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The Outlaw Music Festival began nine years back as a single event in Scranton, Pennsylvania, featuring Willie Nelson, Neil Young, Sheryl Crow, Chris Robinson, and Lee Ann Womack. It’s slowly morphed into a traveling fest that brings Nelson and a rotating cast of top-grade support acts to amphitheaters across America every summer, and they leveled up significantly last year by placing Bob Dylan in the penultimate slot every night of the run.

They repeated the successful Bob/Willie formula this summer for a 36-show trek, and sprinkled on acts like Wilco,...

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert announced it twill be off the air this week. The hiatus leaves a noticeable gap in the late-night TV landscape.

Per usual, there was no shortage of stories breaking over the weekend that would pique Stephen Colbert's interest. Another bombshell report about Pete Hegseth, Joe Biden's criticism of Donald Trump, and more stories would all make nice monologue topics for The Late Show.

However, there will not be a new episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Monday, April 21. The show will be off the air for the rest of the week as well.

The Easter holiday on Sunday likely explains why Stephen Colbert and his team are off this week. The time off should give everyone at The Late Show the chance to rest and relax before getting back to the Ed Sullivan Theater next week.

Update for the...

On Tuesday April 1 2025, CBS broadcasts The Late Show With Stephen Colbert!

Michelle Williams; Max Thieriot; Nels Cline Season 10 Episode 97 Episode Summary

The upcoming episode of “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” promises an exciting lineup with some notable guests. Actress Michelle Williams is set to join Stephen Colbert for a conversation. Known for her impressive performances in film and television, Williams is likely to share insights about her latest projects and her journey in the entertainment industry.

Actor Max Thieriot will also make an appearance. Thieriot has gained recognition for his roles in various series and films, and his presence on the show is sure to bring some engaging stories and laughter. Colbert often has a way of drawing out interesting anecdotes from his guests, so fans can look forward to a lively discussion.

In addition to the star-studded guest list, Nels Cline will sit in with Louis Cato and the Late Show Band.

2004’s A Ghost Is Born has a key place in Wilco’s mythology. Recorded at a time of personal turmoil for singer-songwriter Jeff Tweedy, it’s the first album they made after 2002’s era-defining, ante-upping Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, with all the expectations that came with that moment. For fans at the time, it felt like a chance to see if Wilco could sustain that high level of studio experimentation and emotional nuance.

We know now that they pulled it off. A Ghost Is Born wowed critics, won a Grammy, and...

clipping. have announced their new album, Dead Channel Sky, out March 14th via Sub Pop. The trio of rapper Daveed Diggs and producers Jonathan Snipes and William Hutson has also announced a 2025 North American tour and shared a new single titled “Change the Channel.” Stream it below.

Named one of our most anticipated albums, Dead Channel Sky features guest appearances from Aesop Rock, Nels Cline, Bitpanic, Tia Nomore, and Sub Pop labelmates Cartel Madras. The 20-track project was produced and mixed by clipping. and Steve Kaplan, with mastering by Levi Seitz.

The supporting tour kicks off on March 14th with a hometown show in Los Angeles and will also feature stops in Phoenix, Denver, Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver before wrapping up in Sacramento on May 3rd. Tickets go on sale Friday, January 10th. Tickets can be purchased here.

Arriving after recent singles “Run It” and “Keep Pushing,” the blistering “Change...

A little more than 20 years ago, in June 2004, Wilco released an album that stands alone in their catalog. A Ghost Is Born was the Chicago band’s fifth album and the first one they made after the label drama and studio innovation of 2002’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. It faced high expectations, and it exceeded them, winning rave reviews, an even more dedicated fanbase, and a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album. Now, Wilco are revisiting A Ghost Is Born with a super-deluxe box set due out Feb. 7, 2025.

The box...

