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From their early days as alt-country royalty to their journeys through experimental bleeping to the Crazy Horse/Velvet Underground guitar jamming on their new album, A Ghost Is Born, there's always someone who raves about it and someone who thinks it's the worst thing ever.
According to frontman Jeff Tweedy, the only thing to do is to bash on regardless. Wilco play the Mod Club Theatre tomorrow night.
"I don't understand how to do it any other way," he says. "I don't believe you can give people what they want by trying to. You make stuff to make yourself happy, and then you put it out into the world and the world makes what it wants out of it. For the past two records, the reaction has been weird, though. Before, if you didn't like it you just ignored it, but now it feels like you have to convince the world it's not worth anything. I find that invigorating."
Tweedy stuck to his artistic guns in 2002, when he and the band were dropped by their label after delivering Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, a supposedly non-commercial album that ended up being their best seller to date -- even though they had allowed fans to download it.
"I'd rather have our music heard -- that's the whole point," he says.
"I want people to listen to our records, and if it means they don't pay, I'd rather that than have them never listen."
Like Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Ghost was recorded with Chicago kingpin Jim O'Rourke, who adds piano, guitars, bass, organ, loops and synths to various songs.
"It's a confidence builder, having one of your favourite artists endorse your vision," says Tweedy of O'Rourke. "Plus we wanted to record live, and thought it'd be nice to be able to play it all without overdubs. With Jim, we had an extra set of hands that we could trust to do whatever we asked."
Everything about Ghost seems different from the snappy country-rock of Wilco's first album, 1995's A.M. -- the extended song lengths, murkier lyrics, softer vocals and especially the emphasis on long guitar jams.
"Jamming isn't a word we're comfortable using," Tweedy says with a laugh, "but it seemed to suit the material to let things be a bit freer. The guitar became a big voice on the record. It felt right to give it things the lyrics weren't able to get out. I mean, that's why God invented the electric guitar, so you can say things that you can't say with your voice. The subject matter is more inwardly focused, and that seemed like a way to transcend those language barriers.
"It all sounds very pretentious, but mostly we just wanted to rock," he says.
"It's good for you!"
Check it out: The suddenly white-hot Modest Mouse are at Kool Haus Wednesday night, while Marah ride the critical wave at the Horseshoe and controller.controller play Harbourfront's Masala! Mehndi! Masti! Festival.