Three longtime HT faves will come together to perform at the 25,000-capacity Susquehanna Bank Center in Camden, New Jersey on Saturday, July 21 as part of radio station WXPN’s XPoNential Music Festival. Wilco, the Avett Brothers and Dr. Dog are all set to play the large venue on the middle night of the three-day event.

The full festival lineup will be revealed on May 1, along with ticketing information. Those purchasing three-day passes for this year’s XPoNential Music Festival will receive lawn seats for the triple-bill in Camden on the 21st. A XPN listener pre-sale for reserved seats will take place Thursday, March 29, at 10AM ET, while tickets for the general public will go on sale this Saturday, March 31, at 10AM ET.

If you’re not 100% sure why the name Nick Lowe rings a bell it’s because you are probably familiar with two of his songs, but might not be aware that he’s the one that wrote them. Lowe originally had a hit with Cruel To Be Kind all the way back in 1979, which peaked at #12 on the Billboard charts some 30+ years ago. He is also the guy responsible for (What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace Love & Understanding, a tune that he wrote, but Elvis Costello made famous. Lowe, who can easily be labeled as a “musician’s musician,” put out his 13th studio album, The Old Magic, last year via venerable indie label Yep Roc Records. Last week the singer-songwriter released a music video for the track Sensitive Man that stars comedian and WTF host Marc Maron, as well as appearances from a slew of other musicians, actors and comedians including singer-songwriter Robyn Hitchcock, Tim Heidecker (Tim & Eric), even and former touring mates Wilco, who make a brief cameo. Check it out…

Nick Lowe – Sensitive Man

Nick Lowe will head out of a 12-date spring tour with a full band, that kicks off on April 18 at the First Avenue in Minneapolis, Minn., and recently appeared on an episode of Maron’s highly recommended podcast WTF, where the two chatted about Lowe’s career.

Back in 1998, UK folkie Billy Bragg teamed up with up and coming alt.country act Wilco, to write and record new songs culled together from a treasure trove of previous unheard and unrecorded Woody Guthrie lyrics. Called Mermaid Avenue, for the street that Guthrie and his family lived on in Coney Island, the recording sessions yielded enough material to be spread across two albums, that were released two years apart, and feature a number of songs that both Bragg and Wilco still perform in concert.

With Guthrie’s centennial birthday being celebrated all throughout 2012, its no surprise that the sessions for these HT approved albums are being revisited, and will be released as four-disc box set. On April 21, Nonesuch Records will release Mermaid Avenue: The Complete Sessions, which will include the original two volumes of Mermaid Avenue, a third volume with 17 previously unreleased recordings from those sessions, plus the 1999 documentary on the sessions, Man in the Sand, as well as a 48-page booklet with new liner notes by Nora Guthrie. Mermaid Avenue, Volume III, will also be made available digitally, separate from the box set.

• List Time: 9 Rock Songs From The 1960s About Superheroes
• Robert Plant to debut his new band the Sensational Space Shifters this July
• Cover Alert: Alabama Shakes tackle Led Zeppelin
• MMJ front man Jim James is working on a solo album to be released this year
• Download This: Loose Fur – St. Anne’s Warehouse, Brooklyn, NY – 2002-12-06
• Tenacious D release more details about their third studio album Rize of the Fenix

Finally, earlier this year the Brooklyn Academy Of Music announced that they would be turning over the keys to the building to The National’s Aaron and Bryce Dessner to curate a music festival this spring dubbed Crossing Brooklyn Ferry, after a Walt Whitman poem. The three-day fest, which is set to take place from May 3 – 5, will utilize all three spaces within the building and be headlined by The Walkman, St. Vincent and Beruit, and will features sets from the likes of Sharon Van Etten, The Antlers, Caveman, Atlas Sound and more. Three-day passes will run you $110 , and will go-sale to the public on March 6, with individual day-passes going on-sale on March 12, for $45.

Over the last few years HT faves Wilco have launched their own music festival, started their own label, played innovative tours in their hometown of Chicago and even sold their own brand of coffee, but the one thing that they haven’t done, at least since 1999, is make a music video. That changed yesterday as Jeff Tweedy & Co. released a new animated video for the tune Dawned On Me, but this isn’t your straight up clip. For their first video in over a decade the band teamed up with the folks at King Features for an animated video that features not only the band as cartoon characters, but also the studio’s iconic characters Popeye, Olive Oyl, Bluto, Whimpy and Swee’ Pea in their first hand-drawn, frame-by-frame rendering for Popeye cell animation since the Popeye and Son series from 1987.

