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“Nobody told me there’d be days like these, Strange days indeed — strange days indeed” —John Lennon

“I read the news today oh, boy. About a lucky man who made the grade. And though the news was rather sad; Well, I just had to laugh.” —Lennon/McCartney.

“And don’t speak too soon / For the wheel’s still in spin / And there’s no tellin’ who / That it’s namin’ /
For the loser now / Will be later to win / For the times they are a-changin’ “ —Bob Dylan

Oh well. No real excuse, I felt like quoting Beatles, Lennon, and Dylan; it just seemed like the thing to do. It’s weird, but despite an unsettled economy and anxious markets, volatile and scary stuff in North Korea and Iran, sadness in Gaza and struggles across the US and right here in the upstate I’m hearing about from so many of our regulars about the hardships in their lives, I’m lately becoming hopeful. I do think that messages from our modern music troubadours like journeymen and women such as Patterson Hood (of the Drive-by Truckers), Pete Yorn, and Neko Case bring us a lift same as long haul road warriors like Levon Helm do and the work and messages of guiding lights Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson inject a profound and therapeutic value in our lives. Likewise the sonic audio release of bands such as Tortoise, Radio Moscow or Sonic Youth break us out of the grime and dust of every existence. Thank Goodness!! There’s more than enough annoying

Sonic Youth (Guardian), David Peschek
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/jun/05/sonic-youth-rock-music

“Bands are usually a young man’s game,” says Thurston Moore, the guitarist with Sonic Youth for nearly 30 years. “Historically, they don’t stay together. We never had any animosity towards each other. I guess we never felt like we hit a wall with what we were doing. We never really had any ambitions for reaching a certain goal. We never had a hit we had to repeat.”

“Lots of bands don’t survive that kind of spike in popularity, or ego, or finances,” agrees fellow guitarist Lee Ranaldo. “We came into this feeling fairly serious about ourselves as artists and this is our medium, which happens to involve a collaborative group - it’s just never gotten boring or rote. It’s still incredibly fulfilling and interesting.”

Sonic Youth played their first gig 28 years ago this month, at the Noise Fest in New York City. Few bands stay together for that long, and fewer still remain so vital. The quintessential New York art-rock group have survived and flourished both through a rare internal democracy (Ranaldo likens their composition process to “making a group sculpture”) and, it seems, by simply being too busy to become disaffected. Sonic Youth’s discography is a sprawling affair, now encompassing 16 official studio albums, various compilations and a slew of self-released, more experimental releases.

All four core members (Moore, Kim Gordon, Ranaldo and Steve Shelley, who have recently been joined by former Pavement bassist Mark Ibold) work extensively outside the group, producing poetry and visual art, solo albums and collaborations with other musicians and artists, and running record labels (Moore’s Ecstatic Peace!; Shelley’s Smells Like…, and the band’s own SYR imprint). They even have an exhibition on tour, Sensational Fix, which situates the band within a wider artistic community, and features work by artists such as Gerhard Richter - anyone, Ranaldo explains, the band have “worked with, been friendly with, or, beyond that, just liked”.

Despite indie-rock bloggers who dismiss the group as “dad rock,” the band has cemented a reputation as one of the most creative forces in rock today, with Tweedy evoking comparisons to greats such as Bob Dylan and Neil Young. It’s become a vibrant commercial enterprise, too, selling out multiple nights at mid-sized theaters across the United States and in Europe.

By all accounts, at age 41, a record-collecting geek and ardent student of rock history, Chicagoan and Wilco leader Jeff Tweedy is happier and healthier than ever, comfortably living with his wife and two sons on the Northwest Side. And Wilco’s current lineup of bassist John Stirratt, drummer Glenn Kotche, guitarist Nels Cline and multi-instrumentalists Pat Sansone and Mikael Jorgensen is not only its most virtuosic, but its steadiest, and the first to remain intact for two consecutive recordings.

“Wilco (the Album)” therefore is a summing-up of what the band is and everywhere it’s been, and it fittingly opens with “Wilco (the Song).” Giddy and goofy — both rarities for this band — it’s a heartfelt country-pop thank you to the fans, as well as an idealistic statement about the healing power of music. This is evidenced by