About an hour into Wilco's Tuesday night show at Downtown Raleigh Amphitheater, Jeff Tweedy broke his vocal spell just long enough to banter a bit. Noting that Wilco's new album had been released that day, he deadpanned, "Won't you join us in singing along with songs you don't know?"

That preceded a song with the conclusion, "I was born to die alone" -- and funny thing, that just happens to be said album's first single. Leave it to Tweedy to make a song laced with existential dread the radio-emphasis track. But doing things the hard (or at least unconventional) way has always been Wilco's style. Meanwhile, there's also this: Even if you can't sing along with Tweedy's words, you can probably sing along with Nels Cline's guitar.

Barring that, you can see lots of photos from Tuesday's concert here.

Not that the band registers beyond a tiny blip in the Perez Hilton quadrant of show-business gossip, but Wilco has never lacked for buzz and drama. In fact, there's enough Wilco chatter in the online world that lead guitarist Nels Cline (the guy in the red jacket) puts a bit of effort into ignoring it.

"When I was joining Wilco, Jeff Tweedy asked me, 'Do you prefer to remain shrouded in ignorance?'" Cline said in a recent interview. "And I said 'yes.' It's nothing I'm proud of. I have this crazy idea about having a real life; quality time and all that. Plus I'm an older guy, I don't have much time left. Everybody thinks I'm this weird workaholic who never sleeps, which is so not true. I actually wish I could work harder, but I love sleeping too much. Anyway, I stay out of all of it. I don't do my FaceBook page or even look at it, because it would just be more layers of obligation and guilt. I know people who look at the different comments online and find them fascinating. I just find it woeful, all the disappointing and aggravating things people think and say."

For lots more about Wilco's fab new album and details on the group's upcoming Raleigh show, see the preview in Friday's paper.