The Weakerthans live, Smallman is dead(?)

Today The Weakerthans released Live at the Burton Cummings Theatre, a cd/dvd package celebrating the band's 13 years and 4 albums. I missed the April 2009 show(s) (I think they played two nights) at which they recorded this stuff, but I did make it out to an aftershow party at the Albert, which was doubly good because the band played for fun and The Wind-ups opened up in their regular wildly energetic fashion.



Here's the track listing, you can stream the whole thing at Spinner.com.

01. Everything Must Go

02. Tournament of Hearts

03. Our Retired Explorer (Dines with Michel Foucault in Paris in 1969)

04. Night Windows|Reconstruction Site

05. Aside

06. Civil Twilight

07. Bigfoot

08. Plea From A Cat Named Virtute

09. The Reasons|Sun In An Empty Room

10. Left and Leaving|Wellington's Wednesdays

11. Benediction

12. Manifest

13. One Great City!

14. This Is A Fire Door Never Leave Open

15. Virtute the Cat Explains Her Departure

In somewhat related news, John K. Samson's former band Propagandhi has announced a search for a new label and disclosed that Winnipeg's Smallman Records is closing down. I have not yet seen an official announcement and am anxiously awaiting a confirmation that it is not true, but sites such as Exclaim.ca are reporting it as reality. I sure hope it ain't true. Besides Propagandhi, Smallman's brought us fine recordings from Sylvie, Sights and Sounds, Comeback Kid, Sick City, Choke, Our Mercury, and Moneen, among others. It was also set to release Greg MacPherson's Mr. Invitation album March 30. Say it ain't so, Smallman!

Greg MacPherson - First Class (download here)



Greg MacPherson - Outside Edge (download here)



Propagandhi - Humane Meat (download here)



Sights and Sounds - The Only Time (download here)



Sylvie - Dark Ages (download here)



Our Mercury - Shawna Don't Wanna (download here)

Sylvie - Rise and Fall from Smallman Records on Vimeo.

Sick City - Smiles and Cries from Smallman Records on Vimeo.

Quickie Winnipeg round-up: 2009

photo by Kieran 2009

2009 produced the usual batch of excellent sounds from Winnipeg artists. I got some suggestions for some kind of best of list, but there's enough of those out there already. Nevertheless, I don't mind briefly running down notable local artists, some of whom I've touched on before and some I haven't. For some strange reason, the upper half of the alphabet has been ruling the roost lately as far as beginning letters for band names, at least as far as the ones Scruffy's been digging. As a matter of fact, what's with all the brilliant bands begining with the letter P?

Paper Moon gets my vote as the band most likely to be ridiculously successful beyond Manitoba borders. Consistently good songwriting, sweet vocals, and exceptional production choices make PM one to watch.



On the much heavier and much more political end of the spectrum, Propagandhi ended up on top of Exclaim! magazine's best o' the year heap and rocked the magazine cover. The band's album, Supporting Caste, was named punk rock album of the year. Propagandhi's blend of punk rock ideology and metallic instrumentation put 'em on the rails to...even greater popularity? Critical acclaim? (Gasp!) Financial success?!? An anti-corporate band in every way, they've still managed to sell tons of cds in corporate record stores and make fans of those who aren't neither punk devotees, metal experts, or politically brilliant, and may have actually worked in one of those evil villain chain record stores (like me).



The Perms kept up their record of launching modern rock missiles on an unsuspecting world with Keeps You Up When You're Down. The guys and director Jeff Bromley manage to get in shots of the back of the Zoo, the front of the Albert, prudent Wpg fashion, inexplicable sucking-on-a-Slurpee-in-winter behaviour, and goofy band behaviour in this vid.



Enough with the "P" bands. my favourite release of the year was The Rowdymen's Gas, Liquor, and Fireworks. The band have been digging deep into the roots of rock 'n' roll for a long time (hey, Eddie Cochrane!), but this time they dug deeper into the country artists that were badasses before Sid Vicious was a t-shirt, Cobain was a martyr, and Marilyn Manson was a tired attempt at controversy. If you thought The Rowdymen was "just" a rockabilly band, you haven't listened to Jason Allen's songs that took the group out into dustbowl territory like a drunk astronaut with a serious roots music jones. Hint: who was given the nickname "Possum"?



The Rowdymen - Ode to Possum


The Rowdymen - Rode Hard




The Western States bucked the whole Autotune trend and trekked down to Texas just to record live to tape, no digital effects or computer tomfoolery allowed. If rock and roll never happened, Neil Young and Gram Parsons were on all the cool teen clothing shops' badges, t-shirts and patches, and subtlety and restraint were commended in our plastic world, the Western States would be sittin' pretty. The following tune starts as bare bones as can be, but grows into a different animal altogether - listen closely to that sparking guitar near the end, it sends me to the moon.

The Western States - The Road is Dark as the Night


Sights & Sounds is a band that pulls in so many different flavours they're hard to describe. Total hardcore assault, fragile piano bits and intimate in-your-ear-vocals, some ambient sounds, beautiful layered harmonies - they don't fit a genre. Post-hardcore?



Grand Analog I've mentioned before, but again, this is a band that doesn't readily fit any genre. The band has had one song used on TV show 90210, and there are so many points of reference in the tunes on Metropolis is Burning, I wouldn't be surprised to see more popping up all over the place.