C&L's Late Nite Music Club with The Weakerthans
By MaxMarginal Wednesday Jul 15, 2009 7:00pmIf Winnipeg, Manitoba ever declares a poet laureate (and accepts nominations from people that live in LA) I nominate John K. Samson of The Weakerthans.
This is from their newest outing, Reunion Tour. I'd be doing a disservice to not recommend that you go check out "Sun In An Empty Room", another song on that album that unfortunately doesn't pack the visual stims that this clip has, but is probably the best song on the record, and definitely the best song about moving houses you could ever ask for, and contains the line "with parallelograms of light on walls that we repainted white."
The Weakerthans will be making their way to my neck of the woods next week. I'll be the one in the front singing along. Tour dates below the flip.
July
17 Fri: Vancouver, BC - Vancouver Folk Festival
18 Sat: Seattle, WA - Neumo's
20 Mon: Santa Cruz, CA - The Crepe Place
21 Tue: San Luis Obispo, CA - Downtown Brew
22 Wed: Los Angeles, CA - The Roxy
23 Thu: San Francisco, CA - Great American Music Hall
24 Fri: Eugene, OR - WOW Hall
25 Sat: Portland, OR - The Aladdin
26 Sun: Nelson, BC - Spiritbar, Hume Hotel
September
15 Tue: Hamilton, ON - Casbah
16 Wed: Boston, MA - Paradise
17 Thu: Brooklyn, NY - Williamsburg Music Hall
18 Fri: New York City, NY - Bowery Ballroom
19 Sat: Washington, DC - 9:30 Club
20 Sun: Philadelphia, PA - World Cafe Live
23 Wed: Pittsburgh, PA - Mr. Smalls
24 Thu: Detroit, MI - Magic Stick
25 Fri: Chicago, IL - Bottom Lounge
26 Sat: Minneapolis, MN - Triple Rock Social Club
27 Sun: Madison, WI - High Noon
28 Mon: Waterloo, ON - Starlight Lounge
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Samson's old political punk band, Propaghandi. Dear Coach's Corner
Winnipeg, Represent!
The Weakerthans = greatness
Most excellent tune, Max!
I agree with you, fromnorthoftheborder, Winnipeg rawks in every way!
... except the long winters, of course .... ;)
October In The Railroad Earth
Poetry...with a twist.
I wish they were coming to Florida, but no such luck. I discovered them for myself a few months ago. I still haven't managed to listen to "Virtue The Cat Explains Her Departure" yet, and it's been about half a year.
We always make the mistake of listening to that one in the car while driving; I'm not generally all that soggy when listening to music but that one still chokes me up....speaks volumes that a song about a cat is able to do that.
Good pick Max. Weakerthans are good music:
Plea for a Cat Named Virtue - It takes some talent to write a song from a cat's perspective.
One Great City - "A darker gray is breaking through a lighter one" That is just a great, great line.
Especially "One Great City".
Also felt like posting this song since it's been stuck in my head all day and it hasn't really hit the radio yet. I think because of that Bacardi commercial it's landing on people's radar.
Matt and Kim - Daylight
on Letterman?
http://www.cbs.com/late_show/video/mccartney.php
Samson on Fresh Air on NPR, from about a year ago when this album came out, but having no luck.
Another one of my favorites by The Weakerthans is The Reasons. It's much harder to write a great happy song than a great sad one.
Easily one of the finest lyricists in music. A little dismayed that JKS has moved from Winterpeg, especially after he caught shit for writing "One Great City", but justified it by saying he still lives there, so he can say he hates Winnepeg, or something to that effect. These guys are one of my favourites, but for some reason their songs just don't have the same effect live. I was underwhelmed the first time I saw them, but thought I just caught them on an off night. Have seen them a couple of times since, and was pretty much the same. Oh well enjoy.
BTW, the cat's name is Virtute, not Virtue.
John K. Samson has not left Winnipeg, unless you are privy to recent information that hasn't made the news here. Living in downtown Winnipeg, I occasionally see him around town -- most recently leaving the Liquor Mart a month or two ago. I actually also saw bandmate Stephen Carroll on the street yesterday.
I'm a big Weakerthans fan going way back to "Fallow". In spite of this, I fervently disagree with calling him the Poet Laureate of Winnipeg. That title would have to go to Catherine Hunter in my mind. There is a snippet of one of her poems in the printed material that comes with "Fallow" and Weakerthans backed her up on one of the tracks from her spoken word album, "Rush Hour."
Another band that has stuck with me for some years; I picked up a sampler my freshman year in highschool which happened to have a couple of tracks off of Left and Leaving (Aside and Watermark), and they haven't completely left my mind since.
Thanks for posting this, I didn't even know they were touring, but it turns out I will now get to see them next week!
I'm driving up to SLO on Tuesday (I live in LA but have plans Wednesday. If that cancels I'll be at that too.)
Portland, OR on the 25th.
I don't go to as many shows as I used to, so I am very much looking forward to this, especially as I missed out on seeing them a couple of times in high school as a result of those 21+ shows.
Thank you for the introduction to the Weakerthans!
Tonight's local news brought word that several unstable ash dumps will not be repaired this year. I almost cried when I heard that one was in Paradise, Kentucky.
The ash dump must have been put there as revenge for a songwriter's advocacy.
Check out a two-for-one--Johnny Cash and noted bluegrass singers honoring the town.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maDU9yU6cMs
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