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Jeff Tweedy

Jeffrey Scott Tweedy (born August 25, 1967 in Belleville, Illinois, United States) is an American songwriter, musician, and poet. Tweedy formed cowpunk band The Primitives with high school friend Jay Farrar. The band changed its name to Uncle Tupelo in 1987 after Primitives lead singer Wade Farrar went to college. After releasing four albums, conflicts between Tweedy and Farrar caused the band to break up in 1994.

In 1995, Tweedy formed Wilco with John Stirratt, Max Johnston, and Ken Coomer. Wilco has released six albums and found popular success with their albums Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and A Ghost is Born. The band also released two collaboration albums with Billy Bragg and one with The Minus 5. Jeff Tweedy has been the recipient of two Grammy Awards, including Best Alternative Album for A Ghost Is Born. Tweedy has also participated in a number of side groups including Golden Smog and Loose Fur, has released a book of poems, and has released a DVD of solo performances. He was originally influenced by punk and country music, but has recently reflected more experimental themes in his music.

Tweedy has been afflicted with migraine headaches since he was a child, and this ailment led him to a dependency on painkillers. Tweedy also has been diagnosed with clinical depression and is prone to panic attacks. He entered a rehabilitation clinic in 2004 for these conditions and has since been released.

Early life

File:Childtweedy.JPG
Childhood picture of Jeff Tweedy.

Jeff Tweedy was born in Belleville, Illinois on August 25, 1967 as the fourth child of Bob and Jo Ann Tweedy. Bob Tweedy worked at Alton & Southern Railroad in East St. Louis while Jo Ann was a kitchen designer.[1] Jo Ann brought Tweedy his first guitar at age six, although he did not begin to play it seriously until he was eight.[1] In 1981, when Tweedy was fourteen years old, he befriended Jay Farrar in an English class at Belleville Township High School.[2] All of the members of Farrar's family enjoyed playing music, causing Farrar to already have a knowledge of the elements of rock and roll. By this time, Tweedy was a fan of The Ramones and country music while Farrar enjoyed The Sex Pistols.[3]

Farrar was in a band called The Plebes with his brothers Wade and Dade, which Tweedy joined in order to qualify for a battle of the bands competition.[4] Tweedy pushed The Plebes away from the rockabilly music that they had been playing, which caused Dade Farrar to leave the band. The band renamed themselves The Primitives in 1984, taking their name from a song by garage rock band The Groupies.[5][6] Wade Farrar sang lead vocals and played harmonica, Jay Farrar played guitar, Tweedy played bass guitar, and Mike Heidorn played drums. In late 1986, the band decided to change their name to Uncle Tupelo, because a more popular British band was also using the name "The Primitives".[7] The Primitives went on hiatus in 1986 after Wade Farrar left the band to finish his engineering degree at Southern Illinois Univeristy.[8] While waiting for Wade to return from campus, Jay, Tweedy, and Heidorn formed Uncle Tupelo.

Uncle Tupelo (1987-1994)

Main article: Uncle Tupelo

Uncle Tupelo got its name from two words that they picked randomly, and a drawing made by Tweedy's high school friend Chuck Wagner.[7] At his parents' request, Tweedy enrolled at several universities, but dropped out of all of them so that he could concentrate on the band. While moonlighting as record store clerk in St. Louis, Tweedy met Tony Margherita. After Margherita saw the band perform at an acoustic concert in 1988, he decided to become the band's manager. The band began playing regular shows at Cicero's club near Washington University with other bands playing in a similar style.[7][9] Uncle Tupelo recorded a ten-track demo tape entitled Not Forever, Just For Now in 1989, attracting the attention of Giant Records. Giant Records (which soon changed its name to Rockville Records) signed the band, and Uncle Tupelo's first album, No Depression, was released the next year.[7] The title song, originally performed by the Carter Family, became strongly associated with the alternative country scene, and became the name of an influential alternative country periodical.[10]

