Here is another entry in the recurring feature that demolishes the normal review protocol in favor of cheap jokes, extended digressions, and an occasional interesting thought or two. Duck Tape Saves Lives is inspired by long back and forth emails between myself, fellow Twangviller Todd Mathis, and my twin brother Kyle Petersen.
We only intend to do these for ‘big’ records where we (and hopefully most Americana fans) have some context for discussing the record at issue.
Alternate names considered for this feature included the following:
Ruminations on the Transcendental Possibilities of Melodic Explorations
Three Jacka***s Talk About Records
Heavy Drinkin’, Easy Listenin’
Libya: What Should Have Happened
Sex on the Beach: How Country Music in the Age of Cultural Reproduction Creates a Temporal Vortex Allowing an Escape from out 21st century Existential Dilemma
Note: The last two were Todd and Kyle’s respectively.
ELI: All 15th Anniversary re-mastered, re-released, deluxe albums with demos, bonus tracks, and live bootleg from the era is essentially asking for that album to be reviewed from a historical perspective, right? So how do you guys feel about Too Far to Care and the Old 97’s a decade and a half removed from their major label debut?
KYLE: I’ve always loved Too Far To Care—it’s still my favorite Old 97’s record. It hits the sweet spot between their loud and loose country-punk careenings that their earlier records are known for and the more polished, power-pop oriented material that starts to show up on Fight Songs and Satellite Rides.
Thinking about it historically, though, I’m not sure the album has crystallized its canonical status as much as it just stands up as a good, sturdy rock record, much like the group still seems like a good, sturdy rock band. Rhett seems destined to continue writing a handful of great songs along with tunes that are just pretty good, with his sly humor and pop classicism simultaneously being part of the group’s appeal and (perhaps) one of the things which limits the level of fame and prestige they are going to get.
What’s perhaps more interesting (now that I’m thinking about it) is that Too Far To Care came out the same year as Whiskeytown’s Strangers Almanac and, if you were to look at the two in isolation and try to predict whether Rhett Miller or Ryan Adams would be more successful 15 years out, I think you would probably lean towards Rhett. Funny how things work out.
TODD: I was late to the Old 97’s party and didn’t come along until Satellite Rides, then went back and got Fight Songs, so Too Far To Care was never really on my radar. Going back and listening now, the album still sounds fresh (in an alt-country sense) but not groundbreaking or anything. I’m sure it was a big deal for the band and the alt-movement at the time though.
Kyle, the Adams/Miller comparison is quite interesting as Ryan apparently tried to get Rhett to have a feud in the press around that time. A Stones/ Beatles thing, that Rhett thought was stupid. (I’m currently reading Losering, A Story of Whiskeytown.)
ELI: Todd, you’re gonna have to let me borrow that when you’re done. I agree with both of you though.
It is fun to look at the 1997-2000 resurgence of alt. country music and try to place the significance of Too Far to Care. The obvious comparison is of course the emergence of Whiskeytown as the young guns coming on the scene (just as Lucinda Williams and Steve Earle were having late career renaissances and Son Volt and Wilco emerging from the ashes of Uncle Tupelo). However, I’d like to propose a slightly different thesis.
I think Too Far to Care is an outlier. While Tweedy, Farrar, Williams, and Earle were still loading on acoustic guitars and pedal steel flourishes, the Old 97’s were already flirting with bouncy 60’s era rock. I’m not saying that Wilco, Steve Earle, and the rest didn’t play rock and roll—because they did—, but they were still locked in country rock mode. The same can be said for Whiskeytown, which critics often accused of co-opting other alt. country sounds. Jeff Tweedy famously took a crack at Ryan Adams saying that “he [Adams] can have my old band’s sound.â€
From this perspective, Too Far to Care is more ramshackle garage pop than another Gram Parsons interpretation. The record kicks off with “Time Bomb†and “Barrier Reefâ€, two songs that exist almost entirely on quick staccato guitar riffs. Rhett doesn’t pen classic country songs either. Whereas nearly all the artists I mentioned above have had numerous covers done of their work, you don’t see a love of Rhett Miller covers (“Question” being the exception that proves the rule and even that didn’t come out until Satellite Rides). I think this is in large part due to Miller’s tendency towards word play and playing with syntax rather than writing a straight ahead “Guitar Town†type of song.
I realize my whole argument falls apart pretty quickly, especially since songs like “W.X. Teardrops†and “Big Brown Eyes†are pretty ‘alt. country’. But I do think there is an argument to me made for Too Far to Care being somehow different.