If there’s one thing that Jeff Tweedy has a lot of, it’s songs. (He famously tries to write at least once a day.) If there’s another, it’s really cool guitars. Wilco’s frontman has been collecting vintage instruments throughout his storied career, using some of them to make records and stockpiling the rest at the band’s Chicago studio. He has accumulated so many of these beautiful, unusual axes over the years that he’s decided to sell some of them off. Ever wanted to own...

Sean Ono Lennon may have initially rejected the astrology his family embraced growing up, but when it came to his new album, it felt like the very stars were against him. “I just felt like there was too much cosmic interference,” he tells Rolling Stone of Asterisms, a genreless wash of instrumental music that flirts with jazz, rock, and electronic. In the end, though, the planets aligned, and the record dropped Friday on John Zorn’s Tzadik label.

But back in the days when Covid was rampant, the fate of...

Wilco have enlisted Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, Nick Lowe and the Straitjackets, and Iris DeMent for the 2024 Solid Sound Festival. The three-day event will take place June 28 through 30 at Mass MoCA in North Adams, Massachusetts.

Wilco, as always, will play host and headliners, while a few of its individual members will play additional sets, too. Frontman Jeff Tweedy will helm a “Jeff Tweedy and Friends” performance, while guitarist Nels Cline and drummer Glenn Kotche will perform with Darin Gray and Chris Corsano as the Saccata Quartet.

The Solid Sound 2024 lineup also features Dry Cleaning,...

Jeff Tweedy writes so well about his own music-making, there sometimes seems little worth adding: see his bestselling books (the annotated playlist World Within a Song: Music That Changed My Life and Life That Changed My Music is due November) and his Starship Casual Substack (Nb: the July 4 riff on Paul Simon’s “America”). But hey, outside perspective can be useful — as Cousin proves. It’s the first Wilco set since the ‘00s to use an outside producer, and it shows, in the best possible way.

The producer is Welsh singer-songwriter Cate Le Bon,...

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Two decades after Wilco recorded “I Am Trying to Break Your Heart,” they’re now ready to break your bank. The long-running indie rock group led by Jeff Tweedy is selling a stockpile of nearly 100 guitars, amps, and other instruments via The Official Wilco Loft Reverb Shop. The store, which offers fixed prices (instead of an auction format), will open for business on Feb. 22.

One of the most...

Dead & Company kicked off their 2022 tour Friday evening with an epic show at L.A.’s Dodger Stadium that was heavy on Dead standards like “Casey Jones,” “China Doll,” “Jack Straw,” and “Scarlet Begonias.” Toward the end of the second set, they broke out a cover of Traffic’s “Dear Mr. Fantasy” that transitioned into an instrumental coda of the Beatles’ “Hey Jude.” Check out the fan-shot video above.

“Dear Mr. Fantasy” was a regular part of the Grateful Dead’s live repertoire from 1984 to 1990, but this was the first...

The audience didn’t know what to make of the strange, dissonant sounds coming from the four musicians onstage at New York’s United Palace on April 16. Swift, dive-bombing squeals and nervous rhythms poured out of the Aizuri Quartet‘s instruments for 10 minutes straight. They paused; the crowd applauded, a little confused. Then the musicians kept playing for another 20 minutes of their unannounced opening set for Wilco’s second of eight shows celebrating the 20th anniversary of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. At times a hint of a familiar melody snuck into the otherwise dizzying composition.

Wilco’s Sky Blue Sky destination festival will return to the Hard Rock Hotel Riviera Maya in Puerto Aventuras, Mexico, January 17th through 21st, 2022.

Wilco will play three shows during the festival, while frontman Jeff Tweedy also has a solo set on the books, and the band’s guitarist Nels Cline will perform with his frequent collaborator Julian Lage. The Sky Blue Sky lineup also boasts Spoon, Kurt Vile and the Violators, Thundercat, Waxahatchee, Stephen Malkmus, Tank and the Bangas, Mountain Man, Nubya Garcia, the Autumn Defense, Neal Francis, and...

Brian Wilson, Jack Black, James Hetfield, and more will appear at the annual Little Kids Rock Benefit, which will take place virtually April 14th at 8 p.m. Et.