During times when Uncle Tupelo was not touring, Tweedy and Farrar formed short-lived supergroup cover band Coffee Creek with The Bottle Rockets' Brian Henneman and Mark Ortmann. Around this time, Tweedy began developing problems with alcohol abuse, leading to tensions between Tweedy and Farrar. While he never refused to play a gig, Tweedy was forced to sit out in place of Henneman at some performances. Tweedy quit drinking entirely after meeting future wife Sue Miller, although he replaced this habit with smoking marijuana.[11] After releasing Still Feel Gone, the band formed a friendship with Peter Buck of R.E.M., who produced their third album March 16-20, 1992 for free.[11] Uncle Tupelo left the Rockville label in favor of Sire Records (Warner) later in 1992 because Rockville refused to pay the band any royalties for their albums.[12] After the signing, Max Johnston and John Stirratt joined the band as Mike Heidorn was replaced by Bill Belzer who was later replaced by Ken Coomer.[13] The five-piece band recorded Anodyne, which sold over 150,000 copies and debuted at number 18 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart, but was the last album Uncle Tupelo released.[14][15]

Breakup

In January of 1994, Farrar called Tony Margherita to tell him that the band was breaking up, saying that he was not having any fun in the band anymore and was not getting along with Tweedy. Tweedy was enraged that Farrar decided to break up the band without notifying him, and this led to a series of harsh verbal exchanges. Farrar and Tweedy agreed to a final Uncle Tupelo tour, but the concerts were marred by the two not participating in each other's songs. The band decided to play Tweedy's "The Long Cut" on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, which further distanced Farrar and Tweedy.[16] Farrar began to assemble a new band named Son Volt with Mike Heidorn, Joe Henry bassist Jim Boquist, and his brother Dave Boquist. At the same time, Jeff Tweedy formed Wilco with Stirratt, Johnston, and Coomer.[17]

Wilco (1995-present)

Main article: Wilco

Wilco was signed to Reprise Records (Warner) and began recording A.M. almost as soon as the band was formed.[18] After recording, Tweedy was introduced to Jay Bennett, who then joined the band. Also during this time, Tweedy quit smoking marijuana after a particularly bad experience with some cannabis brownies, but his habit would not be deterred. [19] A.M. did not fare as well as Son Volt's first album commercially, only reaching number 27 on the Heatseekers chart while Son Volt's debut Trace hit the Billboard 200.[20][21] Dan Murphy of Soul Asylum invited Tweedy to join him in a supergroup named Golden Smog with Gary Louris and Marc Perlman of the Jayhawks, Kraig Johnson of Run Westy Run, and Noah Levy of The Honeydogs. Under the pseudonym Scott Summit, Tweedy released Down by the Old Mainstream with Golden Smog in 1996.[22]

Tweedy and Wilco began to explore new styles and broke from the style of previous recordings on the seminal sprawling double album Being There in 1996. Tweedy did not write music for many of the songs ahead of time, and welcomed unexpected sounds into the recording. Wilco recorded nineteen songs for the double-CD album, and wanted the label to release it with a retail price comparable to a single-CD release.[23] Being There was a commercial success, selling 300,000 copies and peaking in the top half of the Billboard 200.[24] Reprise records invested $100,000 in the single "Outta Mind (Outtasite)", but received little radio exposure.[25][26] While on tour, Tweedy began to spend time reading books by William H. Gass, Henry Miller, and John Fante. As he read their books, Tweedy decided to place more of an emphasis on writing.[27] Representatives in the A&R department of Reprise wanted a radio single from Summerteeth, and Wilco reluctantly agreed to a re-working of "Can't Stand It". The single was a top five hit on adult album alternative radio stations, but failed to cross over to a larger audience.[28]

Before the release of Summerteeth, the daughter of the late folk legend Woody Guthrie contacted folk rock singer Billy Bragg, who in turn contacted Tweedy about recording an album of unreleased Woody Guthrie songs. Tweedy was indifferent to the idea of recording Guthrie's songs, but Jay Bennett's enthusiasm about the idea convinced Tweedy to get the band involved in the project. As a result of Tweedy's feelings on the political nature of some of the lyrics, Bragg recorded mostly political songs while Wilco recorded more neutral songs. Almost all of the songs that appeared on Mermaid Avenue and Mermaid Avenue Vol. II over a six day period in December 1997.[29] The first Mermaid Avenue album and a second Golden Smog album (Weird Tales) were released in 1998, Summerteeth was released in early 1999, and Mermaid Avenue Vol. II was released in 2000. Tweedy received his first Grammy nomination when Mermaid Avenue was nominated for Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album in 1999.[30]

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

File:WilcoYankeeHotelFoxtrot.jpg
Cover of the album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Reprise Records dropped Wilco from their label after receiving the album. It was released a year later on Nonesuch Records.

