The intimate story of one of the great American bands of our
time, creators of the controversial masterpiece "Yankee Hotel
Foxtrot"
When alt-country heroes-turned-rock-iconoclasts Wilco handed in
their fourth album, "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot," to the band's label,
Reprise, a division of Warner Brothers, fans looked forward to the
release of another challenging, genre-bending departure from their
previous work. The band aimed to build on previous sales and
critical acclaim with its boldest and most ambitious album yet, but
was instead urged by skittish Reprise execs to make the record more
"radio friendly." When Wilco wouldn't give, they found themselves
without a label. Instead, they used the Internet to introduce the
album to their fans, and eventually sold the record to Nonesuch,
another division of Warner. Wilco was vindicated when the album
debuted at No. 13 on the "Billboard" charts and posted the band's
strongest sales to date.
"Wilco: Learning How to Die" traces the band's story to its deepest
origins in Southern Illinois, where Jeff Tweedy began growing into
one of the best songwriters of his generation. As we witness how
his music grew from its punk and alt-country origins, some of the
key issues and questions in our culture are addressed: How is music
of substance created while the gulf between art and commerce widens
in the corporate consolidation era? How does the music industry
make or break a hit? How do working musicians reconcile the rewards
of artistic risk with the toll it exacts on their personal
life?
This book was written with the cooperation of Wilco band members
past and present. It is also fully up to date, covering the latest
changes in personnel and the imminent release of the band's fifth
album, "A Ghost Is Born," sure to be one of the most talked-about
albums of 2004.
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