Hot Sun (Glenn Kotche, Cate Le Bon, Jeff Tweedy demo)

The start of Solid Sound

Hi, everybody. Solid Sound is underway. We’re here at Mass MoCA, fine-tuning the Deep Cuts¹, diving into the great music, art, and comedy on display all weekend. Stuffing surprises up our sleeves.

Our new EP, Hot Sun Cool Shroud, is out today. I think of it as an EP with a summertime-after-dark feeling. It starts off pretty hot, like heat during the day, has some instrumentals on it that are a little agitated and uncomfortable, and ends with a cooling breeze. There are tracks on it that are more aggressive and angular than anything we’ve put out in a while, and a song about love melting you like ice cream into a puddle of sugary soup. All the pieces of summer, including the broody cicadas. You can stream it everywhere.

For paid members of the Starship, I’m sharing an early phone draft of “Hot Sun” performed by Glenn, Cate, and me, below.

And if you’re here at Solid Sound, the ingenious people who make dBpm Records tick have set up a station where you can design your own cover art for Hot Sun with stamps and stickers by the visual artist Kathleen Ryan. Afterward, if you want, you can submit your arrangement of the art to dBpm Records for consideration as the official packaging for the EP’s physical release later this year. Arrange some “bad fruit.” Feel the hot sun.

Carry on. OxO—Jeffy

Performing at the library in North Adams on Thursday. I was not shushed! Credit: Charles Harris.

This Week in Wilco, Etc.

2006 / June 28: “Impossible Germany” is given its live debut in Wilco’s 21-song set at MacEwan Hall/University of Calgary.

2024 / June 28:  Solid Sound 2024 begins!

1998 / June 29: Wilco and Billy Bragg appear on The Late Show with David Letterman performing “California Stars” from the Mermaid Avenue album.

2009 / June 30: Wilco (The Album) is released by Nonesuch Records.

Hot Sun (Glenn, Cate, Jeff demo)