Mayday Mayday, Wilco Crashes in Fargo

Late last year I had a chance to interview one of the best songwriters of the last 20 years, Conor Oberst. The theme of the story revolved around how Conor is constantly (and for good reason) called the “next Dylan,” and how the songwriters of the 60’s and 70’s were better than what we have now. This, of course, was a bit of a dubious argument. Its not that the idea wasn’t at least mostly accurate, but while mentioning Jeff Tweedy, Thom Yorke and Sufjan Stevens, in the same breath, I missed quite a few others that deserved mention.

Maybe a more tangible argument would be that at some point good music stopped being popular. There have definitely been times where a great band like Nirvana becomes very popular and sells ton of records, but those are mostly just short-lived fads. Back in the 60’s and 70’s, the artists that sold records and did well touring were the bands that we look at today as being “the greats,” which is not the case anymore. There are definitely still greats out there; they just don’t sell records anymore. A classic example is Chicago natives Wilco.

After the split of alt-country godfathers Uncle Tupelo, singer Jeff Tweedy formed Wilco with fellow Tupelo members John Stirratt, Ken Coomer and Max Johnston. Their 1995 debut, “A.M.,” was similar to the country stylings of Tupelo, but the songwriting was much improved and it’s still one of the most overlooked gems of the 90s. They followed it up with the sprawling, double-disc “Being There” in 1996. It was obvious from the first minute of the opening track, “Misunderstood,” that Wilco was trying to expand their sound and they’ve spent last twelve years doing exactly that. Their third release, the more pop-oriented “Summerteeth,” was released in the spring of 1999 and continued the trend of changing their sound for each record. This is where things get weird.

While working on their fourth album, “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot,” Wilco was approached by Sam Jones about filming the making of the album. After a quick meeting with Sam, they decided to go ahead with filming. What started out as a documentary about a great band recording an album became a mess of in-fighting band members, with Jay and Ken being asked to leave the band, and eventually with Wilco being dropped by their label Reprise. In a weird twist of fate, Wilco ended up signing with, and releasing YHF, on Nonesuch, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. (which owns Reprise), so in effect Warner paid for the album twice. After releasing YHF to much critical fanfare, they followed up with “A Ghost Is Born,” which was the perfect companion piece.

Last year, Wilco released what may be their most interesting album yet, “Sky Blue Sky.” It’s not their most progressive album, but is definitely their prettiest and, after a few listens, reveals itself as a modern day soul album. The soul has always been there in bits, but most of it now has to be attributed to their new secret weapon, avant-garde guitarist Nels Cline, who has the most gorgeous tone you’ll hear this year, along with angular, trenchant solos that bring back fond memories of Television, another of the “late greats.”

I had a chance to catch up bassist and founding member John Stirratt prior to the start of their spring tour. Opening the show, and worth the price of admission themselves, will be Low frontman Alan Sparhawk’s new band, Retribution Gospel Choir.

HPR: Looking at your tour itinerary, you play a month and then take a month off; is this something you purposely do to stay healthy?

JS: Yeah, it’s been that way from the very beginning. On one hand, you don’t overplay, but it costs more money to start up a tour and it’s not the best financial decision to make. Most bands start up and just keep going, but it makes a lot of sense to take breaks because of families and we tend to think our longevity has a lot to do with that and not staying out for more than three weeks. You tend not to overplay places that way. I’m looking forward to going to Fargo. There’s something exciting about playing places you haven’t played before.

HPR: In “I’m Trying to Break Your Heart” your manager, Tony, talks about the difference between artistic potential and commercial potential and how you have tons of the former, but the latter has escaped you.

JS: For so many years I was so happy to make a living in music, which is an amazing thing, but you can’t help looking at other bands and what they do. You see Radiohead sell a lot of records, making inaccessible sorts of records, so I sometimes think if we were a band 20 years ago with the gate we have live, imagine the records we’d be selling. But, on the other hand, maybe it’s a blessing that we’re in the position that we are. It’s easy for us to do things on our own terms because we don’t sell that many records, but I can’t help wishing we did sell more records.

HPR: Being a fan of music has changed a lot.

JS: That’s the post-punk ethos that my generation is completely a part of, yet they’re the same people that complain about us doing the Volkswagen commercial. It’s not the kids that are 26 or 27; they don’t have hang-ups with that. It’s the damaged, “Our Band Could Be Your Life” generation, which I’m a part of, but it’s really interesting how that is. It’s the people that say sell-outs are generally a bit older and a part of that early 80’s alternative thing where you had to rail against everything. You know, you went from great bands playing in stadiums to all of a sudden it’s Poison.

HPR: The use of good music in commercials is genius marketing.

JS: If you have people like Errol Morris doing commercials, there’s frankly more artistic care put into a lot of commercials than there ever is in some packaged, terrible radio station. What can you say? Bands don’t get paid anymore from selling records, and so are you going to take that away from them?

HPR: As much as people talk about your studio prowess, it seems like you’ve become one of the great touring rock bands.

JS: Oh, yeah, I’ve felt that more since the live album and everything and the way we recorded the last record. I do feel like we have this sort of micro cross-generational Grateful Dead thing going on. It’s kind of a dream. I would not like to have to rely on, now that I have a family, being on the road a ton, but we’ve been able to do it and not be on the road that much. It’s amazing the people that show up to the shows and what kind of different age groups they are.

HPR: Live albums don’t sell that well, but selling over 100,000 copies of Kicking Television is a testament to the live show.
JS: Oh, that’s true. And it’s what we learned playing a lot of small markets, but not just smaller markets, but playing 4,000 pretty regularly and how much those records and the live tracks have pervaded the audience. They want to hear “Via Chicago” the way they’re familiar with it, not because of “Summerteeth.” That stuff is really traded around, the live Wilco stuff, and it’s really interesting to hear the original versions of old tunes and obscure tracks from older records. Whatever way they get into it’s good with us.

HPR: You’re ok with fan taping, then?

JS: Yeah, we always have been. It’s been a real huge part of the Wilco thing since the beginning. Our soundman is very receptive and knows all the people and everything.

If You Go

WHO: Wilco
WHERE: Fargo Civic Auditorium
WHEN: Thu, May 1, 2008 8:00 pm
HOW MUCH: $28.50
INFO: (701) 241-1480