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Chris Strong
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Mary Ellen Matthews
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Sat Feb 20
7:30 pm
Wilco and Califone at Overture Center for the Arts - Overture Hall
When it comes to critical adulation and eager anticipation of its every move, Wilco stands alone in the current generation of American rock bands. Few would have guessed such accolades would follow upon the release of the band’s ho-hum 1995 debut, A.M., but Wilco earned its reputation thanks to an unbroken string of albums that, even if they weren’t great (like 2007’s snoozy Sky Blue Sky), were always intriguing. Last year's Wilco (The Album)—featuring “Wilco (The Song)”—shows a refreshing levity that its immediate predecessors lacked, a welcome development after the increasingly serious records that followed 2002’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Opener Califone add symphonic layers to roots-music clichés with minimalist piano, tape loops, synthesizer drones, and drumming that sounds alternately manic or overly simplistic. The recently released All My Friends Are Funeral Singers features these elevating traits while telling the story of a psychic woman trying to exorcise ghosts from her secluded home in the woods.
Overture Center for the Arts - Overture Hall 201 State St, Madison, WI
When it comes to critical adulation and eager anticipation of its every move, Wilco stands alone in the current generation of American rock bands. Few would have guessed such accolades would follow upon the release of the band’s ho-hum 1995 debut, A.M., but Wilco earned its reputation thanks to an unbroken string of albums that, even if they weren’t great (like 2007’s snoozy Sky Blue Sky), were always intriguing. Last year's Wilco (The Album)—featuring “Wilco (The Song)”—shows a refreshing levity that its immediate predecessors lacked, a welcome development after the increasingly serious records that followed 2002’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Opener Califone add symphonic layers to roots-music clichés with minimalist piano, tape loops, synthesizer drones, and drumming that sounds alternately manic or overly simplistic. The recently released All My Friends Are Funeral Singers features these elevating traits while telling the story of a psychic woman trying to exorcise ghosts from her secluded home in the woods.
Updated 03/17/2010
