Mommy, Mommy, Mommy!

Last night I was talking to a friend, and she was talking about a run-in years ago with some cops. She then said "dicks..." and I said "hate the police."

This is the thing, it sounds like a normal response, or like maybe I meant that I hate the police and that yes, I think they're dicks. Not quite. She said "Dicks," and the first thing I thought of was the song "Hate the Police" from the Dicks.

Then I started thinking this morning where I can use skills like that. Then I remembered that I already use those skills right here.

So, on Friday I picked up the album "Summerteeth" from Wilco. Outside of the recent live album "Kicking Television" and the "Mermaid Avenue" records, I now have everything from the band, and I fucking love it. I remember when this album came out in 1999, and hearing someone playing it at work. I liked it, but I had yet to become a Wilco fan.

Flash forward a couple years and I re-discovered the Wilco album "Being There" from 1997 (I think). I acquired it when working as the Music Director at WSGR-FM in Port Huron, MI. The album moved with me when I moved to Detroit in the summer of '97, but I didn't pay much attention to it until years later. I always liked it, and I knew there was something there, but I also knew it was something I had to sit on for awhile until my tastes caught up to it. So I got all fanatical about Being There, and then I went and bought "A.M." the first album, and a couple Uncle Tupelo albums (pre-Wilco Jeff Tweedy band), and then "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" came out. Of course, that changed everything. The band went places that were hinted at on "Summerteeth," but I didn't know that because I hadn't really paid attention to it. I just knew that YHF was progressive for what had come to be known as 'alt-country' (of which Wilco are flag-bearers). A couple years later "A Ghost Is Born" came out, and of course, that was even more progressive and quite far-removed from the alt-country scene they originally helped define.

So, lately I've been listening to a lot of the Wilco records as well as Ryan Adams' solo stuff. I was talking to a friend last week and she asked me what Wilco record is my favorite. I told her "Being There," and she said hers was "Summerteeth," and I realized I didn't have that one.

I bought it on Friday, and I don't know how I could've overlooked this. It's nothing like A.M., and a lot more like Being There in that it's poppy and there are some unusual elements (unusual to alt-country anyway) like slight electro things going on.

If you're into Wilco, love the lyrics, the progressive sound, and Jeff Tweedy's voice (an acquired taste for some), definitely check out Summerteeth.