As radio increasingly serves as a narrow-interest slave to the schlock machine, there are more and more bands like Wilco putting out intelligent, dynamic music, supported only by fans, critics and word of mouth.

The Chicago roots-rock/alt-country/your-label-here combo became a cause celebre in the music world recently when it recorded Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, a moody album of artistic pretension with bells and whistles -- sort of the band's Sgt. Pepper.
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If the landscape of post-boomer Americana music was pioneered by the ground-breaking band Uncle Tupelo, surely its spinoff band Wilco can claim responsibility for erecting some of the holiest landmarks there in the soil, exemplified by the revered songs we're treated to in I Am Trying To Break Your Heart: A Film About Wilco.

First and foremost, this is a tremendously beautiful film from notable photographer Sam Jones. It's a well-known equation in the lore of lenses that while cinematographers have a bit of trouble converting to stills, good photographers have a natural edge once the motion kicks in. Entirely black and white, Jones's song-laden documentary nonetheless could have been an indigestible fanboy movie, with nuts and bolts album-production minutiae from singer Jeff Tweedy like "There's no reason not to destroy it. That's exciting in a really creative way."
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