STIMUL FESTIVAL PRESENTS: WILCO /USA/
28/9/2010 20:00 - The Stimul Festival rolls out its first fall triumph: WILCO! At the Stimul Festival of experimental music, the dreams of many fans of alternative rock will come true. One of the biggest concert engagements in recent years is coming to Prague’s Archa Theatre, the Czech premiere of Wilco!
Tickets for CZK 720 (available at the Archa Theatre box office) and CZK 790 at Ticketpro and Ticketportal outlets
CONCERT. NO LANGUAGE BARRIER
This holder of two Grammy Awards (for best alternative album Ghost Is Born) has not only transformed the face of rock music over the last two decades, but is also a symbol, a secret and a movement. The band around Jeff Tweedy – lover of lyrical ciphers, surrealistic inversions, signal codes and various acronyms (Wilco is an air force term meaning “I have received the message, understand and will comply”: Will Comply), – has evolved over time (after a germinal stage in country) evolved into one of the most innovative rock bands in North America. Their masterfully harmonic music combines ingenious soulful sounds, piercing melodies, rich sound textures and extremely detailed work with instrumental music: all this is Wilco.
The band was catapulted among the most influential American bands with its album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. The album, which was produced by well-known avant-garde musician Jim O´Rourke and was originally supposed to be released on September 11, 2001, soon became embroiled in a turbulent paradox. The Reprise company, after giving the album a fleeting listen, refused to have anything to do with the material. Wilco eventually released its devastatingly deconstructive rock’n’roll album under the Nonesuch label, which also belonged to Warner music. So in the end, it paid for the same album twice and got a catastrophic reputation. But not Wilco, whose breakthrough album brought it phenomenal success among critics and fans. The extraordinarily enthusiastic reception of the album and record-breaking sales are to a certain extent the result of the rightful victory of the artistically forceful, fantastically moving work in combination with an appealing, exciting mythology.
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, whose cover features an iconic photograph of the “Chicago twins” Marina City, is an example of a uniquely “important” work cannot be reduced. Wilco’s other albums are just as effective as YHF: we always hear their albums slightly differently, always for the first time, and we never master them completely.
On 28.9.2010 at Prague’s Archa Theatre you will have the opportunity to find out that we don’t choose to listen to Wilco’s addictive music, it chooses us.
LINKS:
http://www.wilcoworld.net/
SUPPORT:
JOHN GRANT
John Grant’s roots are in Denver, Colorado, where in the mid 90s he founded The Czars, with whom he released six albums over ten years. Like other bands on the local scene (such as 16 Horsepower, Slim Cessna's Auto Club or various groups centred around Jay Munly) The Czars came out of the tradition of country, but besides honky tonk, they added keyboard and a love of English new wave pop to their sound. John Grant wrote most of the band’s songs. His keyboard playing and vocals were the defining features of The Czars. They were also one of the first bands to sign with the now renowned Bella Union label (which now also features Fleet Foxes, Vetiver and Andrew Bird). After the band broke up, John Grant moved to New York where he began a solo career, playing for example with Flaming Lips and Midlake. With members of Midlake he recorded his first solo album Queen of Denmark, which was released at the beginning of this year. The wistful collection of twelve pop songs was critically acclaimed, for example, by Britain’s MOJO Magazine, where the album received a rare 100% rating. The concert opening for Wilco in Prague will be John Grant’s Czech premiere.
LINKS:
www.myspace.com/johnwilliamgrant
Presented by STIMUL festival - http://www.stimul-festival.cz
Photo: AUTUMN DE WILDE