Little Kids Rock is a nonprofit that works to ensure public school districts — especially those in underserved communities — have access to music education. This year’s benefit will feature a mix of musical performances, an online auction, speeches, and testimonials about the program as it aims to bring free instruments and music lessons to a million students across the country when in-person learning can regularly resume.

Kill Rock Stars has continued its 30th-anniversary celebration by releasing Mike Watt and the Black Gang’s cover of Bikini Kill’s “Rebel Girl.”

Recorded live on October 16th, 1998 at the Knitting Factory in Manhattan, New York, the track features Watt taking on Kathleen Hanna’s powerhouse vocals and energy. Members of the Black Gang — Wilco’s Nels Cline and Bob Lee — soundman Steve Reed all contribute backing vocals.

“Me and K [Kira Roessler] have a two bass-only band called Dos and we opened up for Bikini Kill once and that’s...

Norah Jones, Natalie Merchant, and Sean Lennon will perform at the third annual Hudson Valley Votes concert and rally, which will be held virtually October 17th at 8 p.m. Et.

The event will feature a mix of musical performances and guest speakers, as well as appearances from down-ballot candidates in upstate New York, including U.S. Representative Antonio Delgado, State Senator Jen Metzger, and State Senate candidates Michelle Hinchey and Karen Smythe. The show will air on Hudson Valley Votes’ YouTube channel, Radio Kingston, and Radio Woodstock, and while the event is free,...

Wilco’s Nels Cline has dropped a new song from his ongoing side project, the Nels Cline Singers, “Beam/Spiral,” off the upcoming album Share the Wealth, out November 13th via Blue Note.

“Beam/Spiral” is a sprawling composition that begins with an atmospheric, cool jazz feel, but builds steadily into a driving rhythm before exploding into a finale that feels both chaotic and concise. The track arrives with an animated video, directed by Yuka Honda, that perfectly matches the song’s exploratory aura.

Cline said of the song: “It...

Wilco delivered a tender rendition of their cautionary love song “Love Is Everywhere (Beware)” on Late Night With Seth Meyers Monday.

The performance found the band in fine form as guitarist Nels Cline laced bright finger-tapped licks over the song’s soothing country rock sway. “Right now, right now/Love is everywhere,” frontman Jeff Tweedy sang, “Right now, I’m frightened how/Love is here, beware.”

“Love Is Everywhere (Beware)” appears on Wilco’s most recent album, Ode to Joy, which was released in October and marked the band’s first LP since 2016’s Schmilco.

After three Jeff Tweedy solo records and a memoir, Wilco’s first album since 2016 arrives like a reunion. It sounds like one too: simple, straightforward songs, most with acoustic guitar at the core, other melodic tendrils and rhythms and harmonic drones curling up like ivy, a long-running conversation being picked up, slow but sure. The sound recalls Sky Blue Sky, the very first album by the band’s current lineup, and the spirit definitely feels informed by its bandleader’s recent path: Tweedy’s deep dive into Tweedy. These are all positives.

Courtney Barnett joined Wilco onstage for a “karaoke” performance of “Handshake Drugs” at the band’s Solid Sound Festival this weekend.

The annual festival, which takes place at Mass MoCA in North Adams, Massachusetts, featured a set on Friday called “Wilco Karaoke,” where other artists and fans could sing Wilco songs backed by the band. Leading up to the weekend’s festivities, Wilco hosted a contest for 10 winners to be the lead singer of the band for karaoke, which also featured guests like Barnett, who delivered a melodic rendition of...

On June 28th, Wilco will return to the rolling hills of North Adams, Massachusetts, to kick off the sixth installment of their Solid Sound Festival. For Wilco and their fans, it will be more than just a weekend of great music: This year, Solid Sound doubles as a welcome-back party celebrating the official end of Wilco’s year-plus hiatus.

