Monthly Archives: July 2012

Wilco and the Lee Ranaldo Band are coming to Wolf Trap this month, and ShowlistDC is giving away a pair of front orchestra tickets to the show on Tuesday, 17 July! All you have to do to enter is leave a comment on this post telling me which song from either band you’d most like to hear live, and I’ll pick the winners at random (using random.org) on Thursday, 12 July at 5 PM Eastern. Be sure to use a valid email address when you enter, so I can contact you if you win (and don’t worry: your email address won’t be posted publicly when you comment on this entry and won’t be added to any sort of mailing list). If you’re a hotmail user, please add showlistdc@gmail.com to your address book or no-spam list, as other hotmail users have had problems with emails from us not getting through.

In case you don’t know anything about these bands, here’s a little history: Wilco is a rock band from Chicago that formed in 1994 when the alt-country band Uncle Tupelo broke up. They’ve released a ton of albums over their career, and each one seems to have its own story: By far, its most famous album is 2002′s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, which Wilco streamed for months on its web site before releasing it officially on Nonesuch (the album was rejected by Wilco’s previous label, Reprise Records, who then dropped the band but gave it the rights to the album). Wilco also collaborated with Billy Bragg on two albums of unreleased Woody Guthrie songs, 1998′s Mermaid Avenue and 2000′s Mermaid Avenue II. More recently, Wilco added avant-garde guitarist Nels Cline to its lineup; he’s been with the band since 2007′s Sky Blue Sky and also appears on their most recent album The Whole Love, which came out last year. We’ve got the video for “Born Alone” from The Whole Love below, so check it out if you haven’t heard it yet!

We love it when shows have awesome openers, and this show is a great example: kicking off the show is the Lee Ranaldo Band, which is fronted by Sonic Youth co-founder Lee Ranaldo. Ranaldo has had a long history of experimental projects away from Sonic Youth, but his latest solo album, Between the Times and the Tides, is a song-based, very straightforward rock album. He’s joined on the album by guitarists Nels Cline and Alan Licht, Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley, and keyboardist John Medeski. (Seems fairly perfect that Nels Cline would perform with both bands at this show!)

All in all, this is shaping up to be an awesome show, so check out some videos from the bands below, and let us know what song you’d like to hear either group perform live! And hey, if you’re new to ShowlistDC and wondering what this site is all about, check out our extensive calendar of upcoming events in the greater DC area (including Northern VA and Baltimore). We also make concert recommendations and post a daily round-up of DC-area music news and reviews. You can also follow us on twitter @showlistdc or like us on Facebook!

If you come across this post after the contest has closed, or if you’re not the lucky winner, then you can pick up tickets for $45 (orchestra) or $35 (lawn), plus service fees, via tickets.com. You can also check out a video preview of other July performances at Wolf Trap here (which includes some cool footage of Wilco as well!).

Contest is now closed and the winner has been notified!