”

This was Swift’s first performance on the VMAs. The show aired September 13 on MTV, with British comedian Russell Brand hosting for the second year in a row.[65] In addition to having three of her songs featured, Swift will appear as a playable character in Band Hero.[66] Swift announced September 6 on her Myspace blog that Fearless will be re-released on October 27 with six new songs. It will also include a DVD with her tour footage and pictures.

In January 2009, Swift announced her first headlining tour. Swift is taking her North American Fearless Tour 2009 to 52 cities in 38 states and provinces in the US and Canada over the span of 6 months. Opening acts include Kellie Pickler and Gloriana, a new group in country music.

The tour features a theatrical presentation of graphics, sets and visual elements designed by Swift; Swift plays guitar as well as piano. Multiple costume changes and a fairy-tale castle are some of the elements of the three-act show.[69] The tour kicked off April 23 in Evansville, Indiana. On February 6, 2009, tickets went on sale for the May 22 date at Los Angeles’ Staples Center and sold out in two minutes.

Tickets for several dates and venues, including Madison Square Garden, went on sale the following week and sold out in one minute.[71][72][73][74][75] On April 28, 2009, Swift gave a free, private concert to students at Bishop Ireton High School, a small Catholic school in Alexandria, Virginia after the school won a national “TXT 2 WIN” contest from Verizon Wireless.[76] The students sent over 19,000 text messages to Verizon during a roughly one month long contest. Swift played for about an hour during the school’s field day, an annual day-long recess with games and activities.
2009 MTV Video Music Awards controversy

For more details on this topic, see 2009 MTV Video Music Awards controversy.

West taking the microphone from Swift at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards.

The image above is proposed for deletion. See files for deletion to help reach a consensus on what to do.
On September 13, 2009, during the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, singer/rapper Kanye West came on the stage and took the microphone from Swift during her acceptance speech for winning Best Female Video for “You Belong with Me”, saying that Beyoncé’s video for “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)”, nominated for the same award, was “one of the best videos of all time”. This caused the audience in the venue to respond negatively.

He handed the microphone back to a stunned and reportedly upset Swift, who did not finish her acceptance speech.[77][79] West was removed from the remainder of the show for his actions.

When Beyoncé later won the award for Best Video of the Year for “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)”, she called Swift up on stage so that she could finish her acceptance speech.[77][80] Following the awards show, West apologized for his verbal outburst in a blog entry (which was subsequently removed).[77] He was criticized by various celebrities for the outburst,[78][81][82][83][84] and by President Barack Obama in an “off the record” comment. He later posted a second apology on his blog and appeared on The Jay Leno Show one day after the incident, apologizing publicly.

On September 15, 2009, Swift talked about the matter on The View. Asked what she was thinking the moment it happened, she stated, “Well, I think my overall thought process was something like, ‘Wow, I can’t believe I won, this is awesome, don’t trip and fall, I’m gonna get to thank the fans, this is so cool’”, she said, and that she further thought, “‘Oh, Kanye West is here. Cool haircut.

What are you doing there?’ And then, ‘Ouch.’ And then, ‘I guess I’m not gonna get to thank the fans.’”[89][90] In addition, she said that West had not spoken to her following the incident.[90] Following Swift’s appearance on The View, West contacted her to apologize personally; Swift said she accepted his apology.[90][91] The night of the awards show, Swift became the first country music artist to win an MTV Video Music Award.

Television appearances

In 2008, Swift made her acting debut in Brad Paisley’s music video “Online”. In that same year Swift filmed a documentary for MTV entitled MTV’s Once Upon a Prom and a documentary with Def Leppard for CMT entitled CMT Crossroads, which was premiered on November 7, 2008, drew more than 4.5 million viewers for its four initial airings.[92] Swift collaborated with the Jonas Brothers in their 3D Concert Film, Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience. The film was released on February 27, 2009 in North America. The concert film brought in $12,700,000 on its opening weekend.[93] Swift made her primetime television acting debut on CBS’s CSI: Crime Scene Investigation Turn, Turn, Turn on March 5, 2009 in the U.S. and Canada. The episode was watched by 20.8 million viewers.

Swift made a cameo appearance in Kellie Pickler’s music video “Best Days of Your Life”. Swift also appeared in Hannah Montana: The Movie as “woman singing in the barn”. The film was released on April 10, 2009 in North America.[95] The television show Dateline NBC showcased an hour to Swift on May 31, 2009. The episode titled Dateline NBC: On Tour With Taylor Swift included scenes from her tour bus, concert footage, and rehearsals. She was also interviewed for the show and some of her exclusive video diaries were shown.

Philanthropy

On September 21, 2007, Swift launched a campaign to protect children from online predators.[97] She has teamed up with Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen to combat internet sex crimes.

The year-long campaign, launched in partnership with the Tennessee Association of Chiefs of Police, will distribute Internet safety information and materials to parents and students across the state.[97] In early 2008, Swift donated the pink Chevy pick-up truck given to her by her record label to children’s charity, the Victory Junction Gang; in June, 2008, Swift donated all the proceeds she got from her merchandise sales at the 2008 Country Music Festival to Red Cross, the Nashville Area Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund and the National American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund.

Swift donated $10,000, funded by CMT ONE COUNTRY, to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital by winning the “Video of the Year” and “Female Video of the Year” awards at the 2008 CMT Music Awards.[99] In 2009, Swift won “Video of the Year and “Female Video of the Year” awards at the 2009 CMT Music Awards. She donated $5,000, funded by CMT, to American Red Cross.

Swift donated $100,000 to the Red Cross in Cedar Rapids, Iowa to help the victims of the Iowa flood of 2008.[101] Swift has teamed up with Sound Matters to make listeners aware of listening “responsibly”.[102] Swift supports @15, a teen-led social change platform underwritten by Best Buy to give teens opportunities to direct the company’s philanthropy through the newly-created @15 Fund.

Swift’s song, “Fifteen”, is featured in this campaign.[103] Swift has lent her support to the Victorian Bushfire Appeal by joining the lineup at Sydney’s Sound Relief concert,[104] reportedly making the biggest contribution of any artist playing at Sound Relief to the Australian Red Cross.[105] Swift donated her prom dress, which raised $1,200 for charity, to DonateMyDress.org.

Public image and other work

Swift has been featured on the cover of a number of magazines. In 2008, the list includes Blender, Seventeen,[107] Billboard,[108] Girls’ Life,[109][110] Women’s Health and CosmoGirl.[111] In 2009, Swift graced the cover of Teen Vogue,[112] Self Magazine,[113] Rolling Stone,[114] Allure,[115] Glamour,[116] and Bliss.[117] She has been a cover girl for Blender, for which she was one of two country artists during the magazine’s fifteen year run to be a cover subject.

Additionally, she was named number fifty-seven on Maxim’s sexiest women of 2008.[119] CosmoGirl voted Swift as the “2008 Girl of the Year”.[120] Swift was named by Rolling Stone magazine as one of “The RS 100: Agents of Change”.[121] She was nominated as a candidate for TIME’s “2009 The Time 100 Finalists” list, which is determined by online voting.

Jakks Pacific released a celebrity doll of Swift in late 2008.[123] Taylor Swift is the face of L.E.I. Jeans (Life Energy Intelligence) since 2008.[124] Swift and the L.e.i. Clothing Line made a deal to create a line based on Swift’s style of dressing. It will appear in Wal-Mart in the coming months.[125] However, Swift said she does not want to be called a designer. Instead, she says she will inspire the clothing company’s dress line based on her own style. “I don’t look at it like I’m branching out as a designer… It’s not the Taylor Swift designer line.”[126] In 2009, Swift became the National Hockey League’s newest celebrity spokesperson. She appears in commercials for the Nashville Predators.

