When Wilco’s new album, “A Ghost Is Born,” hits stores on June 22nd, respected musicologists around the world will surely come to the same conclusion: “Track three is ten minutes long and contains this fucking killer guitar hook that I can’t shake. It’s like stomach flu. Duh-nuh-nunnuh-nuh-nuh…(etc, etc.)” Congratulations, Jeff Tweedy, on your monster riff. [...]

Tune in to Tortoise Radio, twenty songs selected by the awesomest band ever. Van Dyke Parks, Roy Orbison, Jorge Ben (naturally), and a bunch of musicians I don’t know because I am not in Tortoise. Yet.

If you’re like me, you have inadvertently associated most of your memories past the age of 10 with select titles in your music collection. The shuffle function on a well-fed iPod can stir up powerful emotions. Vacated apartments are revisited. Old friendships rekindled, if only for a few seconds. The smell of basements in Uptown [...]