“We’re as excited as we’ve ever been,” says frontman Jeff Tweedy, calling from the Loft, the band’s Chicago recording studio. “Maybe a little bit more, because it’s...

Near the end of a recent conversation with Rolling Stone, in which he emphasized time and again that his musical tastes aren’t confined to any one style, eminent avant-gardist Anthony Braxton illustrated his point by sharing a nickname he’s earned from those close to him.

“My friends call me Anthony ‘Beefheart Boy’ Braxton!” he says cheerfully.

“He was totally creative,” Braxton says of the late Captain Beefheart. “His compositions were outrageously beautiful and original. His ensemble was really special. Some people talk of Captain Beefheart as a far-out rock musician,...

Head over to Greenwich Village, go up Bleecker Street, just a few blocks past 6th Avenue, and then make a left. Keep walking until you get to 42 Carmine Street. That’s where you’ll find Rick Kelly. The Long Island native with the gray hair and the slightly oversized black t-shirt might be ambling around the retail section of the storefront, which he opened up in 1990. He might be talking to his elderly mom Dorothy, who balances the books, answers the phones and dusts the framed pics of Kelly standing...

“Carmine Street Guitars” is a one-of-a-kind documentary that exudes a gentle, homespun magic. It’s a no-fuss, 80-minute-long portrait of Rick Kelly, who builds and sells custom guitars out of a modest storefront on Carmine Street in New York’s Greenwich Village, and the film touches on obsessions that have been popping up, like fragrant weeds, in the world of documentary. “Carmine Street Guitars” is all about the weirdly grounded pleasures of analog culture; about the glory of hand-made artisanal objects in a world dominated by mass corporate production; about the aging, and persistence, of old-school jazz and rock ‘n’ roll; about the fading of bohemia in a world of rising rents, omnivorous bottom lines, and chain-store values; and about how all those themes fuse into a Zen ideal of doing what you love and loving what you do.

The film sounds earnest and touching in a minor, twilight-of-the-’60s way.

Rick Kelly with Anne-Katrin Titze at Carmine Street Guitars on instigator Jim Jarmusch: "I really like The Limits of Control because there's some of my dialogue that's in that movie." Photo: Ed Bahlman

In Ron Mann's welcoming Carmine Street Guitars (a New York Film Festival highlight in Spotlight on Documentary), dedicated to Jonathan Demme, featuring the mastery of Rick Kelly and Cindy Hulej we go into the woods.

Jim Jarmusch, along with Eszter Balint, Patti Smith's Lenny Kaye, Bill Frisell, Charlie Sexton, Marc Ribot (Alexandre Moors' The Yellow Birds), Eleanor Friedberger, Christine Bougie of the Bahamas, Wilko's Nels Cline, The Roots' Kirk Douglas, Jamie Hince of The Kills, Lou Reed's guitar tech Stewart Hurwood, Dallas Good and Travis Good of The Sadies, who also composed the music for the documentary, all appear in the shop and play guitar except one.

Rick Kelly: "I really...

Wilco enlisted Courtney Barnett, experimental rock act Tortoise, jangle-pop band the Feelies and — in an intriguing and unexpected turn — Mad Men actor Jon Hamm for the 2019 edition of their own Solid Sound Festival, scheduled for June 28th through the 30th at Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in North Adams, Massachusetts. The lineup also includes two headlining Wilco sets — their first U.S. shows in nearly two years — along with spots from Jonathan Richman, Cate Le Bon, the Minus 5, comedian John Hodgman, Milo, Wand, Foxwarren and Clipping., among others.

Hamm...

Arthur Buck, Arthur Buck (New West)

For two weeks in September, Arthur Buck — the newly minted duo of singer-songwriter Joseph Arthur and ex-r.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck — toured with the songs from their debut album, Arthur Buck, as a quintet with keyboard player Gregg Foreman, drummer Linda Pitmon of Steve Wynn’s Miracle Three and longtime R.E.M. sideman Scott McCaughey, looking hale and sounding hearty on bass and backing vocals after suffering a stroke last year. The effect was robust and promising, adding the bond and fortified...

