Wilco’s Solid Sound Festival to Skip 2012, Return in 2013

Wilco singer Jeff Tweedy performs during last year's Solid Sound Festival. The band will skip the festival this year and resume it in 2013. (Photo by Eric R. Danton)

Wilco’s Solid Sound Festival won’t return to Mass MoCA until June 2013, but the Chicago band will perform this summer at the North Adams museum, the group announced Friday.

The demands of launching a new label, releasing the band’s eighth studio album and touring prompted the Wilco organization to skip the festival this year, the band’s manager, Tony Margherita, said in a statement.

“The Festival is dearly loved by all of us — from the band to the staff who organize and execute it — so the decision to take 2012 off was not an easy one,” Margherita said.

Solid Sound will return June 21-23, 2013, the band says, and to help compensate for the financial impact on Mass MoCA of taking a year off, Wilco will play a benefit show there this summer. The date hasn’t been announced.

The band’s latest album, “The Whole Love” (reviewed here), is Wilco’s first LP release on its own dBpm label, headquartered in Easthampton, Mass. The album has sold more than 200,000 copies since its release in September, and is nominated for a Grammy in the best rock album category.