Roger This - Kicking Television.

Tuesday 28/02/2006. Frankie's not here yet, and he's not giving Fritha any positive signs of being ready to move along soon.

I'm at work, with the network down. I've cleaned my desk (and desktop), so there's little more to do than to wait it out, for a while at least. What better way, to do that, than to sit back and listen to Wilco's 'Kicking Television' (recorded live at the Vic Theatre, Chicago. May 4-7 2005). At $35 for this double-cd set, it's a steal.

With a track listing reading like a "best of", and a live edge rather than the marketing man's chrome touch, this work cements Wilco as one of my favourites. Superb, emotionally raw, rock and roll with melodies and lyrics as sublime, and as simple, as anything I've ever heard. This is more, to me, than the jingle-jangle pop rock we're constantly hearing out of the UK at the moment, it's magical rhythm and blues on the edge of a mental breakdown or a mid-life crisis. These guys always sound like a band having a lot of fun. Their talent is wide ranging, like a pinch from each of the The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Nirvana and Morrissey.

Not only are Jeff Tweedy's songwriting and lyricism simply outstanding, his smarts, sense of humour and irony of self are each worth the price of the ticket/cd in themselves. I just can't help but hope that Tweedy's moved past his drug issues and the underlying problem, once and for all, so that we can enjoy more many Wilco albums into the future. Better that than he go the way of some of the other late greats...

Wilco played with the Rolling Stones, in Atlanta, in September last year. It's a real shame they're not coming along for the NZ tour. I'd pay the full price just to see them, even with the muff switch on.