Starship Casual

0:00 -2:01 Audio playback is not supported on your browser. Please upgrade. Chit-Chat Check-In #174 • Transcript A short post this week. I’m going to share the song that I did at the Chicago Theater’s John Prine celebration last night, “Summer’s End,” which is a really touching, beautiful song. It sounds romantic, in a way, until you really put it together that he’s singing to his son who may or may not be out on the streets.

Songs You thought that you saw him, but no you did not 0:00 -4:30 Audio playback is not supported on your browser. Please upgrade. Chit-Chat Check-In #173 • Transcript Hello, this is your Captain speaking. I’m sharing a song by Leslie Feist called “The Park” today. I had the honor of playing it during Leslie’s induction into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame this past weekend at Massey Hall. It was a lovely event, and I was really touched to be asked to be a part of it.

We’re coming up on the first anniversary of Twilight Override. It’s also the anniversary of our show at the Alder Planetarium here in Chicago, which was the first official performance of that material. That was a really lovely night. Twilight Override Eve. Here’s what that looked like. The song below is “KC Rain,” which was the working title of the demo on my phone. I think I wrote it the day that we had to cancel our show in Kansas City because of storms. Wilco was on tour with Sleater-Kinney.

Hello, this is your Captain speaking. I’m sharing a phone demo of the song “Too Real” off of Twilight Override. This song was written about the experience I had in the hospital, after having hip surgery as a recovering narcotics addict. You have to make a pretty good plan for yourself if you know you’re going to be administered opioids of any kind. And it was the first time I’ve had any narcotics in my system since I was in the hospital 20-something years ago.

Audio playback is not supported on your browser. Please upgrade. Chit-Chat Check-In #170 • Transcript I’m back from Europe and sharing a song by Twisted Teens. I recommended a different record of theirs recently. I like a lot of their songs and I like Caspian’s voice. I had trouble not trying to sing like him. That happens with a lot of the voices of singers I like. When I play their songs, I’m trying really hard not to do an imitation.

Gonna miss these little salty licorice dudes. Wilco is finishing up our tour in Europe right now, and I’ll be in the bowels of the air travel system making my way home soon. In the meantime, I asked Mark to prepare another GEAR TALKIN’™. He wrote about one of the companies that made a lot of the cool amps and effects we have at The Loft, Analog Outfitters. The rest of the Starship bridge has also been hard at work preparing the next batch of prizes for people who subscribe to the Captains Club.

Audio playback is not supported on your browser. Please upgrade. Chit-Chat Check-In #169 • Transcript I’m sharing something today I haven’t shared in a while—an iPhone demo of a song that’s unreleased. It might make it on a record someday, who knows. It’s called “Giving Up on Gravity.” I think this might be the first time I played the song and sang it at the same time. I’m obviously reading the lyrics, and I get lost a few times. But it all kind of works together in spite of that.

Audio playback is not supported on your browser. Please upgrade. Chit-Chat Check-In #168 • Transcript A quick hello to share a track I learned, or tried to learn, by Star Moles, which is Emily Moales’s project. She’s part of the Historic New Jersey Recordings group of folks making all kinds of cool records. Rubber Band Gun, Sam and Louise Sullivan, Hot Machine ... they’re all doing cool stuff. I’m always happy to see such a vibrant music-making group of friends.

Audio playback is not supported on your browser. Please upgrade. Chit-Chat Check-In #167 • Transcript It’s August 12th, 2026, and I’m in Oslo. Today is one of the great days in history, as everybody knows. It’s my wife’s birthday. Happy Birthday, Susie! I’m using this picture that she took of Lil Pedro, the squirrel that showed up at Susie’s father’s house shortly after he passed away. He (the squirrel) inexplicably reminds us of her dad, who we called Pedro.

Audio playback is not supported on your browser. Please upgrade. Chit-Chat Check-In #166 • Transcript One of the things we don’t talk about too often on here is songwriting. Which is kind of weird because it’s one of the things I’m kind of known for. But I found this track just looking for something to share with you guys. It’s an early version of the song “Black Moon” off of the album The Whole Love.