Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
By now you’re surely well aware of Jay Bennett’s new lawsuit against Jeff Tweedy; Jim DeRogatis has a sad update. It’s just depressing – Bennett’s contributions are key to my two favorite albums, Summerteeth and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, although the brilliance of the latter has a lot to do with the shift in non-Tweedy creative influence from Bennett to Glenn Kotche. As Bob Mehr points out in his outstanding 2004 profile for the Reader: “Brought in to replace Ken Coomer during the making of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Kotche has become the most important catalyst for Tweedy’s music since Jay Bennett.” I caught Wilco live after YHF; Kotche is a sui generis rock drummer, and listening to him was my favorite part of the show; that album really captures them in a fascinating moment of creative transition. Greg Kot’s biography is a fine source on that and many other things.
Update: Chicagoist has the filing.