bottom line is I'd have a hard time putting them on any short list of all-time great rock bands when their 'discography' boasts not a single solitary game-changer on the landscape of the genre in song or album form (nobody that doesn't own Yankee Hotel Foxtrot could name two songs off it before you mention that one).

Wilco's documentary film was a sleepy black-and-white centered around whether they might get dropped from their label-deal and whether or not Jeff Tweedy felt like listening to Jay Bennett anymore, The Band's was a veritable Last Supper spanning multiple generations of American music cited by many as one of if not the best concert film ever made.

Is Jeff Bridges a better actor than Robert Deniro, Al Pacino or Jack Nicholson because he's still around making solid films while those guys burned out a decade ago & are clearly just cashing paychecks at this point?

Or could it be that while those guys were under the hot lights giving tour-de-force performances in some of the best films ever made Bridges was humming along under the radar in stuff like Rancho Deluxe or Hearts of the West?

Strike that though, because Bridges is at least a peer of those guys & a better actor than Wilco is a band.

You only get so much time to be at the creative/cultural zeitgeist of your art form but you absolutely cannot be on the short list without having been there for at least a time.

You need albums, songs, moments that people can point to, it's the reason why Guns N' Roses only lasted about four years as a functioning unit but still made a bigger contribution to rock music than Wilco has done in their twenty-plus year run.

Same reason Masta Ace isn't better than Rakim despite a career that's lasted longer as well.

This is why Wilco is not only opening for an ancient Neil Young while in their prime but actually getting blown off the stage doing it.

I like Wilco but they ain't even on the Black Crowes level let alone The Band or The Stones.

'Discography' is a cute end-around to inflate a perfectly solid band that's proven to have a long shelf life in their lane for the purposes of this post but 'nah man, I ain't buyin it'(c)Ms Melodie