I’ve been a little busy the past few weeks, so my apologies for neglecting this column. But I’m back and while technically I’m only supposed to be using performances from August 16th – 22nd, I need to grab a little something from Sunday August 15th because the Jeff Tweedy solo set from Wilco’s Solid Sound Festival welcomed many special guests and was all around awesome. We’ll start with a few tracks from that and move on to some setlist trickery that My Morning Jacket has been employing and close out with the guitarmageddon that ensues when two jamband shredders sit-in which each other’s ensembles.

[Thanks to liveween for this week's photo]

Artist & Title: Jeff Tweedy – Various – See Below.
Date & Venue: 2010-08-15 Solid Sound Festival – North Adams, MA
Taper & Show Download: Brenndan Murphy

Wilco’s Solid Sound Festival, by everything I’ve heard, was a massive success and one of the highlights was the Jeff Tweedy solo set that featured a number of rarities, special guests and essentially turned into a Wilco set by the end of it. I’m going to embed three separate tunes from the show but I recommend downloading the whole thing now. Tweedy plays a solo set on Sunday at Loufest in St. Louis and Wilco next plays Friday September 3rd at Jazz Aspen.

Look Out For My Love (w/ all of Avi Buffalo)

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READ ON for two more tracks from the Tweedy set as well as MMJ & RAQ…

Last week we shared a video of Mavis Staples in the studio with Jeff Tweedy previewing her new album, You’re Not Alone. Today we’ve got video of Jeff and Mavis performing the title track at Lollapalooza…

Mavis Staples w/ Jeff Tweedy – You’re Not Alone

Lollapalooza is well underway at Grant Park in Chicago. If you’ve been following our man on the scene, Benji Feldheim’s, twitter feed then you already knew that Jeff Tweedy sat in with Mavis Staples and her band during their set at the fest. Benji will be tweeting all weekend long and we’ll post his long-form thoughts on the event throughout the weekend.

Here’s five other links we think you’ll enjoy…

• Billboard reviews last night’s Soundgarden concert
• Jim James discusses MMJ’s new album with R. Stone
• Sly Stone sued over Coachella comments [via TDS]
• Are LCD Soundsystem reconsidering retirement?
• Louisville’s HullabaLOU Festival was an epic tanker

Finally, last night’s Arcade Fire webcast was about the best quality live broadcast we’ve seen on the web. If you missed the show – which was directed by Terry Gilliam – you can watch Rococo, Empty Room and other clips from the ‘cast on the band’s VEVO channel.

We’re eagerly anticipating You Are Not Alone the new album from legendary gospel and soul singer Mavis Staples, which is being produced by Wilco front man Jeff Tweedy. The album, which comes out on September 14, will feature a mix of traditional gospel tunes with covers of tunes by Randy Newman, John Fogerty and Allen Toussaint, as well as two newly penned Tweedy originals.

Here’s the duo talking about the release. We’re pretty confident that Mavis might be the only person who can get away with calling Jeff – Tweedy…

Jeff Tweedy & Mavis Staples – You Are Not Alone Album Preview

Staples will hit the road next week with a tour opening stop at Lollapalooza and will also appear at Wilco’s Solid Sound Festival on August 14.

The subject matter of this week’s selection is something I think a lot of our readers can relate to. On the surface, this tune – a selection off The Beatles 1966 album Revolver, could innocently be about the feeling of being woken up too early in the morning…Then again, it could be about drugs. And as my friend Dan likes to say, “If you think it might be about drugs, it’s probably about drugs.”

While dissecting the lyrics, I found it humorous how polite the narrator of the song is in reference to being woken up early, specifically the number of times he says, “Please”. I’m not sure if I know anyone who would be this polite given the circumstances.

In a famous 1966 interview that John Lennon did with Maureen Cleave, she said of John,

He can sleep almost indefinitely, is probably the laziest person in England. ‘Physically lazy,’ he said. ‘I don’t mind writing or reading or watching or speaking, but sex is the only physical thing I can be bothered with any more’.

So, the song is at least to some degree, autobiographical.

The Contestants:

Bathory: This is likely the most International edition of Cover Wars to date. Bathory, for those of you don’t know about them (like me yesterday), is a Swedish band often credited as creating the first “Black Metal” album. Source: In Memory Of Quorthon Vol III

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READ ON for the rest of this week’s diverse Cover Wars contestants…

Five or six tunes into Friday night’s Jeff Tweedy solo concert at The Calvin Theatre in Northampton, I started to think we were catching Tweedy on a non-chatty night. Perhaps we would not receive the signature banter you come to expect from his solo shows.

The closest he had come to being witty was sneaking the word Northampton as a lyric change to the show-opening Spiders (Kidsmoke) which made the crowd erupt in applause. Afterward, Tweedy shrugged as if to say, “this is like shooting fish in a barrel”. But once the floodgates of banter opened they did not close for the next hour and the theme of the night was things Mr. Tweedy (that’s Jeff’s dad) had told him over the years. The anecdotes ranged from quirky to down-right fucked up…they were, [I paraphrase as this is all from memory]

#1, Commenting on the light at the Calvin Theater, he said it reminded him of something his Dad used to say (this is what started it off). He recalled what his father would say when they were leaving his older sister home alone for the evening. He would say, “OK, lock all the doors, here’s the number where we’re going….I don’t know why I’m telling you this, whoever would come and take you would let you go at the first street light anyway….”

#2, “Women. Hang ‘em upside down in the shower and they all look alike”

#3, “Marry a woman that’s a little bit fat. That way, everywhere you grab, you’ll get something good.

#4, “Never back up further than you have to.”

