Wilco - Hot Sun Cool Shroud [EP]
Pitchfork: Album Review (8.0)
Wilco Announce Hot Sun Cool Shroud EP, Out June 28 via dBPM Records
In Conjunction with Solid Sound Festival, June 28-30 At MASS MoCA In North Adams, MA
In conjunction with Wilcoʼs Solid Sound Festival, which takes place June 28-30th at MASS MoCA in North Adams, MA, the band announce a new EP, Hot Sun Cool Shroud, out June 28th via dBPM Records. Following the release of the bandʼs critically acclaimed album Cousin in 2023, Jeff Tweedy returned to the studio to revisit material recorded, but not completed, during those sessions. A couple of months later Tweedy, working again with engineering mixer Tom Schick, emerged with Hot Sun Cool Shroud, six tracks that expand and echo the sound so loved on Cousin.
“It’s fun to have something new to release at Solid Sound,” Tweedy says. “This year weʼre putting out an EP with a summertime-aer-dark kind of feeling. It starts off pretty hot, like heat during the day, has some instrumentals on it that are a little agitated and uncomfortable and ends with a cooling breeze. There are tracks on Hot Sun Cool Shroud that are more aggressive and angular than anything weʼve put out in a while, and a song about love melting you like ice cream into a puddle of sugary soup. All the pieces of summer, including the broody cicadas.”
Hot Sun Cool Shroud will be available June 28th on all streaming platforms, with a unique white vinyl pressing that will be available only at Solid Sound Festival. The artwork incorporates numerous images from the “Bad Fruit” collection of visual artist Kathleen Ryan. Fans at the festival will have the opportunity to design their own front cover artwork for the EP, utilizing a selection of ink stamps and stickers replicating Ryanʼs various fruit sculptures. Those interested can then submit their cover designs to dBpm Records, who will select their favorite for use on the standard LP and CD packaging when the EP is made generally available for sale in physical formats later this year.
In the exceptional setting of MASS MoCA in The Berkshires, Solid Sound aims to delight the curious with a diverse and surprising music lineup that features headlining sets from Wilco alongside the band membersʼ various independent and solo projects, plus Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit, Dry Cleaning, Nick Lowe & Los Straitjackets, Wednesday, Horsegirl, Ratboys, Water From Your Eyes, and many more. The music is complemented by a slate of the most unique non-music programming that youʼll see at a festival; it includes Hrishikesh Hirwayʼs acclaimed Song Exploder podcast with Tweedy as guest, John Hodgmanʼs Comedy Cabaret, live painting from legend Steve Keene, a variety of Substack Pop-Up Interviews, and Story Pirates.
This yearʼs installment of MASS MoCAʼs series Musicians on Musicians, which showcases selections from a private collection of music photography, will be curated by members of Wilco. Opening on June 22 to coincide with Solid Sound, the exhibition will feature photos of Johnny Cash, The Clash, James Taylor and Carol King, Patti Smith and Tom Verlaine, Leonard Berstein, Kurt Cobain, Stevie Wonder, The Supremes, The Band, and more.