KYLE: They have always kept a pretty garage rock approach in comparison to many of their contemporaries (you don’t see Rhett or Murray with an acoustic guitar too often, unless they are playing solo), but they are also in some ways the most traditional of the group as well, since they haven’t really incorporated any newer or more avant-garde influences into their approach, and they’ve always (with the possible exception of Satellite Rides) kept the twang alive in some form.
…and I’m supposed to be asking a question. Since we started off thinking about TFTC historically, let’s try to place it vis-à -vis The Grand Theater volumes that presumably represents the band better circa 2013. Personally I think the craft and arrangements are actually a bit more nuanced and thought –out, but that the songs and energy aren’t quite what they were.
TODD: I’ve always thought of the Old 97’s as pop-alt-country if there is such a thing. So Eli, I see where you’re coming from. They didn’t seem to take themselves as seriously as Whiskeytown, Uncle Tupelo, etc. It was fun/bouncy music even in heartache. Maybe Too Far To Care was a little early and didn’t get grouped with Smile or Summerteeth. In a production sense I can see similarities, but I think the Old 97’s aren’t near as depressing as Wilco or the Jayhawks.
Kyle, as far as where the Old 97’s are today as opposed to their earlier stuff, I don’t see much growth or change. They’re still kicking away with the pop-alt-country and don’t seem to have progressed very much beyond Satellite Rides. And I also think Miller has held some of his better songs for his solo releases.
ELI: I do see some evolution in sound, but the band’s later era-stuff (since Satellite Rides) actually sounds like they are trying to get back to their roots with a more unhinged alt. country sound as opposed to the pop perfection of Fight Songs and Satellite Rides. I think that the Grand Theatre albums could be interpreted as an attempt to filter their Too Far to Care sound through a Fight Songs-Satellite Rides style production, which I like. I don’t think they will ever make another record that matches up to their heyday (Too Far to Care-Fight Songs-Satellite Rides), but that is just the way things go (at least they aren’t doling out the boring stuff that Wilco has foisted upon us in the last decade or so).
Todd, I like your reference to Miller’s solo stuff, which has been pretty solid over the last couple years. I particularly enjoyed last year’s The Dreamer. It causes me to wonder what the last decade of Old 97’s records would have sounded like if Miller hadn’t been concurrently making solo records.
KYLE: I don’t appreciate your dig at Wilco, sir. Don’t appreciate it at all.
I also kind of think my question sets up a devolving music critic debate about what sort of “expectations†we have of a band—they should change some, but not too much, and only in particular ways. Not my favorite argument.
TODD: Bands should do whatever the hell they want and let the masses sort it out. I like Fight Songs/Satellite Rides, but can’t get through the Grand Theatre stuff as it bores me. But, who am I to judge? Anyway, I think it is my turn for a question. Who is your pick to win the National League East this year?
ELI: It’s really too bad the Rangers aren’t in the NL East, because that would dovetail nicely with the Old 97’s being such a Texas band. I’ll take the Nationals to repeat. Strasburg is gonna be healthy right? How is Atlanta looking?
KYLE: Go Gamecocks!
(That’s the extent of my baseball knowledge.)
TODD: I’ll say the Braves just to make it interesting. Because if you’re still reading this, you may want something interesting.
Todd Mathis writes for Twangville and fronts the alt. rock-country band American Gun (check their stuff out here). He also does occasional solo records that are pretty badass in their own right. In the early 2000s, Todd was the rhythm guitarist for the American/Brit-rock band Boxing Day, who were briefly signed to a major label. They got screwed by the label and Todd started writing country songs. Todd is responsible for introducing me to such mind blowing artists as Lucero, Cory Branan, Todd Snider, Chris Knight, and Townes Van Zandt.
Kyle Petersen is the music editor for arts magazine Jasper, freelance writer for alternative weekly The Free-Times, and a college radio DJ on WUSC-FM 90.5 in Columbia, SC. He’s also a PhD candidate at the University of South Carolina with a focus of southern literature. He’s pretty much single handedly responsible for what I listen to today, having introduced me to Wilco, the Drive-By Truckers, Whiskeytown, and Ryan Adams when we were in high school.
As for myself, I don’t have quite the resumes Kyle and Todd do, so let’s pretend I’m too humble to toot my own horn. I like my beer craft and my music loud.
About the author: Specializes in Dead, Drunk, and Nakedness..... Former College Radio DJ and Current Craft Beer Nerd