It may not sound like groundbreaking stuff - a quaint documentary about a custom guitar shop in the heart of Greenwich Village - but make no mistake, Ron Mann’s latest laid-back documentary, Carmine Street Guitars, is the most unassuming, sneakily beautiful, goddamn treat of a film I have ever seen. Hyperbole? Nope, not to me! Will you feel the same way? That depends on many things about you, most obviously, what is your taste in music? Will the film’s cast of crazy cool customers appeal to you personally? Except at the end of the day it has very little to do with whether or not the film’s roster of musical treasures - local giants like Jim Jarmusch, Lenny Kaye, Bill Frisell, Eleanor Friedberger, Nels Cline,...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Exclusive: Abramorama has acquired U.S. rights to Carmine Street Guitars, the Ron Mann-directed documentary that takes a snapshot of Rick Kelly’s fabled Greenwich Village shop where he makes guitars out of salvaged wood from historic New York buildings. The instruments have been used by the likes of Bob Dylan, Lou Reed and Patti Smith.

The film, which shows a a week in the life of the shop alongside Kelly and his apprentice Cindy Hulej, features devotees to the craft including Jim Jarmusch, Wilco’s Nels Cline, The Roots’ Kirk Douglas, Bill Frisell, Dave Hill and Charlie Sexton. The pic premiered at the Venice Film Festival, then hit Toronto and is next up screening Saturday at the New York Film Fetstival.

Abramorama plans a spring theatrical release at New York’s Film Forum.

“I’ve been handling Ron’s films in the U.S. since Comic Book Confidential...

For some, Ken Burns’ 2001 PBS series Jazz was a definitive, open-and-shut take on its subject, as comprehensive a portrait of the genre as one could hope for. For others, the series was a major slight. As Tom Surgal, director of the new doc Fire Music put it in a 2015 interview, Burns’ 10-part program “really got into pretty thoroughly depicting the entire history of the jazz continuum and virtually ignored free jazz altogether.”

Fire Music, which screens Monday night at the New York Film Festival, is his feature-length corrective. Whether you...

When it comes to improvised music, there’s something about duets with drummers. Ever since the 1974 release of John Coltrane’s landmark Interstellar Space session, on which the saxophonist was joined only by drummer Rashied Ali, countless musicians — from fellow saxists to trumpeters, pianists, guitarists and even double-bassists — have squared off with trap-set players, embracing the spontaneity and intensity of the stripped-down setting. New York drummer Donald Sturge Anthony McKenzie II is bringing a new energy to the format with his Silenced project, centering on first-take, unedited duets with a variety of stellar improvisers,...

Bill Frisell, a member of John Zorn’s Naked City and the man who provided the music for the TV version of Gary Larson’s The Far Side, talks Fender Mustang guitars and The Astronauts in this exclusive clip of doc Carmine Street Guitars, which premieres next week in Venice.

The doc, which has its world premiere in Venice on September 3 before airing in Toronto and New York, was instigated by filmmaker and guitarist Jim Jarmusch and tells the story of the fabled Greenwich Village guitar shop.

Directed by Ron Mann (Altman), it follows custom guitar-maker Rick Kelly and his apprentice Cindy Hulej, who build handcrafted guitars out of salvaged wood from historic New York buildings. Fans have included Bob Dylan, Lou Reed, Patti Smith and Jarmusch.

The doc, which is exec produced by Gimme Shelter’s Carter Logan with music from The Sadies, feature Frisell, Nels Cline (Wilco), Kirk Douglas (The Roots), Eleanor Friedberger,...

New documentary “Carmine Street Guitars” will have its world premier at the Venice Film Festival. The Ron Mann-directed film chronicles a week in the life of Greenwich Village guitar maker Rick Kelly and his apprentice Cindy Hulej. Kelly’s method is unique: he builds his guitars out of wood salvaged from old New York City buildings constructed in the 1800s or as he calls it, “the bones of old New York.” Artists like Lou Reed and Bob Dylan have owned Kelly’s guitars, which feature parts taken from such iconic Manhattan locales as the Hotel Chelsea and Chumley’s pub.

