"When you're back in your old neighborhood the cigarettes taste real good ... but you're so misunderstood ... you're so misunderstood ..."

-- Jeff Tweedy on Being There's leadoff track, Misunderstood

The lead singer of Wilco lets the answering machine pick the phone up, seeing who's calling before getting on the line.

After all, he's in the backyard with his redheaded 11/2-year-old son, Spencer, just watching the boy fill his inflatable swimming pool.

Not necessarily what you'd expect from Jeff Tweedy, a notorious party animal who blends punk rock and country balladeering together, calling it rock 'n' roll. On stage, he can bring a tear to your eye, or just scare the hell out of you if he feels like it, using all of Joe Strummer's moves.

Wilco's following mystifies Tweedy: "I really can't figure out what our average fan would be. There's still a lot of (Uncle) Tupelo fans that come to see us.

"Last year or so, more kids have been coming, but not excluding the older fans." Playing Another Roadside Attraction tomorrow, Tweedy's curious about the Tragically Hip, Canada's own undefinables.

"Honestly, I'm not really all that familiar with their stuff. I just know they're enormously popular in Canada.

"Canadians seem to have good taste. I like your beer," he says. Don't we all.

Tweedy talks about his own band: "I don't really think we're a country band at all. I understand people will say that, with the country influences." But a lot of alternateens have looked in Wilco's direction as being the start of a revolution against hot country.

"I feel bad for 'em if I'm the hope," he laughs quietly. "We're just a band."

A band whose song Misunderstood exploded on college radio across the continent and is about a stereotypical tortured artist. Autobiographical?

"I don't feel particularily misunderstood, more than anybody else, anyway," he smiles. Then, with a laugh, "Spencer doesn't think I am, I don't think."

Wilco's been on a month-long reprieve from its endless tour schedule, started in honor of the wonderful double album Being There, well, being there.

"We recorded 30 songs and didn't know what to do with them. Some people asked what we were going to cut and others said, `Why don't you put it out like this, as a double record?'

" `Exactly,' I said. And it's easier to listen to as two shorter CDs." Eight months later, and it's time to start all over again. Not before a nice break, though.

What better way than an outdoor rock festival?

"I wander around and take my time. I like playing them, I just don't know if I would be the same person to go see them. I never got into the big super-jam, outdoor concert thing. I saw the Who and Springsteen in arenas, but they didn't leave much of an impression.

"Honestly, our motivation for doing this, we only have to waste our energy playing for 45 minutes," he laughs, "then we get the rest of the day to goof around."

That's why people become rock 'n' rolls stars instead of lawyers, after all.