Put simply, there is no better American band than Wilco. Their latest album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot continues to unfold itself after repeated listenings, and to see them in concert is to see everything that is smart, heartbreaking and ballsy about rock ‘n’ roll. Inspired, inspiring stuff.
It’s our fortune, then, that director/photographer Sam Jones had the foresight to document the creation of YHF. The finished film, I Am Trying to Break Your Heart, finds Wilco not only in the midst of creating their stunning record but in the center of a record industry shakedown. It is part behind-the-scenes documentary, part modern-music parable with plenty of human drama.
The film begins innocently enough with the band working out the arrangements to “Poor Places,” with singer-songwriter Jeff Tweedy poo-pooing the over-loud claves and multi-instrumentalist Jay Bennett adding some honky-tonk piano to the tune. From these scenes it’s clear that Jones could have made an entire film about recording the record and it would have been just as interesting.
As Wilco completes their most mammoth album, the focus of the movie begins to shift. Their record label, Reprise, stalls the record and demands that changes be made. From an industry standpoint, Wilco isn’t commercially viable and a record with detached lyrics and ambient tones isn’t going to leap off the charts. Soon enough Wilco are released from their contract with record in tow and go off to find a new home.
There is no doubt that Reprise made a mistake in letting this gem get away, but the issue isn’t as black and white as this film would like it to be. Sure, Reprise (and parent company Warner Brothers) is a part of big business, which is not a friendly place for critically acclaimed art-rockers like Wilco.
This isn’t a David and Goliath tale. Manager Tony Margherita comes off as a cell phone-wielding shark, and the band is hardly doe-eyed about the business aspects. The scene in which Tweedy signs the new record contract on Nonesuch is creepily anti-climatic.
The other big story in I Am Trying to Break Your Heart is the dissolution of the friendship between Bennett and the rest of the band. As the two strongest personalities in the band, Tweedy and Bennett would frequently butt heads over guitar leads, drum fills and other musical minutiae.
It’s not hard to see why he didn’t fit in the group: he’s a chain-smoking, wryly sarcastic goof who throws off the mellow shyness of the rest of the guys. Listening to Bennett claim that Tweedy felt “threatened” by him is borderline ridiculous, but hearing the Wilco clan say he “wore out his welcome” in a band he helped shape seems unnecessarily cruel.
But in the end, Wilco is stronger than ever, after making the album of their career, conquering the record industry and starring in a fine film to boot. It should be understood that if you like Wilco’s music, your appreciation of I Am Trying to Break Your Heart will be much improved, but even casual music fans will learn something from this film; about how great music is made, how crooked the record industry is and how art really does imitate life.
I Am Trying to Break Your Heart opens Friday at the Tivoli and runs through Oct. 17.