Personal life

Swift’s best friend has been Abigail Anderson, whom she has known since ninth grade. During a discussion of Shakespeare in an English class they learned what they had in common. “We were the ones in the back of the class saying negative things about Romeo and Juliet because we were so bitter toward that emotion at the time,” said Anderson. “We just really connected … and ever since then we have been inseparable.”[128] Anderson also appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show to surprise Swift. On that episode of Ellen, Swift also revealed that Joe Jonas broke up with her in a 27-second phone conversation.
Swift is also close friends with Kellie Pickler, with whom she co-wrote Pickler’s second single “Best Days of Your Life” from her self-titled album Kellie Pickler.[129] In July 2008, Swift graduated from the Aaron Academy, a Christian school in Hendersonville, Tennessee which offers a home-schooling program.
Band

This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (September 2009)
Swift has had the same backup band for most of her career thus far. Some of them join her to record in the studio[citation needed]. Banjoist Ben Clark and fiddle player Emily Poe are the only two people who have left the band. As of 2009, the lineup is:

Taylor Swift – Lead Vocals, Guitar, Piano
Grant Mickelson – Guitar
Paul Sidoti – Guitar
Mike Meadows – Banjo, Mandolin, Guitar, Keyboards, Cello
Caitlin Evanson – Fiddle
Amos Heller – Bass
Al Wilson – Drums

Discography

Taylor Swift discography

Albums
2006: Taylor Swift
2008: Fearless

EPs
2007: Sounds of the Season: The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection
2008: Beautiful Eyes

Live albums
2008: Live From SoHo

Pete Yorn Concert Poster

Concert Poster
For a Pete Yorn show
in Portland Oregon

Pete Yorn Poster

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Peter (Pete) Yorn (born July 27, 1974) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist who first gained international recognition when his music, including the song “Strange Condition”, appeared in the 2000 film Me, Myself & Irene. Yorn also wrote the film’s score.

Born in New Jersey, Pete Yorn’s father is a dentist and his mother is a former concert pianist who worked as a teacher. Yorn taught himself to play drums at age nine and soon learned to play the guitar. Yorn attended Montville Township High School in Montville, New Jersey.[1] In 1990, while drumming for his band in a high-school talent contest, someone suggested that he sing The Replacements’ song “Talent Show”. It went over well enough that a competing band requested that he sing Neil Young’s “Rockin’ in the Free World” with them.

Breakthrough

Yorn was encouraged enough to maintain a focus on music while attending Syracuse University (class of 1996) where he was a major in the department of Communication and Rhetorical Studies and a member of the Delta Upsilon Fraternity.

After graduating, Yorn moved to Los Angeles, where he began to attract a following with his performances at Cafe Largo. Film producer Bradley Thomas (Kingpin & There’s Something About Mary) liked Yorn’s act enough to request Yorn send him some rough demos for possible inclusion in the Farrelly Brothers’ film Me, Myself and Irene. Soon after, Yorn landed a job scoring all of the music to the film and also contributed the songs “Strange Condition” and “Just Another” to the film and its soundtrack.

“Just Another” was also featured on the television shows Veronica Mars, Felicity, Dawson’s Creek, and Smallville. In addition to appearing on the Me, Myself, and Irene soundtrack, Pete Yorn’s recordings have appeared on other movie soundtracks, including Orange County (2001),Bandits (2001), Spider-Man (2002), John Q (2002), Shrek 2 (2004) and My Sister’s Keeper (2009).

After experiencing this taste of success, Yorn released his 2001 LP debut, entitled musicforthemorningafter, which went gold on the strength of the album’s lead single, “Life on a Chain.” Rolling Stone Magazine named Yorn one of “Ten [artists] to Watch in 2001″ and gave the album a favorable four-star rating.
Yorn went on to release the 2003 album Day I Forgot which has sold over 300,000 copies to date and scored a third radio hit with the song “Come Back Home.”

In 2006, Yorn released his third album, Nightcrawler.

Guitarist Peter Buck of the band R.E.M. has made appearances on several Pete Yorn recordings, including instrumentation on the single version of “Strange Condition” and a number of songs from the Day I Forgot LP. Yorn has worked with producers R. Walt Vincent, Brad Wood, and Ken Andrews of Failure and Year of the Rabbit, in addition to several other producers including Scott Litt, Butch Walker and Sonic Youth producer Don Fleming.

Yorn has shared bills with the Dave Matthews Band, R.E.M., Crowded House, Foo Fighters, Weezer, Coldplay, The Dixie Chicks, Semisonic, and Say Anything, among others.

Yorn’s song, “Lose You” can be heard just before the ending credits of the episode “Simple Explanation” on the Fox show House.

The Trilogy

Pete Yorn’s third studio release, Nightcrawler, completes a conceptual trilogy of sorts,[2] which spans his first three albums (EPs not included); beginning in the morning with the musicforthemorningafter LP, continuing through the day with the Day I Forgot LP, and arriving at nightfall with the Nightcrawler LP.

In September 2006, while interviewing with silentuproar.com, Yorn elaborated on his true intentions behind the trilogy, remarking that it was at least partially a conscious trilogy but wasn’t meant to be taken too seriously: “I didn’t mean like a Star Wars Trilogy where it’s one story at all.” Yorn expressed that the “trilogy” was more of a diary of sorts; a person gaining new life experiences and simply commenting on them in linear order. “So it’s a sort of continuing analysis of those topics, and the Night Nightcrawler LP would represent a later phase,” Yorn said.

Recent and Upcoming Releases

In 2008, Pete Yorn recorded and released a new song, entitled “American Blues Vol. 1.” A music video was shot for the single, and the song itself was released for free on Yorn’s official website for a short period of time. Concerning the song, Yorn has said “I wrote American Blues Vol. 1. on the 4th of July after reading the morning paper. It’s unlike any song I’ve ever written. I was moved by how much negativity I was reading about and how even groups were boycotting Independence Day because they were so disgusted with the state of our Nation. I was hoping things would improve…they obviously haven’t yet…but I know they will in time.”

According to several sources, Yorn has been writing and recording a respectable amount of new material to be released in 2009; namely two new records. The producers are Mike Mogis (Bright Eyes) and Frank Black (from Pixies). Two new songs have been released for download on various fan pages that are expected to be included on the new albums; “Sans Fear” and “Shotgun,” respectively.
Yorn will be appearing on Canadian artist Matthew Good’s upcoming album Vancouver performing backing vocals. The album is to be released October 2009.
Pete has announced that his Mike Mogis-produced album, entitled Back & Fourth, will be released through Columbia Records on June 23rd, 2009.

“Can’t Hear Anyone,” a song that Yorn wrote during the Nightcrawler sessions, was recently used for a Mercedes-Benz commercial and was released as a digital single on March 31, 2009.
Yorn is currently touring with Coldplay as an opening act through summer 2009.

Yorn recently collaborated with actress/musician Scarlett Johansson to record a project entitled “The Break Up Album.” The album will be released on September 8, 2009, and its first single, “Relator,” will be digitally released on May 26, 2009.
Yorn was on Jimmy Kimmel live on July 9th playing “Shotgun” from his album “Back & Fourth”

Pete Yorn Discography

Studio albums

musicforthemorningafter (2001) #111 US
Day I Forgot (2003) #18 US
Nightcrawler (2006) #50 US
Back and Fourth (2009) # 32 US
Break Up (with Scarlett Johansson) (2009)

Live albums

Live at the Roxy (2001) #131 US
Live from New Jersey (2004)

Yeah Yeah Yeahs Concert Poster

Concert Poster for a
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
show in Oregon

Yeah Yeah Yeahs Concert Poster

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Is Is EP

Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ second EP, titled Is Is, was released on July 24, 2007. It includes 5 previously unreleased songs and a short film, which was recorded and filmed at the GlassLands Gallery in Brooklyn, NY. The songs were written in 2004, during the Fever To Tell tour, and performed live often.[7] Three of the five tracks were featured on the “Tell Me What Rockers to Swallow” DVD.[8] They are also going to be releasing a DVD of a performance on May 7 in New York directed by Patrick Daughters. However, the DVD of the performance is yet to be released. The iTunes Store added all the performances in video form.

It’s Blitz!

The next album by the band was released in March 2009 and is called It’s Blitz!.[10] The band says the album sounds different from their previous ones but “still [sounds] like Yeah Yeah Yeahs”. The album was originally set to be released April 13, but following the leak to the Internet on February 22[11] the band’s label, Interscope, pulled the release date forward to reduce the impact of the online leak.

Artistry

Their style has been described as “an art-rock trio who made an edgy post-punk, dancefloor-friendly racket that mixed up Blondie with Siouxsie and the Banshees.”

Touring

Alongside performing headlining tours across the world, the band has supported bands like The White Stripes, The Strokes, Liars, and Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. The band became one of the first western rock acts to play in China when they headlined the Modern Sky Festival in Beijing in 2007.[14]
After Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys announced he had treatable cancer and the Beastie Boys canceled several appearances including a headlining spot at the 2009 Lollapalooza Music Festival, it was announced that the Yeah Yeah Yeahs would be taking their place on the schedule for Saturday, August 8, 2009. They will play opposite of Tool as the headliners of that evening.

