Ok, so the recent news about Golden Smog is not just about Tweedy in particular…but this specific piece of news is most relevant to me in terms of Jeff Tweedy.
I read on Pitchfork the other day that Golden Smog is recording a new album (link). The news somehow made a lot of sense. Jeff Tweedy has been Mr Indy Art Musician now since Yankee Hotel Foxtrot came out over the web in 2001. And here he is going back to his alt.country roots for an album with his old buddies. After the last Wilco album, A Ghost is Born, received lukewarm reviews and in my opinion sounded very similar to, though less ambitious than, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and other recent Wilco/Tweedy EPs (More Like the Moon EP and Loose Fur), I wondered how long it would take Tweedy to go another direction. Think of his post-Uncle Tupelo career progression just with Wilco: A.M. (1995) to Being There (1996) to Summerteeth (1999) to Foxtrot (2002) to Ghost is Born (2004) to Kicking Television (2005). Lots of change and very little time in between different creative periods, except for the last four years. (I can’t believe, as I’m writing this, that A.M. came out ten years ago!). The Billy Bragg Mermaid Avenue albums came out before Foxtrot, too. And the last Golden Smog album (of three) came out in 1998, which was before Summerteeth. Summary of all of this is that Tweedy has maybe been in a little bit of a rut lately with the Jim O’Rourke sound, and though he had long abandonded alt.country maybe remergence of Golden Smog hints that he’s now turning to nostalgia for some new inspiration. I do specifically remember an article that was in the Chicago Tribune during the Foxtrot period (circa 2001) whcn he was fighting to shed the alt.country label and said that he was glad that artists like Ryan Adams were writing great songs in that style but that he was interested in going other directions.
Anyway, I think I’m putting way too much thought into this post! But I’m interested to hear the new album regardless. And judging by the track names, an alt.country flavor is not just speculation:
01 You Make It Easy
02 Another Fine Day
03 5-22-02
04 Long Time Ago
05 Corvette
06 Beautiful Mind
07 Listen Joe
08 Cure for This
09 Hurricane
10 Strangers
11 Frying Pan Eyes
12 Gone
13 Never Felt Before
14 I Can
15 Think About Yourself
Finally, the first time I saw Jeff Tweedy on stage was not with Wilco or Tupelo, but with Golden Smog in ~1995 or so. What goes around, comes around, I suppose.