The doc brings musicians of all stripes — including Patti Smith Band’s Lenny Kaye, Kirk Douglas of The Roots, Jamie Hince of The Kills, Bill Frisell, Nels Cline of Wilco, Marc Ribot, Ester Baling, Dallas and Travis Good of The Sadies and Dylan six-stringer Charlie Sexton — to the shop.

Bob Dylan’s 77th birthday was celebrated with a kinetic reimagining of his 1963 solo concert at New York’s Town Hall. Titled Tomorrow Is A Long Time, the May 24 event produced by Hal Willner featured a slew of talented guests — among them: contemporary performers like The Milk Carton Kids, Emily Haines and Teddy Thompson, 60’s survivors like Geoff Muldaur and Bob Neuwirth, poetess Anne Waldman and savvy stage performers like Gina Gershon, Steve Buscemi and Bill Murray — and followed the original concert’s set list, providing ardent, idiosyncratic musical settings for Dylan’s songs with barely a hint of nostalgia. Musical Director Steven Bernstein and the Town Hall Ensemble led the tribute, which was filled with humor, social commentary and an impressive range of musical styles.

While Dylan’s original concert was a solo acoustic affair, the brawny Town Hall Ensemble contained a number of amazing musicians including bandleader Bernstein on trumpet,...

Okay, it's time for me to stop trying to listen to more 2016 albums and just wrap up this list. In the past I would split my jazz list into a new releases part dedicated to current recordings and a historical part combining first releases of archival material with reissues. This year I'm skipping reissues, partly because some projects were so gargantuan that little guys like me weren't serviced with them, partly because the vinyl renaissance means everything is being reissued at once, and partly because so much stuff is just rehashing the same material in new packaging, with or without a gimmick or a little additional material added. So first releases of archival material are lumped in here. Maybe that's not entirely fair to the current guys, but on the other hand I don't include many archival items on my list.

1. Matthew Shipp & Bobby Kapp: Cactus (Northern Spy)

Two generations...

Wilco performed their new breezy bummer tune, "Someone to Lose" on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert Wednesday.

The Schmilco track opens with Jeff Tweedy singing delicately over a shuffling acoustic groove. By the chorus, the song turns to full-blown country rock with dueling riffs from Nels Cline and Pat Sansone. 

Tweedy also appeared in two Late Show bits, including one where he rebuffed the critique that Wilco is lazy with their album titles (see: Schmilco, Star Wars and Wilco the Album) with a list of forthcoming LPs such as,...

Directed by two-time Academy Award® winner Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy (Best Documentary, Short Subject: Saving Face, 2012; A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness, 2015) and Andy Schocken, the acclaimed documentary Song Of Lahore opens in select theaters and is available on DVD, VOD and Digital HD May 20. Featuring the music of The Sachal Ensemble of Pakistan and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, Song Of Lahore examines the lives and the cultural heritage of Pakistan’s classical musicians as they prepare for a concert in New York City.

The theatrical release of Song Of Lahore begins on Friday, May 20, exclusively at Village East Cinema in New York City and Laemmle’s Music Hall in Beverly Hills.

Song Of Lahore was an official selection at numerous film festivals in 2015, including the Tribeca Film Festival, Melbourne Film Festival, Hamptons Film Festival, Idfa Film Festival, Sydney Film Festival and the Heartland Film Festival.

Many of Wilco's folkier, dreamier tunes already feel like alt-rock lullabies, so frontman Jeff Tweedy seemed comfortable singing Stephen Colbert to sleep during Thursday's The Late Show.