References in popular culture

An acoustic version of the song “Gold Lion” is included on the Mississippi Studios Live, Vol. III compilation.[16]
The band’s song, “Maps,” is a playable track in the music video game Rock Band, with “Date with the Night” being available for download.
Their songs “Runaway” and “Zero” featured in the CW’s Gossip Girl, season 2, episode 21, “Seder Anything” and episode 25, “The Goodbye Gossip Girl” respectively.
The song “Date with the Night” appears on the Season 1 soundtrack of the E4 television series Skins.
An episode of the Canadian television show Instant Star was named after their song “Date With The Night”.
The song “Heads Will Roll” was featured in TV commercials for MTV’s “The Hills” – notably airing during the 2009 VMAs.
The song “Phenomena” plays over the closing credits of The Ruins (2008).

Karen O and Nick Zinner both appear as guests on Tiny Masters of Today’s album Bang Bang Boom Cake. The song was written via email and features Karen singing. In addition, Karen co-directed and all three band members were featured in the video for the group’s Hologram World video.
In 2009 the band appeared on a charity album War Child Presents Heroes with their version of The Ramones’ song “Sheena Is a Punk Rocker”
.
Soundtrack work

In 2005, Karen collaborated with MC Kool Keith on the track “Teaser”, which was said to be on the porn film Deep Throat vs. Lialeh soundtrack.[17] However the soundtrack was never released but recently started circulating on the web.[citation needed] For the movie Jackass 2, Karen O collaborated with electronic artist Peaches and Johnny Knoxville to record a track entitled “Backass”. In 2007 Karen contributed vocals to a version of Bob Dylan’s “Highway 61 Revisited” for the I’m Not There movie soundtrack.[18] She also appears on the soundtrack of the forthcoming film Where The Wild Things Are, directed by former boyfriend Spike Jonze.[19] Their song “Runaway” was also featured on the April 20, 2009 episode of Gossip Girl. “Sealings” appears on the Spiderman 3 soundtrack.

The K.O. At Home Demo Leak

On December 10, 2006, a home-recorded album titled KO at Home was leaked via an invite-only BitTorrent tracking site. The album, originally a personal gift to Dave Sitek of the NYC band TV on the Radio, was discovered inside a suitcase Sitek left behind in a New York City apartment. The disc’s 14 tracks and scan of the cover – a photograph of Karen O with a poem written by Oscar Wilde on the back – quickly spread. The music news site Stereogum broke the story of the leak[20] the following morning and continued their coverage[21] when Sitek lashed out at the fan who leaked the demos.[22] Eventually Sitek followed up his comments with an apology letter.[23] Karen O’s response to the leak was “shit happens” and although she was somewhat “grossed out,” she offered advice on which of the mp3s she liked the best,[24] namely the tracks “Pumpkin” and “Snakes and Worms”.

Head Wound City

Nick Zinner also collaborates in a mathcore/thrashcore supergroup Head Wound City. Other members of the group are Jordan Blilie (Past Lives, The Blood Brothers), Cody Votolato (Jaguar Love, The Blood Brothers), Justin Pearson (Holy Molar, The Locust) and Gabe Serbian (The Locust, Holy Molar). Their debut self-titled EP was released in 2005.

Discography

Yeah Yeah Yeahs discography
Fever to Tell (2003)
Show Your Bones (2006)
It’s Blitz! (2009)

Yeah Yeah Yeahs Concert Poster

Concert Poster
For a Yeah Yeah Yeahs
show on the “It’s Blitz” Tour
in Portland Oregon

Yeah Yeah Yeahs Poster

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Yeah Yeah Yeahs

are a New York City-based indie rock band. The band consists of lead singer Karen O, drummer Brian Chase, and guitarist Nick Zinner. In 2000 they formed a trio, and were later joined by second guitarist Imaad Wasif in 2006 for touring purposes. According to an interview that aired during the ABC network’s Live from Central Park SummerStage series, the band’s name was taken from modern New York City vernacular. The band has recorded three studio albums; the first, Fever to Tell, was released in 2003. The second, Show Your Bones, was released in 2006 and was named the second best album of the year by NME. Their third studio album, It’s Blitz!, was released on March 31, 2009 in the USA and on April 6, 2009 in the rest of the world.

Karen O and Brian Chase first met as students at Oberlin College in Ohio in the late ’90s, where Chase was a jazz student at the conservatory. Karen then transferred to New York University, and while in New York met Zinner in a local bar, where they formed an “instant connection”. During this time they also shared a loft in Manhattan with future members of the band Metric.[citation needed] The two formed an acoustic duo called “Unitard”, but they went electric after being inspired by Ohio’s avant-punk scene. After the drummer they recruited initially bowed out, Chase joined the line-up and decided to form a punk band similar to the “trashy, punky, grimy” art student groups that Karen had left behind in Ohio.[1] The band wrote a slew of songs at their first rehearsal and soon wound up supporting the Strokes and the White Stripes, earning a significant buzz for their arty and garage punk scene. In late 2001, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs released their self-titled debut EP, which they recorded with Boss Hog’s Jerry Teel, on their own Shifty label.[2] Early the next year the band stepped into the international spotlight, appearing at South by Southwest, touring the U.S. with Girls Against Boys and Europe with Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, and headlining their own U.K. tour. Wichita Recordings distributed the group’s EP in the U.K. and Touch and Go reissued it in the States.

Fever To Tell

In 2003, the band released their first complete album, Fever to Tell, which received several strong critical reviews and sold more than 750,000 copies worldwide. The album’s third single, “Maps”, received significant airplay on alternative radio. The video for their 2004 single “Y Control” was directed by Spike Jonze. In October 2004, the band released their first DVD, Tell Me What Rockers to Swallow. The DVD included a concert filmed at The Fillmore in San Francisco, all of the band’s music videos to date, and various interviews.

Show Your Bones

Karen O live at the Tim Festival
Their second album, Show Your Bones, was released on March 27–28, 2006. The album’s producer, Sam Spiegel – who had previously collaborated with Karen O on the song “Hello Tomorrow” for an Adidas commercial directed by Sam’s brother Jonze – told MTV News that it was a concept album about Karen’s cat, and would be titled Coco Beware. However, MTV was forced to retract the story, noting that Spiegel had failed to mention that he was joking.[4] Karen O told online zine Drowned in Sound, “Show Your Bones is what happens when you put your finger in a light socket,” crediting “9 year old antigenius wonder-kid Drake Barrett for the insight.”[5] The first single from the album, “Gold Lion”, was released on March 20, 2006, reaching 18 in the Official UK Singles Chart. It has been noted by Leah Greenblatt that “Gold Lion” sounds startlingly similar to “No New Tale To Tell” from 1980s alternative band Love and Rockets.[6] The band toured throughout Europe and the United States during much of 2006, and also helped to curate an edition of the British All Tomorrow’s Parties festival. In December 2006, the album was named the second best album of the year by NME magazine, as well as “Cheated Hearts” being voted the 10th best song. Rolling Stone magazine named it the 44th best album of 2006, while Spin magazine ranked it number 31 on their 40 best albums of 2006.

Stevie Wonder Concert Poster

Concert Poster
For a Stevie Wonder
show near Portland Oregon

Size 11 x 17 Inches (28 x 43 cm) Flyer Size
price $11.99

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Stevie Wonder is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer. Blind from birth, Wonder signed with Motown Records at the age of eleven, and continues to perform and record for the label. He has recorded more than thirty U.S. top ten hits and won twenty-two Grammy Awards, the most ever won by a solo artist.

