Wilco plays Austin City Limits

Lately I've been getting into Wilco. It started out innocently enough with me reading the story of how they "got screwed by 'the man'" when their record label (at that time) dropped them when they turned in their second to most recent album, "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot". That story (recounted in the book "Learning How To Die") set off a flurry of used-and-new record buying on my part. (Being There, Summerteeth, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and even a record by a former bandmate: Son Volt's debut, called Trace.) Last night I got a chance to see them play live at Austin City Limits, which is a club in Austin TX. Unfortunately they were opening for a much less interesting group of songwriters, so they only played four or five songs. Very interesting performers. Talented, musical, tight, and not a one of them a plastic-pop manufactured star.

These guys are probably not for everyone, but if you're into checking out music that's a little off the beaten path, and you don't mind old-school country-style musical influences...

(but thankfully not the pathetic "my wife left me for another man and shot the dog on her way out past the fourteen dead cars in our front lawn" kind of country)

...you ought to check them out.

Oh, and their lead singer, Jeff Tweedy, gives both Keith Richards and Iggy Pop a run for their money for the "ugliest man in rock and roll" title. :-) No offense, Jeff. You rock, man!