73. Jeff Erickson Discusses Uncle Tupelo, No Depression

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Rebecca Clay Cole (Pavement, Wild Flag, The Minders)

Mariana Timony (Bandcamp Daily, The Weird Girls Post)

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Eric Gilde (Cryptid, Narrator Syndrome, Take Me In To the Ballgame podcast)

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Uncle Tupelo…yet another band that Al had heard about and read about, but never actually listened to. Jeff Erickson of RotoWire remedies that on this episode, as he introduces Al to the band via their 1990 debut album, No Depression. Jeff and Al talk about several of the album’s tracks, the importance of Uncle Tupelo to the alt-country subgenre, Jeff’s experiences with listening to Wilco and Son Volt, and the nature of being a fan of a band that becomes more popular over time.

As he promised, Jeff provided a link to a video of Uncle Tupelo playing live in 1994. Watch and enjoy…https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWiUkQMs5zM

Let Jeff know how much you love Uncle Tupelo on Facebook and at @Jeff_Erickson on Twitter.

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1:02 Jeff joins the show

2:23 Jeff explains how he discovered No Depression

4:42 Al discusses his experience of seeing Wilco live

6:31 Jeff identifies the reasons why he chose this album

8:12 Jeff connected with No Depression’s earnest tone

9:42 Al appreciates Uncle Tupelo, even if they didn’t totally click for him

13:15 Jeff talks about Uncle Tupelo’s early years, and Al recalls hearing about the band in that era

16:05 Al and Jeff find parallels between Uncle Tupelo and R.E.M.

17:51 Al has a hard time imagining Uncle Tupelo as a punk band

19:08 Al and Jeff compare Jay Farrar and Jeff Tweedy

22:12 Jeff names some of his favorite songs from the album

24:12 Uncle Tupelo doesn’t take credit for creating alt-country, even though others do

25:54 Al talks about a couple of his favorite tracks

28:12 Jeff and Al discuss their struggles with enjoying their favorite bands after they became popular

33:39 No Depression hits Jeff the same way now as it did when he first heard it

34:59 Jeff and Al pick out some of their favorite lyrics from No Depression

42:09 Jeff compares and contrasts Uncle Tupelo with Wilco and Son Volt

48:46 Al asks Jeff where to continue his Farrar/Tweedy exploration

52:00 Jeff talks about his work with RotoWire

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