Wilco made quite the splash with the release of its eighth studio album, The Whole Love, on September 27 of this year. The album has gone on to top two Billboard charts (Independent Albums and Tastemaker Albums), as well as checking in at a respectable number 11 spot on the Billboard 200 albums chart. Fittingly, then, the band has announced a new west coast leg to its already expansive world tour that will find them on the road through the first few months of 2012.

The west coast leg will begin on January 19, 2012 in Denver and continue through February 10 in Santa Barbara, Calif. In between, the band will make stops in cities throughout the west coast, including Hollywood, Seattle, San Francisco and Eugene, Ore.. After that, the band will head across the Atlantic for a European tour where they will hit Oslo, Paris and Copenhagen, among other cities.

The Whole Love marks the third consecutive album with the most consistent of Wilco’s traditionally vulnerable lineups. Jeff Tweedy, Wilco’s main songwriter, and bassist John Stirratt are the only two members who have remained in the band since its inception in 1994. Since then, the band’s tumultuous history has been well documented, most famously in the 2002 documentary I Am Trying to Break Your Heart: A Film About Wilco, which documented the making of the band’s 2001 record Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. That record, which was famously rejected by Reprise Records, the band’s label at the time (and later released on Nonesuch Records) became the band’s bestselling and, arguably, most critically acclaimed record to date.

Wilco currently is touring on the first European leg of The Whole Love tour, which will last until late November. At that point, the band will embark on a short mid-Western tour, including four nights in the band’s hometown of Chicago.

The Wilco rumors have been confirmed. This fall the band’s forthcoming eighth album “The Whole Love” will be released. It will also be their first set with dBpm Records, their new imprint.

Jeff Tweedy produced the new album, with assistance from Tom Schick and Patrick Sansone. The set, which earlier had been called “Get Well Soon Everybody” as its working title, will feature 12 new songs.

The press release for the album describes it as a sonic stew that showcases the wide ranging musical prowess (featuring percussion, synthesizers, keyboards, multiple guitars in addition to loops, strings, Mellotron and more) of Wilco which accompanies the insightful and provocative lyrics of Jeff Tweedy’s perfectly.

“The Whole Love” is being released via dBpm Records on September 27 and will be distributed via Anti-.

Wilco, in addition to releasing their new album, have also announced their upcoming North American tour’s first leg. Canadian stops include Montreal and Toronto.

Headliners for the Beale Street Musical Festival in 2011 include Stone Temple Pilots, John Mellencamp, Jason Mraz, and Ke$ha.

The 35th edition of Memphis’ musical festival will begin on April 29 and finish up on May 1. There will be several stages spread over the 25 acres at Tom Lee Park, which features a view of the Mississippi River.

Other performers scheduled to hold concerts at the festival include, “Wilco, The Flaming Lips, Jerry Lee Lewis, Cee-Lo Green, B.o.B., The Avett Brothers, Gregg Allman, Mumford & Sons, Sublime with Rome, Charlie Wilson, Ludacris, and CAKE.

There will also be concerts from Amos Lee, Lucinda Williams, Jimmie Vaughan, Tommy Castro, Kirk Whalum, MGMT, Ziggy Marley, Everclear, Bettye LaVette, Slightly Stoopid, Macy Gray, Buckcherry, Godsmack, The New Pornographers, J.J. Grey & Mofro, Sick Puppies, and others.

Tickets can be purchased for all three days until April 18. The price for the three-day ticket is $69 plus fees. If fans want to purchase tickets after April 18, they will be required to pay for each day separately if they want to go to the entire event.

Tickets for the three days can be purchased separately for $30 plus fees through April 28.

Fans can also choose to buy a VIP experience package at a price of $550. This package includes free snacks, sodas, and water; five complementary alcoholic drinks each day; personal bathrooms for the outdoor venues; and the best seats available at the stages outside.

The festival is one of many events that make up Memphis in May. There is also a world championship BBQ competition held on May 12-16 and a Sunset Symphony concert on May 28.

The Sasquatch lineup was announced last night during a concert in Seattle featuring Das Racist and the Thermals. That’s a pretty good place for announcing pretty much anything.

Topping the bill are Death Cab for Cutie, the Foo Fighters, Wilco, the Decembrists and Modest Mouse. Also performing will be the Rodrigo Y Gabriela, Flogging Molly, the Thermals, Aloe Blacc, Beach House, Robyn, Das Racist, the Dap Kings, Sharon Jones and the Flaming Lips. It will be cool seeing Aloe Blacc.

There lots to work with here, as there is with any festival that is worth anything.

The festival will take place in Washington’s Gorge Amphitheater on May 27-30. Four day tickets currently are on sale. On February 14 single tickets will be going on sale.

Lately, the Foo Fighters have been performing in Southern California small club gigs. They have finished a new record and are set to go.

Wilco has created their own record label under the name dBpm Records and are scheduled to drop their next collection of songs in the latter part of 2011.
Jeff Tweedy, member of Wilco stated, “This is an idea we’ve discussed for years. We really like doing things ourselves, so having our own label feels pretty natural to me. And, to be working with Anti-, a label that has its roots in a label that was started by a punk rock guy to sell his own records, seems like a perfect fit for us.”

dBpm Records will be produced from Tony Margherita Management offices, which are located in Massachusetts. The label will be collaborating with Anti-Records, which was the record company behind the Mavis Staples release, “You Are Not Alone”. This album was produced by Tweedy and has been nominated for a Grammy. Anti-Records will be responsible for distributing material and for other necessary tasks for the label.

