Finding a new avenue

Most of us first became aware of Wilco via Mermaid Avenue, the US y'alternative band's 1998 collaboration with British leftie troubadour Billy Bragg. A collection of lost Woody Guthrie lyrics set to music, the album cemented Bragg's folk-hero status, and showed that Wilco had the power to walk proudly in Guthrie's dirt-caked footsteps. Led by singer-songwriter Jeff Tweedy, Wilco began life as Uncle Tupelo, early 1990s purveyors of insurgent country or "No Depression" music, whose exponents also included Buffalo Tom, The Jayhawks and Soul Asylum. Uncle Tupelo released four acclaimed albums before breaking up, and Wilco's debut, A.M., marked Tweedy's shift from country rock into poppier, more upbeat territory. The band's current album, Summerteeth, has been described by Tweedy as "kind of a twisted pop record", and features some of the catchiest pop tunes this side of the Rockies, including the riff-driven recent single, Can't Stand It.