In addition to the video, Wilco and Kings Features also launched a full on interactive website, which features links to a live version of Dawned On Me, their iTunes session and more. Let’s check it out…

• List Time: 10 Best Girl Power Songs Of All Time
• Norah Jones has teamed up with Danger Mouse for her new studio album
• Cover Alert: Ingrid Michaelson tackles R.E.M.
• The National to curate All Tomorrow’s Parties
• Download This: Akron/Family – 285 Kent – 2012-01-21
• Flaming Lips preview new tracks with Bon Iver and Erykah Badu

Finally, to say that Fiona Apple has had a rocky relationship with her record label might be a bit of an understatement, as the singer-songwriter has seemed to consistently battle with her bosses at Epic over the last decade to get her music released. The tempestuous Apple, who has only released three studio albums since 1996, her last being 2005′s Extraordinary Machine, has reportedly been finished with her latest for well over a year. Well earlier this week Epic Records head honcho L.A. Reid tweeted the following, “Lots of good music coming from @Epic_Records in the next few weeks. Stay tuned music fans. Welcome back Fiona!” A spokesperson for Epic confirmed to Time that Apple’s new album would indeed be released, but an exact date had yet to be determined.

All week-long we’ve been counting down our staff’s picks for the best albums of 2011. Today, on the last workday of the year, we reveal the top of our list.

When Hidden Track was started in 2006 there were plenty of sites dedicated to indie rock and a slew of sites devoted to improvisational and classic rock bands, but few blogs (and bands for that matter) bridged the gap between the forms. That’s where we came in and five years later the results of our list shows that’s still where our staff’s interests lie, especially the album that fittingly took the top spot as our choice for the best album of 2011. Of particular note, the gap between #1 and #2 was one point. If any of our staffers would’ve put #2 one spot higher on their list we would’ve had a tie.

Thanks for following along all week. We now present our Top 5 Albums of 2011…

5) The War On Drugs – Slave Ambient

Key Tracks: Come To The City, Original Slave, Baby Missiles

Sounds Like: Stripped down Americana songs driven through the Brian Eno car wash

The Skinny: Prior to this record, The War on Drugs were a band lauded with Americana characterizations and Dylan comparisons to deserving acclaim, but Slave Ambient is a bold step forward: it’s a reinvention, an album that embraces technology and a clinic in production. Slave Ambient earns its visionary stripes by taking relatively basic song structures and veiling them in rich sonic textures with meticulous attention to detail. The careful articulation of the arrangements even manages to mask the fact that brainchild Adam Granduciel has a terrific voice, making vocals a loveable wing man to the main character – the thick tones and pulsing samples.

- Ryan Dembinsky

• Previously: #25 – #21, #20 – #16, #15 – #11, #10 – #6
• Spotify: Best Albums of 2011 Playlist

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Wilco is enjoying the holidays with a much deserved break from their very busy touring schedule. The band will begin their West Coast swing on January 19 at The Fillmore in Denver. This past October, fellow HT contributor DaveO dissected Wilco’s fall tour setlists for a closer look at how the band crafted their shows. With Wilco’s “Incredible Shrinking Tour” of Chicago in the books, I wanted to take a similar look at the setlists that Wilco crafted for their five nights in the Windy City.

The Venues

Historically, Wilco has always favored smaller venues in Chicago. The only exception was their sold out two-night run at the UIC Pavilion in 2009. While this obviously leads to a lot of ticketless fans, it definitely allows for intimate shows. Wilco played to approximately 9,120 people over the five nights and had not played three of the five venues previously.

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Our coverage of Wilco’s “Incredible Shrinking Tour” of Chicago comes to a close with a recap of last night’s finale at Lincoln Hall. We’d like to thank Jimmy Coulas of Scents and Subtle Sounds for his kickass coverage of the run. Be sure to check out Scents & Subtle Sounds for much more from Jimmy, but he’ll be back around these parts soon.

If Friday’s Wilco show at Metro was a family reunion then Sunday night’s show at the 507-capacity Lincoln Hall was the greatest holiday party ever thrown. Many fans braved the frigid Chicago temperatures for hours just to secure a prime spot on the floor. The band showed their appreciation by passing out coffee to those in line.

The small stage resembled more of a cluttered living room than anything. The vintage looking lamps that were spread around the stage enhanced the living room vibe. Due to space constraints, the band was using less than half of their normal gear. Nels was sporting a much smaller amp and didn’t have his table full of gadgets including his trusty Korg Kaos Pad. Keyboard wiz Mikael Jorgensen was without his organ and Pat Sansone was limited to one keyboard.