Stevie Wonder was born in Saginaw, Michigan in 1950 as the third of six children to Calvin Judkins and Lula Mae Hardaway Morris. The product of a premature birth, the blood vessels at the back of his eyes had not yet reached the front, and an aborted growth spurt caused the retinas to detach.[3] The medical term for this condition is known as retinopathy of prematurity, or ROP, and while it may have been exacerbated by the oxygen pumped into his incubator, this treatment was not the primary cause of his blindness.
When Wonder was four, his mother left his father and moved herself and her children to Detroit. Wonder’s mother changed her name back to Lula Hardaway Morris and Morris remains Wonder’s legal name. Wonder took up piano at age seven, and had mastered it by age nine[citation needed]. During his early childhood he was active in his church choir. He also taught himself to play the harmonica and the drums, and had mastered both by age ten[citation needed]. Wonder also learned to play the bass during his early years.
Discovery and early Motown recordings
In 1961, at the age of eleven, Wonder was discovered singing outside a street corner by a relative of The Miracles’ Ronnie White, who was later introduced to Wonder. White brought Wonder and his mother to Motown Records. Impressed by the young musician, Motown CEO Berry Gordy signed Wonder to Motown’s Tamla label with the name Little Stevie Wonder.[1] Before signing, producer Mickey Stevenson gave Wonder his trademark name after remarking about him saying “that boy’s a wonder”. He then recorded the minor hit “I Call It Pretty Music, But the Old People Call It the Blues”, which was released in late 1961. Wonder released his first two albums, The Jazz Soul of Little Stevie and Tribute to Uncle Ray, in 1962, to little success.
Music career

Early success: 1963–71
By age 13, Wonder had a major hit, “Fingertips (Pt. 2)”, a 1963 single taken from a live recording of a Motor Town Revue performance, issued on the album, Recorded Live: The 12 Year Old Genius. The song, featuring Wonder on vocals, bongos, and harmonica, and a young Marvin Gaye on drums, was a #1 hit on the U.S. pop and R&B charts and launched him into the public consciousness.
In 1964, Stevie Wonder made his film debut in Muscle Beach Party as himself, credited as “Little Stevie Wonder”. He returned in the sequel released five months later, Bikini Beach. He performed on-screen in both films, singing “Happy Street,” and “Happy Feelin’ (Dance and Shout),” respectively.
Dropping the “Little” from his moniker, Wonder went on to have a number of other hits during the mid-1960s, including “Uptight (Everything’s Alright)”, “With a Child’s Heart”, and “Blowin’ in the Wind”, a Bob Dylan cover which was one of the first songs to reflect Wonder’s social consciousness, co-sung by his mentor, producer Clarence Paul. He also began to work in the Motown songwriting department, composing songs both for himself and his label mates, including “Tears of a Clown”, a number one hit performed by Smokey Robinson & the Miracles.
In 1968 he recorded an album of instrumental soul/jazz tracks, mostly harmonica solos, under the pseudonym (and title) Eivets Rednow, which is “Stevie Wonder” spelled backwards. The album failed to get much attention, and its only single, a cover of “Alfie”, only reached number 66 on the U.S. Pop charts and number 11 on the U.S. Adult Contemporary charts. Nonetheless, he managed to score several hits between 1968 and 1970 such as “I Was Made to Love Her”; “For Once in My Life” and “Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours”. In September 1970, at the age of 20, Wonder married Syreeta Wright, a former company secretary for Motown and songwriter. For his next album known as Where I’m Coming From, his newly-wed wife Syreeta gave him a helping hand with the writing and producing aspects, with the permission of Gordy. The album flopped in the charts. Reaching his twenty-first birthday on May 21, 1971, he allowed his Motown contract to expire.[4]
In 1970, Wonder co-wrote, and played numerous instruments on, the hit “It’s a Shame” for fellow Motown act The Spinners. His contribution was meant to be a showcase of his talent and thus a weapon in his on-going negotiations with Gordy about creative autonomy.[5]
Classic period: 1972–76
Wonder independently recorded two albums, which he used as a bargaining tool while negotiating with Motown. Eventually the label agreed to his demands for full creative control and the rights to his own songs; the 120-page contract shattered precedent at Motown and additionally gave Wonder a much higher royalty rate.[6] Wonder returned to Motown in March 1972 with Music of My Mind. Unlike most previous artist LPs on Motown, which usually consisted of a collection of singles, B-sides and covers, Music of My Mind was an actual LP, a full-length artistic statement with songs flowing together thematically.[6] Wonder’s lyrics dealt with social, political, and mystical themes as well as standard romantic ones, while musically Wonder began exploring overdubbing and recording most of the instrumental parts himself.[6] This started the so-called “classic period” of Wonder’s career during the 1970s. Music of My Mind marked the beginning of a long collaboration with synthesiser pioneers Tonto’s Expanding Head Band (Robert Margouleff and Malcolm Cecil).[7]

