Strongerthan?

News from The Weakerthans that they've just signed to Epitaph Records!

The Weakerthans, from Winnipeg, are one of the best bands in Canada. I suppose they're generally cast as a punk band, but that's more for convenience than anything. They're eons beyond the Blink-182s and the Sum-41s and whatever other crap passes for punk these days. They're also very political, being part of the G7 Welcoming Committee label. John K. Sampson's poetic lyrics (see samples below) are some of the best I've come across in quite some time, although I find myself drawn more to his emotional landscapes. But like most great writers, there's not always a clear distinction between the emotional and the political.

Here's their communique:

From: "The Weakerthans Communications Bureau"
Date: Sat Feb 22, 2003 04:52:30 PM America/Montreal
Subject: Weakerthans and Epitaph Records - A New Alliance/The Future's So Bright!

The Weakerthans are extremely pleased to announce that their next full-length recording, tentatively titled Reconstruction Site, will be released in North America by Epitaph Records late summer 2003.

Epitaph was clearly our 1st choice to put out our next album, and we are overjoyed that this has been realized. We believe in the strength and virtue of underground and independent music, culture and industry. In our opinion, Epitaph embodies all those qualities. Joining them is the perfect decision for us; reaffirming our musical background and current artistic progression as well as our political philosophy. We are punk rockers with a leftist-political conscience - who like Epitaph - fell in love with all sorts of music somewhere along the way. We are so excited to be surrounded by great rock bands, as well as true heroes and legends of music, and to get the chance to work with the staff of Epitaph. It is the label we've always wanted to be on.

We would also like to express our gratitude to G-7 Welcoming Committee Records, who handle our first two records, for their labour and encouragement and for providing a living example of progressive politics in action. Similarly, Sub City Records (licensee, USA) works tirelessly on our behalf, and through their charity program, on behalf of others. We look forward to continuing the promotion of our work with these labels as we begin a new relationship with the fine people of Epitaph.


Check out their web page for lyrics and audio and video samples, including this video for "Watermark", lyrics below.

Watermark
I count to three and grin. You smile and let me in. We sit and watch the wall you painted purple. Speech will spill on space. Our little cups of grace. But pauses rattle on about the way that you cut the snow-fence, braved the blood, the metal of those hearts that you always end up pressing your tongue to. How your body still remembers things you told it to forget. How those furious affections followed you. I've got this store-bought way of saying I'm okay, and you learned how to cry in total silence. We're talented and bright. We're lonely and uptight. We've found some lovely ways to disappoint, but the airport's almost empty this time of the year, so let's go play on a baggage carousel. Set our watches forward like we're just arriving here from a past we left in a place we knew too well. (Hold on to the corners of today, and we'll fold it up to save until it's needed. Stand still. Let me scrub that brackish line that you got when something rose and then receded.

Say What?

Surfed over to the C'est What site this aft because I'm thinking of going there this weekend to check out Alex Baird. I had put Alex in my Showcase page a couple of years ago, and so I poked around the C'est What site to see if she had done anything new lately.

Instead of finding something new, I found something borrowed, which prompted me to fire off this email:

Hi,

I just noticed that your web site is using a piece of my writing ("Spotlight On Alex Baird" -
http://www.cestwhat.com/music/alexbaird.asp) without having asked my permission or at least properly citing the source, which was my Showcase write-up in Canadian Musician magazine
(http://www.canadianmusician.com/cmshowjan01.htm).

I realize it's possible that Alex supplied this copy to you without considering the implications. But I make my living with my writing, so if you're going to "borrow" my work for your own commercial/promotional purposes, I would appreciate it if you could at least credit the source properly.

Thanks for your attention to this matter.

- Jim Kelly

p.s., maybe I should demand remuneration in the form of a free beer every time I visit C'est What. :-)

Waddya think? Was I overreacting, or was I within my rights to do this? I don't think the email sounded too tight-ass, did it? I was kind of pissed.

