It's been a year since Wilco's now classic Yankee Hotel Foxtrot came out on Nonesuch. They are celebrating:

thanks for your support, we're making the previously announced "Australian ep" available here free if you have a copy of YHF.

Click on the image above to launch the EP player and listen to the entire record in streaming MPEG-4 audio (net connection required). Full instructions for downloading the ep as MP3s are included with the player.

It is unclear to me what "if you have a copy of YHF" means, as all I did was go to the site, upgrade my Quicktime player (appears to be necessary) and let it rip. I DO have a copy of YHF but I didn't have to do anything to prove it.

Anyway, the EP rocks in a grungy, neo-psychedelic manner on "Camera"; chugging rhythm, piano and acoustic guitar-based "Handshake Drugs" and the lovely "More Like the Moon"; ruminative acoustic guitar only-backed "Woodgrain" and "Bob Dylan's 49th Beard"; charming alt pop-rock "A Magazine Called Sunset."

All of this is a far cry from Jeff Tweedy's first band, the country and punk Uncle Tupelo, who named a subgenre and a magazine with a song and an album title ("No Depression") and made it cool to sing with a twang of the American white underclass and also ROCK HARD. Uncle Tupelo's four legendary early '90s albums have been reissued by Legacy/Columbia (actually Anodyne is on Rhino) - they all make mighty fine eating.

From the Wilco newsletter:

the band began another short US tour this week, and there are many more dates up on the site now...including all of the dates with Sonic Youth, most of the September dates with REM and several festivals, regular Wilco gigs, etc. The REM dates will be followed by a gig or two in Chicago (details soon) which will bring the touring for YHF to an end nearly two years after the band first played the material live in September 2001.

Wilco and Sonic Youth will be taping an episode of the new PBS show Soundstage in Chicago on Wednesday, May 7. This is a live performance taped in front of a small studio audience at WTTW. We have 50 tickets to give away on a first come/first served basis. To get the tickets, you should send an email including your name, your email address and phone number to soundstage@wilcoworld.net. Note that YOU will have to be present at the taping. Photo ID in the name of the winner will be requested and these tickets are not transferable.

Speaking of TV appearances, Wilco will be backing up Scott McCaughey when the Minus5 appears on The Late Show with David Letterman on Wednesday, April 30 (moved from the originally scheduled appearance of April 29).

Oh, and one more thing... for you Wilco completists out there, there's a previously unreleased Wilco song on a record called "You Can Never Go Fast Enough" (Plain Recordings)