When it comes to issuing albums in a timely manner, Jeff Tweedy’s had a tough go of it lately. Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, of course, was dumped by Reprise in July 2001 and released by Nonesuch nine months later. Down With Wilco, a collaboration with Scott McCaughey’s Minus 5 recorded in the fall of 2001, was delayed when Hollywood Records folded and is just now hitting the racks (on Yep Roc).
But the Loose Fur lag beats all. The project’s seeds were planted in May 2000 when Tweedy played a set at the Noise Pop Chicago festival with percussion whiz Glenn Kotche and avant-rock guitarist Jim O’Rourke. Almost three years later, the trio’s pleasant but slight debut disc seems anti-climactic.
No one could have anticipated the events of those three years, but they’ve certainly blunted this album’s impact. Kotche ended up joining Wilco and playing on Foxtrot, which O’Rourke mixed; Tweedy and Kotche also appeared on O’Rourke’s album Insignificance. In short, this trio is hardly new or unfamiliar, and neither are the six songs on Loose Fur.
“Laminated Cat”, the jaunty opener, is a staple of Wilco’s live set. O’Rourke’s “Elegant Transaction” and “So Long” would blend seamlessly with the laconic retro-rock of his last few records. And Tweedy started playing “Chinese Apple”, which shares lyrics with the Foxtrot hit “Heavy Metal Drummer”, at solo gigs in mid-1999. Rounding things out are Tweedy’s Lennonesque guitar-and-piano ballad “You Were Wrong” and the instrumental track “Liquidation Totale”, which drifts from jittery drums and staccato guitar to dreamy vibes, then back again. All of this is nice enough, but hardly worth the wait.
