By Eleni P. Austin
Wilco has been so good for so long that it’s easy to take them for granted. The band has been a going concern since 1994, rising from the ashes of alt.country progenitors, Uncle Tupelo.
Uncle Tupelo, along with the Jayhawks, pioneered the alt.country genre. Separately, each band blended the traditional Country sounds of the Carter Family, Hank Williams and Jimmie Rodgers with the DIY energy of Punk Rock.
Uncle Tupelo formed in Belleville, Illinois in 1987, the brainchild of high school pals Jeff Tweedy and Jay Farrar. The duo had already cycled through Garage bands with names like The Plebes and The Primitives. Uncle Tupelo presented a radical change in direction, but the trio charted their own course. They released two albums, No Depression and Still Feel Gone, through the tiny indie label, Rockville.
Peter Buck, guitarist for R.E.M., was so impressed with Uncle Tupelo he offered to produce their third effort in his studio, gratis. That record, entitled March 16-20, 1992, garnered enough attention to get them signed to Sire Records, (home to Madonna, the Smiths, the Cure, Talking Heads, k.d. lang and the Ramones).
Unfortunately, by the time their major label debut, Anodyne, arrived in 1993, the bloom was off the rose. Farrar quit the band in early 1994, noting that his relationship with Tweedy was less symbiotic and more combative.
Jay Farrar went on to form the band Son Volt and has also recorded solo albums. Tweedy and the remaining Uncle Tupelo members became Wilco, signing with Reprise Records; originally a boutique label that Frank Sinatra began in 1960, Reprise, along with Sire, Atlantic, Elektra and Asylum was subsumed by the giant Warner Music conglomerate.
Wilco’s debut, A.M. arrived in the Spring on 1995, slightly ahead of Son Volt’s Trace. Both hewed pretty closely to the alt.country paradigm Tweedy and Frarrar patented in Uncle Tupelo. Each album received critical acclaim, but Son Volt had bigger sales.
Wilco doubled down on their on their sophomore effort, both in ambition and scope. A 19 song, two CD set, the music on Being There represented a great leap forward for the band. Their alt.country sound was a springboard for myriad styles including Psychedelia and Power Pop. It also fared better on the charts.
Sessions for what would be the band’s third album, Summerteeth, began in 1997. Tweedy was experiencing growing pains as a husband and new father, and it was reflected in the music.
Midway through recording, the band began collaborating with British Folk/Punk troubadour Billy Bragg, writing music for a trove of recently discovered lyrics from the father of Folk music, the late Woody Guthrie. The resulting album, Mermaid Avenue was released in 1998, (with a sequel, Mermaid Avenue II popping up in 2000).
Summerteeth was completed and released in 1999. It was another left turn for the band. Banjo and lap steel were relegated to guest appearances on just a couple of tracks. The lush melodies and gorgeous harmonies were accented by mellotron, tambourine and synthesizers. Again, the reviews were great and sales were middling.
By 2001, Wilco turned their fourth album, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot into to their label. The Warner Music Group had gone through some changes since the band had signed with Reprise 6 years earlier. Now the label was refusing to release the record. The band actually bought the album back and to combat pirated copies flooding the inter-webs, they began streaming it for free.
Both Artemis Records and Nonesuch each offered to sign the band, and Wilco ended up at Nonesuch (ironically, another subsidiary of Warner Music). Yankee…, now something of a cause celebre, officially arrived in April 2002 to rapturous and unanimous critical praise. It was also a huge commercial hit, peaking at #13 on the Billboard charts.
Less than two years later, Wilco had recorded their fourth long-player, A Ghost Is Born. They started a tour in advance of the album’s release, but their momentum was temporarily halted when Jeff Tweedy entered rehab for an addiction to pain killers. (He had suffered from migraines since childhood, once missing 40 days of elementary school).
Shaggy and slightly more adventurous, Ghost …. was rewarded with rave reviews and commercial success that exceeded their wildest expectations. The record debuted at #8 on the Billboard Charts, and winning a Grammy for Best Alternative Music Album.
Throughout Wilco’s career, the only constant members have been Jeff Tweedy and bassist John Stirrat. Since 2004 the line-up has remained pretty consistent with the addition of drummer Glenn Kotche, lead guitarist Nels Cline and multi-instrumentalists Mikael Jorgenson and Pat Sansone.