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Last night’s Wilco show at Metro felt more like a family reunion than a rock and roll show. Flanked by family and friends Wilco made their debut at the legendary club a show to remember. The band dove deep and found gold in the set opening sequence of  Sunken Treasure > Wishful Thinking > Art of Almost.

One of the highlights of the night came in the form of Ashes of American Flags. The Yankee Hotel Foxtrot cut featured a soaring guitar solo from Nels Cline that ended with one of his signature guitar freakouts. After the song ended Tweedy glanced over at Cline, shook his head and smiled. Yeah, it was that good!

I can’t say that I’ve ever seen a sign at a Wilco show, but tonight, a fan brought a “Either Way” sign and the band obliged by playing the song. Before Capitol City, Tweedy noted “This is probably the most hated song on our new record, but that’s why we are going to play it.” You could tell that Tweedy enjoyed the intimate setting of the venue. Throughout the night, Tweedy chatted it up with people towards the front of the stage and surveyed the crowd.

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The first two Wilco shows on the group’s “Incredible Shrinking Tour” of Chicago carried two completely different vibes. On Monday, you had opening night jitters and a very soulful rendition of The Weight featuring Mavis Staples and Nick Lowe to close the show. Tuesday night saw the band playing very loosely and jamming out several numbers with the 15 minute Spiders (Kidsmoke) as the crown jewel of the evening. What vibe would Thursday’s show take on?

[Photo by @ndebardlebon]

With Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel in attendance, Wilco reached deep into their extensive catalog and treated the sold out crowd at the Vic to a fun filled show. A great example of the band digging deep was the early set Hotel Arizona. It was played for only the second time since 2009. The songs energy built up slowly like a locomotive gaining speed all the while Nels Cline franticly covered all 21 frets on his battered Fender Jazzmaster at break neck speed.

“We haven’t taken time to introduce ourselves. We wrote a song about it,” noted Tweedy before Wilco (The Song). Instead of Tweedy introducing his bandmates towards the end of the song, a synthesized voice introduced the entire band one by one. Hesitating Beauty and Summer Teeth were very pleasant late set surprises before Nothing’severgonnastandinmyway(again) and Dawned on Me closed the set.

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On Tuesday, Wilco brought their “Incredible Shrinking Tour” to the Riviera Theatre for the second show on their citywide tour. The venue, which is a little more than eight miles north of the Civic Opera House, has seen better days, but is rich with Wilco history.

There was definitely an energy in the air that carried over from the from the night before. The memory of Mavis Staples, Nick Lowe and Jeff Tweedy taking turns signing verses of The Weight was still very fresh in people’s minds. I took a pass on trying to squeeze onto the main floor and grabbed a seat in the last few rows of the balcony.

The lights dimmed and the band arrived on stage at 9:16 and thus began one of the best Wilco shows I’ve ever seen. The band was oozing with creativity and were exploring soundscapes that would make Phish fans blush. Less Than You Think > Art of Almost laid the groundwork for the exploratory theme that developed throughout the show. Bull Black Nova was jammed out a bit and the harsh sounds of Nels Cline’s guitar revived a crowd that was lulled to sleep by the previous song, Black Moon.

The first curve ball of the night was the early set Red-Eyed and Blue > I Got You (At The End of the Century). Both of these songs usually show up next to each other in the encore, but the band had different plans. You Are My Face made its first appearance since May 5, 2010 and was welcomed home with open arms.

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Last night, Wilco played their first show in Chicago in over two years. It also marked the band’s first performance at the spectacular Civic Opera House. The band wasted no time in playing new material for their hometown crowd as three of the first four songs were from The Whole Love. The driving bassline of Art of Almost got the crowd’s blood flowing while I Might featured drummer Glenn Kotche relentlessly pounding his drums as Nels Cline injected some razor sharp guitar riffs.

“Hello, It’s so lovely here. It’s good to be home. We’ll have to catch up later,” exclaimed Tweedy before the starting the crowd pleasing Impossible Germany. Tweedy was chatty and it good spirits all night, but his line of the night: “You guys are rowdy. I don’t know if they smoke this much weed at the opera usually. You smell high.”

Wilco reserved the middle of the show for some of their slower tunes including the country infused Far, Far Away, the uplifting What Light and Capitol City, which carries a similar feel to The Beatles Maxwell’s Silver Hammer.

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Once again we’ve got an all-video edition of Intermezzo as we highlight some of the memorable moments that took place both on Halloween and over this past weekend.