Superstition

from Talking Book by Stevie Wonder, Motown 1972-10-27. Sample from Stevie Wonder Song Review: A Greatest Hits Collection, Motown, 1996-12-10
Problems listening to this file? See media help.
Released in the fall of 1972, Talking Book featured the number-one hit “Superstition”,[8] which is one of the most distinctive and famous examples of the sound of the Hohner clavinet keyboard.[9] The song, originally intended for rock guitarist Jeff Beck, features a rocking groove that garnered Wonder an additional audience on rock radio stations. Talking Book also featured “You Are the Sunshine of My Life”, which also peaked at number-one. Wonder’s touring with The Rolling Stones on their 1972 American Tour was also a factor behind the success of both “Superstition” and “You Are the Sunshine of My Life”.[6][10] Between them, the two songs won three Grammy Awards.[11] On an episode of the children’s television show Sesame Street that aired in April 1973,[12] Wonder and his band performed “Superstition”, as well as an original song called “Sesame Street Song”, which demonstrated his abilities with the “talk box”.
Political considerations were brought into greater focus than ever before on his next album, Innervisions, released in 1973. The album featured “Higher Ground” (#4 on the pop charts) as well as the trenchant “Living for the City” (#8).[8] Both songs reached number 1 on the R&B charts. Popular ballads such as “Golden Lady” and “All in Love Is Fair” were also present, in a mixture of moods that nevertheless held together as a unified whole.[13] Innervisions generated three more Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year.[11] The album is ranked #23 on Rolling Stone Magazine’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.[14] Wonder had become the most influential and acclaimed black musician of the early 1970s.[6]
On August 6, 1973, Wonder was in a serious automobile accident while on tour in North Carolina, when a car he was riding in rear-ended a flatbed truck, sliding under the back of the truck causing the bed to crash through the windshield, striking Wonder in the head.[6][15] This left him in a coma for four days and resulted in a partial loss of his sense of smell and a temporary loss of sense of taste.[16]
Despite the setback Wonder eventually recovered all of his musical faculties, and re-appeared in concert at Madison Square Garden in March 1974 in a performance that highlighted both up-tempo material and long, building improvisations on mid-tempo songs such as “Living for the City”.[6] The album Fulfillingness’ First Finale appeared in July 1974 and set two hits high on the pop charts: the #1 “You Haven’t Done Nothin’” (a political protest song aimed at Richard Nixon) and the Top Ten “Boogie On Reggae Woman”. The Album of the Year was again one of three Grammys won.[11]
The same year Wonder took part in a Los Angeles jam session which would become known by the bootleg album A Toot and a Snore in ‘74, likely the only known post-Beatles recording of John Lennon and Paul McCartney playing together.[17][18] He also co-wrote and produced the Syreeta Wright album Stevie Wonder Presents: Syreeta.[19][20]
On October 4, 1975, Wonder performed at the historical “Wonder Dream Concert” in Kingston, Jamaica, a Jamaican Institute for the Blind benefit concert. Along with Wonder, the three original Wailers — Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer — performed together for the last time.[21]
By 1975, in his 25th year, Stevie Wonder had won two consecutive Grammy Awards: in 1974 for Innervisions and in 1975 for Fulfillingness’ First Finale. The following year, singer songwriter Paul Simon won the Grammy for Album of the Year for Still Crazy After All These Years. In his acceptance speech, Simon jokingly thanked Stevie Wonder for not releasing an album that year,[22] a quip that proved prophetic.
The double album-with-extra-EP Songs in the Key of Life, was released in September 1976. Sprawling in style, unlimited in ambition, and sometimes lyrically difficult to fathom, the album was hard for some listeners to assimilate, yet is regarded by many as Wonder’s crowning achievement and one of the most recognisable and accomplished albums in pop music history.[6][8][23] The album became the first of an American artist to debut straight at #1 in the Billboard charts, where it remained for 14 non-consecutive weeks.[24] Two tracks, became #1 Pop/R&B hits “I Wish” and “Sir Duke”. The baby-celebratory “Isn’t She Lovely” was written about his newborn daughter Aisha, while songs such as “Love’s in Need of Love Today” (which years later Wonder would perform at the post-September 11, 2001 America: A Tribute to Heroes telethon) and “Village Ghetto Land” reflected a far more pensive mood. Songs in the Key of Life won Album of the Year and two other Grammies.[11] The album ranks 56th on Rolling Stone Magazine’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.[14]
After such a concentrated and sustained level of creativity, Wonder stopped recording for three years, releasing only the 3 LP Looking Back, an anthology of his first Motown period. The albums Wonder released during this period were very influential on the music world: the 1983 Rolling Stone Record Guide said that these albums “pioneered stylistic approaches that helped to determine the shape of pop music for the next decade”;[8] Rolling Stone Magazine’s 2003 list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time included four of the five, with three in the top 90;[14] while in 2005 Kanye West said of his own work, “I’m not trying to compete with what’s out there now. I’m really trying to compete with Innervisions and Songs in the Key of Life. It sounds musically blasphemous to say something like that, but why not set that as your bar?”[25]
Commercial period: 1979–90
It was in Wonder’s next phase that he began to commercially reap the rewards of his legendary classic period. The ’80s saw Wonder scoring his biggest hits and reaching an unprecedented level of fame evidenced by increased album sales, charity participation, high-profile collaborations, political impact, and television appearances.
This period had a muted beginning, for when Wonder did return, it was with the soundtrack album Journey through the Secret Life of Plants (1979), featured in the film The Secret Life of Plants. Mostly instrumental, the album was panned at the time of its release but has come to be regarded by some critics as an unusual classic.[citation needed] In this year Wonder also wrote and produced the dance hit “Let’s Get Serious”, performed by Jermaine Jackson and (ranked by Billboard as the #1 R&B single of 1980).
Hotter than July (1980) became Wonder’s first platinum-selling single album, and its single “Happy Birthday” was a successful vehicle for his campaign to establish Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday as a national holiday. The album also included “Master Blaster (Jammin’)”, his tribute to Bob Marley, “All I Do”, and the sentimental ballad, “Lately”, which was later covered by Jodeci and S Club 7.
In 1982, Wonder released a retrospective of his ’70s work with Stevie Wonder’s Original Musiquarium, which included four new songs: the ten-minute funk classic “Do I Do” (which included legendary jazz trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie), “That Girl” (one of the year’s biggest singles to chart on the R&B side), “Front Line”, a narrative about a soldier in the Vietnam War that Stevie Wonder wrote and sang in the 1st person, and “Ribbon in the Sky”, one of his many classic compositions. Wonder also gained a #1 hit that year in collaboration with Paul McCartney in their paean to racial harmony, “Ebony and Ivory”.
In 1983, Wonder performed the song “Stay Gold”, the theme to Francis Ford Coppola’s film adaptation of S.E. Hinton’s novel The Outsiders. Often mistakenly attributed solely to Stevie Wonder, the music is by Carmine Coppola, while Wonder wrote the lyric.
In 1983 Wonder scheduled an album to be entitled People Work, Human Play.” The album never surfaced and instead 1984 saw the release of Wonder’s soundtrack album for The Woman in Red. The lead single, “I Just Called to Say I Love You”, was a #1 pop and R&B hit in both the United States and the United Kingdom, where it was placed 13th in the list of best-selling singles in the UK published in 2002. It went on to win an Academy Award for “Best Song” in 1985.The album also featured a guest appearance by Dionne Warwick, singing the duet “It’s You” with Stevie and a few songs of her own. The following year’s In Square Circle featured the #1 pop hit “Part-Time Lover”. The album also has a Top 10 Hit with “Go Home.” It also featured the ballad “Overjoyed” which was originally written for Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants but didn’t make the album. He performed “Overjoyed” on Saturday Night Live when he was the host. He was also featured in Chaka Khan’s cover of Prince’s “I Feel For You”, alongside Melle Mel, playing his signature harmonica, which was a huge hit. In roughly the same period he was also featured on harmonica on Eurythmics’ single, “There Must Be an Angel (Playing with My Heart)” and Elton John’s “I Guess That’s Why They Call It The Blues”, all huge hits.
By 1985, Stevie Wonder was an American icon, the subject of good-humored jokes about blindness and affectionately impersonated by Eddie Murphy on Saturday Night Live. Wonder sometimes joined in the jokes himself; in The Motown Revue Smokey Robinson presented Wonder with an award plaque, which he pretended to read for the audience– and to notice a spelling mistake. He was in a featured duet with Bruce Springsteen on the all-star charity single for African famine relief, “We Are the World”, and he was part of another charity single the following year (1986), the AIDS-targeted “That’s What Friends Are For”. He also played the harmonica on the album Dreamland Express by John Denver in the song “If Ever”, a song Wonder co-wrote with Stephanie Andrews. He also wrote the track “I Do Love You” for The Beach Boys’ 1985 self-titled album. Stevie Wonder also played the harmonica on a track called “Can’t Help Lovin’ That Man” from “Showboat” on the “The Broadway Album” by Barbra Streisand.
In 1986, Stevie Wonder appeared on The Cosby Show as himself in the episode “A Touch of Wonder,” where Theo and Denise get in a car crash with the singer’s car and he invites them to his studio.
In 1987, Wonder appeared on Michael Jackson’s Bad album on the duet “Just Good Friends”. The song was performed live on one occasion in Sydney, Australia when Wonder made a surprise appearance at Jackson’s show at the Parramatta Stadium. Michael Jackson also sang a duet with him titled “Get It” on Wonder’s 1987 album Characters. This was a minor hit single as were “Skeletons” and “You Will Know”. In the fall of 1988, Wonder dueted with Julio Iglesias on the hit single “My Love”, which appeared on Iglesias’ album Non Stop and was a hit single on both sides of the Atlantic.
Wonder has recorded with Jon Gibson, a Christian Soul musician, in a remake of his own song, “Have a Talk With God”, covered by Gibson on which Wonder plays harmonica. The two men met in the early 1980s through a shared music agent.

Wilco Concert Poster

Poster for a Wilco Concert
near Portland Oregon

Wilco Concert Poster

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Wilco is an American alternative rock band based in Chicago, Illinois. Their name comes from the voice procedure term “wilco” meaning “will comply.” The band was formed in 1994 by the remaining members of alternative country group Uncle Tupelo following singer Jay Farrar’s departure. Wilco’s lineup has changed frequently, with only singer Jeff Tweedy and bassist John Stirratt remaining from the original incarnation. Since early 2004, the other current members are guitarist Nels Cline, multi-instrumentalists Pat Sansone and Mikael Jorgensen, and drummer Glenn Kotche. Wilco has released seven studio albums, a live double album, and three collaborations: two with Billy Bragg, and one with The Minus 5.
Wilco’s music has been inspired by a wide variety of artists and styles, including Bill Fay and Television, and has in turn influenced music by a number of modern alternative rock acts. The band continued in the alternative country of Uncle Tupelo on its debut album A.M. (1995), but has since introduced more experimental aspects to their music, including elements of alternative rock, and classic pop.
Wilco garnered media attention for its fourth album, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2002), and the controversy surrounding it. After the recording sessions were complete, Reprise Records rejected the album and dismissed Wilco from the label. As part of a buy-out deal, Reprise gave Wilco the rights to the album for free. After streaming Foxtrot on its website, Wilco sold the album to Nonesuch Records in 2002. Both record labels are subsidiaries of Warner Music Group, leading one critic to say that the album showed “how screwed up the music business [was] in the early twenty-first century.”[1] Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is Wilco’s most successful release to date, selling over 590,000 copies. Wilco won two Grammy Awards for their fifth studio album, 2004’s A Ghost Is Born, including Best Alternative Music Album. Wilco released their seventh studio album, Wilco (The Album), on June 30, 2009.