Since then, Wilco has released three more superlative efforts. Blue Sky Blue in 2007, (which debuted at #4 on the Billboard charts and sold 87,000 copies), benefitted from Nels Cline’s guitar hero pyrotechnics. Two years later they released probably their most accessible album to date, whimsically entitled Wilco (The Album). In 2011, the band started their own label, dBpm Records, the inaugural release was their eighth album, The Whole Love.
The last four years have been a bit of a hiatus for Wilco, band members concentrated on side-projects and solo efforts. Jeff Tweedy worked steadily as a producer, most recently with Mavis Staples and Richard Thompson. He also formed the band TWEEDY with his son, Spencer, in 2014 they released their debut, Sukierae.
Two months ago, Wilco surprised and delighted the world by streaming their ninth album, Star Wars for free. Tweedy has been quoted in interviews saying he picked the title at random. Stating he was completely oblivious about the new “Star Wars” movie that will be in December.
This seems somewhat disingenuous, as it’s the most hotly anticipated movie of 2015. Even people who don’t give two shits about the franchise, (including the person who writes the column you are reading), can’t help but be aware of the constant hype. Whatever, Jeff!
In any case, Wilco’s Star Wars has just been released on CD. The album opens with a skronky, off-kilter instrumental, “EKG,” before kicking into gear with the one-two punch of “More…” and “Random Name Generator.”
“More…” splits the difference between the early ‘70s Glitter-Rock that David Bowie and T-Rex popularized and the noisy, Industrial music that was briefly in vogue in the ‘90s. Acoustic and electric guitars spiral and collide as Tweedy affects his best “Ziggy Stardust” alien vocals. The lyrics take some subtle jabs at mass consumption.
“Random Name Generator” is slightly more frenetic. The rhythms skitter and lurch under cyclonic guitar riffs. Tweedy implores the listener to “listen to the weed whistle way” before confiding “I want to name every new born child.” Weird, but wonderful!
“You Satellite,” “Where Do I Begin” and “Pickled Ginger” each feel like a sideways homage to the Velvet Underground and the late Lou Reed. The former begins tentatively, then guitars whoosh and vroom through a cavernous melody. Tweedy’s vocals are detached and oddly sepulchral. The opaque lyrics seem more intent on rhyming reunite, dynamite and satellite than telling a story. But the song builds to a swirly crescendo.
“Where Do I Begin” is initially more stripped-down, just Tweedy’s warm vocals and a strum-y amplified acoustic guitar. The lyrics seem to plead for romantic rapprochement, but also include non sequiturs like “forever in debt to the stomach.” Suddenly the tempo locks into a martial cadence, propelled by a looped drum track.
“Pickled Ginger” is positively schizophrenic. Down-tuned, Sabbath-y guitars ride roughshod over a thumpy back beat and moody V.U. keys. Muscular guitar riffs strafe and grind before the whole thing shudders to a stop.
Stylistically, Wilco is all over the map here, (really, what else is new?). “The Joke Explained” is a twitchy samba that adds layers of Glam-tastic guitars and shares some musical DNA with Bob Dylan’s “Just Like A Woman.”
The best song here is the warm, alt.country ramble, “Taste The Ceiling.” Powered by ringing, rustic guitar licks, pedal steel, piano and a graceful mellotron wash. It harks back to simpler times.
Other interesting tracks include the prickly “Cold Slope.” The song is fueled by splinky guitar riffs, menacing bass lines and a hopscotch beat. Again, the lyrics offer a mix of specious jabberwocky; “And I won’t atone, take some wild bile wicked entrees over chant lace façade.” Oh, okay.
“King Of You” weds a leap-frog rhythm and herky-jerk bass fills to centrifugal guitar licks. The song slowly gathers momentum only to stop short. (Much like Frank Costanza used to on “Seinfeld.”) The album closes with “Magnetized.” Simultaneously dour and Beatlesque, it’s propelled by downcast piano notes, cascading drums and Moog synths.
Star Wars is full of great songs, but that doesn’t necessarily make it a great record. The overall vibe of the album seems haphazard and slapdash. But who knows, for Wilco, maybe that is the point.
