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| Wreck Your Life | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | October 3, 1995 | |||
| Recorded | Attica in Chicago, IL | |||
| Genre | Country rock, alternative country | |||
| Length | 49:40 | |||
| Label | Bloodshot Records | |||
| Producer | Chuck Uchida | |||
| Old 97's chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   |
| Robert Christgau | B+ [2] |
Wreck Your Life is the second studio album by American country/rock band Old 97's, first released on October 3, 1995 (see 1995 in music). The album's title comes from a Texas Department of Transportation bumper sticker with the slogan, "Don't Wreck Your Life". Drummer Philip Peeples removed the first word and applied the sticker to the band's touring van. [3]
An album is a collection of audio recordings issued as a collection on compact disc (CD), vinyl, audio tape, or another medium. Albums of recorded music were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78-rpm records collected in a bound book resembling a photograph album; this format evolved after 1948 into single vinyl LP records played at 33 1⁄3 rpm. Vinyl LPs are still issued, though album sales in the 21st-century have mostly focused on CD and MP3 formats. The audio cassette was a format widely used alongside vinyl from the 1970s into the first decade of the 2000s.
The United States of America (USA), commonly known as the United States or America, is a country comprising 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, and various possessions. At 3.8 million square miles, the United States is the world's third or fourth largest country by total area and is slightly smaller than the entire continent of Europe. With a population of over 327 million people, the U.S. is the third most populous country. The capital is Washington, D.C., and the most populous city is New York City. Most of the country is located contiguously in North America between Canada and Mexico.
Country music, also known as country and western, and hillbilly music, is a genre of popular music that originated in the southern United States in the early 1920s. It takes its roots from genres such as American folk music and blues.
Contents
Wreck Your Life was the band's first professionally released album, released by Chicago alt-country label Bloodshot Records. The album contains many of the country and bar band elements absent from the later Elektra Records recordings. Four extra songs from these sessions, as well as two singles, were later combined by Bloodshot for the Early Tracks EP. Though the anticipation of the album was immense, the ratings were not very good.
Chicago, officially the City of Chicago, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and the third most populous city in the United States. With an estimated population of 2,705,994 (2018), it is also the most populous city in the Midwestern United States. Chicago is the county seat of Cook County, the second most populous county in the US, with portions of the northwest city limits extending into DuPage County near O'Hare Airport. Chicago is the principal city of the Chicago metropolitan area, often referred to as Chicagoland. At nearly 10 million people, the metropolitan area is the third most populous in the nation.
Bloodshot Records is an independent record label based in Chicago, Illinois that specializes in roots-infused indie rock, punk rock, and alternative country.
Elektra Records is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group, founded in 1950 by Jac Holzman and Paul Rickolt. It played an important role in the development of contemporary folk music and rock music between the 1950s and 1970s. In 2004, it was consolidated into WMG's Atlantic Records Group. After five years of dormancy, the label was revived as an imprint of Atlantic in 2009. As of October 2018, Elektra was detached from the Atlantic Records umbrella and reorganized into Elektra Music Group, once again operating as an independently managed frontline label of Warner Music.
"Doreen" is a re-recording from the band's first album, Hitchhike to Rhome , and an alternate take on "W-I-F-E" can be found on Early Tracks . "Big Brown Eyes" was featured in the series finale of Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide and was re-recorded for the band's next album, Too Far to Care .
Hitchhike to Rhome is the first studio album by American country/rock band Old 97's, first released on November 1, 1994. The title comes from the song, "Stoned," and refers to Rhome, Texas.
Early Tracks is an EP collection of unreleased early recordings by American country/rock band Old 97's. The EP contains four songs from two early singles as well as four more from the Wreck Your Life recording sessions.
Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide is an American live action sitcom on Nickelodeon that debuted in the Nickelodeon Sunday night TEENick scheduling block on September 12, 2004. The series' original pilot episode aired on September 7, 2003, without many of the current version's main characters, and it was ordered to series by Nickelodeon in early 2004. The one-hour special movie series finale aired on June 8, 2007.
The lead song, "Victoria", is a country ballad to Miller's ex-girlfriend, while "Doreen" refers to a memorable fan of Killbilly, a predecessor band featuring Miller and Hammond. "You Belong To My Heart" was made famous by Elvis Presley, while "My Sweet Blue-Eyed Darlin'" is by Bill Monroe. The Robert mentioned in "Big Brown Eyes" (as well as "Drowning In The Days") is Miller's boyhood friend, Robert Jenkins.
Killbilly was a Dallas, Texas-based band active from 1987 to 1994, which described its music as being a mixture of bluegrass and punk. Critics have variously described the band's style as a "fusion of bluegrass and shred metal", and as "a genuine bluegrass band playing straight, fast and loud." The Dallas Observer's Robert Wilonsky described the band as "irreplaceable" and their breakup in 1994 as the "end of an era".
Elvis Aaron Presley, also known mononymously as Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Regarded as one of the most significant cultural icons of the 20th century, he is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King".
William Smith Monroe was an American mandolinist, singer, and songwriter, who created the style of music known as bluegrass. Because of this, he is commonly referred to as the "Father of Bluegrass".
In 2009, Bloodshot reissued the album under the title Wreck Your Life... And Then Some: The Complete Bloodshot Recordings. The reissue contains not only the entire original album, but also other obscure songs the band recorded for Bloodshot. [4]
