If you’ve been on Indie Muse before you may know that I’m a huge fan of Wilco. For some reason, though, I never really checked out Tweedy’s side project, Loose Fur, until recently. What was I thinking? I don’t know. I had their two albums on my computer forever, but somehow didn’t realize it was Jeff Tweedy’s side project. Anyway, I’ve been listening to their 2006 release, Born Again in the USA, and really like the album. I still can’t believe I didn’t listen to this music earlier. If you are a Wilco fan and are unaware of Loose Fur or never bothered to listen to their albums, get on top of that.
Loose Fur is Jeff Tweedy, Glenn Kotche (now drummer in Wilco), and Jim O’Rourke (mixed Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and produced Ghost is Born). Tweedy was invited to perform with a collaborator of his choice for the 2000 Noise Pop Festival in Chicago, and chose O’Rourke. It’s interesting to see what a big influence this side project had on Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.
Tweedy didn’t seem to be confident with Wilco’s drummer, Ken Coomer, because Coomer disliked playing consistent drum patterns (note: can someone explain in the comments what that means?), so Tweedy finally decided to replace him with Kotche for the recording of YHF. The band was skeptical of this replacement at first, but soon realized how talented Kotche was with working with Wilco’s songs and saw it was the right decision. Tweedy also had problems with Jay Bennett’s mixing while recording YHF, and had O’Rourke mix tracks. Some songs were only produced by the three members of Loose Fur. If you want to see a great Wilco documentary (and learn more about all the drama revolving at YHF), check out I Am Trying to Break Your Heart.
Loose Fur – The Ruling Class (on documentary mentioned above; always wondered where this song came from)
Loose Fur – Answers To Your Questions
“Hey Chicken” music video. It’s amazing. And brings up an important discussion question: which Power Ranger was your favorite? I’m red all the way (Jason). Now I feel young.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHTkTBqvPnQ[/youtube]