“Heavy Metal Drummer”—Wilco

60 Songs That Explain the '90s

The Ringer

Music

4.7 • 849 Ratings

🗓️ 6 August 2025

⏱️ 91 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this week’s episode, Rob uses the blueprint he learned from all of his favorite rock band movies, like 'Dig!' and 'The Great Muppet Caper,' to better understand the self-proclaimed misunderstood band Wilco. He takes us through Jeff Tweedy’s journey, starting with Wilco’s predecessor Uncle Tupelo, which diverged from the marketable grunge movement of its time to make forthright folk music. Unsurprisingly, Tweedy continued not to write music for the masses and the labels, inadvertently making hits like “Heavy Metal Drummer.” Later, Rob is joined by Dylan Tupper Rupert, who explains how she discovered Wilco as a 12-year-old and how a band can make even the most childless of listeners feel like a dad (in the best way). Host: Rob Harvilla Guest: Dylan Tupper Rupert Producers: Olivia Crerie, Chris Sutton, and Justin Sayles Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	If you had to pick just one album to define the 21st century so far, what would it be? I'm Cole Kishna from Dysect. And I'm Charles Holmes from The Midnight Boys, and on Tuesday, July 29th, Cole and I are launching season four of Last Song Standing, but this year we're mixing things up. Instead of searching for an artist's greatest song, we're asking an even bigger question. What is the greatest album of the 21st century so far? Listen to last song standing on the Dysect podcast feed or
0:25.7	the Dysect YouTube channel starting Tuesday, July 29th. Everything I know about being in a rock band, I learned when I was three years old, and I watched
0:47.6	Kermit, Gonzo, and Fazi check in to the Happiness Hotel during the Great Muppet Caper.
0:57.0	We'd like a room?
0:59.0	Really?
1:00.0	Yeah, we'd like to check in.
1:03.0	Somebody's checking in!
1:06.0	Somebody's checking in!
1:09.0	Somebody's checking in.
1:30.5	I do not have a conscious memory of watching the 1981 feature film The Great Muppet Caper, the year it came out, on account of the fact that I turned three years old in 1981. But hopefully my parents weren't masochistic enough to take toddler me to a movie theater yet. Furthermore, I have genuinely no idea how long
1:37.6	it took before a movie released in theaters in 1981 was available to watch at home. What did it take
1:44.0	five years?
1:45.5	Nor if you want the truth, am I 100% sure how you'd even watch a movie at home back then.
1:51.3	Were VCRs even invented yet?
1:54.1	The past keeps getting farther away and thus more mysterious and unknowable.
2:01.4	Have you noticed this?
2:03.5	I don't care for it.
2:04.8	How am I supposed to do my job?
2:07.7	All I can tell you is that when I was three years old,
2:10.8	the Muppets were extremely my shit,
2:14.1	though hopefully I would not have phrased it that way at the time.
2:19.5	Oh, there's no fire in the fireplace. There's no curfee it on the floor. Don't try to order
	...

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