Jeff Tweedy was invited to play at Chicago's Noise Pop festival, and was told that he could collaborate with a musician of his choosing. Tweedy chose Jim O'Rourke based on his fascination with O'Rourke's Bad Timing album. O'Rourke offered to bring drummer Glenn Kotche to the festival, and the trio formed a side project named Loose Fur. The other band members of Wilco had written a number of songs for Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, but Tweedy was unsatisfied with them because he believed that the songs did not sound like the ones he played with Loose Fur. Tweedy had become such a fan of Kotche's playing that he kicked Ken Coomer out of the band in favor of Kotche.[31] Tweedy had strong feelings about how songs should be sequenced, which clashed with Jay Bennett's focus on the songs themselves. Because Bennett was mixing the album, this led to a series of arguments about how the album should sound like between songs. Tweedy asked O'Rourke to remix several songs on the album that had been mixed by Bennett, which caused tensions within the band to escalate. The album was completed in June 2001, and Tweedy was insistent that it was in its final form.[32][33] Tweedy also fired Jay Bennett around this time, believing that Wilco should only have one core member.[32]

Reprise Record's parent company Time Warner merged with America Online in 2001, and the recording company was asked to cut costs. Howie Klein, the CEO of Reprise Records, considered Wilco to be one of the label's core bands, but was offered a lucrative buy-out by AOL Time Warner. A&R representative Mio Vukovic was placed in charge of Wilco, and he believed that the album was not commercially viable. Vukovic called manager Tony Margherita and told him that Reprise was not interested in releasing the album, a point of view shared by the head of the A&R department, David Kahne. Kahne agreed to release Wilco from Reprise records under the condition that Wilco got to keep all legal entitlements to the Yankee Hotel Foxtrot album.[32][34] After an article in the Chicago Tribune publicly described these managerial practices, Reprise Records fired both Kahne and Vukovic, and CEO Gary Briggs quit.[35] Shortly after leaving the label, Briggs remarked:

It [dropping Wilco from the label] should never have happened. One of the most embarrassing moments in my career at Warner Brothers was the day they let Wilco go. It broke my heart, and it told me that I no longer have a home there.[35]

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was originally scheduled to be released on Reprise on September 11, 2001 prior to the band's departure from Reprise. Seven days later, Tweedy decided that he would stream the entirety of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot on Wilco's official website.[36] Over thirty record labels offered to release Yankee Hotel Foxtrot after the departure from Reprise was official.[37] One of the thirty was Warner Brothers affiliate Nonesuch Records, who signed Wilco in November 2001. AOL Time Warner paid Wilco to make the album on Reprise, gave them the record for free, and then bought it back on the Nonesuch label.[38] The album was released on April 23, 2002 to significant critical acclaim, including being named the best album of the year by The Village Voice.[39][40] The album became the biggest hit of Jeff Tweedy's career and was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America for selling over 500,000 copies.[41]

A Ghost Is Born and side projects

File:Sunkentreasure.jpg
Cover of the DVD Sunken Treasure: Live in the Pacific Northwest. It is Tweedy's only official release of solo material.

Scott McCaughey contacted Tweedy about recording an album together for a The Minus 5 release. They scheduled a meeting for September 11, 2001, but were reluctant to enter the recording studio after the terrorist attacks. At night, McCaughey and Tweedy decided to begin recording songs as a way to calm themselves down. A few more tracks were later added to the album with the rest of Wilco, and it was released with the name Down with Wilco in 2003.[42]

In November 2003, Wilco began recording a fifth studio album. Unlike their previous albums, all of the songs were originally performed in the studio and then later adapted for playing at concerts. Wilco released A Ghost is Born on June 22, 2004, and it attained a top ten peak on the Billboard 200.[43] The album was awarded with Grammy Awards for Best Alternative Music Album and Best Recording Package in 2005.[44] A few weeks before the album's release, Tweedy released a book of forty-three poems entitled Adult Head on Zoo Press.[45] The following year, the band released their first live album, a two-disc set entitled Kicking Television: Live in Chicago, recorded at the The Vic Theater.[46] Wilco has recorded twelve tracks for a sixth studio album, and it is scheduled to be released in April 2007.[47]

