By now most Wilco fans and almost certainly all Milwaukee Wilco fans are aware of the new record cover that was shot in our beautiful city. Peep Mader’s in the background! While this album art looks pretty sweet, it is not the cover that Gentle John and I had hoped for.
On April 15th Gentle John and I arrived at the Pabst Theater two plus hours before the second Wilco show due to Jeff Tweedy’s announcement that a photographer was in town to shoot the cover of their next album and WE could be a part of it. There was tons of milling about and petting of dogs before the photographer showed up and selected three people to wear rhine stone suits worn by the band and also one lucky person to hold a gigantic birthday cake. To our dismay, we were not one or two of the four selected so we instead lined up with the rest of the unlucky ones. However, as it turns out we ended up right next to one of the guys chosen to wear a suit and a super cute kid wearing a Union Jack beanie. It was at this point we were certain that we’d made it. We’d signed waivers. WAIVERS!!! We were guaranteed to be on the cover. I even rolled up my ticket stub from the previous night and cigarette gripped it (ala McCartney on Abbey Road) in order to make sure that I stood out from the rest. Gentle John and I, glowing and elated due to our future fame, walked across the street to have some celebratory beverages and text the news to our closest (and sure to be jealous) companions.
Well, looks like we should’ve bought that camel some drinks. I bet they didn’t make him sign a waiver:( Here’s a photo set of our lousy time.
photographer and a girl in one of the suits
photographer, girl in one of the suit, and dude's got the cakeback of the suit this lucky fella got to wear (not cooler than a camel)
the cute kid that should've been our path to glory and his pop
the infamous cake
BLONDE ON BLONDE 