Deep cuts

Wilco fans pride themselves on being privy to the best-kept secret in rock music. For a band that has released no fewer than eight albums over the past 15 years, Wilco has a decidedly limited following. But then again, the band's persistence has rewarded them with a steadily growing audience and increasing mainstream success, including two Grammy awards.

Wilco's measured ascent to fame has distinct advantages, according to lead guitarist Nels Cline, who spoke to The Prague Post by phone from Western Massachusetts prior to setting off on a European tour that brings Wilco to Prague this week.

"Playing in a band that has no hit song which has to be perfectly recreated at each show is a real freedom, because we can do what we want," he says.

Wilco's lack of a hit song says more about the fickle nature of the music industry than the quality of their music. The band's breakthrough came in 2002 with Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, an album that caught critics' attention even before it was released, as Wilco was dropped from the Reprise record label when the company decided the album was not commercially viable. The band cut a deal to keep rights to the album, which was soon picked up by Nonesuch Records, and the rest is history.

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot quickly became Wilco's biggest success. The band's newly experimental sound - which had grown from traditional folk rock with a  slight country twang to include feedback, drum effects and looping - was further explored on A Ghost Is Born, the album that won the band two Grammys in 2005. Cline, a veteran who has played with everyone from Mike Watt to Willie Nelson, joined the band that year, fostering Wilco's expanding sound and pushing it further afield.

Adding a guitarist who cites jazz fusion pioneer Wayne Shorter as a primary influence was an interesting choice for a band that had established a reputation for straightforward rock songs. Cline's contribution to Wilco's music - a process he calls "creating textures" - is unmistakable: pulsating walls of sound, creaky slide-guitar tracks, computer-generated effects and looping, and a general willingness to experiment have been evident in live shows and the three albums the band has released since Cline joined.

Asked about the process of adapting his avant-garde stylings to Wilco's more traditional sound, Cline laughs.

" 'No crazy soloing' is the only rule the band set for me, and that's fine, because I'm not trying to go anywhere beyond the band's sound. If I get into my Wayne Shorter mood during a concert, that's not going to work. I just put on my George Harrison hat and play classic melodic solos that work every time," he says.

Cline first stepped into the studio with Wilco to record Sky Blue Sky, an album of melancholy folk songs centered on a relationship's end. Cline's contributions to the album - mostly slide-guitar fills and tasteful, atmospheric solos - largely take a backseat to singer Jeff Tweedy's bittersweet lyrics, which seems fine with Cline, who says the recording process "really took on a life of its own."

"Maybe I changed the band's sound slightly, but my influence has mostly been exaggerated," he says.

Wilco's latest album, Wilco, released in 2009, signals a return to a more traditional reliance on songwriting and lyrics, prompting some critics to question whether the band is angling to interest a wider audience. Cline dismisses that idea good-humoredly. 

"I don't think any of our albums have been really far out. We've always relied on rather straightforward song structures," he says. "We've really worked seamlessly, and everyone contributes ideas. Jeff never says, 'Don't play synthesizer' or anything like that. It's a trial-and-error process."

The band's European tour comes after this summer's Solid Sound Festival, which took place at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in North Adams, Massachusetts. Wilco organized the festival and curated both the bands that played, such as Avi Buffalo and Deep Blue Organ Trio, and some of the art on display, including a visual and audio installation by Cline himself.

"It was an amazingly cool experience, though it was exhausting to play with Wilco and set up my installation. But it was successful and noninvasive enough that it's going to happen again next year," he says.

As to what the band has prepared for their fans in Prague, Cline admits that though Wilco is working on a new album, they don't have any new material that's ready to be played live.

"We have about five songs that we always play, and the rest varies," he says. "We've been playing some deeper cuts lately, but ultimately we want to play what people want to hear. We aren't going to confuse anyone with songs that are too obscure."

Confusing or not, Wilco's performance at Archa will be one of the standout concerts of the year.

Stephan Delbos can be reached at
sdelbos@praguepost.com