Kurt Vile played an amiable version of his track “Loading Zones” on Jimmy Kimmel Live! The track mixes pealing guitars — the lead part sounded more than a little like Neil Young circa Weld — with cheerfully inscrutable lyrics. “Sure, they knighted me yesterday/ But who needs armor when I have an exoskeleton?” Vile and his other guitarist ended the performance by trading intertwining licks while the crowd nodded along.
“Loading Zones” was released as the lead single from Vile’s Bottle It In album in August and is one of Rolling Stone‘s top 10 best albums of 2018. The singer-songwriter recorded parts of his latest album with previous collaborators like Rob Schnapf and Peter Katis before enlisting the help of Shawn Everett, who has helped mix or engineer albums by the Alabama Shakes and John Legend. “I almost had a panic attack [before meeting him], not knowing how it was going to turn out,” Vile told Rolling Stone. “Then he showed up and it was totally cool. You have to make yourself uncomfortable for a second to feel free later, you know?”
“Loading Zones” climbed as high as Number Four in the niche radio format known as Triple A at the end of November. It has sold close to 9,000 copies to date, according to BuzzAngle, which tracks music consumption.