Jeff Tweedy has performed several solo tours, on which he typically plays acoustic music.[48] On October 24, 2006 Nonesuch Records released Sunken Treasure: Live in the Pacific Northwest, a live DVD by Tweedy. The disc includes performances and conversations gathered over five nights on Tweedy’s February 2006 solo acoustic tour, with footage from concerts at Seattle’s Moore Theater, Portland’s Crystal Ballroom, Eugene’s McDonald Theater, Arcata’s Humboldt State University, and The Fillmore in San Francisco. The DVD was directed by Christoph Green and Fugazi’s Brendan Canty, the creators of the documentary series Burn to Shine.[49]

Musical style

Jeff Tweedy's musical style has varied over his music career. Tweedy's vocal style is considered nasal, emotional, and scratchy, and has been compared to that of Neil Young.[3][50] His first exposure to music was through gramophone records that his siblings left behind when they attended college, and he particularly liked The Beatles' White Album. Tweedy would frequently read issues of magazines such as Rolling Stone, and began to purchase punk rock albums such as The Clash's London Calling and X's Wild Gift. Belleville crowds did not respond well to punk music, so while Tweedy was a member of The Primitives they played covers of country songs at much faster tempos.[51] When Uncle Tupelo formed, the band began composing its own songs influenced by Jason & The Scorchers and The Minutemen.[9] Wilco's first album shared many musicial similarities with the four previous Uncle Tupelo albums, but on Being There, Tweedy began introducing more experimental themes into his music. He claims that he wanted to rebel against the belief by No Depression periodical that Wilco was primarily a country band.[52] One of the most influential albums for Tweedy was Bad Timing by Jim O'Rourke, which helped to inspire Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and A Ghost Is Born.[53]

Personal life

Jeff Tweedy has been prone to chronic migraines throughout his entire life, forcing him to miss forty days of elementary school in one year.[32][54] These chronic migraines caused Tweedy to become dependent on painkillers. While he attempted to regulate his use of painkillers, he was never able to stop their use for more than five weeks. Tweedy attributes this to a comorbidity with major depressive disorder and severe panic attacks. In 2004, he entered a dual-diagnosis rehabilitation clinic in order to receive treatment for an addiction to prescription painkillers.[55][56]

Jeff Tweedy is married to former talent booking agent Sue Miller. Tweedy first met Miller when he was trying to get Uncle Tupelo booked at Cubby Bear, where Miller worked. Miller opened a club in Chicago named Lounge Ax in 1989, and booked Uncle Tupelo for sixteen shows over four years. Miller and Tweedy began dating in 1991 and they were married on August 9, 1995.[57] The Tweedys have two children; Spencer Tweedy was born in 1996 and Sam Tweedy was born in 1999.[32] Spencer has been the drummer for pre-teen rock band The Blisters since December 2003. The band does not tour, but has played major events such as Lollapalooza and the opening of Millennium Park.[58]

Selected discography

Main article: Jeff Tweedy discography

Uncle Tupelo

Year Title Label
1990 No Depression Rockville Records
1991 Still Feel Gone Rockville Records
1992 March 16-20, 1992 Rockville Records
1993 Anodyne Sire Records

Wilco

Year Title Label
1995 A.M. Reprise Records
1996 Being There Reprise Records
1999 Summerteeth Reprise Records
2002 Yankee Hotel Foxtrot Nonesuch Records
2004 A Ghost Is Born Nonesuch Records
2005 Kicking Television: Live in Chicago Nonesuch Records



