Nels Cline

Jazz Zevious After the Air Raid Cuneiform ESSENTIAL “Where’s the Captain?’’ Zevious is devious. It may look like your everyday electric jazz trio (guitar, bass, drums), but Zevious is anything but typical. Guitarist Mike Eber, bassist Johnny DeBlase, and drummer Jeff Eber give off the aroma of jazz-flavored metal, but their sophistication - odd-metered rhythms, unexpected harmonic ideas - slyly bubbles up. Their influences range wide: There’s a little bit of fusion forebears John McLaughlin and Tony Williams’s Lifetime in here, some electric free improv in...

When Wilco released its debut album in 1995, the outfit was a well-liked, fairly straightforward alt-country/roots pop band, in the vein of Uncle Tupelo, the group from whose wreckage Wilco emerged. Over the course of time and personnel shuffles - the current lineup includes frontman Jeff Tweedy, guitarist Nels Cline, multi-instrumentalist Patrick Sansone, keyboardist Mikael Jorgensen, bassist John Stirratt, and drummer Glenn Kotche - the Chicago-based band has evolved into a much more eclectic collective.

Floored by Four is the avant-garde punk-jazz quartet of bass guitarist Mike Watt (who’s the leader here), guitarist Nels Cline, electronic musician Yuka Honda, and drummer Dougie Bowne. You know all these folks. Watt was in the Minutemen and fIREHOSE. Cline, a leading free-jazz guitarist, is now a member of Wilco. Honda, half of the duo Cibo Matto, has credits that range from Dave Douglas to the Beastie Boys. Bowne has worked with Iggy Pop and the Lounge Lizards. In other words, these four, together, can do just about anything.

SOLID SOUND FESTIVAL With Wilco, the Levon Helm Band, Syl Johnson & the Sweet Divines, Dave Douglas & Brass Ecstasy, the Autumn Defense, Pronto, Jamie Lidell, Liam Finn, Here We Go Magic, Thurston Moore, and others. At: Mass MoCA, North Adams. June 24-26. Tickets $124.50. Schedule and information at www.solidsoundfestival.com. After a successful first-run in 2010, Wilco is bringing its Solid Sound Festival back to the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in North Adams this weekend.

Wilco performed last night on a stage stripped to nothing, with the bones of the Bank of America Pavilion exposed, and no visual bells or whistles to beef up the entertainment quotient. Wilco isn't the only rock group whose music can stand alone -- but it's the only band of its caliber that would risk it. The Chicago outfit has built a brilliant career from combining sturdy American songcraft with a fearless sense of adventure, and their Boston show was no exception. Wilco is on the road in support of "Sky Blue Sky," a collection of warm folk-rock and alt-country gems...

Wilco performed Thursday night on a stage stripped to nothing, with the bones of the Bank of America Pavilion exposed, and no visual bells or whistles to beef up the entertainment quotient. Wilco isn't the only rock group whose music can stand alone -- but it's the only band of its caliber that would risk it. The Chicago outfit has built a brilliant career from combining sturdy American songcraft with a fearless sense of adventure, and its Boston show was no exception. Wilco is on the road in support of "Sky Blue Sky," a collection of warm...

Wilco changes. Over the last 12 years, the Chicago band -- led by singer, songwriter, and guitarist Jeff Tweedy -- has put out half a dozen albums, each remarkable and each a departure from the one that came before. The country rock of "A.M. " turned soulful and psychedelic on "Being There, " which morphed into the lush pop sound of "Summerteeth . " Songs grew ambient and puzzle-shaped for "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot ," and then took a droning, difficult turn on "A Ghost Is Born. " "That's what being a musician is about," Tweedy explained in a 2004 Globe interview.

LOWELL - A starting lineup was beamed on the scoreboard Saturday night at LeLacheur Park, but instead of listing pitchers and hitters it was guitarists and drummers as rockers Wilco took the field. In a set cut short by rain but still long on sonic pleasures, the sextet eagerly roamed through its catalog old and new, stopping at every style along the way from swinging alt-country to warped folk to interludes that deftly intertwined cacophony and tenderness, classic rock and contemporary free-spiritedness.

SOLID SOUND FESTIVAL With Wilco, the Levon Helm Band, Syl Johnson & the Sweet Divines, Dave Douglas & Brass Ecstasy, the Autumn Defense, Pronto, Jamie Lidell, Liam Finn, Here We Go Magic, Thurston Moore, and others. At: Mass MoCA, North Adams. June 24-26. Tickets $124.50. Schedule and information at www.solidsoundfestival.com. After a successful first-run in 2010, Wilco is bringing its Solid Sound Festival back to the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in North Adams this weekend.

