Down with Wilco
THE MINUS
5 Yep Roc
1/2

Loose Fur
LOOSE FUR
Drag City
The guys in Wilco have kept busy with two interesting little side projects. There's The Minus 5 collective, where Scott McCaughey of the Young Fresh Fellows gets plenty of help from his friends. On his third, melodic pop outing, Down With Wilco, he once again enlists the help of R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck and Ken Stringfellow, lead vocalist/guitarist for The Posies, plus Jeff Tweedy, John Stirratt and Glenn Kotche, frontman, bassist and drummer of Wilco; and a slew of other respectable indie types.

Down With Wilco's appeal lies in a few distinct areas. First off, it's dynamic. "Daggers Drawn" waxes rhapsodic, with McCaughey playing a sweet piano, Buck contributing slide guitar and Charlie Francis on Mellotron, all conjuring the vaudevillian simplicity of early Bowie. Wall-of-sound flourishes in "Where Will I Go?" include xylophones, synths and background vocals. It's a tune that starts off as a Sunday drive and ends in a collision of cacophony.

Wilco fans will be pleased by Tweedy's vocal presence. McCaughey does a solid job, but he's more nasal and cutesy. Tweedy, however, delivers a buttery lead on "The Family Gardener," a gentle, Beatles-esque number with eerily faint background noises. He also sings backup on a couple of other songs. The disc's most memorable song is the spooky piano waltz "What I Don't Believe," which is kind of like Elliott Smith covering Tom Waits.

For something more savory than sweet, try the minimal and arty Loose Fur collaborative of Tweedy and Kotche and elite Chicago producer/musician Jim O'Rourke, who helmed Wilco's most recent Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.

Loose Fur's magic is more elusive and captivating. A good portion of the self-titled CD recalls the atmospheric moments on Wilco's Foxtrot — "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart," in particular. "Liquidation Totale" is obviously O' Rourke's baby. The song possesses the hypnotic repetition and avant-jazz weirdness of Chicago's Tortoise. The album is only six songs deep; it could've stood several more. —Julie Garisto

Tampa, FL April 13, 2003
PEARL JAM
I thought this was a great concert. Now I have proof. In a stroke of fan-friendly marketing genius, Pearl Jam makes all of its shows available in double-CD packages just days after each show. It's a win-win idea. The fans can pick from a menu of worthy live albums, among them an exact document of the show they attended, at a relatively cheap price. In turn, Pearl Jam stunts bootleggers and establishes a modest but steady stream of revenue. Fookin' brilliant. For starters, Tampa, FL April 13, 2003 bears a marked improvement in sound quality over the ones I heard from the last American tour, which tended to be a little muddy. This show is expertly paced, with just the right balance of sensitivity and aggression. The band plays in lockstep; Ed is amazing, impeccably in tune and full of seething intensity for slightly more than two hours. He throat-shreds on "Grievance," "Hail, Hail," "Save You," "Given to Fly" and "Do the Evolution" to hair-raising effect. The band launches into a spacey jam section on "RVM." Versions of "Black" and "Alive," played back-to-back at the end of the first encore, prove that Pearl Jam can still commit strongly to its earliest material. The disc ends on a cool note, with Sleater-Kinney joining PJ for a churning run at "Rockin' in the Free World." Available at www.pearljambootlegs.com. —Eric Snider

Sleeping With Ghosts
PLACEBO
Astralwerks
The latest full-length from British technoid glam-pop trio Placebo is a lot like their others. It splits the difference between distorted guitars, driving drums and electronic dance-culture nuances; it also splits the difference between some truly inspired songcraft and too many hopelessly mediocre concoctions. The album's tracks basically fall into two categories: slow and haunting and fast and emotional, with a few notable exceptions. Of the upbeat stuff, the taut instrumental opener "Bulletproof Cupid" and sinewy futuristic pop-punk of "The Bitter End" stand way out on the strength of their compelling expression. With regard to the atmospherica, which comprises most of the album, Placebo is a little less sure-handed — only the slow erosion of haunting closer "Centerfolds" really hits home, while tracks like "Something Rotten" and "I'll Be Yours" come off as half-baked. Two standout tracks that fall into neither established formula are "This Picture," which sounds like a bouncy, lovelorn soundtrack to the best movie John Hughes never made, and "Special Needs," whose endearing melody and vibe overcome some seriously insipid lyrics. Most of the wordage here is marginal at best — Placebo mouthpiece Brian Molko will never be mistaken for one of pop culture's more original or eloquent thinkers. But he's definitely got a cool-ass voice, and if the band as a whole could manage to bring all their tunes up to creative speed, they'd really have something. —Scott Harrell

Let's Stay Together
I'm Still in Love With You
AL GREEN
Hi/Capitol
The only thing missing from Al Green's resume is that one landmark album, the important social statement that gets immediately ushered into the ranks of Monumental Music. His peers have the edge here: Marvin Gaye (What's Going On), Sly (Stand, There's a Riot Goin' On), Curtis Mayfield (Superfly), Aretha (Lady Soul, Young, Gifted & Black) and Stevie Wonder (several). Green's music may have lacked a certain political gravity, but the music on Let's Stay Together and I'm Still in Love with You — both released in 1972, by the way — ranks with any of the period. Green's canny ability to blend the sanctified and the carnal has been unparalleled in the ranks of R&B. His voice effortlessly shifted from hushed intimacy to brassy soul, at turns down-home and cosmopolitan. Among the reasons that these albums hold up so well is that Green recorded for Hi Records, not Motown or Stax, the preeminent African-American labels at the time. His producer, Willie Mitchell, took a different tack — not as slick as Motown, more urbane than Stax/Volt. Simplicity reigned: uncluttered drum beats, clean bass lines, elegant rhythm guitar and subtle swells of organ provided the framework. Mitchell added quivering strings and/or rich horns when he felt it appropriate. Most important, he pushed Green's lead vocal up in the mix, so that it feels as if this sexy music is being personally delivered in a scented envelope. Along with the hallmark Green tunes on these discs — the title tracks as well as "Love and Happiness," "Look What You Done For Me," "So You're Leaving" and others — are a couple of high-profile covers. Roy Orbison's "Oh, Pretty Woman" is dressed up with a bit more R&B bounce. A hushed take on the Bee Gee's "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart" is the masterstroke, easily outdistancing the original. Each disc is rounded out with a couple of bonus tracks — rough-mixed songs that were left off the original album, but by no means sound like throwaways. 1/2—Eric Snider