1 History
1.1 Formation
1.2 A.M. and Being There
1.3 Summerteeth and the Mermaid Avenue sessions
1.4 Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
1.5 Down with Wilco, A Ghost Is Born, and Kicking Television: Live in Chicago
1.6 Sky Blue Sky
1.7 Wilco (The Album)
2 Musical style and influence
3 Discography
3.1 Albums
4 Band member timeline
5 Awards and nominations
5.1 Grammy Awards
5.2 Shortlist Music Prizes
5.3 Wired Rave Awards
6 Notes
7 References
8 External links
[edit]History

Formation

Main article: Uncle Tupelo

Wilco was formed following the breakup of the influential alternative country music group Uncle Tupelo. Singer Jay Farrar quit the band in 1994 supposedly because of a soured relationship with co-singer Jeff Tweedy.[2] Both Tweedy and Farrar sought to form bands immediately after the breakup. Tweedy was able to keep the entire Uncle Tupelo lineup sans Farrar, including bassist John Stirratt, drummer Ken Coomer, and multi-instrumentalist Max Johnston. He even enlisted Uncle Tupelo guest guitarist Brian Henneman of the Bottle Rockets, who performed on many of the tracks for WIlco’s debut album, A.M..[3] The band was tempted to keep the Uncle Tupelo name, but ultimately decided to rename the band.[4] The group named itself “Wilco” after the CB radio voice procedure for “Will Comply”,[5] a choice which Tweedy has called “fairly ironic for a rock band to name themselves.” [6]
[edit]A.M. and Being There
After collaborating with Syd Straw on a cover version of the Ernest Tubb song, “The T.B. is Whipping Me” (released in September 1994 on the Red Hot + Country compilation), Wilco began recording tracks for A.M., their first studio album, at Easley studio in June 1994.[3][5][7] A demo tape from these recordings was sent to executives at Reprise Records, a subsidiary of Warner Brothers, and the label signed Tweedy to a contract. Although Tweedy stated that he wanted a more collaborative project than Uncle Tupelo, only his name appeared on the Reprise contract.[8] Tweedy requested songwriting submissions from other members, but only one submission—John Stirratt’s “It’s Just That Simple”—appeared on A.M.. It was the last song Wilco ever released that was lyrically solely written by a member besides Tweedy.[8]
Stylistically similar to Uncle Tupelo, the music on A.M. was considered to be straightforward alternative country rock in what Tweedy later described as “trying to tread some water with a perceived audience.”[9] A.M. peaked at number twenty-seven on the Billboard Heatseekers chart, considerably lower than the debut album of Jay Farrar’s new band, Son Volt.[10][11] The album was met with modest reviews though it would rank thirty-fourth in the Village Voice’s 1995 Pazz & Jop critics poll.[12][13][14] Critically and commercially paling in comparison to the reception of Son Volt’s album, the Wilco members perceived A.M. to be a failure.[15] Shortly after the release of the album, multi-instrumentalist Jay Bennett joined the band, providing the band with a keyboardist and another guitarist.

“I Must Be High”

Sample from “I Must Be High”, the first track from A.M.. The song is an example of the straightforward alternative country music described by Tweedy as “trying to tread some water with a perceived audience.”
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Wilco made its live debut on November 17, 1994 to a capacity crowd at Cicero’s Basement Bar in St. Louis, Missouri (the band was billed for the occasion as “Black Shampoo”).[16]
During the two hundred-date tour supporting A.M., Tweedy began to write songs for a second album. The lyrical theme of the songs reflected a relationship between musical artist and a listener; Tweedy chose this topic because he sought to eschew the alternative country fan base. Ken Coomer elaborated:[17]
The whole No Depression thing was funny to us because people seemed to forget that Jeff was a bigger punk-rock fan than a country fan. It led to things like us all switching instruments on “Misunderstood,” where I’m playing guitar.
A number of songs were recorded with this theme, including “Sunken Treasure” and “Hotel Arizona”,[18] however, Wilco also recorded a number of songs in the style of A.M.[19] Wilco named the album Being There after a Peter Sellers film of the same name. The band went through some personnel changes during the recording sessions. Max Johnston left the band because he felt that his role in the band had diminished in favor of Bennett; he had also been replaced by violinist Jesse Greene on one track because the band felt that Johnston was unable to play the part. Bob Egan of Freakwater briefly joined the band in the studio, playing pedal steel guitar on “Far, Far Away” and “Dreamer in My Dreams”, and then became an official member in September 1996.[20][21]
Unlike the A.M. recording sessions, the band had no vocation for producing a hit song from their second effort.[22] The recording sessions produced nineteen songs, too many for a single album release. Tweedy was concerned about the high retail price that a double album would be sold for (at least $30), so he asked Reprise Records to release it as a double album at a single album price ($17.98 or less). Reprise agreed to this on the terms that they received Wilco’s share of the album royalties. It was estimated in 2003 that the band lost almost $600,000 on the deal, but Tweedy was satisfied.[23] Being There was well-received by critics from several major media outlets, including Rolling Stone.[19][24][25] The album reached #73 on the Billboard album charts,[26] a significant improvement from A.M., and placed fourteenth on the Pazz & Jop Critics Poll for 1996.[27]
[edit]Summerteeth and the Mermaid Avenue sessions
In November 1997, Wilco entered Willie Nelson’s recording studio in Spicewood, Texas to record a third studio album.[28] The album was lyrically inspired by the marital problems of Tweedy and his wife, as well as by twentieth-century literature.[29] Tweedy relied heavily on Bennett to provide music for the singer’s “bold, but depressing” lyrics.[30] Wilco recorded several songs, including “Via Chicago” and “She’s a Jar,” but began working on another project before assembling the tracks into an album.[28]

The two Mermaid Avenue albums consisted of recordings of unreleased Woody Guthrie (pictured) songs.
Nora Guthrie contacted singer-songwriter Billy Bragg in spring 1995 about recording some unreleased songs by her father, folk singer Woody Guthrie. Most of the songs were written late in Guthrie’s life when he was unable to record due to the motor impairments of Huntington’s disease. By the 1990s, Woody Guthrie had become a “relic” to the MTV generation, and Nora sought to establish a different legacy for the musician. To Nora, Bragg was “the only singer I knew taking on the same issues as Woody.” Bragg was concerned, however, that his fans would not realize that the songs were written by Guthrie when he performed them on tour, so he decided to record the album with another band.[31]
Bragg contacted Tweedy and Bennett about co-recording the album while Wilco was on the European segment of their Being There tour. Bragg was particularly fond of Being There because their influences extended farther back than the 1950s. Although Tweedy was indifferent to the offer, Bennett was enthused about recording songs of one of his idols—Bennett’s previous band Titanic Love Affair was named after a Billy Bragg lyric. A recording contract between Bragg and Wilco was signed after a show at Shepherd’s Bush Empire. Bragg mostly recorded the politically-charged lyrics, while Tweedy preferred to record lyrics that showcased Guthrie as a “freak weirdo”. The recording of Mermaid Avenue began on December 12, 1997, and was the topic of BBC’s Man in the Sand documentary film.[32]
Tempers flared between Bragg and Wilco after the album was completed. Bennett believed that Bragg was overproducing his songs, a sharp contrast to Wilco’s sparser contributions. Bennett called Bragg about the possibility of remixing Bragg’s songs, to which Bragg responded “you make your record, and I’ll make mine, fucker.” Eventually Bragg sent copies of his recordings to Chicago for Bennett to remix, but Bragg refused to use the new mixes on the album. The two parties were unable to establish a promotional tour and quarreled over royalties and guest musician fees.
Despite these conflicts, the album was released on June 23, 1998, and sold over 277,000 copies.[33] The album received rave reviews from Robert Christgau and Rolling Stone, and was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album.[34][35] It also placed fourth on the Pazz & Jop critics poll for 1998.[36] After the album was released, Bob Egan was replaced by multi-instrumentalist Leroy Bach.[37]
After the completion of the Mermaid Avenue sessions, Wilco returned to Spicewood to complete their third studio album, Summerteeth. Unlike previous Wilco and Uncle Tupelo recordings, the album featured a lot of overdubbing with Pro Tools.[38] Stirratt and Coomer were concerned with the production, since it reduced their involvement in the music. According to Stirratt:[39]
The story of Summerteeth is Jay bought a Mellotron and he was going to use it, no matter what. It was lovely, but it was overdone. Once they got going on the overdubs, they didn’t stop. And nobody in the band stepped up to stop the madness … It reminds me of Heart of Darkness, where you knowingly extend the creative process for the purpose of exploration or redemption, or whatever it is you’re looking for.
During 1999, Warner Brothers was looking to help repay a $16 billion debt acquired during the recent merger of parent company Warner Communications with Time Inc..[40] As a result, Warner’s imprints were under pressure to produce musical acts that would yield hit records. The head of Reprise, Howie Klein, who had previously authorized the release of Being There as a double album, was willing to let Wilco produce Summerteeth without label input. When Klein played the album for Reprise’s A&R department, however, they demanded a radio single for the album. Wilco agreed to do this “once and once only” and recorded a radio-friendly version of “Can’t Stand It” at the request of David Kahne, the head of the A&R department.[41] The single version of “Can’t Stand It” failed to cross over from Triple-A radio to alternative rock stations. Consequently, the album sold only 200,000 copies, significantly less than Being There.[42] This was despite critical acclaim; the album placed eighth on the Pazz & Jop critics’ poll for 1999.[43]
After the release of Summerteeth, the band resumed the Mermaid Avenue sessions. Although they had recorded enough material for a second release in 1998, Wilco recorded a few new songs for Mermaid Avenue Vol. II. “Someday Some Morning Sometime,” featuring a vibraphone filtered through a space echo, was identified by Tweedy as being the “piece to the puzzle” towards the creation of their fourth studio album. The album was released on May 30, 2000, and was the last release from the sessions.[44]
[edit]Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

