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Music Features

Drum talk

Glenn Kotche is not under the illusion that solo percussion albums have a built-in audience. So who might buy his new Mobile (Nonesuch)? “I’m sure the record company would love to know,” the Chicago-based drummer laughs over the phone from Kansas City. As it happens, Kotche is visiting Missouri with the very reason lots of people might check Mobile out: Wilco, the popular alt-country act in which he plays drums, are on a quick tour of the Southeast and the Midwest.

Mobile is not a rock record. Kotche says he needs a reason to make a solo album; this one, his third, is about “trying to limit myself to a couple of different simple rhythmic ideas, then expanding upon those to see what I could come up with.” He describes the disc, which features pieces inspired by phase-music master Steve Reich and Nigerian Afrobeat pioneer Tony Allen, as having to do with migratory and transitory themes — no surprise given that he wrote most of it in hotel rooms while on tour with Wilco.

“I remember in high school learning marimba pieces and not really being into it, because I was way more into playing drums in my rock band. And then a teacher kind of put a story to a piece for me; that was a way to really get into it more — to have something to express and communicate.” So though Mobile may feature solo material that Kotche calls his chance to “explore these loftier rhythmic concepts I think would be inappropriate for me to do in the context of Wilco,” where he says his job is helping to convey frontman Jeff Tweedy’s lyrics, he in no way views the percussion music as a mathematical exercise. “When I play these things live [as he’ll do April 1 at the Paradise, opening for Teddy Thompson], it’s solo drums, but I’m trying to make music from them. Whereas a drum solo I view more as a technical display. It’s showing off your facility, and I think for me it’d be tough to do that night after night and find a reason to do it.”

Kotche has less to say about the funky rock trio he shares with Tweedy and producer/multi-instrumentalist Jim O’Rourke: “Loose Fur is basically just having fun with two friends.” The trio have now released their second album, Born Again in the USA (Drag City), on which they explore such lofty concepts as how best to inspire a hipster to shake his butt and exactly how much cowbell a tune can take before it turns into a Blue Öyster Cult song. Both Tweedy and O’Rourke write and sing lead in Loose Fur, and that gives the band a slightly schizoid vibe: Tweedy’s cuts tend toward fuzzy ’70s rock or strummy folk pop; O’Rourke’s are quieter and more precisely arranged. But there’s something very likable about the wry, freewheeling music, especially in light of the members’ other musical outlets. Tweedy seems like quite a driven fellow, and Wilco’s material has occasionally groaned under the weight of his ambition. Not so with Loose Fur.