Sound Check: Grab a spoon and chow down with Wilco

Friday, March 12, 1999 | 10:40 a.m.

Jeff Tweedy is a little tired. The night before was the Grammy awards; his band, Wilco, was nominated (with singing Socialist Billy Bragg) for the Woody Guthrie homage "Mermaid Avenue." The trophy, for best contemporary folk album, went to the sublime Lucinda Williams.

"It was a real music category," Tweedy says humbly, in deference to fellow nominees Steve Earle, Emmylou Harris and Lyle Lovett. "We didn't expect to win."

Not that Tweedy would have known what to do with the damn trophy anyway. What would you do with a Grammy, Jeff?

"I'd eat cereal out of it," the singer/songwriter says, utterly serious.

Released this week, Wilco's new album "Summer Teeth" is one fierce bowl of Crunchberries if ever one existed. (See the review below.) There's enough sweet harmony and melodies poured out to rot those teeth right out of your head, tempering -- not sweetening -- the saltiness of such lyrics as "Your prayers will never be answered again" (from "Can't Stand It").

It's the kind of sucker-punching that made The Who and the Rolling Stones, taking the lessons the band learned from making the multilayered "Being There" to new, giddy heights. And the best part: Tweedy swears it was accidental.

"We dove headlong into the stuff that excited us about 'Being There,' which was the pop songs," he says. "We wanted to experiment, to make these really dark, depressing songs into glossy, happy pop. The idea was to make the music destroy the morbid nature of the lyrics ... to make it ridiculously huge and beautiful."

A tall order, especially for songs that begin with such sunny declaratives as "I dreamed about killing you again last night," but the band manages ably by using arrangements and instrumentation they've never previously employed, including -- how about that? -- a light smattering of synthesizers.

"We have, like, 160 guitars between all of us in the band, and I think we just ran out of ideas on how to use them," he says, chuckling. "They all sat in their cases while we made this record."

One thing that remains consistent with the Wilco sound is its mobilty. Coming from the celebrated "No Depression" alternative country movement -- an album by Tweedy's former band, Uncle Tupelo, helped name and define the genre -- Wilco's music has always sounded of the open highway. Perhaps that comes from writing all those songs on a tour bus?

"I'm on the road so much, I wouldn't write at all if I didn't write on the road," Tweedy says. "I guess that informs (my writing) in a way I can't really see."

A tribute to the invisible as well as the plainly evident, "Summer Teeth" bows at record stores this week. Get it, enjoy it, and wait for next year's Grammy Awards, where the band will almost certainly get their shot at a set of matching bowls.

Stereo Dynamics

"Summer Teeth," Wilco (Reprise)

On "Summer Teeth," Wilco comes on like one of the fine British Invasion bands used in the soundtrack of Wes Anderson's "Rushmore." One minute, they're a bunch of harmless kids in jackets and ties; the next, a pack of avenging angels, all flaming swords and imminent vengeance. "I shoulda been listening / to every word you said," begs "ELT," but amends the apology with a cruel wink: "What have I been missing/by wishing that you were dead?"

Like Wilco's previous effort, the double-disc masterwork "Being There," "Summer Teeth" ingratiates itself from the go -- a lush, tuneful patchwork of musical styles and real surprises. It's a genuine pleasure to get sunny horn charts in place of a third verse on "Pieholden Suite" (Jeff Tweedy comments, "The horns said it better"). The cynical "How to Fight Loneliness" ends with "doo-dee-doo's" and an exhortation to "just smile all the time." And contrary to its subject, "When You Wake Up Feeling Old" turns into a joyful, toe-tapping sing-along, fading into the hopeful chant, "Can you be where you want to be?"

Some three months prior to release, many of my fellow dregs in the Rock Critic biz endowed "Summer Teeth" with "album of the year" buzz, and as much as I hate those guys, I have to throw my vote in with them. "Summer Teeth" is my "Rushmore."

Get out, act up

* Makers of such products as "Come Out and Play" and "Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)," The Offspring play their angst-ridden hearts out at House of Blues at Mandalay Bay, at 8 tonight. Call 632-7777.

* All this and Todd Rundgren, too! Ringo Starr's All-Starr Band plays The Joint Saturday, 8 p.m. Call 226-4650.

* Hey, why not? Cheap Trick at the House of Blues, Sunday, 8 p.m.

* Put on the old full metal jacket for this one. Hole, Marilyn Manson and Monster Magnet meet Wednesday at the Thomas & Mack. Call 895-3801. Spot the leprechaun and go home a winner!