Let’s start with Z-Man’s video of Widespread Panic covering Outta Mind (Outta Sight) from the encore of the jam titan’s Halloween show along with Postcard, Porch Song and a fun version of Werewolves of London featuring the entire crew…

Widespread Panic – Outta Mind (Outta Sight), Postcard, Porch Song, Werewolves of London

LazyLightning55 gives us our fill of HalloWeen with this Goin’ Gets Tough From The Getgo from Ween’s show at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City…

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Continuing a tradition started over 20 years ago, Widespread Panic filled their annual Halloween show in Chicago last night with an assortment of covers – some they haven’t played in years and others they’ve never performed before. The cover parade started with the first rendition of Willis Alan Ramsey’s Wishbone since December 15, 1989 (2,259 shows) and continued with the debut of Vic Chesnutt’s Degenerate and Muddy Waters’ Tail Dragger. Godzilla by Blue Oyster Cult (last time played – Halloween ’97) kicked off the second set and included the debut of Iron Man in the middle. Towards the end of the closing stanza, Panic debuted John Lennon’s I’m Losing You.

When the jam titans returned for their encore, they tipped their hat towards the Windy City’s most popular band of late, Wilco, by covering Outta Mind (Outta Sight) and wrapped things up by inviting their crew to help out on Warren Zevon’s Werewolves of London. Thanks to Z-Man for getting an audio recording of the festivities up so quickly as we can sample WSP’s Wilco cover…

Widespread Panic – Outta Mind (Outta Site) by Hidden Track

Setlist…

Set 1 Pigeons > Radio Child > Wishbone*, True To My Nature, Time Zones > Love Tractor, Degenerate^ > Blight > Tail Dragger# > Climb To Safety (68 mins)

Set 2 Godzilla** > Iron Man^^ > Godzilla, Imitation Leather Shoes > Jack, Surprise Valley > Drums > Surprise Valley > Blue Indian, I’m Losing You% > Chilly Water > Bust It Big > Chilly Water (76 mins)

Encore Outta Mind (Outta Sight)@, Postcard, Porch Song, Schools banter and thanks to road crew, Werewolves of London*** (17 mins)

Notes:
*LTP 12.15.89 Willis Alan Ramsey (2259 shows)
**LTP 10.31.97 Blue Öyster Cult (1152 shows)
***LTP 10.29.08 Warren Zevon (222 shows)
entire road crew on stage; Lopez on percussion First Time Played:
^ Vic Chestnutt
# Howlin Wolf
^^ Black Sabbath
% John Lennon
@ Wilco

[via PanicStream]

Last week, Wilco announced a fourth Chicago show in December to their touring schedule and we mentioned that it’s possible Jeff Tweedy and Co. weren’t finished adding Windy City performances. Today, Wilco has announced a fifth and presumably final Chicago performance, which will take place at the 507-capacity Lincoln Hall on December 18.

So, Wilco will go from the Civic Opera House (3,563-capacity) on 12/12 to the Riviera Theatre (2,300-capacity) on 12/13 to the Vic Theatre (1,300-capacity) on 12/15 to The Metro (1,150-capacity) on 12/16 to the finale at the tiny Lincoln Hall (507-capacity) on 12/18 for an “Incredible Shrinking Tour” similar to the one troubadour John Hiatt did back in 1994. HT contributor Ted Rockwell mentioned that in ’94, Hiatt went from the Riv to the Park West to the Lounge Ax (which was managed by Tweedy’s now-wife) to Schuba’s. As Rockwell commented, it’s not much of a stretch to believe Hiatt’s tour influenced Wilco to do their own version.

• Previously: Wilco Expands Chicago Run, Wilco North American Tour Wrapup – The Anatomy of Setlists

Tickets for Wilco at Lincoln Hall go on sale Saturday, October 22 at 10AM CT. There is a strict two ticket limit and all ducats are will-call only. Good luck.

Wilco @ Central Park SummerStage – September 22

Words: Jeffrey Greenblatt
Pictures: Jeremy Gordon

On the last official day of summer, Chicago indie-alt.country-experimental-folk-rock act Wilco (phew, did I hit all the appropriate adjectives?), returned to Central Park SummerStage for the first time since June of 2003, for the second of three New York City performances.

[All photos by Jeremy Gordon]

The previous night saw the band played a tight hour-long set as part of the fantastic Live On Letterman series, but for those that couldn’t make into the Ed Sullivan Theatre, this was their first time getting to see Jeff Tweedy & Co. play a proper headlining gig on the island of Manhattan since their two-night stand at the Hammerstein Ballroom all the way back in June of  2007, as they’ve chosen to play venues in both Brooklyn and Montclair during their last few swings through the area. It was somewhat of an atypical night from the Chicago-based sextet, as the band used a healthy portion of their of two hour set to focus on new material, playing eight cuts from their dBpm debut, which had yet to be released at the time.

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