I was disappointed when I read this recently on Wheat’s new MySpace page:
“WHEAT looked all set for mainstream but unusually uncompromised success [after their second album, 1999's Hope and Adams]. As so often happens, however, fate (or perhaps poor management) conspired against them: the band was advised to leave their European label in favour of another that, unbeknownst to them, was about to fold. Mere days after the deal was signed news reached them that their album was now an asset of a company that had gone out of business. Dense legal battles followed, and though the band emerged intact over a year later to sign with Aware/Sony, the record—the typically cryptically titled PER SECOND, PER SECOND, PER SECOND … EVERY SECOND—had not emerged so unscathed. Instead it had been remixed and in places re-recorded, largely at the label’s behest, and was consequently rendered comparatively lifeless (although it still went on to sell 30,000 copies in the US).
“In the end—fortunately, some might argue—it was never released outside of North America…. ‘We couldn’t do the monkey suits and the handshakes well at all,’ [drummer Brendan] Harney explains…. ‘It didn’t work out ’cause it was a completely fucked-up fit. Scott and I started WHEAT as an art project, and the second we let other people’s opinions slip in is when it started to come apart. We needed to walk away from the whole thing. The things we loved, the art of what we did, the control of what we were about seemed to be slipping, so we had to jump.’”
I read an interview with Martin Short in Premiere in 2005 in which he was pretty much prompted by the interviewer, Brantley Bardin, to make fun of movies of his, like 1992’s Captain Ron, that are generally considered to be bad. Short wouldn’t do it. Bardin called Captain Ron Short’s own Patch Adams; Short responded, “Can I tell you that both Kurt Russell and I have talked about how passionately people come up and say how much they love Captain Ron? … That’s why it’s very important for people in show business to never, ever comment on what they’ve done—it diminishes people’s take on it. You must always sit back and just say, ‘Fantastic. Thank you.’”
Damn right, Martin! Because when I see Wheat dismissing and apologizing for an album that I absolutely love, it pisses me off a bit. It’s like when you think you’ve made a strong connection with some girl who stops talking to you a few weeks later. Wheat might as well include a cover of “What a Fool Believes” on their next album. They don’t feature any songs from Per Second, Per Second, Per Second … Every Second on their MySpace page, which confirms to me how much they want to distance themselves from it.
Oh well, your loss, Wheat. You may be proud of your origins as an “art project,” but radio-friendly, heavens-parting pop songs that can stand the test of time are art too (as you said yourselves on “These Are Things,” one of my favorites from Per Second, “Sometimes I could use a little shove”). I bet a lot of people in the audience on your next tour became fans because of Per Second; you may be surprised how much that album’s reputation has grown since its release three and a half years ago. (I’ll admit I have nothing to back up that claim, but I’m not the only person in this world who appreciates romantic pop music that won’t leave your head for months on end.) So be a pal and play some songs from Per Second on the tour to support your upcoming LP. Rearrange them if you want, but play them. Your days of apologizing for one of my favorite albums of the past ten years should end now.