Psssst

Hey, George, look over here.

"Parker!"

Got my much-delayed xmas present from my brother today. The J. Jonah Jameson action figure! With "desk-pounding action"!

A very cool toy that now sits atop my desk at work.

Of course, I find myself wondering about that last photo, bottom-right. "Spidey sense tingling" indeed.

Welchin' and Jonesin'

Well, lookee here! Norah Jones is touring this summer, and through the month of June, her opening act will be Gillian Welch!

Now, I really like Norah Jones, and I love Gillian Welch... but isn't this a bit of a strange pairing? It's like Lucinda Williams opening for Diana Krall. It's like Steve Earle opening for Tony Bennett. It's like having a home-made oatmeal cookie with a glass of red wine.

Don't get me wrong; I'd love to see them together on the same evening. Too bad Gillian's last night on this tour is the gig just before Norah hits Massey Hall in Toronto. Damn. Maybe she'll swing by this way on her own.

See Norah's tour dates (including those with GW) here.

Speaking of the wonderful Ms. Welch, her web page is offering a live clip from her Time (The Revelator) DVD. Click here and choose your connection speed to see her and the amazing David Rawlings performing "Red Clay Halo" (steams through Realplayer, Windows media player and Quicktime). Check out Rawlings' smooth capo action during his solo. What an amazing player.

I love this song, though it's one of the more "traditional"-sounding tracks on Revelator (maybe it's because I'm from a place known for its red soil). I find it intriguing how on many of the songs on this CD, she's able to sound so very traditional, but yet there's also a very contemporary aesthetic at work, mostly in her approach to lyric writing.

And speaking of rootsy gals, I've been really enjoying Ottawa alt-country chick Kathleen Edwards' Failer CD. She's been getting lots of Stateside exposure lately. I missed seeing her on Letterman last night. If you like Lucinda Williams, you'll probably like Kathleen.

True Blue

Who knew The Material Girl was such an angel.

Konnections

So, this tape surfaces that is apparently Osama bin Laden speaking on the Iraq-U.S. showdown, and Colin Powell uses it to try to prove a connection between al-Qaeda and Sadam Hussein.

Powell told a Senate committee he'd read a transcript of a recording of Osama bin Laden, or someone believed to be the al-Qaeda leader, "Where he once again speaks to the people of Iraq and talks about their struggle, and how he is in partnership with Iraq."

But from the transcript of the tape, bin Laden expresses his solidarity with the people of Iraq, and actually calls Sadam Hussein a few nasty names. That's funny, because George Bush has said exactly the same thing: he supports the Iraqi people and despises Sadam's regime. So does that prove a connection between Bush and bin Laden? It would seem so.

But to further prove the al-Qaeda-Sadam partnership, Powell asserts that al-Qaeda operatives have found sanctuary in northeastern Iraq. In Iraq itself! Of course, that's the area controlled by Iraqi Kurds. So that would seem to prove a connection between the Kurds and al-Qaeda terrorist cells.

But wait! The Kurds are the people the American and British air forces have been protecting for ten years nowóprotecting from Sadam.

I've seen clearer lines of reasoning in a high school debating society.

Goodbye, Dolly

News from the world of science and medicine that Dolly the cloned sheep has died.

LONDON - Dolly, the world's first mammal cloned from an adult, has been euthanized, scientists said Friday.

A veterinary exam confirmed the six-year-old sheep had a progressive lung disease. Her cells had started to show signs of aging faster than a typical animal.

Yikes. That's not good. Sheep normally live to be 11- or 12- years old. Dolly also had arthritis in her hip and knee. Not a great ad for cloning technology, if that was indeed a factor in the advanced aging conditions of her lungs and joints.

And check out this bit of info from the same article:

Scientists have found problems with cloned animals. Most attempts end in failure because the fetuses have oversized organs in the womb or are born stillborn. Other cloned animals have been born twice as large as normal.

