 Jay Farrar , Jeff Tweedy and Mike Heidorn began their musical careers in the 1980s playing in a garage band , The Plebes . After a few gigs , creative differences between the members led to the development of a punk rock sound for the band . As punk rock was unpopular in the St. Louis region , the band changed their style to blues @-@ rock and renamed themselves Uncle Tupelo . At this point , they stopped performing covers and began to write their own songs . 
