The thread,
to me, comes down to, how far can a band drift from its original sound
before it just starts to drive those original fans away? Wilco's a
great example and timely enough to be worth discussing. As I said in
that penultimate sentence quoted above, if some fans like the
experimentation, they're ahead of the game.
I'll put in my unformed thoughts on the subject. Wilco is a good example
of moving to different directions, not only because of the change in
musical style, but Tweedy openly talks about how he's not alt-country.
I think that in the alt.country camp there's plenty of curmudgeons (nice
curmudgeons) who won't like the change in styles, but there's plenty who
just like all sorts of music and will be drawn to Summer Teeth or other
musical chameleons who venture a little outside the niche.
That being said, in Wilco's case, I don't know how much of a chameleon
he's being. How radically different is Summer Teeth from Being There or
even some Uncle Tupelo. There may not be straight country tunes on it,
but I think he's always been a simple chord midtempo rocker who writes
heartfelt, sometimes downer lyrics that are occasionally cryptic (though
nowhere nearly as cryptic as Son Volt or Bobby D or others). With Summer
Teeth he's spent alot more time on production and arrangements and he's
growing (in his mind at least) as a musician. But there's some simple
riffs and simple vocals that sound like everything else he's done.
I like Wilco, particularly live. I like Summer Teeth a little, but I'm
not that enamored by it because while he's being more poppy, perhaps more
accessible to sell more records (Wilco may sell alot for an "alt-country"
band, but they don't sell that many records in the giant picture), he's
not that great at doing the pop arrangement thing. There's quite a few
smalltime poppy bands I enjoy more (bands like Cotton Mather, Richard
Heyman, and other "power pop" folks), but it IS interesting how Wilco
combines this pop with some bleak moods - something alot of power pop
doesn't do very often.
My simple conclusion in all this is that Wilco will lose some fans, gain
some fans, and have some fans angry at them for moving away from a
particular
niche, a niche that isn't that well defined anyway, but they're just a
rock band - doing the simple, emotional rock stuff whther you like it or
not.
I'm in the middle. And Wilco doesn't care what their core fans think (why
should they - they do what they want - and that's how it should be -
although they probably cater a bit to their label no matter what they may
say in interviews (I don't know if they're saying anything in interviews
actually)) and if a bunch of fans don't like it, then don't listen to or
buy the stuff.
Not many bought Dylan's gospel stuff (though I'm a fan of Saved). Not many
bought Neil Young's Trans - Neil is a good guy to look at - he's
alt-country... and grunge... and occasionally techno... and just a plain
old folkie... he's a rock musician that's all. And he hasn't lost too
many fans it seems.
So there's a few thoughts. Wilco can do what they want for whomever
will listen - even if the end
result (I feel) with Summer Teeth is a so-so pop record that's gonna be on
alot of top 10 lists which will make me shake my head as I play Cotton
Mather's Kon Tiki and The Orange Humble Band's Assorted Cremes (This
record sounds ALOT like Summer Teeth to me, but it's much better I
think) more than I do Summer Teeth.
keep dancing,
-ldk
