Wilco is a great band. They make amazing albums. They sounds great live in concert. They tour regularly. They play cities like Meridian, Huntsville, Knoxville and Mobile...in addition to Birmingham, Nashville and Atlanta. They win Grammy Awards.

Perhaps more telling/important/respectable are things like the following statement from the band, in response to their upcoming album being leaked and their subsequent decision to stream the album for free on their website:

Well, we made it nearly a month with copies of Wilco (the album) floating around out there before it leaked. Pretty impressive restraint in this day and age. But the inevitable happened last night. Since we know you're curious and probably have better things to do than scour the internet for a download (though we do understand the attraction of the illicit), we've posted a stream of the full album at http://wilcoworld.net/records/thealbum/ . Feel free to refer to it as "wilco (the stream)" if you must.

We also have our usual guilt abatement plan for downloaders. If you have downloaded the record, we suggest you make a donation to one of the band's favorite charities, the Inspiration Corporation -- an organization we've supported in the past & who are doing great work in the city of Chicago. Information and donation button here: http://inspirationcorp.org/.

That's all. Enjoy the stream. Tickets for summer shows, etc. http://wilcoworld.net/tours/ Note that we'll be holding a free online midnight screening of the "Ashes of American Flags" film this Friday night (at both midnight US Central time and again at midnight Pacific). So get the popcorn or whatever together and be sure to log on and tune in on Friday.

Wilco HQ

So there it is. Further evidence that there is a right way to do things in life. As simple as that.

PS: Go listen. It's probably better than anything else you've heard today.