Images of sci-fi horror flicks anyone? Giant spiders, giant lobsters, giant kittens eating automobiles. No thank you, Mr. Egghead Scientist! Keep your town-gobbling mutant death-sheep out of my world!

Running Be-Hynde

Not much time to blog, just wanted to crow about seeing Pretenders Monday night at the Hummingbird Centre!

It was my first time seeing them, after years of worshipping Chrissie Hynde from afar. Man, she rocked! She is the coolest woman in rock. She is the ‹ber-chick!

The H-centre is a fairly posh and sedate theatre where few rock bands play. It took a while, but Chrissie finally got everyone up outta their seats and dancing in the aislesómuch to the chagrin of the security people. Read the Jam! Music review here.

The opening act, The All Mighty Senators was quite good too.

SITES FOR SORE EYES

More Sites For Sore Eyes from WFMU. And this instalment featuring Canadian content!

COUNTRY SINGER, JEFF STRYKER!!
http://www.lgcma.com/lgcma-jeffstryker.htm
Mr. Stryker is multi-talented. He sings. He's country. And with radio-friendly hits like "What a Man Has to Do" and "Pop you in the Pooper" it won't be long before his star really starts to rise.

NORTH AMERICAN DIALECT SOCIETY
http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~golder/dialect
Led by Harvard researchers, this project has been chronicling U.S. regional dialects on-line since 1999. Now comprising responses from thousands of willing Americans, the survey sheds light on legions of befuddling questions: What do you call the gooey or dry matter that collects in the corners of your eyes, especially while you are sleeping? (38% call it "sleep," 10.1% prefer "eye booger" and the rest are simply confused.) What do you call a drive-through liquor store? How do you whip a shittie? All I can say is: Ooglers of the world - unite!

NYHETER
http://www.nyheter.nu/kultur/
Swedish invasion indeed.

STATE OF THE UNION
http://www.asu.net/bsh/union.mov
Dubya expresses fear and selfishness and embraces tyranny and greed as a cause. Evil. Evil. Evil. Requires Quicktime.

REVEREND PHIL ROBINSON, DUCK COMMANDER
http://www.cacoc.org/audio_files.htm
Reverend Phil addresses the devout of El Dorado, Arkansas---and does it using duck calls. (Warning: Remove any household pets from the vicinity of your computer. They will find this very disturbing.)

VANCOUVER POLICE DEPARTMENT INVESTIGATION WEB PAGE
http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/police/guns&roses/allimages.htm
November 7, 2002: Disgruntled Guns N Roses fans stir it up, Canadian-style. Rest assured - the Vancouver police aren't taking this lightly, and are rounding up the criminals as we speak.

Krall-ing From The Wreckage

Not to be a rumour-hound, but word has it that Elvis Costello and Canadian pop-jazz diva Diana Krall are an item. Who knew?

"Get Back To Where You Once Belonged..."

Yay! Looks like that little band called The Beatles is releasing another album! Let It Be is being re-released, stripped of all the sugary orchestration and choirs that Phil Spectorócalled in by John Lennon over Paul McCartney's protestationsóhad added in post-production after the fabs had canned the album in 1969.

Most Beatle-philes seem to side with McCartney on this one, decrying Spector's lavish embellishments on songs like "The Long And Winding Road" and "Let It Be". Macca's original idea for the album, and for his songs in particular, was to take a "back to basics" approach, using simple, stark arrangements. Spector's meddling with the tracks infuriated him. I suspect that may have been precisely the effect Lennon was after.

Bootleg copies of the album in its "intended" form, the somewhat mythologized version mixed by the session engineer Glyn Johns, have been around for years, so this release will be a wish come true for Beatle-philes. And for those of us who have never heard that version, it should be a real ear-opener.

So it looks like Phil Spector won't get away with his mangling of Let It Be. But the question remains: Is he getting away with murder?