“I Am Trying to Break Your Heart”

The first track from Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, this song featured an intro on bells composed by Glenn Kotche.
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Shortly after the recording sessions for Mermaid Avenue Vol. II, Wilco purchased a studio in Irving Park, Chicago, which they named the Wilco Loft.[45] The band recorded some tracks in the studio in early 2000 for a fourth studio album. In May 2000, Jeff Tweedy requested to perform with Jim O’Rourke at a festival in Chicago; Tweedy was a fan of O’Rourke’s Bad Timing. O’Rourke introduced Tweedy to drummer Glenn Kotche, and the trio enjoyed working together so much that they decided to record an album as a side project named Loose Fur.[46] Wilco had recorded an entire album of music at this point, but Tweedy was unhappy with the drum parts. He enjoyed Kotche’s contributions to Loose Fur so much that Tweedy brought him into the studio to re-record some demos. Some believe that Tweedy sought to make Wilco sound like Loose Fur after officially replacing Ken Coomer with Kotche in January 2001.[47]

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was rejected by Reprise Records, but released by Nonesuch Records. Both record labels were subsidiaries of Warner Brothers. The album is Wilco’s best selling album to date.
Although Bennett sought to act as both mixer and engineer for Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Tweedy was unsure of Bennett’s abilities against those of O’Rourke. Tweedy and Bennett frequently argued over whether the album should be accessible to a general listener, or attempt to cover new musical ground.[48] Unbeknownst to Bennett, Tweedy invited O’Rourke to remix “I Am Trying to Break Your Heart”, and the results impressed the other band members—even Bennett. Tensions grew between Bennett and O’Rourke because Bennett wanted to mix every song on the album. O’Rourke cut the contributions of other members on several of the songs; some songs, such as “Poor Places”, only featured the Loose Fur trio.[49] The album was completed in 2001, and Bennett was dismissed from the band immediately afterwards.[50] The recording of the album was documented by Sam Jones and released in 2002 as the film I Am Trying to Break Your Heart: A Film About Wilco.
Time Warner, which owned Warner Brothers, merged with America Online in 2001, leading to more pressure on Warner’s record labels to cut costs. Over 600 employees of Warner Music Group were fired, including Howie Klein, the president of Reprise Records. In absence of Klein, David Kahne became the interim head of Reprise.[51] Kahne assigned Mio Vukovic to monitor the progress of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and to offer suggestions. Music journalist Greg Kot claims that Vukovic disdained the album and was unhappy that Wilco ignored his suggestions.[52] He brought the album to Kahne, who felt that there was no single on the album. In June 2001, the album was rejected by Reprise and Wilco was asked to leave the label.[53]
Wilco managed to negotiate terms to a buy-out from Reprise. Music journalist Greg Kot claims that instead of financial compensation, the band agreed to leave the label with the master tapes of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.[54] The label was already receiving bad publicity for its treatment of the band and were willing to accommodate Wilco’s request.[55] However, Allmusic claims that Wilco “bought the finished studio tapes from Warner/Reprise for a reported $50,000 and left the label altogether” after Wilco was “[u]nwilling to change the album to make it more ‘commercially viable’”[56] To curb the negative publicity, Reprise began to invest more in bands such as The Flaming Lips. Lead singer Wayne Coyne once remarked:[57]
We are benefiting from the label’s regret over Wilco. We are living in the golden age of that being such a public mistake. The people on Warners said, “we’ll never have a band like Wilco feel we don’t believe in them again.” They’d tell me that it would never happen to us. And what a great day for me!
As the band searched for a new label to release the album, they decided to stream it at their official website to discourage illegal trading of low-quality MP3s.[58] The band signed with Nonesuch Records, another Time Warner subsidiary, and the album was released in the spring of 2002. When it was released, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot reached number thirteen on the Billboard 200, Wilco’s highest chart position to that date.[59] Yankee Hotel Foxtrot sold over 590,000 copies, and to date remains Wilco’s best selling album.[60] Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was met with wide critical acclaim: it topped 2002’s Pazz & Jop critics’ poll, was named one of the 100 greatest albums of all time by Q Magazine.[61][62][63]
[edit]Down with Wilco, A Ghost Is Born, and Kicking Television: Live in Chicago
While waiting for the commercial release of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Wilco agreed to support R.E.M. collaborator Scott McCaughey for an album release by The Minus 5. They scheduled a recording session for September 11, 2001, but were distraught about the 9/11 terrorist attacks that day.[64] Later that day, Wilco and McCaughey agreed to “create something good in the world right now” and record some material.[65] Influenced by Bill Fay’s Time of the Last Persecution, The Minus 5’s Down with Wilco was released in 2003.[66]

Wilco at the Wired Rave Awards in 2003
In November 2003, Wilco traveled to New York City to record their fifth album. The album was produced by Jim O’Rourke, who mixed Foxtrot and was a member of Wilco side project Loose Fur. Unlike Summerteeth and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, A Ghost Is Born featured songs that were created with Pro Tools before ever performing them live.[67] The album featured the song “Less Than You Think”, which included a fifteen-minute track of electronic noises and synthesizers, which Tweedy called “the track that everyone will hate”. Tweedy justified the inclusion of the song:[67]
I know ninety-nine percent of our fans won’t like that song, they’ll say its a ridiculous indulgence. Even I don’t want to listen to it every time I play through the album. But the times I do calm myself down and pay attention to it, I think it’s valuable and moving and cathartic. I wouldn’t have put it on the record if I didn’t think it was great … I wanted to make an album about identity, and within that is the idea of a higher power, the idea of randomness, and that anything can happen, and that we can’t control it.
Leroy Bach left the band immediately after the album’s completion to join a music theatre operation in Chicago.[68] Like Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Wilco streamed the album online before its commercial release. Instead of using their own web page, the band streamed it in MPEG-4 form on Apple’s website.[69] Wilco sought to substantially change their lineup after Bach’s departure, and added Mikael Jorgensen, who had engineered Down with Wilco, Pat Sansone of The Autumn Defense, and avant-garde guitarist Nels Cline to the lineup.[65][70] Just as the band was about to tour to promote the album, Tweedy checked himself in to a rehabilitation clinic in Chicago for an addiction to painkillers. As a result, tour plans for Europe were canceled, and the release date for the album was set back several weeks.[71]A Ghost Is Born was released on June 22, 2004, and became Wilco’s first top ten album in the U.S.[72] The album earned Wilco Grammy Awards for Best Alternative Music Album and Best Recording Package in 2005.[73] It also placed thirteenth on 2004’s Pazz & Jop Critics Poll.[74]
In 2004, the band released The Wilco Book, a picture book detailing the creation of A Ghost Is Born. The book also contains writings and drawings from band members, as well as a CD with demos from the A Ghost Is Born recording sessions.[75] Also that year, Chicago Tribune music critic Greg Kot released a biography of the band entitled Wilco: Learning How to Die. The new six-piece Wilco lineup debuted on Kicking Television: Live in Chicago, a two disc live album recorded at The Vic Theater in Chicago. Released on November 15, 2005, the album received high accolades from Spin, Billboard, and Entertainment Weekly.[76] As of 2007, it has sold over 114,000 copies.[60]
[edit]Sky Blue Sky

“What Light”