When Wilco released its debut album in 1995, the outfit was a well-liked, fairly straightforward alt-country/roots pop band, in the vein of Uncle Tupelo, the group from whose wreckage Wilco emerged. Over the course of time and personnel shuffles - the current lineup includes frontman Jeff Tweedy, guitarist Nels Cline, multi-instrumentalist Patrick Sansone, keyboardist Mikael Jorgensen, bassist John Stirratt, and drummer Glenn Kotche - the Chicago-based band has evolved into a much more eclectic collective.

Floored by Four is the avant-garde punk-jazz quartet of bass guitarist Mike Watt (who’s the leader here), guitarist Nels Cline, electronic musician Yuka Honda, and drummer Dougie Bowne. You know all these folks. Watt was in the Minutemen and fIREHOSE. Cline, a leading free-jazz guitarist, is now a member of Wilco. Honda, half of the duo Cibo Matto, has credits that range from Dave Douglas to the Beastie Boys. Bowne has worked with Iggy Pop and the Lounge Lizards. In other words, these four, together, can do just about anything.

Jazz Zevious After the Air Raid Cuneiform ESSENTIAL “Where’s the Captain?’’ Zevious is devious. It may look like your everyday electric jazz trio (guitar, bass, drums), but Zevious is anything but typical. Guitarist Mike Eber, bassist Johnny DeBlase, and drummer Jeff Eber give off the aroma of jazz-flavored metal, but their sophistication - odd-metered rhythms, unexpected harmonic ideas - slyly bubbles up. Their influences range wide: There’s a little bit of fusion forebears John McLaughlin and Tony Williams’s Lifetime in here, some electric free improv in...

LOWELL - A starting lineup was beamed on the scoreboard Saturday night at LeLacheur Park, but instead of listing pitchers and hitters it was guitarists and drummers as rockers Wilco took the field. In a set cut short by rain but still long on sonic pleasures, the sextet eagerly roamed through its catalog old and new, stopping at every style along the way from swinging alt-country to warped folk to interludes that deftly intertwined cacophony and tenderness, classic rock and contemporary free-spiritedness.

Wilco performed Thursday night on a stage stripped to nothing, with the bones of the Bank of America Pavilion exposed, and no visual bells or whistles to beef up the entertainment quotient. Wilco isn't the only rock group whose music can stand alone -- but it's the only band of its caliber that would risk it. The Chicago outfit has built a brilliant career from combining sturdy American songcraft with a fearless sense of adventure, and its Boston show was no exception. Wilco is on the road in support of "Sky Blue Sky," a collection of warm folk-rock...

Wilco performed last night on a stage stripped to nothing, with the bones of the Bank of America Pavilion exposed, and no visual bells or whistles to beef up the entertainment quotient. Wilco isn't the only rock group whose music can stand alone -- but it's the only band of its caliber that would risk it. The Chicago outfit has built a brilliant career from combining sturdy American songcraft with a fearless sense of adventure, and their Boston show was no exception. Wilco is on the road in support of "Sky Blue Sky," a collection of warm folk-rock...

Wilco changes. Over the last 12 years, the Chicago band -- led by singer, songwriter, and guitarist Jeff Tweedy -- has put out half a dozen albums, each remarkable and each a departure from the one that came before. The country rock of "A.M. " turned soulful and psychedelic on "Being There, " which morphed into the lush pop sound of "Summerteeth . " Songs grew ambient and puzzle-shaped for "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot ," and then took a droning, difficult turn on "A Ghost Is Born. " "That's what being a musician is about," Tweedy explained in a 2004 Globe interview.

Guitar music by the Touareg of the Sahara is a busy genre, with acts like Tartit, Toumast, Terakaft, and Bombino offering different styles and degrees of crossover appeal. But the group that launched the boom remains Tinariwen, the onetime guerrillas who swapped guns for guitars in the 1980s and are now global festival stars. With "Tassili," Tinariwen reasserts its leadership through a return to roots - setting aside electric guitars and leaving off the female singers who added drive and bustle to previous albums, and going lean and acoustic in sessions recorded under a tent in the Algerian desert.

Since the David and Goliath tale that surrounded its album "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot," the Chicago band Wilco has continued to mature musically. In a powerhouse two-hour set at Agganis Arena on Friday evening, the sextet proved that its performance chops have grown with a steady consistency matching its studio efforts. The band took the stage wordlessly and launched into the Woody Guthrie-penned "Airline to Heaven" that by its conclusion had reached the hoedown enthusiasm frequently achieved on its earliest rootsy releases.