"Sometimes you're scared, and then you're not scared / Sometimes you worry, and then you don't care," Tweedy sang in his gentle rasp, strumming an acoustic guitar as the host clutched his teddy bear and stuffed giraffe. "Sometimes you cry and then you're Ok / Tomorrow's gonna be a great day." The pair finished the bit by whistling together, often in accidental harmony.

Tweedy...

So over on our Facebook Culture Catch page I asked our fans to list their five favorite living guitarists. For me, they still must be recording and touring and challenging themselves on the fretboard today, not yesterday. Our managing editor crushed me for not including Jimmy Page, who I hail as an unparelled innovator once upon a time. Hey, Steve, they have to be active and playing out right now. When was the last time Jimmy dropped a cool riff or run of memorable notes in a new song for anyone? He's certainly still capable. Here are my five favorite string benders in no particular ranking:

Nels Cline

NY-based Nels slings some serious git-action with Wilco having recorded and toured with Tweedy since 2004, but also fronts several jazz duos and trios. I was lucky to see him jam with the Allman Brothers a few years ago at the Beacon Theater.

The Yoko Ono Plastic Band is releasing "Take Me to the Land of Hell" on Sept. 17, but fans will be pleased to hear that Yoko Ono will post one track on the album on the band's website each week, where it will remain until it is replaced by another on the following Monday.

"Cheshire Cat Cry," which features Lenny Kravitz, follows the previously teased single "Moonbeams" as the first track to debut as part of the great unveil. On the song, Ono sings, "We, the expendable people of the United States, hold these dreams to be self-destructive."

In an interview about the album and her continued efforts in activism and the arts, Ono told HuffPost Entertainment that she was delighted by the idea of debuting the songs in such a manner. "That wasn't my idea, someone here thought of it but I love that idea," the 80-year-old said. "I thought,...

Polarizing 80-year-old artist Yoko Ono is set to release a new record with her Plastic Ono Band later this year. Take Me To The Land Of Hell is out Sept. 17 and features guest appearances from tUnEyArDs, Questlove, Wilco’s Nels Cline, and Miike Snow’s Andrew Wyatt. That's in addition to the members of Cibo Matto and Cornelius who are already in her group. Take Me was produced by Ono's son Sean Lennon and Cibo Matto’s Yuka Honda. The record will include remixes (of tracks that are also on the record, probably?) by Cornelius and Beastie ...

Nashville, Tenn. -- Coachella and Lollapalooza are sold out. Bonnaroo's nearly there, too. But eager fans need only be patient: Wait a few years and chances are you'll have a star-studded music festival of your own within driving distance.

New music festivals are popping up more quickly than you can count in the U.S. As the summer festival season gets under way this week with the sprawling Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival down in the desert in Indio, Calif., some of the most successful promoters in the scene are looking ahead to next year and beyond when they'll launch new ventures in untapped markets.

"I do think that there's really plenty of opportunities for people to create some great festival experiences," said Ashley Capps, a co-founder of the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival in Manchester, Tenn. "In fact, I think in many ways the audience in America is just...

The Last Waltz is arguably the greatest concert film of all time.

Shot by Academy Award-winning director Martin Scorsese, the film documents the last concert performed by The Band as its original quintet in 1976 at San Francisco's Winterland Ballroom.

Almost 36 years to the day after Muddy Waters, Eric Clapton, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Neil Diamond, Van Morrison, Ringo Starr, Bob Dylan and poets Michael McClure and Lawrence Ferlinghetti all joined Robbie Robertson, Levon Helm and Company for that legendary show, an all-star lineup will converge on The Warfield on November 24 to reenact that fateful evening.

They'd have it back at the Winterland, but that venue closed down in 1978.