Sample of “What Light”, the eleventh track from Sky Blue Sky which was offered as a free download from the official Wilco website. The song exemplifies the straightforward melody, contrasting Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and A Ghost Is Born.
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Wilco returned to their loft in Chicago to record a sixth studio album in 2006. Influenced by The Byrds and Fairport Convention, the band considered Sky Blue Sky to be less experimental than previous releases.[60] Also unlike previous albums, the songs were created as collaborations.
Wilco streamed the album online on March 3, 2007, and offered the song “What Light” as a free MP3 download.[77] To further publicize the album, Wilco licensed several songs from the Sky Blue Sky recording sessions for use in a Volkswagen advertising campaign. The move was criticized by both critics and fans; Wilco responded by noting that they had previously done advertising campaigns with Apple Inc. and Telefónica Móviles (Movistar).[78][79][80] The album was released on May 15, 2007, and was a commercial success: it sold over 87,000 copies in its first week and peaked in the top five in the U.S. album charts.[81] It also was a top forty hit in seven other countries.[82]
Reviewer James Brubaker states that Wilco “shine[s] on a handful of the songs” on Sky Blue Sky, such as the “light, and straightforward” songs. While he calls the album “great traditional rock and folk album at times”, he states that “once you get past the handful of masterful and lovely performances… the rest of the record comes off at times as dull, and forced.” [83] The allaboutjazz review also had mixed comments. While praising the album as “deceptively insinuating, almost intoxicating to listen to” and noting its “impeccable sound quality,” the reviewer claimed that “Sky Blue Sky becomes the first Wilco album that sounds too careful for its own good.”[84]
Pabs Hernandez, a reviewer for Lost at Sea praised the album’s “breezy atmosphere and pacing,” and noted that it is not “easily judged upon first listen.” Overall, Hernandez stated that it “may be no masterpiece, but at worst it’s a more than worthy entry into Wilco’s laudable catalogue.”[85] Reviewer Greg Locke praised the record as “one of the best albums of the year,” calling it a “timeless record, full of sweet, hopeful sophistication and class” and “a lean, mean, soulful album.” Like Hernandez, Locke acknowledged that the album could not be properly judged just on the first listening.[86] The NPR review also had a positive take on the record. While the NPR reviewer stated that the recording “isn’t groundbreaking,” they praised its “coherent musical expression” and emphasis on “solid songcraft without pretense” which created a “satisfying and melodically sound album.”[87]
In anticipation of the 2008 US presidential election, Wilco released a downloadable version of Bob Dylan’s “I Shall Be Released” that they performed with Fleet Foxes. The MP3 was available as a free download from the band’s website in exchange for a promise to vote in the election.[88] The band also made an appearance on The Colbert Report to support presidential candidate Barack Obama.[89] Wilco released a live performance DVD, Ashes of American Flags, on April 18, 2009, to celebrate Record Store Day.[90]
In December 2008, Jeff Tweedy, Pat Sansone, Glenn Kotche and John Stirratt traveled to Auckland, New Zealand to participate in Neil Finn’s 7 Worlds Collide sequel project, The Sun Came Out, joined by Ed O’Brien, Phil Selway, Johnny Marr, KT Tunstall, Liam Finn, and Lisa Germano. They wrote and recorded several new tracks for the Oxfam-benefiting album including “You Never Know”, “What Could Have Been”, “Over and Done” and “Don’t Forget Me”. Jeff Tweedy co-wrote “Too Blue” with Johnny Marr, and Glenn, John and Pat play on most tracks on the album.[91]
Having enjoyed their time in New Zealand and the vibe of Finn’s own Roundhead Studios, the four members stayed in Auckland through January to record the foundation tracks for their next album. Jim Scott, who acted as engineer and mixer for the Neil Finn project, stayed on in the same capacity for the Wilco sessions. Nels Cline and Mikael Jorgensen would later add overdubs to these tracks at the band’s Chicago Loft.
[edit]Wilco (The Album)
Wilco released their seventh album, Wilco (The Album), on June 30, 2009. [92] In March 2009, it was announced that singer-songwriter Feist would make a guest appearance on the new album, on the track “You and I”.[93] Like their previous three albums, Wilco streamed the entirety of the album on its website prior to release.[94] The album hit the charts at a career-high #4 with sales of 99,000 on the Billboard Top 200 Album chart as well as the #2 spot on Billboard’s Top Rock Albums chart.[95] It marked Wilco’s third top 10 album on the U.S. pop chart. The album’s first single “You Never Know” reached the #1 spot on the AAA Chart, their first #1 in twelve years.[96]
On April 30th, Wilco freely distributed a cover of the Woody Guthrie song, “The Jolly Banker”, recorded at the Wilco loft in February 2009 at the suggestion of Nora Guthrie[97] Downloaders were encouraged to make donations to the Woody Guthrie Foundation. Feist guest appears on the track playing a garden weasel.[98]
On May 25, 2009, former band member Jay Bennett died in his home in Urbana, Illinois [99]. In a prepared statement, Jeff Tweedy remarked that he was “deeply saddened” by Bennett’s death [100].
On July 13, 2009, at the Coney Island show at Keyspan Park, Feist and Tweedy sang “You and I” together. [101]. They performed the same song on Late Show with David Letterman the next night. [102]
In June during their West Coast tour, Wilco joined Beck in the studio to take part in his Record Club project, covering Skip Spence’s Oar album. The album will be available through streams on Beck’s official website.[103]
[edit]Musical style and influence

Wilco performing in support of Sky Blue Sky at Festival Internacional de Benicàssim on July 20, 2007
Wilco’s music is typically categorized as alternative rock and alternative country. Despite their career-long association with a major record label, they are generally associated with indie rock.[104] Wilco draws influence from bands from a variety of musical genres, but primarily from music created between 1966 and 1974.[105][106] John Cale’s Paris 1919 was credited by the band as providing a musical parallel. According to Tweedy, “It was eye-opening that I wasn’t the only person that felt like these worlds had a lot more in common than they’d been given credit for—that experimentation and avant-garde theory was not directly opposed to beauty, y’know?”[107]
Other recording artists from that timespan appreciated by the band include John Lennon, Neil Young, and Brian Wilson.[108][109] For his thirty-fourth birthday, Tweedy received a private guitar lesson from Richard Lloyd of Television; Tweedy was a big fan of the group and was particularly fond of the guitar work, which he wanted to incorporate into his music.[67] Uncle Tupelo was inspired by bands such as Jason & the Scorchers and The Minutemen, influencing the recording of Wilco’s A.M..[110] Tweedy and O’Rourke enjoyed free jazz artists such as Ornette Coleman, Albert Ayler, and Derek Bailey; they also listen to mainstream jazz by artists such as Miles Davis and John Coltrane. The lyrical structure of Wilco’s songs were dictated by classic literature and cadavre exquis—an exercise where band members take turns writing lines on a typewriter, but are only allowed to see the previously written line. Among the books that the band has cited as being stylistically influential include William H. Gass’s In the Heart of the Heart of the Country, Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer, and Harold Bloom’s The Anxiety of Influence: A Theory of Poetry.
Some critics have dubbed Wilco the “American Radiohead”, due to their stylistically diverse catalog. A critic from the New York Times argues that Wilco has a “roots-rock…[sound which] reached back to proven materials: the twang of country, the steady chug of 1960s rock, the undulating sheen of the Beach Boys, the honky-tonk hymns of the Band and the melodic symmetries of pop.”
Rolling Stone described Wilco as “one of America’s most consistently interesting bands” and “America’s foremost rock impressionists.” Bands that have been influenced by Wilco include Derek Webb (of Caedmon’s Call), The National, and Grace Potter and the Nocturnals. English indie rock band Cherry Ghost took its name from a lyric from the Wilco song “Theologians” (from A Ghost Is Born)—lead singer Simon Aldred is a self-proclaimed “massive Wilco fan”. The song “Theologians” was also covered by Californian musician Donavon Frankenreiter on his 2007 release, Recycled Recipes EP. Pete Yorn’s song “Crystal Village” was influenced by Wilco’s “She’s A Jar.” On his 2004 album Live From New Jersey he introduces the song by saying, “Someone accused me of ripping off Cat Stevens. And I was like, ‘That’s bullshit, man. I would never rip off Cat Stevens.’ I ripped off Wilco on that song.” Other notable artists who have covered Wilco live include Norah Jones performing “Jesus, Etc.” and Counting Crows and the Wallflowers performing “California Stars.”

Discography

Wilco discography
Albums
A.M. (March 28, 1995)
Being There (October 29, 1996)
Summerteeth (March 9, 1999)
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (April 23, 2002)
A Ghost Is Born (June 22, 2004)
Kicking Television: Live in Chicago (November 15, 2005)
Sky Blue Sky (May 15, 2007)
Wilco (The Album) (June 30, 2009)

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