Customer Reviews

No Depression

5 star:		(33)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Back in 1990, I thought I was pretty `with it'. In addition to indulging my omnipresent metal fetish, I was listening to Mother Love Bone, Green River, Soundgarden and whatever else I could get my hands on coming out of Seattle. Yeah, I was big man on campus at William and Mary - at least in my own mind. When the Seattle scene exploded I got the kudos owed to someone who was hip to the scene before it went nationwide. Pretty cool, huh?

Perhaps not as cool as I thought. By the mid-90s, Kurdt Cobain's suicide had pretty much signaled the end of the grunge movement and made it possible for rap metal lunkheads like Limp Bizkit and a second generation of grunge imitators like Creed to take over. Suddenly, a genre that had seemed so vital and revolutionary became dated. Old Soundgarden records no longer sounded as good and new ones like Down on the Upside just sounded horribly anachronistic.

The Seattle grunge scene was great while it lasted and we may never see another revolution in popular music quite like it. However, maybe if I'd been paying a little closer attention to a musical scene developing in America's heartland at the same time grunge was developing in Seattle, I'd have caught on to a second musical revolution during that era occurring in a genre that would prove to have more staying power than grunge. I'm talking about alt-country, aka "the movement".

The band credited with jumpstarting "the movement" was Uncle Tupelo which featured two brilliant songwriters, Jay Farrar and Jeff Tweedy, who were heavily influenced by both traditional country and punk rock. What Lennon and McCartney were to classic rock, Farrar and Tweedy were to alt-country.

If you can actually get your hands on Uncle Tupelo's hard-to-find debut, No Depression, it won't be long before you put an end to your habit of telling new acquaintances, "I listen to all kinds of music, except country". The opening track, "Graveyard Shift", grabs your attention immediately with its breakneck riffs and aggressive vocals - it's heavy enough to practically qualify as country-metal. The title track reveals a totally different side of UT as they cover the country traditional "No Depression" with such honesty and skill that it would later be adopted as the name of alt-country's biggest magazine. "Whiskey Bottle" is a favorite of many a UT fan and it is easy to see why. On the song, Farrar's voice exudes such raw desperation you start to genuinely worry for the guy. Fortunately, the spirits of the whole band seem to pick up during the country raveup, "Screen Door", an ode to sitting out on the porch playing music with friends.

The seminal nature of No Depression makes it hard to rate it as anything but 5 stars, though the production quality is some of the worst I've heard since on Metallica's ...And Justice for All. Fortunately, Farrar and Tweedy are said to be remastering the album and a more widely available reissue will probably be available some time in the next year or so. It's your call whether you want to pay the exorbitant sums dealers are charging for No Depression these days or wait for the better sounding and cheaper reissue to appear. If you make the latter choice, I strongly recommend you pick up the excellent UT Anthology 89/93 to tide you over until you can procure a copy of No Depression.

Trust me, if you overlooked "the movement" when it was developing like I did, there's still plenty of time to catch up. A little remedial work on Uncle Tupelo, Wilco, Son Volt, Whiskeytown, the Old 97s, the Bottle Rockets, and the Drive-By Truckers and you'll have at least an elementary education in the ways of "the movement".

Being a 17-year-old in a neverending search of good music, and recently aquiring a well-paying summer job, I have purchased such aformentioned CDs quickly and easily. I had bought the entire Wilco discography and fell in love with Jeff Tweedy's songwriting capabilities, and the built-to-last structure of every one of their songs. I had learned about Uncle Tupelo, his first band, and expected the same greatness. For some reason or another, I awaited a lot of Wilco-esque songs with Tweedy leading the way. Was I ever wrong.

At first, the slow realization that Jay Farrar was also a member of Uncle Tupelo came to me, and I hated it. The songs had more of a punkountry bend, and I wasn't prepared for it at all. But, with about the third listen, I completely understood the ins and outs of the album, and fell right into the groove. To me, it sounds like old-school, Lookout!-era Green Day with dueling banjos here and there, and it's bitchin'.

Sure, Tweedy's heartfelt and terrific songs "Train" and "That Year" are as good as he could possibly write them, I'd expect nothing less. But Farrar is the one that shines, especially on the heart-wrenching "Factory Belt", the woeful "Life Worth Livin'", and the Carter Family cover "No Depression", the remake that named the album, surrounding musical movement, and, in my opinion, cheap magazine.

This album will change your life, kind of. It won't make you like punk rock any more, it won't make you like country any more, it won't make you empathize with midwesterners' pleas for normal lives, it will just elevate you to an exciting place few albums ever could, and leave you wishing you had actually heard it in 1990, when it would have mattered, instead of ten years later.

Uncle Tupelo might be one of the most impressive and important bands you have never heard of. In the few short years -- and four amazing albums -- of their existence they developed a sound that would turn into the alt-country movement.

"No Depression" is the first record they released. You can hear the twang of the country music background that was around them in Bellville, IL, the punk rock sounds of The Clash and The Romones in the heavy, quick guitar riffs, and the folk influences of Bob Dylan in the lyrics of this album. It really transcended any music of the time.

The songs individually are all excellent. The songs "No Depression", "Screen Door" and "Live Worth Livin'" stand out in my mind as the best of the disk. Farrar and Tweedy's voices compliment each other track to track while also giving a depth to the sound of the album. Quickly you will pick up on differences of Farrar's raspy voice, and deep outward looking lyrics while Tweedy's voice is smoother and lyrics are more inward looking.

