Tweedy article in The Australian

[dmait]

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story...9-16947,00.html

 

Wilco a sharing kind of band

 

THERE'S something distinctly user-friendly about Wilco. Take their concerts, for example.

No sooner had the Chicago-based outfit played in Sydney last year than a recording of the show appeared for free download on their website. Many of their other concerts from across the world have found fresh ears and new homes in the same way in recent years.

Singer and chief songwriter Jeff Tweedy is proud of that: as proud of the gesture as he is of his band's songs. Why wouldn't he give them away to whoever wants to hear them?

"It's an amazing way to reach people," says Tweedy, who arrives with Wilco in Australia next week for a short tour that includes the East Coast Blues and Roots Festival at Byron Bay, NSW. "I thought the whole point was to have people listen to you. If you have the opportunity to be heard by a lot of people by sharing, that's not such a bad thing. It's also bad karma as a musician to spend energy trying to stop people from listening to your music."

It would be hard to find fault with Tweedy's point of view, unless of course you worked for a major record company, where the idea of giving away music is rarely considered, particularly as internet piracy continues to deprive those companies of income they believe is theirs. Tweedy, however, has had run-ins with record companies through the years, so he's not exactly sympathetic about their misfortunes. Nor does he think piracy is altogether a bad thing.

"I can't get behind any legislation for fighting it because I just think it's a fact of life, and for us ... if someone downloads our record and plays it to five of their friends, that's five more people who just might come and see us play. For us, that's how we've made our living. I guess if you're a band that can't play live it might be a really scary time, but for us it's fabulous."

Indeed Tweedy, 40, seems to be in a fabulous place in 2008. During the past 14 years Wilco has grown from an alt-country indie band to a Grammy-winning rock ensemble. In the process they have been dumped by their record company, shed a handful of members (not all at once) and had a revealing documentary made about them, 2002's I am Trying to Break Your Heart.

At the centre of it all is Tweedy, whose songs can be as hard to pin down to one genre as they are extraordinarily beautiful. Wilco's most recent album, Sky Blue Sky, merged the country ambience of the band's early albums AM and Being There with the more experimental elements of their biggest sellers, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2002) and A Ghost is Born (2004).

The singer has battled depression and drug addiction in recent years. A lifelong migraine sufferer, Tweedy became addicted to painkillers and in 2004 entered rehab. He came out the other side a non-smoker and with an attitude that the other remaining original member of Wilco, bassist John Stirratt, says improved the focus of the band.

"I feel like I live a charmed existence," Tweedy says in his good-natured manner.

Wilco arrive in Australia a year after the release of Sky Blue Sky. They're not here to promote anything in particular, other than themselves. That's the way they like to work, going out on the road when it suits them, rather than as part of a marketing campaign.

"We've been taking it easy for a while, so we're ready to get back on the road, but we'll probably take it a bit easier for most of this year because we have some new family members coming for some of the guys in the band," Tweedy says. "Babies are coming."

The ability to operate without a long-term schedule is a freedom other bands don't enjoy or subscribe to, but Wilco's approach to music and a music career sits outside ofconvention.

"There's never really any pressure on us to put a record out," Tweedy says. "Fortunately the world doesn't hinge on Wilco putting a record out. It's not going to save any lives or cause any financial difficulties for the gross national product or anything."

Wilco was formed from the ashes of Tweedy's previous band, Uncle Tupelo, which fragmented when he fell out with the other songwriter, Jay Farrar, who went on to form Son Volt. Since then Tweedy and Wilco have collaborated with other musicians, most notably and notoriously English folk troubadour Billy Bragg. The Englishman and Wilco recorded two commercially successful albums, Mermaid Avenue and Mermaid Avenue II, that featured previously unrecorded Woody Guthrie lyrics presented to them by Guthrie's daughter, Nora.

Friction arose between Bragg and Wilco over various aspects of the recording and, for Tweedy at least, it is clearly still an issue.

When Bragg was in Australia in January he told The Australian that there were more recordings still to be released from the Mermaid sessions and that he was hopeful of presenting these as part of a boxed set and of setting up a tour with Wilco, something that never happened because of the acrimony that ensued. Tweedy, however, is fairly clear on this point.

"Billy Bragg is so full of shit, man," he says, before pausing for a disturbingly long laugh. "That guy is full of shit," he manages again. "I don't know what he's talking about. If he has more stuff, then that's great, but I don't think there's any chance of us having anything to do with it."

More laughter.

"The guy's been saying that all over the place and I have no idea what he is talking about because he has never talked to us about it. There are no other songs that we have. Everything that we did was on the records. But I'm serious. He's full of shit. Nothing against Billy. He's just full of shit.

"That's just what he's built his whole life on, so that's all right."

As long as we're clear.

If collaboration doesn't always work for Tweedy, he is quite happy to play - and work - on his own.

"I enjoy that a lot," he says.

Tweedy has toured solo on several occasions. A documentary about his 2006 tour of the US, Jeff Tweedy: Sunken Treasure, will be screened on SBS on March 21.

Playing just with an acoustic guitar allows him to explore the roots of his Wilco songs. While the band has evolved musically through the years, Tweedy says that when he strips the songs down they still sound "like they came from one person".

"The thing that strikes me more than anything when I play by myself is how little I've evolved over the years," he says.

"As a band everything has evolved. I've gotten more comfortable singing. As the band has got more mature I think we have all got much better at being in a band together. When I play by myself is the time when I don't think about what I'm doing. When we play together, though, that's when I realise how much better it has become and how much I enjoy it."

Oh, and just to show how user-friendly Wilco are, you can request songs to be played at their upcoming shows at wilcoworld.net.

