In the Studio: Wilco, Band of Horses, Liz Phair

Wilco have already recorded demos for a new album and are heading into their Chicago studio, the Loft, this month to start rerecording and fleshing them out. "Sonically it's going to be a much wilder, much more unexpected record," says guitarist Nels Cline. "There's going to be too much to choose from. Right now it's an embarrassment of riches, for sure."

Later this month, Band of Horses will begin work on their third album at Alabama's famed Muscle Shoals Sound Studio. "I've read about that place and heard the records out of there for my whole life," says singer Ben Bridwell, who notes that he's already written 27 songs. "We can't wait to get in there and tap some of its mojo."

Liz Phair is working on a new record — due in 2009 — with several producers including Jeff Trott (Sheryl Crow) and John Alagia (Dave Matthews).

[From Issue 1064 — October 30, 2008]

Related Stories:
• Wilco Premiere New Song at Lollapalooza
• Liz Phair: 15 Years in Guyville
• Album Review: Band of Horses, Cease to Begin

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Song Stories

“Piano Man”

Billy Joel | 1973

Billy Joel’s first hit, “Piano Man,” was – ironically – an autobiographical lament about how his first album wasn’t a hit. When Cold Spring Harbor didn’t take off, Joel briefly became a lounge pianist in Los Angeles, and this song, about that experience, expressed his frustrations and fears at the time: “And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar/And say, ‘Man, what are you doing here?’” “It was all right,” Joel said later, about the gig. “I got free drinks and union scale, which was the first steady money I’d made in a long time.”

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