Billed as "The Complete Last Waltz" the show will feature performances by Cass McCombs, Furthur's Joe Russo, Wilco's Nels Cline and members of Gomez, Dr. Dog, Ween, The Fruit Bats, Vetiver, Nada Surf, The Submarines and more. There will also be spoken...

hitRECord, Joseph Gordon-Levitt's "open collaborative production company" (i.e. a website where people can collectively contribute to others' artistic projects), has announced the release of a double LP. The album, Move On The Sun, is the product of 78 different artists, including Wilco's Nels Cline, Cibo Matto, and Gordon-Levitt himself. Since profits are split 50-50 between the site and the contributors, everyone involved gets a piece of the pie—even hitRECord user jeffpeff, who is credited for providing "claps" on the title track. Congrats, jeffpeff.

Martha Wainwright has announced details of her upcoming third studio album. Come Home to Mama will be the follow-up to her 2005 self-titled debut LP and 2008's I Know You're Married But I've Got Feelings Too. The album will be released on October 15. It was recorded at Sean Lennon's studio in New York City, and was produced by Yuka C Honda of Cibo Matto. Nels Cline of Wilco appears on guitar, while husband Brad Albetta plays bass. Speaking about the record, Wainwright said: "This record is a culmination of my life experiences so far. Everything changed for me a couple of years ago and this record is a representation of that and a return to the reason I started writing songs." On working with Honda, she added: "Making this record was a totally different (more)...

The Shins’ “Port of Morrow” runs into the same problems that albums like those from the New Pornographers or of Montreal do. There is a calculation and formula to great pop songwriting, and its expert writers sometimes struggle to distinguish each song as an individual work. There’s only small windows of spontaneous possibilities, like the predictable pinch-hits of Nels Cline when a Wilco song gets lost. With this set, there is no new argument you could lodge against Mercer as a songwriter that you couldn’t before: if you’re a fan, you won’t find any reason to be dissuaded. It’s his backers...

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Think of Sonic Youth. When most, and I imagine you’re no different, think of Sonic Youth they think of noise rock’s power couple. Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon, would be the most often name checked and revered persons that come to mind, indie icons as they are. Sonic Youth’s own Lennon and McCartney, with more sexual tension. Actually, sexual release and fulfilment I’d speculate given that they got married and had a daughter. Which is a darn sight more than Lennon and McCartney managed with their working relationship. If only though.

Anyhow, yes, it’s alternative’s own Mr and Mrs Right (though now in line for a divorce, as any review of this album seems adverse to not mentioning or anything in relation to Sonic Youth, I’m no different it seems, whatever) or Lennon/McCartney that come to mind when musing on Sonic Youth,...

As far as expectations go, Rufus Wainwright's upcoming seventh studio album has crazy high ones to meet. Wainwright wants Out Of The Game's "danceability" to ease the nation's troubles, producer Mark Ronson is calling it his (Ronson's) best work yet (meaning better than Amy Winehouse's Back To Black and Adele's 19), and Elton John, Freddie Mercury and David Bowie have all been namechecked as influences. So it's saying something that the two early releases are living up to the hype.

The latest -- the title track, which you can stream below -- picks up where the careening "Montauk," left off, transitioning from an early summer sound into something kind of like yacht-rock, and features an awesomely seventies album cover. We're digging the continuation of the casually lovely instrumentation that prompted us to listen to "Montauk" over and over again.

Out Of The Game will also feature cameos by Sean Lennon,...

Was it worth the wait for Wilco? The answer is on the way, guaranteed to arrive a lot sooner than the band's next scheduled visit to Denver.

One of America's finest and hardest-working alternative rock/country acts is back on the road this month, resuming their tour in support of their Grammy-nominated 2011 album, The Whole Love.

The first stop of the 2012 leg that began 10 consecutive sold-out dates was the Fillmore Auditorium in Denver on January 19. For frontman Jeff Tweedy, it had a familiar, uh, smell to it.

With the emphasis on playing rock idol instead of making idle chatter, Tweedy (right) finally addressed the sellout crowd seven tunes into the lively, 26-song set.

"Hey! How's it going?" he asked, seemingly relaxed but reserved. "Is pot legal here? Sort of? Somewhat? It smells legal. It smells very legal."

The smoke signals were evident in a state where medical-marijuana dispensaries have flourished...