Maybe it's just pop music, but I am excited for this album.

[R_of_G]

I heard them described as "dad rock" a couple of months ago. I love me some Wilco, but I must say that's a pretty apropos label for them over their last few albums.

I’ve heard/read the “dad rock” moniker as well in many reviews and I’m puzzled as to what it means, but it seems a pretty shoddy descriptor of music.

Does it mean their music sounds a certain way because they’re fathers? For that matter, are they all fathers? Do the ones that have kids play differently than the ones that don’t?

Does it mean their music appeals specifically to fathers? I saw plenty of women at the show and many men I suspect might not have had children. In fact, my wife (also not a father) who has been to hundreds of shows of every style of music commented on how varied a crowd Wilco drew.

What does the term mean in reference to Wilco’s music?

Which brings me to the “indie” thing...

I also am into more indie sounding stuff too. I like Wilco quite a bit, though they are almost not indie anymore, though i don't know what else you would call them.

I really don’t understand how that’s a useful term for describing music either. Sure, if you’re writing a piece about an artist’s business practices and marketing it’s entirely relevant to discuss whether they’re on a major label, or with an independent, or a self-marketer, but how does the term “indie” in any fashion describe the music?

Sleigh Bells and Bon Iver are both bands that are constantly described as “indie” and they sound about as similar musically as Mozart and Kid Rock.The SST label is famous for its DIY approach, and yet we don’t call Black Flag an indie band do we?

Is it iTunes that has forced us to slap a genre label on everything? You know you can adjust the preferences and make that column in the browser go away. All the attempts at genrification are just useless exercises in trying to pigeonhole a sound with words.

As Steve Earle said, "there are two kinds of music, good music and bad music."