This week’s Diagnosis features Tweedy–a father/son band out of Chicago.
When Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy first set out to make a solo album, he enlisted his son Spencer to play drums just for rehearsals and demoing. But as Spencer, 18, became more involved in the project, the pair decided to become a duo under the name Tweedy.
Only three months after officially joining forces, Tweedy released Sukierae–a pleasant, charming, quirky little masterpiece.
For Sukierae (soo-key-ray), Jeff Tweedy says he wanted to explore the “unrealized potential” of many songs he’d written for Wilco that just never quite found their footing in a six-piece setting. The album is not a recording of all the rejected Wilco tracks per se, but a re-working of many original and stowed away ideas.
When putting Sukierae together, Jeff Tweedy says he knew the length would make it difficult to listen to it all at once, which speaks to the merit of each song as art capable of both standing alone and fitting in to the puzzle of the whole album.
Nick Offerman directed the first music video since the album’s release for the song “Low Key,” and the spirit of the video does well to encapsulate the lighthearted peaks but melancholy valleys of Sukierae.
To hear some favorite tracks Sukierae, tune in to the Diagnosis tonight at 10 p.m. on WUSC 90.5FM or at wusc.sc.edu.
