Uncle Tupelo - OPO

album: Anodyne

I am changing my vote to "Looking For a Way Out"

Jeff: I Wish My Baby Was Born
Jay: 15 Keys
Neither: Sandusky

cover of "I Wanna Be Your Dog" off the compilation
"Coalminers"

Whiskey Bottle narrowly edges Slate

"Still Be Around" or "Watch Me Fall" imo

also Moonshiner

like goddamn

WELL I TOOK A FIFTH
AND I POURED ME A SHOT
AND I THOUGHT ABOUT ALL THE THINGS THAT I HAVEN'T GOT
AND I DRANK THAT DOWN AND I POURED ME SOME MORE
KEPT DRINKING AND POURIN TIL I FELT THE FLOOR

I GOT DRUNK AND I FELL DOWN
I GOT DRUNK AND I FELL DOWN

"Sandusky"

I was a huge fan of this band when they were around. They turned me on to old time music, which I still love, so I suppose they did change my life. I very rarely listen to them now.

The whole March 16-20 1992 album is pure classic. To pick one (from that LP) that no one else has so far mentioned, I would recommend Fatal Wound.

Sauget Wind is also classic. I must dig that 7" out and give it a listen.

Sauget Wind is like Nirvana at the Grand Ole Opry

This is really tough for me and I don't think I could OPO so I'll go with 3

Chickamauga
Acuff-Rose
Moonshiner

prob not my favorite, but spending hours as a youth aping the the guitar part to "new madrid" basically taught me how to play (however poorly)

so points fer that

A lead-off home run: Graveyard Shift, the 1st track off the 1st disc.

On the quieter side, Steal the Crumbs.

What happened to Jay, he could do no wrong for a few years.

Still Be Around - still sounds great and slays me everytime. Farrah's voice was at its best here

Farrar, sorry

What happened to Jay, he could do no wrong for a few years.
yeah, no kidding -- and I really tried to like almost all of his post Trace albums ... he is mostly just boring as hell these days.

they might have written "better" songs...but damn "graveyard shift" takes me back...plus the cowbell

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nblSYuIVGlU

^^cool clip i found

'trace' was great but everything since is ;_;

"drown" is a jam.

Fun Fact: Jeff Tweedy produced the first Dazzling Killmen album, bringing him within ONE degree of kevin bacon with Mars Volta and two degrees of kevin bacon with Deerhoof and two degrees of kevin bacon with robert plant and jimmy page.

'trace' is better than every wilco album, but there are several wilco albums better than every other son volt album. never figured back in the days that that's how it would all work out

yeah it's totally weird i always figured that tweedy was the "oates" of uncle tupelo...but give him credit he knew when to switch it up, farrar just kept plowing the same rut, a little worse each time.

What happened to Jay, he could do no wrong for a few years.

I remember seeing them just before Straightaways came out. It was like they had all taken barbituates or something. They somehow managed to play a slow version of Ten Second News, which, if you're familiar with the original, is a pretty impressive feat.

the harmonica solo on moonshiner fuckin kills me

yeah it's totally weird i always figured that tweedy was the "oates" of uncle tupelo...but give him credit he knew when to switch it up, farrar just kept plowing the same rut, a little worse each time.

otm, I liked Trace way way better than A.M. when Tupelo first broke up. now I'm still at least curious to hear it whenever Tweedy puts out a record but I doubt I've listened to Farrar's last four or five albums

http://www.upthedownstair.net/2006/06/show-74-uncle-tupelos-farewell.html

i learned how to play graveyard shift today btw :D :D

nice! when I played gtr I used to know Watch Me Fall

suitably ruff beginnings:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mxLWqNWnPw

whole bunch of the earlier stuff here: http://atruersound.blogspot.com

this guy has a load of great UT vids:

http://www.youtube.com/user/PantsElderly

"Sauget Wind": "nothing's free in this country and there's no place to hide", then the explosion: absolutely killer. Farrar knew his CCR and doubled down; also I figure they'd been listening to Weld for that guitar tone on the "chorus" (is that what you'd call it?). The "Effigy" cover takes this line a little further, with Big Bush and the Gulf War replacing Nixon and Vietnam. But OPO, man, I love this band more than you know, they were my life for a few great years. The cover of "Suzy Q" off The Long Cut EP (now on the Anodyne reissue) is as close to funk as these guys ever got; of course it fails at funk but each chorus just ramps up the fever and as a result it's terribly exciting. In fact that whole EP was awesome and I wish I had it on CD (it was promo only sadly).

I agree about Trace and Farrar's decline. In fact I think Trace starts wickedly for four songs and then fizzes out; the second half is a nodfest except for the touching cover of "Mystifies Me". The cover of "Tulsa County" that was on an EP before Straightaways was great too. Wow, it sounds like all I dig by these guys are the covers, but that's not true: "Chickamauga" is a really well-written song, both musically with all the starts and stops like in the old days, and lyrically, with the riffs on the TVA paralleling the decline of the band. When I saw Son Volt live after Straightaways, it was heartbreakingly boring (I'd driven three hours to see it on a school night) but they encored with a ferocious "Chickamauga" that was like, fuck guys can't you just play like THAT all night?

yeah that Long Cut EP was pretty tight -- I don't have it anymore, think I had taped it from someone. Totally agree about "Chickamauga" being a highlight of any early Son Volt show and you know why? Because Farrar plays lead guitar! He played lead throughout Uncle Tupelo and sounded great, in a Neil Young/Crazy Horse kinda way. But with Son Volt he barely ever played lead on record and only played occasionally live. i think that this is somehow related to his decline, I'm not sure how exactly. also the fact that he seems incapable of writing a love song.