Wilco appear at the Enmore Theatre, Sydney, March 18; the Tivoli, Brisbane, March 19; East Coast Blues and Roots Festival, Byron Bay, March 20; Palace Theatre, Melbourne, March 26.

[jimtweedy1977]

Do you think perhaps we'll see another Tweedy solo tour this year? That would be nice.

[W(TF)]

Can someone elaborate on the falling out with Bragg? I've watched Man In The Sand, where the spat was obviously downplayed a lot.

[Analogman]

Can someone elaborate on the falling out with Bragg? I've watched Man In The Sand, where the spat was obviously downplayed a lot.

 

It's in the Kot book.

[Sunken mountain]

[paddy3001]

There are no other songs that we have. Everything that we did was on the records. But I'm serious. He's full of shit.

 

In Bragg's defense, he's not completely full of shit. There are several songs on the Mermaid Ave Demos that didn't appear on either album (Give Me A Nail, Ain't Gonna Grieve My Lord No More, Greenback Dollar), and the Demos themselves would make a nice addition to a boxed set.

 

But Wilco doing a Mermaid Ave tour with Bragg? Dude, that's so 10 years ago.

 

My favorite thing about Man In The Sand is how Bragg always calls Jeff "Jeffrey."

[mfwahl]

Can someone elaborate on the falling out with Bragg? I've watched Man In The Sand, where the spat was obviously downplayed a lot.

There was some beef about the mixing. Wilco wanted a cohesive sounded record and Bragg told Bennett "you make your record, and I'll make mine, fucker." Also, Jeff thought it was kind of cheesy that Bragg wanted to do mostly political songs. I think that was because everyone knows he was political, and Jeff wanted to humanize Guthrie rather than treat him like cartoon character. (Those are my words) And the guys in Wilco pissed off Bragg because they wouldn't record while Simpsons was on. There's more, you should read the book.

[LouisvilleGreg]

There was some beef about the mixing. Wilco wanted a cohesive sounded record and Bragg told Bennett "you make your record, and I'll make mine, fucker." Also, Jeff thought it was kind of cheesy that Bragg wanted to do mostly political songs. I think that was because everyone knows he was political, and Jeff wanted to humanize Guthrie rather than treat him like cartoon character. (Those are my words) And the guys in Wilco pissed off Bragg because they wouldn't record while Simpsons was on. There's more, you should read the book.

 

Does the more have anything to do with Nora and Billy knocking boots?

[W(TF)]

There was some beef about the mixing. Wilco wanted a cohesive sounded record and Bragg told Bennett "you make your record, and I'll make mine, fucker." Also, Jeff thought it was kind of cheesy that Bragg wanted to do mostly political songs. I think that was because everyone knows he was political, and Jeff wanted to humanize Guthrie rather than treat him like cartoon character. (Those are my words) And the guys in Wilco pissed off Bragg because they wouldn't record while Simpsons was on. There's more, you should read the book.

 

Yeah, I know....I will.

 

About the political songs, I can understand both sides. Nora said in the film she picked Bragg for this because he was a crusader type of union street singer like her dad. OTOH, if you read Cray's bio Ramblin' Man (2005), he makes a good case that Guthrie was a real chameleon politically, and he was really no Communist, even despite all the scribblings he did for The Daily Worker. Besides, I learned from that book, there were something like 10 million Americans in the Communist Party in the 1930's! A great read, btw.

[Gobias Industries]

I would be rich if I had a dollar for every time a news article outlines Wilco's background as "rising from the ashes of Uncle Tupelo."

[MattZ]

This is great:

[Jeff Tweedy quote]

 

I know there is lingering bad blood between Bragg and the band, but that seems particularly harsh of Jeff to be saying all these years later. Jeff seems to be in such a good place with the current version of Wilco that I'd think he couldn't be bothered to get up the effort to slam Bragg any more. Been there, done that, no?

[giraffo]

I know there is lingering bad blood between Bragg and the band, but that seems particularly harsh of Jeff to be saying all these years later. Jeff seems to be in such a good place with the current version of Wilco that I'd think he couldn't be bothered to get up the effort to slam Bragg any more. Been there, done that, no?

 

yeah, but how many people interview him with the specific idea of bring Bragg up? it's like poking a dog and being surprised it bites you.

[lost highway]

I know there is lingering bad blood between Bragg and the band, but that seems particularly harsh of Jeff to be saying all these years later. Jeff seems to be in such a good place with the current version of Wilco that I'd think he couldn't be bothered to get up the effort to slam Bragg any more. Been there, done that, no?

 

That's what I thought at first. But how could it not be frustrating to have someone spread the rumor of a tour your not planning on going on, and a record you never recorded? I think Tweedy must be right (as to what Billy is full of on this matter). It seems Bragg might have crunched the numbers for where his record sales are coming from. Good news for him now is he is on Anti-. A solid and respectable independent music establishment.

[Jesusetc84]

There was some beef about the mixing. Wilco wanted a cohesive sounded record and Bragg told Bennett "you make your record, and I'll make mine, fucker." Also, Jeff thought it was kind of cheesy that Bragg wanted to do mostly political songs. I think that was because everyone knows he was political, and Jeff wanted to humanize Guthrie rather than treat him like cartoon character. (Those are my words) And the guys in Wilco pissed off Bragg because they wouldn't record while Simpsons was on. There's more, you should read the book.

 

 

Not that Wilco does it for the money, but it couldn't have helped that they supposedly never saw a single royalties check from a project that among it's 2 volumes sold over 500,000 copies in the U.S. alone.

 

Granted as Wilco says, they make most of their money off touring anyway, so I doubt any of the members made a stink.