Post by merg on Apr 8, 2004 10:41:23 GMT -5
Source Sun Times
Wilco goes with the flow, streams album on Web
April 8, 2004
By Troy Carpenter
NEW YORK -- Chicago-based rock band Wilco's upcoming studio album, ''A Ghost Is Born,'' has been leaked on the Internet in advance of its planned June 22 release, and the band has taken a novel approach in response.
The group now is streaming the album from its Web site, www.wilcoworld.net and has given its approval to Justafan.org, a site started by a pair of fans that is accepting ''good faith'' donations from fans who have downloaded the album but also plan to purchase a copy upon its release, or just want to give something back.
''These donations are a symbolic down payment or promissory note in advance of the album's release on June 22,'' reads a post on the site, ''and a show of thanks to the band for its continuing generosity and trust -- on behalf of the fans of Wilco and of real, original music everywhere.''
The proceeds from the site will be donated to nonprofit emergency aid organization Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontiers.
Wilco has much experience with pre-release leaks, stemming from the well-documented saga surrounding 2003's ''Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.'' That album was also streamed from the band's Web site a year before its release. Even after months of being widely available online, the album debuted at No. 13 on the Billboard chart upon its eventual official release by Nonesuch.
Meanwhile, a Wilco spokeswoman said group leader Jeff Tweedy has entered rehab for addiction to painkillers. The treatment follows his battle with migraine headaches, spokeswoman Deb Bernardini said.
Billboard, with AP contributing