The Get Up Kids' guitarist Jim Suptic is estatic to be playing with critic-favorite rock group, Wilco.

"It's about the coolest thing. I mean, the fact that we get to play too is cool," Suptic said. "It's cool to play with bands you respect."

The Get Up Kids and Wilco will be headlining the annual Movin' On Festival Saturday on HUB Lawn.

After the release of its last album, On A Wire, Suptic and the rest of the Get Up Kids were ready to make a bigger, fuller rock record. On A Wire marks a more mature and slower style for the band, but all this is about to change.

"It's a loud rock record. It doesn't sound like anything we've done so far," Suptic said.

Nothing really brought this change on for the band, Suptic said. After writing some songs in its own Eudora, Kan. studio, the band just realized it is starting to rock harder.

"We've been listening to a lot of rock 'n' roll," Suptic said. "I think it'll translate better to the live show."

The decision was made to purchase a studio in its hometown because the band wanted to help support the budding Kansas scene and also allow itself to work on music whenever time allows.

"I don't know any band who wouldn't want to own their own studio," Suptic said. "It's like a little headquarters for us."

Dismissing the band's "emo" label and citing diverse musical influences like Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and Wilco, Suptic said he doesn't like being lumped into one category.

"We're influenced by too many things," Suptic said. "We don't really care, it's always been that way. If we were around in 1993, we just would have been called 'indie rock.' "

Still, Suptic said it's hard for the band to be stuck with other groups called "emo" that it doesn't really respect.

"I won't name names," Suptic said. "You wouldn't know them, they suck ... I'm not a huge fan of bands that are 30-year-olds who dress and act like 16-year-olds."

Ever since the release of its debut Four Minute Mile, to its well-known Something to Write Home About, the Get Up Kids have retained its fan base. The Get Up Kids have an underground indie rock following and Suptic said the fans' loyalty is important to the band.

"We have the type of fans who buy our records and see us live," Suptic said.

And with its live show comes a chance to see the Get Up Kids do what it does best.

"It's just us being stupid, acting like ourselves," Suptic said. "We're not Aerosmith or anything. There's no pyrotechnics."

Its past albums went through a wide variety of emotions that Suptic said could be summed up as "crap that happens to us," but the work the band is currently recording goes into unmapped territory for the Get Up Kids.

"There's a song about a serial killer and some pseudo-political things," Suptic said. "It's not 'I love you baby, I miss you, high school was so great.' "

Now that the group members are hitting their late 20s, the Get Up Kids' material is stretching out.

"We are becoming adults, having babies, getting married," Suptic said. "Besides, there are enough love songs in the world."

Fans can expect the Get Up Kids to play some new stuff, but not too many because the band knows fans want to hear its popular songs, Suptic said.

"We'll do maybe one or two new songs," Suptic said. "We make an effort not to try too many new songs live."

After a year of controversy and critic appraisal, alt-country group Wilco is going to be playing on HUB Lawn, a fact that surprised Mike McBurney, a head clerk at Mike's Music and Video, 1613 N. Atherton St.

McBurney, who considers himself a Wilco fan, said he is looking forward to the show and thinks some big things will come from the group when it hits the stage.

"I'm thrilled for Wilco, and it's possibly the first time I'll see a headliner that gives a performance I expect," McBurney said.

Forming out of the ashes of the act Uncle Tupelo, Wilco has garnered a following from rock fans and critics alike. The band released its first album, A.M., in 1995 to limited success, but 1996 saw the release of the 2-disc album, Being There. Three years later, the band released the atmospheric pop-rock album Summerteeth and also two albums made with Billy Bragg featuring Woody Guthrie tunes, (Mermaid Ave. Vol. I and Mermaid Ave. Vol. II.)

In 2002, Wilco released the album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Through battling with its record label Reprise, subsequently being dropped from its label and selling the record to another label, Wilco kept the album intact, artistic experimentation and all.

Rolling Stone called Yankee Hotel Foxtrot "The Classic Album That Almost Wasn't." It was on many critics' favorite lists for 2002, including Rolling Stone and Spin magazines.

Ken Kubala, a manager at City Lights Records, 316 E. College Ave., said he is going to see Wilco, and said he can see a progression in the band's work.

"They've changed with every album," Kubala said. "They started out as rootsy-rock and then the band headed in a more Radiohead way."

McBurney said he would describe Wilco's music as grassroots sensibility mixed with modern rock.

"More than anything else, Wilco's music gives me a feeling it's purely American somehow," McBurney said. "Wilco just seems to be a logical progression of roots music."