40 winnipegsun.canoe.ca WINNIPEG SUN A+E THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2007 WINNIPEG SUN A+E THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2007 winnipegsun.canoe.ca 41

DARRYL STERDAN

NEWS n VIEWS n REVIEWS Music Winnipeg’s best daily guide Weakerthans head to new Plenty of musicians travel by bus. But usually it’s not a city bus. And they’re not behind the wheel. places on Reunion Tour Then there’s John K. Sam- son. When we last caught When is a reunion tour not swings by his ex-lover’s house Sun in an Empty Room 4:00 up with a reunion tour? When it’s The every other hour — including One of two tunes inspired by frontman, he was sporting Weakerthans’ Reunion Tour. the titular (and romantically Hopper paintings, this sweetly blue Transit Tom togs and For one thing, it can’t be metaphorical) hour between smooth pop number has a lightly working the business end of Back on the Bus a reunion because the band sunset and certified darkness. funky groove and slightly slinky, an orange Flyer in the South never split up. For another, it’s Too much. ringing guitars. Lyrics about Osborne Street bus garage. Winnipeg’s Weakerthans get in gear again with long-awaited Reunion Tour CD not a live album, it’s the fourth a low-income couple moving “See, you work the turn sig- studio disc from the beloved Hymn of the Medical Oddity out of their welfare apartment nals with your feet,” Samson Winnipeg indie-rockers. And 3:08 conspire with an indelible chorus explains, offering us an oblig- finally, it’s not the soulless, Fingerpicked guitars that fall and a hummable keyboard solo ing demonstration. “That’s Outstanding self-serving cash-grab of your somewhere between folk and to make this one of the most pretty cool.” in their field typical reunion tour. classical gently glimmer over commercial songs in the band’s No, the 34-year-old Win- (from left): Rather, this 11-track set is a lazy beat. A wobbly keyboard repertoire. nipeg singer-guitarist hasn’t Weakerthans another stellar o�ering that adds melancholy counterpoint changed careers. He’s shoot- Smith, Carroll, captures the next stage in to unsettling images of doctors, Night Windows 4:36 ing a Caelum Vatnsdal- Tait and Samson. the band’s creative evolution. hospitals and wintry isolation. The second Hopper tune is directed video for the song Taking leave from the high- set to a click-clack tick-tock Civil Twilight, the first single concept unity of 2003’s Relative Surplus Value 2:38 rhythm and chiming guitars from the band’s fourth CD , singer- The disc’s hardest, fastest — a musical metaphor for Reunion Tour. songwriter and guitarist rocker is anchored by a the passage of time. It’s a And it’s no accident that John K. Samson o�ers tunes pumping Lust for Life beat, fine foundation for Samson’s the song — another one of inspired by everything from topped with guitars that throb intimate vocal about a lovelorn Samson’s wistful indie-rock Edward Hopper and vibrate like guy who finds himself lost in anthems set in wintry Winni- paintings and the HHHH Johnny Marr. The romantic reverie while glancing peg — is voiced by a busman dot-com bust to lyrics — about at his ex’s window. Pretty as a whose route takes him by his Gump Worsley and Weakerthans a businessman painting all on its own. ex’s house. the Great White Reunion Tour racing to a board “I actually spent a lot of time club fire. Despite meeting, only to Bigfoot! 2:23 on the bus when I was writ- their diverse Anti-Epitaph find out his stock More folksy acoustic guitars ing these songs,” says Samson origins, however, In stores Tue. has tanked — are — that fittingly creak and a few days before the shoot, these bittersweet an analogy for the squeak like footsteps on Arctic nursing a glass of merlot in odes to lovelorn dot-com boom. snow and ice — swirl with an Osborne Village cafe near curlers, brokenhearted bus Call it the Weakers’ answer to tinkly synth flakes and stately his Arbeiter Ring publishing drivers and runaway kitties are Takin’ Care of Business. northern-light horns. Together, house. “Three days a week for united by Samson’s articulate they create a stark, windswept the past few winters, I would prose, emotional honesty and Tournament of Hearts 3:35 dreamscape that suits this take the bus down to the understated whimsy — qualities On their last album, Samson tale of a tundra buggy driver library. I would sit near the that have established him treated us to last call at the who may or may not have a bus driver and kind of stare as the most gifted Winnipeg Elks Lodge. Here, he moves friend named Sasquatch. His at him. I kinda like their uni- songwriter since . to the lounge at the curling explanation: “The visions that I forms. The rest of the Weakers rink, hoisting a few brown see believe in me.” “And a lot of bus drivers — guitarist Stephen Carroll, ones in this lightly chugging hang out at the library — it drummer and new pop-rock charmer. The tale Reunion Tour 2:08 must be one of their stopoffs bassist Greg Smith — prove — yep, another romantic Over a sluggish martial- where they change buses — the perfect musical foils for metaphor — is Samson at his snare pattern and whistling so I would see them sitting Samson and his literary lyrics. most whimsical: “Why can’t tones, Samson recites a there.” Threepeating with producer Ian I ever stop where I want to litany of life on the endless Samson wasn’t just stalking DARRYL STERDAN / SUN MEDIA Blurton, the musicians seem stay? … I’m always throwing road — from the syncopated city workers. The articulate All aboard: Samson gets his Transit Tom on at the band’s video shoot; the new album, below. to have a greater hand in the hack-weight.” Can’t wait for the boom-boom-boom of tumbling songwriter was commuting proceedings. And they stretch video. roadcases to shiny truckstop to the library to force himself America and then