Wilco change directions, eye spring for new album

Tweedy and Wilco go experimental...again
Tweedy and Wilco go experimental...again

Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy says that fans can likely expect the band's seventh studio album in the spring of '09.

"We'll allow ourselves a little bit more leeway in terms of sculpting the sound in the studio and doing overdubs and using the studio as another instrument," says Tweedy of the changes in Wilco's sound. "Last time around, it was more of a document."

Last year's Sky Blue Sky was fairly traditional-sounding alt-country album, and a marked departure from Wilco 's previous efforts, the moody, sonically experimental Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and A Ghost Is Born.

Tweedy admits that he"kinda hates" all of Wilco's other albums, because "none of them are a statement that I would be comfortable making right now at this point in my life. They all served their purpose, and in that respect I'm proud of all of them.

"But as something that feels artistically in keeping with who I am today, I think that they are inevitably going to fall short of that as time goes on. I mean, they just don't continue to mean the same things to me, and a new record is kind of where it's at."

Joe Bosso

Joe is a freelance journalist who has, over the past few decades, interviewed hundreds of guitarists for Guitar WorldGuitar PlayerMusicRadar and Classic Rock. He is also a former editor of Guitar World, contributing writer for Guitar Aficionado and VP of A&R for Island Records. He’s an enthusiastic guitarist, but he’s nowhere near the likes of the people he interviews. Surprisingly, his skills are more suited to the drums. If you need a drummer for your Beatles tribute band, look him up.