#5, Describing one of the charity “living room” concerts he does in Chicago, at the end of the show his Dad called on his cell phone and Jeff’s wife picks up. Hands the phone over to Jeff who puts him on speaker phone even though he knows he shouldn’t.

Mr. Tweedy: Hey everyone
Crowd Assembled: Hi Mr. Tweedy
Mr. Tweedy: I’m naked!

Musically, the show was exactly what you would expect and that’s a talented songwriter performing stripped-down versions from his catalog. The number of albums from his discography that he hit was downright impressive. Every Wilco album (except Sky Blue Sky) was represented. Two of the four Uncle Tupelo discs made the setlist. Both volumes of Mermaid Avenue, (the records done with Billy Bragg), two tunes from each. Add one cover (Fake Plastic Trees), a track from his side-project Loose Furs (The Ruling Class), three tunes set to be released on Wilco’s new album in June, and even a track from the More Like The Moon EP made the cut (Bob Dylan’s 49th Beard).

READ ON for more from DaveO on Jeff Tweedy at the Calvin…

While Ryan Adams‘ future performing live may currently up in the air, the prolific singer/songwriter celeb dating-blogger will release an iTunes exclusive EP in time for Valentine’s Day. The seven track set titled Extra Cheese features some of Ry-Ry’s “best” love songs like Two, Answering Bell and My Love For You Is Real. The digital release also includes the unreleased track Hey There and Mrs. Lovely – a leftover from the Destroyer Sessions. Extra Cheese will be available on February 10 for download for just $3.99.

• List Time: Things That Need To Stop Happening In Music News
• Spinal Tap to release new album this year
• Cover Alert: Jeff Tweedy tackles Radiohead
• Flaming Lips contribute new song to doc on mushrooms
• 33 1/3 book series to get audio book treatment
• ’60s rockers Flamin’ Groovies to reunite for fest appearance
• Rolling Stone predicts who’s next for the Super Bowl

Finally, the Brooklyn-via-Minneapolis rockers The Hold Steady will release their first-ever live album A Postive Rage on April 4. The CD/DVD combo contains a 17 song set from October 31, 2007 – the second night of two-night stand at the Metro in Chicago from the band’s Boys & Girls In America tour – along with a 53 minute documentary chronicling the tour. The band,  who has recently relaunched their website, has also contributed a cover of The Boss’ Atlantic City to a indie-rock charity comp, Heroes.

Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy has added two Chicago shows at the Vic Theater to his solo tour schedule. The shows, which were announced on a popular Wilco message board by Tweedy’s wife Sue, will serve as benefits for a yet-to-be-named cause and come on the heels of shows last week in Kalamazoo, Grand Rapids and Champaign, IL.

Tweedy also will play three northeast solo dates this spring: March 26 – Burlington, VT; March 27 – Northampton, MA; March 28 – Beacon, NY. Tickets for Burlington and Northampton are on sale now. A presale for the Beacon, NY show, which will benefit the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, begins tomorrow at 10am through Music Today.

It isn’t often that Wilco fans based in the Northeast get to see singer/guitarist Jeff Tweedy solo shows without having to fly somewhere, so there’s been all sorts of excitement over the announcement that he’ll head here for three shows in March. The run kicks off on March 26 at Burlington’s Higher Ground and continues on the 27th at the Calvin Theater in Northampton before the mini-run ends at the Beacon High Auditorium in Beacon, NY on the 28th. Pre-Sale for the first two shows begins Wednesday at 10 AM EST via MusicToday. No word on the public onsale yet.

Fake Plastic Trees – 7 Worlds Collide with Ed O’Brien, Phil Selway, Jeff Tweedy & Johnny Marr

If you were like me, one of the first thoughts you had during President-elect Barack Obama’s speech to the masses at Chicago’s Grant Park on Tuesday night was how cool it was that he was acknowledging his victory at the home of Lollapalooza. It turns out C3 Productions, the same folks who produce Lollapalooza, staged the election night bash.

Lollapalooza won’t be returning to its roots as a traveling festival anytime soon thanks to a 10 year deal struck between C3 and the city of Chicago. The festival turned into a nice revenue stream for the city, bringing in over $1.6 million this summer. Be sure to read Jim DeRogatis’ article for more.

Let’s end the week with one final link dump for good measure…

• List Time: 9 Most Inappropriate Soundtrack Choices
• Live Nation tripled its large profits in the third quarter
• The Boston Globe calls AC/DC the best band of all-time
• Jeff Tweedy to perform solo at the Ann Arbor Folk Fest
• A group of hackers helps Rick Astley steal a rare victory
• Preview Jon Fishman of Phish’s tour with Marco Benevento

The Rolling Stones iconic tongue logo is arguable the famous and recognizable in all of rock and roll. The logo which first appeared on the band’s Sticky Fingers album, and was originally designed by John Pasche in 1970. So why this bit of rock history? Well, Pasche’s original design was sold at auction over the weekend for the hefty sum of $92,500 by the London-based Victoria and Albert Museum where it will hang.

• This week’s edition of Tour Stop features Alpine Valley
• Here’s a fantastic interview with Grace Potter from Outside Lands
• Own one of 25 Jeff Tweedy signature model guitars
• Missing summer already? Check out this End Of Summer Mix
• Vampire Weekend covers Fleetwood Mac’s Everywhere
• List Time: 50 Most Disastrous Live Gigs

Finally, indie-rockers The National have been ardent supporter of Democratic Presidential hopeful Barack Obama for quite some time now. The band designed and has been selling their Mr. November t-shirt, with 100% of the money going directly to the Obama campaign, since July. As a possible way of saying thank you to the band, their song Fake Empire can now be heard in an official campaign commercial, take a look and listen (via Product Shop NYC)…