Notes and citations

  1. ^ a b Kot 2004, p. 11-15
  2. ^ Kot 2004, p. 10
  3. ^ a b Klein, Joe (June 13, 2004). "Alt-Country Roads". The New York Times.
  4. ^ Kot 2004, p. 10, 17
  5. ^ The band was also known as The Primatives due to a misprint on their business cards
  6. ^ Kot 2004, p. 18
  7. ^ a b c d Mike Heidorn's liner notes for No Depression, which were included in the 2003 re-issue of the album
  8. ^ Kot 2004, p. 22
  9. ^ a b Kot 2004, p. 24-26
  10. ^ "No Depression: Surveying the Past, Present, and Future of American Music". Last accessed December 18, 2006.
  11. ^ a b Kot 2004, p. 51-53, 95
  12. ^ Kot 2004, p. 72
  13. ^ Kot 2004, p. 74-75
  14. ^ "Heatseekers". Billboard. October 23, 1993.
  15. ^ Kot 2004, p. 80
  16. ^ Kot 2004, p. 80-84
  17. ^ Kot 2004, p. 88, 90
  18. ^ Kot 2004, p. 89-91
  19. ^ Kot 2004, p. 94-96
  20. ^ "Heatseekers". Billboard. April 15, 1995.
  21. ^ "Artist Chart History - Son Volt". Billboard. Last accessed December 29, 2006.
  22. ^ Kot 2004, p. 105-106
  23. ^ Kot 2004, p. 113, 116
  24. ^ "Artist Chart History - Wilco (albums)". Billboard. Last accessed December 29, 2006.
  25. ^ "Artist Chart History - Wilco (singles)". Billboard. Last accessed December 29, 2006.
  26. ^ Kot 2004, p. 125
  27. ^ Kot 2004, p. 136
  28. ^ Kot 2004, p. 162-167
  29. ^ Kot 2004, p. 142-145
  30. ^ "Fugees phenom Lauryn Hill gets 10 Grammy nominations". Associated Press. January 6, 1999.
  31. ^ Kot 2004, p. 176-183, 188
  32. ^ a b c d e Jones, Sam. I Am Trying to Break Your Heart: A Film About Wilco (DVD), Plexifilm, 2002.
  33. ^ Kot 2004, p. 197-200
  34. ^ Kot 2004, p. 201-207
  35. ^ a b Kot 2004, p. 208-209
  36. ^ Kot 2004, p. 225
  37. ^ Kot, Greg (August 15, 2001). "Wilco's shot in the arm".
  38. ^ Kot 2004, p. 209-210
  39. ^ Sirota, Bent (April 22, 2002). "Wilco: Yankee Hotel Foxtrot: Pitchfork Record Review". Last accessed December 21, 2006.
  40. ^ "Pazz & Jop 2002". The Village Voice. Last accessed December 26, 2006.
  41. ^ "Gold and Platinum Database Search". Last accessed December 26, 2006.
  42. ^ Kot 2004, p. 220-222
  43. ^ D'Angelo, Joe (July 7, 2004). "Lloyd Banks' Hunger Debuts At #1; Brandy Settles For #3". MTV News.
  44. ^ "2005 Grammy Award Winners: Complete List Of 47th Annual Grammy Awards Winners". Associated Press. February 13, 2005.
  45. ^ DeRogatis, Jim (May 9, 2004). "Poetic license or verbal abuse?". Chicago Sun-Times.
  46. ^ Kicking Television: Live in Chicago liner notes
  47. ^ Scaggs, Austin (October 19, 2006). "Smoking Section". Rolling Stone.
  48. ^ Josephson, Issac (March 31, 1998). "Jeff Tweedy: Lounge Ax, Chicago, March 26, 1998". Rolling Stone.
  49. ^ Sunken Treasure: Live in the Pacific Northwest liner notes.
  50. ^ Jones, Chris. "Folk and Country Review - Wilco, A Ghost Is Born". {{cite news}}: Text "publisher-BBC" ignored (help)
  51. ^ Kot 2004, p. 13-19
  52. ^ Kot 2004, p. 110-111
  53. ^ Kot 2004, p. 176-177
  54. ^ Kot 2004, p. 50
  55. ^ LaGambina, Gregg (August 30, 2004). "The Wilco Interview". Filter Magazine.
  56. ^ Devenish, Colin (April 6, 2004). "Wilco's Jeff Tweedy in Rehab". Rolling Stone.
  57. ^ Kot 2004, p. 53, 96
  58. ^ Zorn, Eric (May 2, 2005). "Eric Zorn's Notebook: Blisstered". Chicago Tribune.

References

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