One of my favorite hecklers was a guy getting shushed and tut-tutted by concerned fans at a Wilco show because he wouldn't stop yelling "PLAY 'CHICKAMAUGA'!!!"

The worried looks people were giving, like "I dearly hope this doesn't put Jeff in a mood." were priceless.

yeah, you're totally right, Jay only played lead on "Chickamauga" that night, and the other guy was ok but come on. You're right about love songs, but really I don't even know what he's writing about; at some point I figured out that he mostly got away with lyrics that are a series of cliches. I mean I love "Windfall" but really, "few and far between past the midnight hour, you're really not alone" and all of Trace reads this way. Well, I guess "here for now, transient tomorrow, we're all living proof that nothing lasts" is pretty good.

He did sing a love song at one point: their cover of "Blue Eyes" on the first Gram Parsons tribute album.

lol @ the dude yelling for Chickamauga at a Wilco show. But yeah, it's not so much that Jay should be writing love songs, it's just that his post-Trace songs seem so VAGUE. Or they're just kinda lamely political. i actually interviewed him a few years back and asked why he didn't play lead guitar much anymore and he seemed to think he wasn't all that good.

I used to listen to early Wilco boots and getting Jay song requests was pretty common. I remember being flushed with excitement (yeah, I know) when both bands were playing the same festival, hoping that they'd jam together again. My brother went to the show and told me that Jeff played around with it, at one point introducing the roadie JP by saying "I want to introduce a very special guest, on guitar, J...P" and the crowd pretty much cried.

wasn't all that good...fuck, just play him the Long Cut EP, but maybe that wouldn't help.

wilco SHOULD play chickamauga!

it was pretty weird the difference the two times i saw them...once was on the still feel gone tour, opening for the gear daddies "last show" in austin MN, run westy run was also on the bill...they were having so much fun...henneman played with them and tweedy was drunk and chewing tobacco...

later on saw them on the last tour...seemed so dour and tweedy and farrar took the farthest possible spots on stage to be away from each other...

I read the Wilco book by Greg Kot and evidently Jeff was into Jay's would-be wife, but Jay didn't have the nerve to talk to Jeff about it so it was passive aggression central. But the solos on that tour! It was worth it!

i never got to see Tupelo live, sadly -- I was underage during their last LA shows. my older brother went. and still brags about it.

yeah that was weird about tweedy hitting on farrar's wife, haha.

QUESTION: Why do you think the Rutles broke up?

MICK: Why do I think they did? Why did the Rutles break up? Women. Just women getting in the way. Cherchez la femme you know.

yeah I never saw UT live either, but I did see Wilco like a month after they formed. Still, I'm so sad I missed them.

yeah, they are probably not getting back together anytime. actually, i can imagine them doing a one-off someday far in the future, but they won't be touring or anything.

also, will co-sign with the "Sauget Wind" love -- had never heard that til the greatest hits thingamajig came out ... insanely good.

i have the sauget wind 45....

also they did a sweet ass cover of "i'm wanna destroy you" by soft boys on the b-side to "gun" (i think it was)

yeah that's a bonus track on the Still Feel Gone reissue, I think. speaking of which, around the time of those reissues, they talked about putting out a archival live release -- where is it?!

I love the UT boots I have, esp. from the last tour, and it would make for a fine release in its own right.

I had lots of rarities on cassette in my tape trading days; prob. it's easy now to get them now on mp3.

yeah i think a tape of the final UT show was the first internet music trade i ever was a part of ...

what are the best UT boots? I don't even have that final show anymore ... the only one I have is, I think, an acoustic radio show thing in Boston.

My one and only subscription list I ever belong to was an Uncle Tupelo list back around '98-'99. Big to-do over that Son Volt/Wilco potential match-up at the festival mentioned upthread. Lots of tape swapping.

i seem to recall both tweedy and farrar being weirded out early on by the level of obsessiveness there was on the internet surrounding tupelo/wilco/son volt, but for realz, you couldn't do much better than that fanbase -- those people actually BUY RECORDS. See the 100k first week sales of the new Wilco ...

The last few shows are great, kinda harrowing in the way the Long Cut EP tracks are. As Matt said, the earlier shows were really goofy; I had one where both guys are falling-down-drunk and Jay just keeps saying something stupid, again and again (I can't remember what anymore). I loved the "Coffee Creek" thing, Jeff and Jay and Brian Henneman, I think they do a sweet "Orange Blossom Special" (or maybe that's another early UT boot).

also:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdYYxBU1O4s

lol PP I was on that mailing list too, makes ILM look really casual by comparison

ha, euler. just noticed that http://gumbopages.com/uncle-tupelo.html is still up.

(The mailing list's name? Why, "Postcard", of course.)

yeah, Postcard was it; I joined Postcard 2 for a while too but the bands weren't really my thing. I left long before Wilco (sorta) broke but imagine they didn't take too kindly to Summerteeth or YHF.

"sandusky"

I dig the 7 rarities on the "Anthology" comp, which is also a handy overview of their best stuff.

"Moonshiner" or "Gun" would be my favorite by each.

I only just learned today they did a cover of The Soft Boys' "I Wanna Destroy You," so that.