Photo: Retna
A couple days ago, we hit up the "50th Anniversary Jazzmaster Concert" at New York's Knitting Factory. In 1958, Fender introduced the Jazzmaster guitar, as a higher-end option to axes like the Stratocaster and Telecaster.

On the Nudie Suits:

Well, it was all Jeff's Tweedy's idea, certainly, and Jeff bought them for the band. So I asked if they had a Day of the Dead style suit -- with a skull and cross bones. And they said, "Well, yeah. Look at the jpeg. So I picked that one and I asked for angels on the back shoulders, which they added.

How long did the process take?

 It was kind of a rushed job. The idea was born three months before Lollapalooza and it takes at least two months to get the suit, and they had to make not only enough for the whole band with different designs and different colors, but Jeff also ordered jackets for the Total Pros, our horn section. I think he just wanted to show to be very special for the local audience, for the Lollapalooza audience. Something for the local fans. And then we did wear them again at Tanglewood this year. 

They're actually strangely comfortable to wear. It's hard for me to wear a jacket and rock out. I don't do it normally. But certainly in the service of the nudie suit glamour, one must suffer for fashion. I just kept looking around at everybody going, '"Damn! They look good!"

When you walked on stage at Lollapalooza, did you notice the crowd digging on the suits?

People freaked out. You know, they're made to look good up close and far away, glittering the whole time. Jeff's suit is the red one with the Korean Cat of Prosperity that's in all the sushi bars, the waving cat. I mean, that alone as an idea is so marvelous to me. John [Stirratt] had the nautical one with the short-waist jacket, a-la Flying Burrito Brothers. Mike [Jorgenson] with his green one with the owls all over it and the phases of the moon going down the legs. Oh, man! They really mind-blowing. And they look so lovely under the lights. I felt fancy. It fit perfectly too.

On Wilco's new disc:

We'll be recording throughout all of October at the Loft [Wilco's studio in Chicago]. TJ Doherty, who engineered Sky Blue Sky, is going to be there with us. Jeff's got a lot of tunes he's been writing. We're just trying to keep up with his output right now. We've demoed about ten songs over the summer. We'll have a surplus and then we'll be deciding what the album really is and what the statement is, which is Jeff's world, basically. And then we'll go in and re-record them and really do some stuff with them. I think sonically it's going to be a much wilder, much more unexpected record. The songs he's writing are beautiful and classic so I can't even really envision what it's going to be like when it's done. There's going to be too much to chose from. 

Right now it's an embarrassment of riches, for sure. 

On the Jazzmaster guitar:

The reason I play a Fender Jazzmaster is because of people like Tom Verlaine and Thurston Moore. These guys have played these guitars forever. I feel like the newbie—I've only been playing mine for 13 years.

Ultimately, when I heard Tom Verlaine play guitar on Marquee Moon, I thought it didn't matter what the guitar was, I just liked the guitar playing. But I started listening to Sonic Youth and was extremely taken with them; Lee and Thurston can tell you I was the most geeked-out Sonic Youth fan. 

So the Jazzmaster is a crucial and perfect instrument for me. I've acquired quite a few over the years, thanks to Uncle Wilco. I think I have about seven now. I bought the guitar I'm playing tonight from Mike Watt in 1995 and I've been playing it ever since.