"Wilco - More Like The Moon EP"

I was kicking around on the Wilco site today, just looking around, when I came across their records page. On said page was a section of downloadable tracks--six of them, an EP entitled More Like the Moon. Thinking to myself, "hey, I like free, legitimate music," I downloaded the six songs.

The EP opens with a pair of alternate versions--one of "Kamera" (here called "Camera") from Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, and one of "Handshake Drugs" from A Ghost is Born. Both songs are grittier and rougher than their final album conterparts, but the grit and edges work in favor of the songs. "Camera" is a Stones-y, clattering bash, and "Handshake Drugs" takes a faster and sloppier tempo than the album version. The third song on the EP is called "Woodgrain," a strange, short little mostly-acoustic number with electronic blips and bleeps scattered throughout that give it a haunting edge. Track four is one of my favorite Wilco tunes (and the reason I'd been searching for this EP, in whatever form, for ages), "A Magazine Called Sunset." It begins with a faint, lounge act piano, then moves into a smooth, bittersweet melody with lyrics that only make a little sense (and seem to be about an airplane ride, but I'm not entirely certain). Next up is a song with one of the strangest titles ever, "Bob Dylan's 49th Beard," a bizarre little love dirge that invokes Zimmy's facial hair as a sign of mourning. The EP closes with the title track, "More Like the Moon," a beautiful six minute ode to love in typical Jeff Tweedy style (meaning it's anything but your standard love song).

All in all, More Like the Moon is an entertaining little EP and worth downloading. While you're at the site, check out the rest of the stuff they've got there. I wouldn't mind one of the show posters they've got (and I'm sure that, sometime in April or so, they'll have a poster for the show in OKC. The show I intend to attend. I definitely wouldn't mind a poster from that). Of additional interest to Wilco fans is the fact that, on March 7th (this coming Monday), they'll be making five new songs (well, a couple of new songs and three live tracks) available through the website. All you have to do is pop A Ghost is Born into your CD-ROM drive to access the songs for free. This corresponds with the release of the album in Europe, where the five songs are actually included on the CD (so I thought it was nice that the band made the tracks available for free to folks over here who already owned the album. Right decent of them). That'll be sweet, I think.

~chuck

Song of the Moment: Wilco, "Handshake Drugs"