Wilco evolved at remarkable speed after forming in 1994, almost immediately after the breakup of
Uncle Tupelo. Their debut album, 1995's
A.M., was an upbeat set of alt-country that bore few if any surprises, but 1996's
Being There was a major creative departure that moved far beyond the boundaries of roots music. 1999's
Summerteeth was initially controversial among fans because it marked the spot where
Wilco almost entirely abandoned the country influences that had once been the core of
Jeff Tweedy's music. Instead,
Tweedy and
Jay Bennett -- who had gone from being the group's guitarist to manning a massive bank of keyboards and becoming
Tweedy's primary collaborator in the studio -- concocted a stunning set of off-kilter pop, suggesting a Midwestern fusion of peak-era
Brian Wilson and
Big Star's
3rd. ("Pieholden Suite" in particular is a lovely homage to
the Beach Boys'
SMiLE, then still circulating only in bootleg form.) At the same time, this brilliantly constructed pop music was also pop with a dark and troubling center; the violence at the heart of "She's a Jar" and "Via Chicago" is too blunt to avoid, and even the brightest moments ("Can't Stand It," "A Shot in the Arm," and "When You Wake Up Feeling Old") sound and feel emotionally out of balance, giving this a complicated emotional push-and-pull that reinforces the resonance of the performances. (The album's most lovable pop tune, "Candyfloss," significantly comes near the end of the set, bookended after a 20-second burst of silence.) While
Wilco was inarguably
Jeff Tweedy's band at this point,
Summerteeth was the apex of his collaboration with
Jay Bennett, even more so than 2002's
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, and while
John Stirratt and
Ken Coomer were their strong, reliable selves as a rhythm section, it's
Bennett's keyboards and production smarts that give life to a set of great, uncompromising songs. If
Being There was the album where
Jeff Tweedy embraced all that was possible with
Wilco,
Summerteeth was where he closed the door on the past and boldly stepped into a very different future. [In 2020, apparently to celebrate the fact the album was now old enough to buy beer,
Rhino Records issued an elaborately expanded edition of
Summerteeth that added a disc of demos, outtakes, and alternate versions from the time of the album's creation along with a complete live show recorded on November 1, 1999 in Boulder, Colorado. Most of the demos are just
Tweedy with an acoustic guitar, and it's fascinating that so many of the melodic tricks that filled out the completed versions of the songs are audible even in their most elemental form, and the outtake "Viking Dan" is a rip-roaring treat. The 1999 Boulder show is excellent, taking the albums' Baroque sound, adding the sweat and immediacy of a live performance, and coming up with some honestly dazzling moments. Any fan with more than a passing interest in
Wilco will want to hear this.] ~ Mark Deming
