Roger, Wilco

By chicago_chris in Arts & Entertainment on Jun 7, 2004 3:28PM

Greg Kot is a busy man. Not only does he both serve as the Tribune’s rock critic and co-host of WXRT’s weekly Sound Opinions with the Sun-Times’ Jim DeRogatis – a successful attempt to recreate Siskel and Ebert’s dynamic with pop music – he is also a full-time aficionado of Chicago’s own Wilco. (And with all the drama this band has produced of late, being an aficionado is a full-time job.) He’s written so much about their exploits over the last few years, in fact, that he’s turned his work into a new book, Wilco: Learning How To Die – its title coming from a Yankee Hotel Foxtrot Tweedyism.

For yesterday’s Arts & Entertainment section, Kot wrote another piece about the band and their latest woes – more lineup switches, a rehab stint – and the recording of their new album, A Ghost is Born. Read it, then go listen to the amazing album for free on Wilco’s website, buy it on June 22, whore yourself out for tickets to their sold-out June 12 show at the Vic, rent the documentary I Am Trying to Break Your Heart – which Chicagoist thinks has some of the most beautiful photography of our city you’ll ever see – and buy Jeff Tweedy’s new book of poetry. Whew. Maybe then you too can be as busy – and Wilco-literate – as Mr. Kot.