Oh, Ontario. Oh, Jennifer Jason Leigh.
First off, let me say that I don’t know anything about the Weakerthans. They’re Canadian, I guess? They could be the most obscure indie rock band ever, or they could be so huge that everyone reading this is going to punch a kitten if they hear that damn Weakerthans song one more time. I guess I just don’t keep up that much any more. But you know that band you loved until you found out that their fanbase was entirely made up of 18-year-old douchebags (I’m looking at you, Blink 182) and couldn’t help let it color your opinion of them? Not the case here. I have no context whatsoever for the Weakerthans except what I’ve projected on them myself. I couldn’t pick any of the band’s members out in a lineup. Their music exists for me in a vacuum.
I discovered their second album, Left and Leaving, when our music editor at the Tacoma Reporter pressed a review copy into my hand with a knowing smile. She had me pegged, too, because I ate that shit up with a spoon. “Aside” and “Watermark,” were blistering and catchy, just the way I liked them, and the slower stuff (like the title track and, especially, “Without Mythologies“) was somber and introspective. These guys had some depth. I can remember thinking (and this was way back in 2000, but I do remember some of it) that if I could be in any band in the world it would be the Weakerthans, based entirely on this album alone.
So how did their follow up, Reconstruction Site, become my favorite? Not by ratcheting things up, but by reigning them in — the songs are just crafted with such confidence. One, written from the perspective of a cat named Virtute attempting to cheer up her perpetually gloomy owner, is a celebration of hope as a conscious decision. And “Our Retired Explorer,” about trying to endure a fancy dinner party when all you can think about is how to get yourself back to the unexplored wastelands of Antarctica, almost matches the previous album for pep but adds a wink and a smile. The album’s centerpiece, though, comes in the form of three songs (“Manifest,” “Hospital Vespers” and “Past-Due“) that are variations on a theme, each with its own lyrics. They range from rollicking to soulful, but the middle one, with backward-recorded chords and soft background vocals that preemptively echo each following verse like a dire warning, is one of the most haunting things I’ve ever heard.
The fourth album has some amazing stuff on it as well: I love me some “Civil Twilight” and “Tournament of Hearts.” And in something of a sequel, Virtute the cat finally gets fed up and leaves her owner’s sorry ass — oh my god, you guys, it’s just so sad. Don’t let my brevity dissuade you from their first album, either. There are some stripped-down gems there as well.
So what have we learned today? For one, ftE probably needs some music reviewers who’ve been exposed to new material any time during the past decade. Also, though, that its not the singer’s stupid face that matters, or how “important” a band is, or where it fits in the rock pantheon, or any of that crap that critics always prattle on about.
Sometimes, it’s just about the songs. (Oh, and I also learned that they have a live album! I’m off to download it right now…)
You have a limited amount of time, so why spend it reading about things that suck or are only kind of okay? Favorite thing EVER is not a review site. We're unrepentant fans, and this is the stuff we love. Hope you like gushing, because we're about to embarrass ourselves.
Left and leaving still chokes me up every time I hear it.
I declare that they are semi-big in Canada. Not so big that their gigs make the front page of the paper like fucking Nickelback, but big enough that they get a fair amount of airplay on CBC Radio 3 and you see their songs turn up on a lot of “best of the year” lists and so on.
Semi-big, but not so big that this Canadian didn’t realize they were Canadian.
Ha ha, you only know 99.9% of the things!
Oh.
I guess it’s 100% now.
Your northern ways remain mysterious and strange to me, I guess. For instance, I had always assumed those were hockey references in “Tournament of Hearts,” but I watched the video on youtube while writing this, and it turns out the song takes place in a bar decorated with photos of Curling champions.
Oh, Canada.