KEY POINTS:
Wilco are a band ahead of their time.
They may not always sound it. After all, their roots go way back - they emerged during the rise of alternative country in the early 90s - but their sound has also suggested those formative influences didn't stray far down rock's alphabet with its hints of The Band, the Beach Boys, Beatles and The Byrds. And they helped record two albums of unreleased songs by political folk pioneer Woody Guthrie.
But ahead of their time they are, on many fronts.
While Radiohead got much attention last year for letting people have their album on the internet for next to nothing, free of record company ties, Wilco did that back in 2002 with their fourth set, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.
It had been rejected by their major label Reprise which dropped them, only for the album to become the band's most acclaimed work and biggest seller.
The band has also been called "the American Radiohead" for their mix of art and heart. But given Wilco opened the door to this brave new world of stream-it-then-sell-it, does that make the Oxford mob "the English Wilco?"
"Yeah, the poor sons of bitches," laughs Wilco leader Jeff Tweedy down the line from a snowy day in hometown Chicago. He doesn't mind the comparison, even if musically speaking it's not that accurate.
"I have always taken it as a compliment. I have certainly never felt anybody said that to be mean to us."
Though Tweedy says Radiohead is in a bigger league and when they made their In Rainbows available last year, he was happy an act of their size had found another web-based model to get their music out there. "It was definitely a sense of `finally - it's about time that somebody did that'. The only thing that was shocking to me was how many people perceived it to be a risk when basically what they are doing is taking money for nothing. When somebody downloads it there isn't one less of anything and basically when they say `give us whatever you want they are saying you guys are going to do this anyway so why don't you give us a little bit of money', which is what we've been saying for years."
When Wilco's 2004 album A Ghost is Born was released, they also made it available on the web before its release and any fans who wanted to contribute for the download could pay a donation to charity Doctors Without Borders.
There's another reason the Radiohead comparison applies. Like that band they've been out in experimental territory on their pre-2007 albums, dabbling with electronics and studio technology but on their most recent, Sky Blue Sky, they've consolidated to an approach where they sound like a band again.
Part of the reason of that, says Tweedy, is that they are a band again - this is the first album from the sextet after line-up upheavals and other dramas of the Yankee Hotel Foxtrot/Ghost is Born years which left Tweedy and bassist John Sirratt the only original members of the band that formed in 1994.
Sky Blue Sky also follows the great live set Kicking Television: Live in Chicago.
"That was the first step of reclaiming the past and Sky Blue Sky was the first step of establishing our present and I think that the next record will obviously be in the future so that's where we are headed."
Sky Blue Sky had its detractors, saying the band had turned down the experimentation which marked out Yankee Hotel Foxtrot/Ghost is Born too much. The notion still amuses Tweedy.
"I had never anticipated that would end up being one of the more controversial records of all the ones we put out. I would have thought people would have got on board with it a lot easier. It's just some songs and there is really not much to it and you don't have to reinvent the wheel every time. That was the whole idea and some people just really felt strongly that was a step backward or something.
"To me I never looked at it as being forwards or backwards. I don't subscribe to any notions of low art or high art.
"We are just trying to do something that sounds good to us."
"If we had made another record which leaned heavily on influences like modern composition or experimental music or something like that I think people would have cried foul that we were treading water or something. Fortunately for us there are more people weighing in and complaining than ever before. That's great. I have always felt that is a sign of something being very right."
What SBS might lack for in confrontational edges - its predecessor Ghost had a track, Less Than You Think, which was a 15-minute electronic drone - it makes up for in sheer guitar thrills.
The track Side for the Seeds, for instance, gives off the sort of fireworks that harks back to Television's classic epic Marquee Moon - this is the album upon which guitarist Nels Cline, who before joining Wilco in 2004 had an impressive career as a jazz/avant garde player, made his presence felt.
"We didn't set out to sound exactly like Television or anything but the idea of having an epic guitar track was appealing because of that influence. Television and Marquee Moon in general are a great touchstone for everybody in the band. When you listen to [Sky Blue Sky] there are a lot of instances where the band is feeling for common ground - there are a lot of musicians from a very different backgrounds.
"I love playing the guitar. I love having Nels Kline in the band, not only Nels but Pat [Sansone] - he's a really fantastic guitar player. Having three guitarists in the band - I'm not saying we aren't knuckleheads, we probably still are - but at least we are patient and considerate enough of each other to have three guitars on one track and to be able to hear each of them which is a real accomplishment."
But it wasn't enough to win them Best Rock Album at the Grammys, which Tweedy and the band attended a few days before this interview.
"We felt like plumbers at a flower convention."
The award went to the Foo Fighters, which Tweedy is philosophical about, though his 8- and 12-year-old sons have stronger views.
"They were much more bitter than I was about our loss at the Grammys the other night - they don't call the Foo Fighters the Foo Fighters any more, they call them the Poo Fighters."
Wilco have only played in New Zealand once before in an afternoon second-stage slot at the Big Day Out in 2003 where, frankly they looked like wanted to be somewhere else.
The following year Tweedy checked himself into rehab for an addiction to prescription painkillers he had been taking to treat chronic migraines.
"Especially around that time it wasn't a particularly healthy time for me in a lot of ways. I don't think we've ever played in New Zealand firing on all cylinders. I'm really anxious to get to do that."
He laughs when he's told he's playing a blues festival here, despite not quite being the 12-bar types.
"You know what I stopped asking why people hire us for different things. We get asked to play jazz festivals. We get asked to play Lollapalooza, Coachella, we get asked to play the Newport Folk festival. I think it's a good sign that people invite us and feel what we are doing is going to be respectful to the different traditions."
Though don't expect Wilco to be jamming with fellow Windy City star Buddy Guy on the blues night.
"As long as we don't have to get up and play Sweet Home Chicago."
But Wilco's hometown is an exciting place to be these days with the rise of Barack Obama.
In another case of Wilco being ahead of their time, Tweedy and the band knew Obama before he was famous, working for his campaign for the US Senate and more recently playing a Chicago benefit for the presidential hopeful.
"There is an enormous amount of energy and hope in this community and the United States in general revolving around Barack Obama's campaign.
"It's been really heartwarming to see, and encouraging. He's out there melting hearts. There are a lot of people in our country who have felt really left out of the political process and completely turned off by their government, policies and actions. And to have somebody come around and really reinvigorate people's passion for their ability to participate in a democracy is I think the best thing that has happened in my lifetime."
"We have known him for a long time and he actually knows us by name. I never would have imagined it but we potentially know a sitting president and that sounds totally crazy. I am pretty proud of him other than that. I think it's a remarkable thing.
So all going well, how's that inauguration show looking?
"Well that is what we said in 2004 when he introduced us at Farm Aid. I asked him if we could play the inauguration. At that time he said `if Hillary invites us'. It was before he had announced his run. I am crossing my fingers."
LOWDOWN
Who: Wilco, great American rock left-fielders
Line-up: Jeff Tweedy (vocals, guitar), John Stirratt (bass), Nels Cline (guitar), Glenn Kotche (drums), Pat Sansone (multi-instrumentalist), Mikael Jorgensen (piano)
Albums: A.M. (1995), Being There (1996), Summerteeth (1999), Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2002), A Ghost is Born (2004), Kicking Television: Live in Chicago (2005), Sky Blue Sky (2007)
Playing: Coromandel Blues and Roots Music Festival, Whitianga, Saturday March 22, Bruce Mason Centre, Sunday March 23.