heads to their sonic wings accordingly, food. “I lost the chiming ring to work on lyrics, researching Europe before closing with a employing more keyboards Virtute the Cat Explains her of keys to everything safe and everything from the dot-com hometown show Dec. 22 at and horns while experimenting Departure 4:09 safely locked away back home,” bust to Bigfoot to the paint- Burton Cummings Theatre. with ambient electronics, loops The pussycat protagonist he sings, expressing a touring ings of Edward Hopper — all curling love song Tournament “I was hanging out in New York City with Craig Finn (from The Hold 2003 CD Reconstruction Site. “Touring can be very tough. and e�ects. Most impressive? from Reconstruction Site musician’s disconnection from of which inspired songs on of Hearts, are self-explana- By contrast, Reunion Tour I’ve seen it kind of destroy They do so without sacrificing comes back to tell us why she domestic reality. So much for Reunion Tour, which arrives tory. Others, like the title cut Steady) and he said to me, ‘You know, I’ve made three records since — released on the influential people in a way. It can be this the human interaction and ran away. Built around a lazy sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll. in stores Tuesday. inspired by the Great White punk label Anti-Epitaph — is alternate reality that’s really immediacy of their sound. For brushed-snare beat, plaintive “Two of the songs are actu- tragedy, may be less obvious. you made your last record.’ It was kind of like, ‘Get to work.’ ” also the mellowest, moodiest destructive. But at this point, all its deliberate craftsmanship, electric piano and guitars that Utilities 4:35 ally based on Hopper paint- But Samson says they all have and most mature Weakerthans the lives we live at home are this is a living, breathing work evolve from shimmery waves to The boys take it home with ings — Night Windows and something in common. with them. They’re good com- Carroll and bassist Greg Smith And we were really happy disc to date, with a wintry feel more important than the lives of a functioning rock band. Morse code, it’s a remarkably a gorgeous, forlorn country Sun in an Empty Room. I was “In almost every song, pany. But this is a long time, — reconvened with longtime with the way it was going. that reflects the season it was we live on the road,” explains If only all reunion tours were tender track — and the only waltz flecked with percolating going to write a whole album there’s this longing for even for me. producer Ian Blurton in a St. “Because the songs were written and recorded. Samson, who shares a River so satisfying. ballad you’re likely to hear that organ and weeping steel about Edward Hopper paint- reunion or reconciliation. It’s “A while ago I was hang- Boniface warehouse. Unlike less carved in stone than last Former bass- Heights home with his singer- features the word ‘kibble.’ guitar lines. The slow-burning ings, so I spent a lot of time always about what might have ing out in New York City with the lyrics, the music for the time, we felt like we had room ist Samson adds it’s also “the songwriter wife Christine Civil Twilight 3:18 harmonized solo reminds us a reading about him. I only got been. So Reunion Tour kind of Craig Finn (from The Hold album was still a work in prog- to play with things and incor- most realistic record we’ve Fellows and their two cats. Squelchy synth-like guitar Elegy for Gump Worsley 2:43 bit of The Hold Steady — but around to two before I wan- seemed to fit as a throughline.” Steady) and he said to me, ress — which ended up work- porate new ideas. So everyone made. It’s the closest we’ve “We’re going to tour a lot, but pulses preface the main event, This hockey-homage self-deprecating lines like “Got dered off into other subjects. Plus, he admits, it’s an in-joke ‘You know, I’ve made three ing to the band’s advantage. was more comfortable with come to a record that actually I think our touring will be very reminding us of an old Who soundscape starts o� with Tait more faults than the state of But all the research ended up about how long it takes the records since you made your “It was a case of us hav- their contributions. There’s sounds like us, for better or for focused and concise.” number. What better setting plunking a backwoods banjo California, and the heart is a contributing to the album. A meticulous tunesmith to craft last record.’ It was kind of like, ing enough but not thinking more musical conversation worse.” Spoken like a man who for a song about a transit line amid rootsy flourishes badly built bridge” are pure lot of the songs are based on his songs. ‘Get to work.’ And I needed we did,” says Samson. “We this time.” Also for better or worse, knows how to work the turn driver? But this isn’t Magic from acoustic guitars and slide. Samson. “Make this something real people and events.” “I have real trouble let- that.” thought we would just go in It shows on the disc, which the band is embarking on signals — and when to hit the Bus; this gently surging and Samson waxes poetic with somebody can use,” he says in Some, like the experimental ting go of them,” he acknowl- So, in March, Samson and and record what we had. But has a looser, more immedi- its Reunion Tour tour, which brakes. serrated midtempo rocker is a stream-of-consciousness closing. It already is. soundscape Elegy for Gump edges. “I’m always real resis- the Weakers — drummer after eight days, Ian said, ‘I ate feel than the decade-old kicks off in Minneapolis Tues- a typically Samsonian tragedy monologue on the legendary Worsley or the metaphorical tant. I like walking around Jason Tait, guitarist Stephen think there’s a record here.’ band’s heavily conceptual day, winds through North [email protected] about a busman whose route goalie’s life. 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