Uncle Tupelo - 89/93: An Anthology

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Free Music Notes for 89/93: An Anthology

Free Music Review: Welcome to 'The Movement'
Hit: 5 Stars

Appropriately enough, Uncle Tupelo were my introduction to the altenative country movement of the 90s, though I didn't actually hear them until the 00s. Influenced by an alternative music guide, I spent a few minutes downloading a copy of UT's debut, No Depression - boy do I miss that ethernet connection I had back in Jersey. At first, I couldn't tell what I thought of UT - I am first and foremost a metal fan after all. Only "Whiskey Bottle" grabbed me immediately. But over the next few months, I came to appreciate that entire weird little country-punk record more and more. Next, I moved on to the Drive-By Truckers whose Southern Rock Opera immediately captured the heart and mind of this wild-eyed southern boy. By the time I got to Son Volt, Wilco, and the Bottle Rockets, there was no turning back. In the space of a few short months, I'd become a full-fledged alt-country fan.

Truth be told, country music was a substantial part of my life when I was a child. Until I was in my teens, I remember country music playing on the radio at the breakfast table, blasting out of the garage, and emanating from the car radio. My dad was a fan of 70s country artists like Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Dolly Parton, and Linda Ronstadt. It was a time when country wasn't the syrupy goo that drips out of Nashville these days and as much as I tried to resist it at the time, it seems to have had an effect on my musical tastes. How else can I explain my high school fondness for Lynyrd Skynyrd, Creedence Clearwater Revival, the Eagles and other country tinged rock acts? At some point late in the 80s, my dad became disgusted by what country music had become with its new emphasis on style over substance, and suddenly deserted country to return to the music of his youth (what we call oldies today).

A decade later, I would become disgusted by what was happening in the American metal scene I had been part of for nearly 15 years. Rap-metal had risen to supremacy and outside of a few isolated acts like Brooklyn's Type O Negative, the U.S. metal scene had become a barren wasteland (though metal still thrives to this day in Europe - check out Paradise Lost, Moonspell, and Opeth if you don't believe me). In any case, I needed a supplement to carry me through until the rap-metal boom in America passed. About a year ago, I finally found the perfect supplement: alt-country. And it was Uncle Tupelo who got the ball rolling for me.

The breakup of most great bands is generally a cause for consternation and hand-wringing (you should have seen the girls in my junior high school the day the Police called it quits), and I'm sure the handful of UT adherents out there at the time of their dissolution were heartbroken. Luckily, however, the bands that rose from the ashes of Uncle Tupelo all became alt-country legends in their own right. Jay Farrar formed Son Volt and quickly recorded one of "the movement's" greatest masterpieces (Trace). Jeff Tweedy formed Wilco, a band that has produced classic albums with stunning regularity over the past 8 years. Even UT's guitar tech and sometime guitarist, Brian Henneman, went on to form a top-notch country/southern rock band, the Bottle Rockets, who released one of the best (and most criminally overlooked) albums of the 90s, The Brooklyn Side. It's nothing short of astonishing that so many great bands were spawned from a single act.

Of course, if you sit down with Anthology and a couple bottles of IBC, you'll start to understand how Uncle Tupelo could have given birth to so many significant bands. Including songs from their 4 studio albums plus several previously unreleased rarities, Anthology is a near perfect introduction to what UT were trying to achieve with their pioneering fusion of country and punk rock. After exposure to Anthology, you'll find yourself coveting old UT albums the way Gollum covets that Ring. Trouble is, Gollum has a better chance of getting his hands back on the Ring than you do of landing one of those old UT albums (other than Anodyne which is bizarrely available for under [$$] - buy it now!) for less than [$$] bucks. Fortunately, there are rumors floating around that by March, reissues of the early UT albums will appear on the market. If so, you may want to spend some of your cash on Anthology and Anodyne today and save the rest for those reissues. Uncle Tupelo were a very special band and I suggest you find a place in your life for them if they aren't in it already.

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