I would recommend any current fans of the new resurgence of Alt-Country (the likes of Ryan Adam and Jesse Malin) to pick up this CD and all of Uncle Tupelo's albums to see where the genre began. Fans of Wilco (Tweedy's current band) and Son Volt (Farrar's band) will already know about the greatness of them music, and should also pick of these disks as before the re-release they were almost impossible to find.

Now this, THIS is my kind of music. Punk meets Country, with Rock sprinkled all over for good measure! From the opening note of "Graveyard Shift" to the close of "Blues Die Hard, there's 19 tracks of pure great music to be had here.

This stuff is potent - what creativity, what diversity, what a great sound these guys put out. Makes me mad I didn't discover them sooner, because Uncle Tupelo and Son Volt are two of the best groups I've been lucky enough to come across in the past year or two. Really and truly well worth buying this one is, you will be very glad you did!

Spin magazine has put No Depression in the top 90 albums of the decade. That's cool. It certainly makes a lot of sense to me. This album is in a small handful that has defined my taste in music. I was a DJ at my college radio station and had the pleasure to listen to a lot of new music. This album blew me away. "Whiskey Bottle" is one of my favorite songs of all time. And the loud-soft dynamic may have started on this album instead of with Nirvana's Nevermind. Common debate with friends over the course of Uncle Tupelo's career: Farrar or Tweedy--better songs? As Son Volt and Wilco continue to unfold, it is clear that Farrar isn't very willing to stray far from the roots of Tupelo. Tweedy has tossed twang out the window on "Summer Teeth." Tough decision. One thing is certain, fans can enjoy double the music output since the breakup of Tupelo. Anyway, No D (as I call it) is a great debut and will always have a special place in my expanding collection.

The best description of Uncle Tupelo I ever heard was "Husker Du fronted by Hank Williams, Sr." That pretty much sums it up. This album opened my (then) 19-year-old punk-rock ears to country music for the first time. A life-changing album in the truest sense of the word. It captures the true spirit of both genres and makes something powerful, beautiful, and unique. A must for any fan of either genre.

One of the most influential albums of the '90's- giving a movement and its flagship magazine their name- "No Depression" is also one of the decade's greatest records. Molding the two seemingly disparate sounds of country and punk, this record introduced the sound and songs of a ludicrously talented band, equally adept at writing and performing. Just about every tune here is an instant classic. With the exception of Whiskeytown's "Faithless Street", "No Depression" beats the bag out of any other record of its ilk released in the 90's.

A friend of mine actually gave me a copy of No Depression on tape shortly after this release came out and told me I had to check this new band out. For some reason it sat at the bottom of my tape collection for well over a year. I finally rediscovered the tape one day and realized it was time to check out the band with the unique name. Man, had I missed out on some seriously good music! There is a nice mix of punk and country on many of the songs on this cd. Songs such as "Graveyard Shift" and "Factory Belt" are quick paced, high-flying country/punk tunes but the song that blew me away (and still does to this day) is the old school country drinking song "Whiskey Bottle". Everytime I hear this song it just sends shivers up my spine as you can feel the pain and heartache in Jay Farrar's voice. Some great bonus tracks on the remastered version including a great version of Gram Parson's "Sin City" and an informative booklet just add to the original beauty of this release. Tupelo move forward into a more traditional country sound after this cd but "No Depression" is a groundbreaking effort.

One of the best albums made in the last 14 years. A powerful St. Louis area three-piece band, this is one of the best works of the careers of Jay Farrar and Jeff Tweedy. The remastered version adds more language to this hard hitting epic. Uncle Tupelo nails a gut wrenching blue collar existence of crappy factory work, hard drinking, no money, smoke filled bars and just living in an environment where the only way you can see a way out is to just get out. Mainstream country and popular music try and usually fail to capture it, often sounding so very insincere. Maybe that's because of the gap that exist between the struggling artist that often write the songs and the multi-millionaires that record them. On this album there is little doubt that Uncle Tupelo is living what they write and sing about. Songs like: Graveyard Shift, Before I Break, No Depression, Factory Belt, Whiskey Bottle, Life Worth Livin' and Screen Door strike directly at the working class soul. They even bring a sincerity to the two songs on this disc they didn't write; the title track "No Depression" and "John Hardy". This is the album that launched a genre that has been too often overlooked. It may the fate of this album that it is one of the greatest albums that a good part of the country will never hear.

Uncle Tupelo, coming from the St. Louis suburbs on the Illinois side of the Mississippi River, were a striking and dynamic Midwestern indie-rock band, synthesizing the driving, punkish rhythms of earlier bands such as Soul Asylum with the Seattle-based grunge scene and the various soul-searching, profundity drenched REM wannabees. As an extra, double-dog-dare twist, they also threw in clever hints of old-fashioned country and twang, music that hip kids in the South and Midwest had been taught to despise as redneck trash. They were not, as advertised, the founders of alt.country (Gram Parsons, Willie Nelson, High Sheriff Ricky Barnes and the Knitters might have something to say about that...) but they were probably the band that made the biggest dent in the indie-rock landscape of the time.

This 1990 debut showed an enthusiastic and eclectic band, mostly a three-piece comprised of songwriter guitarists Jay Ferrar and Jeff Tweedy, along with drummer Mike Heidorn, which plowed through emotive, grungy roots rock and some folkie acoustic material, with unrepentant whiffs of cowpunk and grindcore included in the margins. This new CD edition offers six extra tracks -- live perfomances, demo tracks and outtakes -- as well as casual, informative liner notes by drummer Mike Heidorn, and lots of Uncle Tupelo memorabilia, such as reprints of old show posters, advertising the band playing at frat parties and teeny local bars. For devoted fans or the newly curious, this is a pretty classy package.