Jeff Tweedy’s all for German engineering. Unless you live under a rock rock, you know by now that Wilco has licensed the entirety of Sky Blue Sky to Volkswagen for use in a series of commercials that the hipper-than-thou car manufacturer will run through the summer of 2007.
I’m torn on this little dance. On the one hand, I completely support an artist’s right to do whatever he, she, or they see fit with their creation – if that means selling it to a corporate entity for marketing purposes, so be it. The other hand is giving that idea the finger, because Wilco is probably my favorite band and I’m not looking forward to hearing “That’s The Thanks I Get” in a commercial by the same company that resurrected that ridiculous Trio song to sell the public on the fact that you can fit a stinky couch in a Golf.

The Wilco message board Via Chicago has been abuzz with fan chatter about the situation, and everyone from major music websites to Tweedy’s brother-in-law have weighed in. There’s no way this wasn’t calculated – anyone who’s seen the Wilco doc I Am Trying To Break Your Heart knows the lengths Tweedy will go to in protecting his music, to the point of being dropped from his label for not conforming their Yankee Hotel Foxtrot masterpiece to the label’s specifications. If Tweedy sees Volkswagen as a worthy partner to his tunes, then real Wilco fans should accept that. To put it more plainly, if you’re still listening to that ripped copy of Sky Blue Sky that leaked several months ago, you’ve got no say in how a band makes its money.

You be the judge.

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