I spent a lot of time thinking about what I should do when I reached my 100th day on Swole Ear. Lots of ideas ran through my head, and I’ll admit, some were better than others. Luckily for you (and me), I stayed away from a few of my ideas, like listening to Rick Astley’s Whenever You Need Somebody, or doing a 1,000 word review of Cheese Foot?’s (nonexistent) sophomore album.
Among the huge quantity of terrible ideas, a solid one finally emerged. I decided to turn the coming of the 100th post into a weeklong celebration. Hey, if there’s one thing that I’m good at, it’s stretching things out for way too long.
And with that, I give you the first post of Wilco Week.
Wilco has been around forever (to a 17-year-old). I love everything that I’ve heard by them, but they have so much stuff that I’ve never gotten around to listening to. For the next six days (Wilco Week will not interfere with the next DRT), I’ll be listening to and posting records that are either Wilco releases, or somehow Wilco-related. The band has four studio albums that I haven’t heard, so this shouldn’t be too hard.
Wilco’s music is often described as “alt country,” a label that I’ve never really understood until now. Everything that I’ve heard by them has leaned more towards the indie/alt spectrum than anything. Country definitely can be heard on A.M., their 1995 debut, perhaps even outweighing the “alt.” Guess what, it’s still Wilco; it’s still awesome.
Sure, they may rely on western guitar solos and country components more than I prefer, but even on this record, Jeff Tweedy delivers his lyrics with the same passion that I’ve come to know and love on his band’s later releases. I’d say Wilco Week is off to a great start.
Swole Ear 
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