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Nov 19, 2019 By Christopher Roberts Photography by Annabel Mehren Wilco

Wilco released a new album, Ode to Joy, last month via the band’s own dBpm label. Now they have shared a video for the album’s “Before Us” and announced some new 2020 tour dates. Zoran Orlic directed the video, which features black & white footage of the band recording in the studio. The new tour dates go down next March and April. Watch the video below, followed by all of the band’s upcoming tour dates.

We previously posted our review of Ode to Joy and you can read that here.

Pick up our current print issue to read our exclusive interview with Wilco on Ode to Joy and to find out what frontman Jeff Tweedy’s all-time favorite album is.

Previously Wilco shared Ode to Joy‘s first single, “Love Is Everywhere (Beware),” which was one of our Songs of the Week. Then they shared another song from the album, “Everyone Hides,” via a video for the track in which the band play an elaborate game of hide and seek. “Everyone Hides” was also one of our Songs of the Week. Then they stopped by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to perform “Everyone Hides.” Then they live-streamed their show at Brooklyn Steel in New York, which is archived here. Then they stopped by Late Night with Seth Meyers to perform “Love Is Everywhere (Beware).”

Wilco’s last studio album was 2016’s Schmilco. Meanwhile, Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy released a new solo album, WARM, last November via dBpm, which was followed by the companion album, WARMER, released in April via dBpm as a Record Store Day exclusive. In 2018 he also released the memoir Let’s Go (So We Can Get Back).

Ode to Joy was recorded at The Loft in Chicago. Tweedy and his bandmate Glenn Kotche spearheaded each song, but each song also features all six members of the band.

A press release says Ode to Joy “encourages the act of finding joy in a dark political climate. The album presents a unique rhythm track and a minimalist instrumentation, with lyrics at once observant, hopeful, morbid, tolerant, and abstract.”

In the press release Tweedy says the album features “really big, big folk songs, these monolithic, brutal structures that these delicate feelings are hung on.”

The album will be available on CD, standard black vinyl, limited edition color custom vinyl, and “a special deluxe LP book, designed by long-time Wilco collaborator Lawrence Azerrad.”

Also read our 2015 joint interview between Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy and Australian singer/songwriter/guitarist Courtney Barnett, from our Best of 2015 issue.

Also, Welsh singer/songwriter/guitarist Cate Le Bon recently covered Wilco‘s “Company In My Back,” a song from their 2004 album A Ghost Is Born. The cover was taken from a new compilation of Wilco covers fittingly entitled Wilco Covered that is being put out with the November issue of the British music magazine Uncut. It includes 17 artists covering Wilco songs, including Sharon Van Etten, Low, Kurt Vile, Courtney Barnett, Ryley Walker, Parquet Courts, Twin Peaks, and more.

Wilco Tour Dates:

Wed. Nov. 20 - Omaha, NE @ Orpheum Theatre *
Fri. Nov. 22 - St. Paul, MN @ Palace Theatre - SOLD OUT &
Sat. Nov. 23 - St. Paul, MN @ Palace Theatre - SOLD OUT &
Sun. Nov. 24 - St. Paul, MN @ Palace Theatre ^
Sun. Dec. 15 - Chicago, IL @ Chicago Theatre - SOLD OUT %
Mon. Dec. 16 - Chicago, IL @ Chicago Theatre %
Wed. Dec. 18 - Chicago, IL @ Chicago Theatre #
Thu. Dec. 19 - Chicago, IL @ Chicago Theatre - SOLD OUT #
Sat. Jan. 18 - Tue. Jan. 21 - Riviera Maya, MX @ Hard Rock Hotel
Sun. Jan. 25 - Mexico City, MX @ Teatro Metropólitan
Mon. March 9 - Madison, WI @ The Sylvee
Wed. March 11 - Winnipeg, MB @ Centennial Concert Hall
Fri. March 13 - Calgary, AB @ Jack Singer Hall
Sat. March 14 - Missoula, MT @ The Wilma
Mon. March 16 - Salt Lake City, UT @ Eccles Theater
Wed. March 18 - Seattle, WA @ Paramount Theatre
Thu. March 19 - Seattle, WA @ Paramount Theatre
Sat. March 21 - Vancouver, BC @ Orpheum Theatre
Mon. March 23 - Portland, OR @ Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
Tue. March 24 - Portland, OR @ Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
Thu. March 26 - Santa Rosa, CA @ Luther Burbank Centers For The Arts
Fri. March 27 - Oakland, CA @ Fox Theater
Sun. March 29 - San Jose, CA @ San Jose Civic
Wed. April 1 - Los Angeles, CA @ Orpheum Theatre
Thu. April 2 - Los Angeles, CA @ Orpheum Theatre
Sat. April 4 - Las Vegas, NV @ Brooklyn Bowl
Sun. April 5 - Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood Palladium
Sat. April 18 - Sun. April 19 - North Charleston, SC @ High Water Festival
Fri. June 19 - Kent, UK @ Black Deer Festival

*=w/Tuomo & Markus
& = w/ Low
^ = w/ Gaelyn Lea
% = w/ Robyn Hitchcock
# = w/ Sharon Van Etten

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