COLUMNS

All right, let's say you're a band. Let's say you're bigger than "regional," and that you've got a substantial grassroots fan base. You tour- a lot- and you actually make a living at doing what you love.  You've even become a critical darling- Rolling Stone proclaimed your last album an "American classic" and "the first great album of the year" when it came out. Your next album, due this summer, is hotly anticipated.

Then, as is wont to happen in this day and age, you wake up one morning and your album is being traded on the internet. What do you do?

If you're Wilco's leader Jeff Tweedy, you don't file lawsuits or call up the RIAA and raise a stink. You post the liner notes from the album on your website and partner with a couple of enterprising fans in creating www.justafan.org, a website currently serving two purposes: contributors pledge to actually buy the album when it's released and, in a show of goodwill, donate (in the band's name) to Doctors Without Borders.

Of course, Tweedy's no stranger to internet leaks. Wilco's masterwork Yankee Hotel Foxtrot album was leaked during the band's label woes prior to its release (see: I Am Trying to Break Your Heart: A Film About Wilco), which led to the band's decision to stream the album in its entirety on their website. The result: YHF debuted at number 13 on the Billboard album chart.

What does this mean for the new album? I couldn't tell you. However, in an era marked by hostility toward fans by the industry's giants (yes, Lars, I'm looking at you), acts like this on the part of bands like Wilco (or Pearl Jam, or Radiohead, or other like-minded artists) provide a refreshing reminder that yes, Virginia, there are people out there who are glad- even grateful- that their music is important to other people.

It's enough that I pulled out my copy of Being There to hear "The Lonely 1," a gorgeous little song about fandom (and the namesake for justafan.org, to boot.) Back when I first heard this album, I found a reason to care about rock and roll. It's good to know that sometimes you are as important to your heroes in some way as much as they are important to you.

(Incidentally, I haven't downloaded A Ghost Is Born, although I've got a handful of live versions of some of the songs, and think they're great- especially the album closer, "Late Greats.")

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