Wilco Plan Spring '09 Release For More-Sculpted New Album

Wilco are eyeing a Spring 2009 release for their next album, Jeff Tweedy told an Albany, New York radio station. Whereas their last album Sky Blue Sky was recorded under almost jam-session circumstances, Tweedy says the band will "allow ourselves a little bit more leeway in terms of sculpting the sound in the studio and doing overdubs and using the studio as another instrument. Last time around, it was more of a document." Wilco are already performing a pair of new songs live: "One Wing," which is reportedly reminiscent of Sky Blue closer "On and On and On," and the looser, riff-driven "Sunny Feeling." While Tweedy said following the release of Sky Blue Sky that those studio sessions resulted in a number of unfinished songs, it's unclear whether those tunes will be the basis for the band's seventh album.

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Song Stories

“1999”

Prince | 1982

“I don’t consider myself a great poet,” Prince told Rolling Stone. “I just know I’m here to say what’s on my mind.” In the case of the apocalyptic party anthem “1999,” he was worried about then-president Ronald Reagan’s foreign policies. The song’s melody is based on a riff borrowed from the Mamas and Papas’ “Monday, Monday,” and Prince originally envisioned the first verse with three-part harmony but later split the vocals between himself and members of the Revolution. Because Warner Bros., with whom Prince was locked in a contractual battle, owned the original’s masters, Prince rerecorded the song and appropriately released that version in 1999.

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