Wilco's third album Summerteeth is Rhino's latest offering in 2020's holiday box set season. A 4CD and 5LP edition of the 1999 release, packed with unreleased material, will be issued November 6.
Both physical and digital formats feature a brand-new remaster of the original album by Bob Ludwig, plus two dozen previously unreleased demos, outtakes and alternate versions. Each set features an unreleased live show as well: the CD featuring an extended, soundboard-sourced set at Colorado's Boulder Theatre recorded on November 1, 1999 (well into the band's tour to promote the album), while the LP includes a Tower Records gig in Chicago the week of Summerteeth's release, broadcast on radio station WXRT-FM and labeled here as An Unmitigated Disaster. A "Slow Rhodes Version" of the title track, included on the outtakes set, can be heard below.
Recorded through 1997 and 1998 in Willie Nelson's Texas recording studio and Chicago's Kingsize Soundlabs - during which, separately, Wilco recorded and released Mermaid Avenue with Billy Bragg, consisting of unused Woody Guthrie lyrics - the follow-up to 1996's Being There was markedly different from anything Wilco had ever released. Most of the tunes were written by Jeff Tweedy and company in the studio, and for the first time, the band achieved their desired sound with overdubs. While Summerteeth didn't outsell Being There, it was critically lauded, making No. 8 on the Village Voice's annual Pazz & Jop poll that year.
The deluxe Summerteeth features revisited cover artwork with metallic foil packaging by the band's Grammy-winning art director Lawrence Azerrad. The band's official store will also sell a limited color-vinyl edition of the LP box, topping out at 2000 copies. (The general vinyl box will also be limited to 6500 copies.)
Summerteeth: Deluxe Edition (Reprise/Rhino, 2020)
4CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
5LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / Wilco Store (color version)
CD 1/LP 1-2: Remastered original album (released as Reprise 47282, 1999)
- Can't Stand It
- She's a Jar
- A Shot In The Arm
- We're Just Friends
- I'm Always In Love
- Nothing'severgonnastandinmyway (Again)
- Pieholden Suite
- How To Fight Loneliness
- Via Chicago
- ELT
- My Darling
- When You Wake Up Feeling Old
- Summer Teeth
- In a Future Age
- 23 Seconds Of Silence
- Candyfloss
- A Shot In The Arm" (Remix)
CD 2/LP 3-4: Outtakes/Alternates/Demos (previously unreleased)
- Tried and True (Demo)
- I'm Always In Love (Demo)
- All I Need (Demo)
- I'll Sing It (Demo)
- Two Guitars (Instrumental Demo)
- Candyfloss (Demo)
- In a Future Age (Demo)
- No Hurry (Demo)
- She's a Jar (Demo)
- Can't Locator It (Guitar Riff Demo)
- Nothing'severgonnastandinmyway (Again) (Demo)
- Summer Teeth (Slow Rhodes Version)
- Pieholden Suite (Alternate)
- I'm Always In Love (Early Run Through)
- My Darling (Alternate)
- Tried and True (Alternate)
- She's a Jar (Alternate)
- Nothing'severgonnastandinmyway (Again)
- Candyfloss (Intro)
- Every Little Thing (Alternate)
- Viking Dan (Outtake)
- We're Just Friends/Yee Haw (10/29/99 Minneapolis Soundcheck)
- Summer Teeth (Alternate)
- In a Future Age (Take 3)
CD 3-4: Live at The Boulder Theatre, Boulder, CO - 11/1/1999 (previously unreleased)
- Via Chicago
- Candyfloss
- Summer Teeth
- I'm Always In Love
- I Must Be High
- How To Fight Loneliness
- Hotel Arizona
- Red-Eyed and Blue
- I Got You (At The End Of The Century)
- Nothing'severgonnastandinmyway (Again)
- She's a Jar
- A Shot In The Arm
- We're Just Friends
- Misunderstood
- Hesitating Beauty
- Christ For President
- Passenger Side
- Can't Stand It
- Forget The Flowers
- New Madrid
- California Stars
- Kingpin
- Casino Queen
- Outta Mind (Outta Sight)
- Hoodoo Voodoo
- Monday
LP 5: An Unmitigated Disaster: Tower Records/WXRT (3/11/1999) (previously unreleased)
- Intro
- I'm Always In Love
- Via Chicago
- How To Fight Loneliness
- She's a Jar
- We're Just Friends
- Can't Stand It
- I Got You (At The End Of The Century)
- Forget The Flowers
- California Stars
Larry Davis says
Interesting release...did not think any more Wilco deluxes would come out but I was wrong...as for the 2 shows, 1 per format, if a completist, forced to buy both, but for me, I'd just get the CD box, looks like a fuller show...