True, there are dozens of double albums available for such analysis. But at the same time, when a double album like Being There comes around-- one that is all rickety and riffy, sprawling and more ambitious than anything Tweedy has ever attempted -- thoughts of Exile are not much of a stretch. Tweedy surely recognizes this, and his rejection of such a concept is half-hearted at best. After all, it could be worse than to have a record compared to one of the most adventurous efforts by one of the greatest rock bands in history, you know?

In the meantime, though, many among Tweedy's rabid fan base are crying foul for their own reasons. As much as the Stones lurk in Wilco's second record, so do the Beach Boys, Big Star, the Kinks and the Replacements. We're talking piano, pop hooks and fits of thrashy din, a polar opposite to the motives for Tweedy's rock 'n' roll deification. His torch is supposed to burn in the name of the post-punk country rock that he and Son Volt's Jay Farrar molded over four albums as Uncle Tupelo, a band that lives larger in retrospect than it ever did when it actually existed. Today, there is a ground swell of bands that cite UT as an influence and a national fanzine (No Depression) that takes its name from the Carter Family song for which UT's first album was named. ("If it was devoted to the Carter Family I'd feel more comfortable with it," he says.) So when Wilco gets Sonic Youth-like for a spell on the album-opener, "Misunderstood," or carves out a song like "Outta Mind (Outta Sight)," which sounds more like the theme to Sesame Street than anything country-rock godfather Gram Parsons ever recorded, it's like brown acid to a twang-fixated Tupelo-head.

Tweedy's quick to defend the 19 new shots of rock 'n' roll from Wilco, whose lineup includes the final UT rhythm section of John Stirratt and Ken Coomer, multi-instrumentalist Bob Egan and guitarist/keyboardist Jay Bennett, the latter possessing an art-pop sensibility whose imprint is substantial on Being There. "I don't think Being There is as country-based as some of our older material, but at the same time I also think it probably has more pure country inspiration than [Wilco's 1995 debut] A.M. did," he says." A.M. was like pop songs with dobro. This one actually has some songs that I think are more traditional chord progressions." Plus, as a child of the '70s, it should be no shock that such sounds on Being There have surfaced. How could he not play a Keith Richards riff? Besides, this is the guy who once recorded a homage to D. Boon, the late lead singer of the totally genre-bent '80s critical fave the Minutemen. In other words, Tweedy already warned the world that rules were made to be broken.

			"Outtasite (Outta Mind)"
			"Kingpin"
			"I Got You"

If it is any consolation to the brokenhearted, Tweedy's heart still lies with the rural sounds. Take "Satan, Your Kingdom Must Come Down," a traditional folk song that Uncle Tupelo once covered. Says Tweedy: "That's more intense than Black Flag. There's something more real and scary about it. As real as punk rock is, it's still performance. A lot of those [traditional] recordings are field recordings. Those people didn't even know what they sounded like. They weren't doing it for any other reason than to feel better or to express something."