Pitchfork

By now, one expects seasoned musicians like Nels Cline and Glenn Kotche to have it all mapped out. The dudes are winners, right? After all, Cline's discography stretches back to 1979 and drops some pretty heavy names along the decades, from Willie Nelson and Rickie Lee Jones to Thurston Moore and Mike Watt. Kotche has played with Maureen Tucker, Jim O'Rourke, Fred Lonberg-Holm and Bobby Conn, and his latest album, Mobile, released this year on Nonesuch, is a fascinating exploration of his rhythmic questions. Plus, both Cline and Kotche insist that they're in some band called Wilco.

But a little more than a month before their first solo/duo tour, sweetly dubbed Alone/Together, the guitarist and drummer aren't quite sure how they will be handling the six East Coast and Midwest dates. Cline will play a solo set, followed by Kotche. They will then pair as an improvisational duo. But it's so improvisational they're not sure what they'll be playing.

"I think that is yet to be determined," said Kotche from his home in Chicago. "We did the exact same format at the Pabst Theatre in Milwaukee, and that was pretty much on the fly. I'm sure that, as the tour progresses, we'll get some more ideas."

When Kotche and Cline played together in Milwaukee on July 29 (one night before they played the Pitchfork Music Festival separately), they combined a cover of Sonic Youth's "Karen Coltrane" with structured improvisation in several movements and a new piece intended for the Nels Cline Singers, "Caved in Heart Blues".

Cline seemed set on improving upon that set, saying he enjoys the possibilities it offers and that he hopes to turn touring on such material into a regular thing during Wilco downtime. He even said that a duo record, though not in the works yet, "could be really, really fun, especially if we used a lot of overdubs."

He's expecting to have fun with these solo sets, too: He mentioned singing into his guitar, playing solo arrangements of Carla Bley tunes and recasting his own compositions as possibilities. "I never do the same thing. It's usually one stream of consciousness. Sometimes I break it in half, but I never know until I show up. I have no plans," said Cline.

September is an important month for Kotche: Before the trip, he will perform at the Modern Drummer Festival in Newark, New Jersey, presented by the magazine of the same name. He's never attended--let alone played--the festival, and he's aware that most drummers at such gatherings take a different approach to playing solo than he does.

"It's supposed to be educational, but a lot of players use it as a vehicle to show what they're technically capable of doing. It doesn't have to be that," said Kotche, who added that he and Death Cab for Cutie's Jason McGerr will be among the only indie rock drummers represented. "I'm looking forward to doing what I do. Some people will enjoy it, and some people will hate it."

He's expecting mostly love on one Alone/Together tour stop: On September 23, Kotche will return to the same University of Kentucky stage from which he delivered his senior recital. Still, he laughs nervously when he talks about that show. "Glenn gets very worked up about these kinds of things. He's very conscientious. I'm pretty sure if Glenn just shows up, it will be great," said Cline.

And Wilco? Cline said that the band's new record is going well. At least 25 songs are in assorted stages of completion, and the band plans to work on it in later this month and then in November.

"The songs are varied and pretty classic as far as the form, nothing too weird. People thinking I'm going to weird-ify Wilco are going to be sadly mistaken when they hear the new record. So far, it's very straightforward," says Cline, who joined Wilco in 2004 after playing live with Kotche in 2003. "But I haven't made a Wilco record, so I don't know what will happen between now and when we're supposed to have it finished in November." Expect something early next year.

The dates for duo dispersed down 'der:

09-18 New York, NY - Lincoln Center (Wordless Music series) *
09-19 Philadelphia, PA - First Unitarian Church
09-20 Washington, DC - The Black Cat #
09-22 Columbus, OH - Wexner Center for the Arts
09-23 Lexington, KY - Recital Hall at the Singletary Center for the Arts
09-24 Chicago, IL - The Black Orchid

* with Jenny Lin
# with Lambchop

Glenn Kotche:

09-10 St. Louis, MO - Riverfront Times Music Festival
09-16 Newark, NJ - Modern Drummer Festival

Nels Cline:

08-17 Los Angeles, CA - Armand Hammer Museum at UCLA (Nels Cline Singers)
09-26 New York, NY - Tonic *

* with White Out

The Tweedster plays two solo shows this week:

08-16 Raleigh, NC - North Carolina Museum of Art
08-18 Lyons, CO - Rocky Mountain Folks Festival

That crazy lil' thing called Wilco has a few dates on the books:

10-04 West Lafayette, IN - Elliott Hall of Music at Purdue University
10-06 East Lansing, MI - Concert Auditorium at Michigan State University
10-07 Cincinnati, OH - Tall Stacks Festival
10-09 Huntsville, AL - Von Braun Center Concert Hall
10-12 Ft. Worth, TX - Will Rogers Auditorium
10-15 Wichita, KS - The Cotillion
10-16 Springfield, MO - Shrine Mosque