Prior to the creation of dBpm Records, Wilco had been working under the Nonesuch label; however their contract with them expired after “Wilco (the album)”debuted. The band decided to pursue an alternative option.

Wilco has scheduled several southern concerts in May, and are going to emcee the Solid Sound Festival on June 24th through June 26. The festival will be at MASS MoCA in North Adams, MA. For more information on this festival, check out the group’s website.

In the meantime, Tweedy is going to be performing on a solo basis throughout March. He has concerts scheduled in Montreal; Toronto; Portland, ME; and in 3 other venues in the Midwest.

After a successful debut run last year, Wilco’s very own Solid Sound Festival is now prepping up for its second year in summer of 2011, for three days from June 24 to 26.  The three-day fest will be housed at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art.

Although performers and featured personalities are still being drawn up, the festival poses to be a showcase not only of various alt-rock performers, both indie and mainstream, but performers from other genres as well, like techno and electronic with DJs also said to be part of the line-up.  Visual installations and art exhibits will also be featured during the festival.

Last year, the festival was a way for Wilco not only to star in and steer a musical festival the way they wanted it, but also to introduce their side projects to a much bigger and more receptive audience.  Through the past years, each Wilco member took a different side project to keep themselves busy and to continue the creative juices flowing.  Autumn Defense by John Stirrat and Pat Sansone performed last year, as well as the Nels Cline Singers, Pronto by Mile Jorgensen and On Fillmore by Glen Kotche.

If you are dragging yourself to Dunkin’ Donuts in order to make it through the day, you should consider the Wilco Selection that is now available from Intelligentsia, the esteemed Chicago roaster.  The band slurped their way through the Cupping Lab of Intelligentsia’s to select their favorite coffee.  Their unanimous pick was “Organic Ethiopia Sidama Homecho Waeno.”

Wilco is offering the coffee brand for sale along with coffee mugs.  That way you won’t ever be without your morning fix.  I have gone cupping before.  It’s noisy, but there is no better way, truly, to discover the coffee that most appeals to you all from their wide selection that is laid out in a row.  All of that caffeine skimming will make you high as hell, but you will emerge ready for taking on the world maybe for an hour, except you will have intense jitters.

Wilco described the coffee as having violet and coffee blossom aromatics that make for an elegant and graceful cup.  The coffee’s body has a silky and light quality like freshly whipped cream which beautifully compliments an ever-present vanilla, juniper berry and citron mixture.  The cup as it cools, blossoms into a note of  soft raisin, rose hips and confectioner’s sugar, resonating on a finish that is pristine with a milk chocolate touch.

It’s natural after all of that to reach for something to hold.  You can place an order on the coffee page of Wilco’s.  The band says that on December 1 the coffee is going to be roasted and then will ship on December 3.

For most musicians, playing in Wilco’s band would be enough.  However Patrick Sansone, a multi-instrumentalist, and John Stirratt, bassist, needed an additional creative outlet.

In between the world tours for Wilco, the two band members formed the Autumn Defense.  They are a folk-pop group and their music harkens back to soft rock from the 1970′s and 1960′s L.A. Psychedelia.  With Wilco taking a break from the road and “Once Around,” the fourth album from Autumn Defense released, Sansone and Stirratt are on the road.  The tour will come to Allston’s Great Scott on Thursday.

Just what will take place on Saturday at Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart’s Rally for Restoring Sanity or Fear is a big secret.  However the just approved permit for the rally details the schedule.  Although there are still quite a few TBDs, according to a report in the Christian Science Monitor the Roots will be kicking the rally off at noon and perform a set of 40 minutes.  A welcome from Colbert and Stewart and readings from Sam Waterson (Law and Order actor) will be followed with a 10 minute performance from Jeff Tweedy, Wilco frontman, and Mavis Staples, presumable something from “You Are Not Alone,” their joint album.  Sheryl Crow, at approximately 2:15, will be in the spotlight for around five minutes.

On the schedule there are more TBDs than actual names, so there should be lots of surprises.  Starting at noon the rally will stream live from the website and Comedy Central.

Wilco back in July announced they were splitting from Nonesuch, their longtime label, to start their own imprint.  The band is now getting ready to record a new record on their new label.

Pat Sansone, guitarist, said the group will be hitting the studio toward the end of this month.  In an interview with The Los Angeles Times he said, we will take a few weeks off.  Toward the end of this month when we get back we will get together again and start to work on the record’s first writing session.  We’ve done some brainstorming already.  However the real work will begin later this month.

However, don’t expect a follow up to the band’s 2009 album “Wilco” anytime soon.  In July Nels Cline guitarist said the process for us to make a new Wilco record will be a long one in terms of arranging, writing and demoing.  We’ve had all kinds of ideas bandied about verbally in terms of the direction the record will take.  But everything changes so I tend not to believe that stuff.