SOUNDTRACK: THE WEAKERTHANS-Live at the Burton Cummings Theatre (2010).
I’ve enjoyed The Weakerthans for a few years now, so I was pretty excited to see they had a live album out.
This live album works like a greatest hits. All of the songs are great catchy pop songs–why aren’t The Weakerthans huge? Maybe because their songs are literate and clever (and have weird titles (like “Our Retired Explorer (Dines with Michel Foucault in Paris, 1961)”). In fact that song is one of only two songs that I know of that mention Jacques Derrida (the second being Scritti Politti’s “Jacques Derrida”).
Admittedly, The Weakerthan’s songs are simple and catchy and these live versions aren’t radically different from the originals. There’s no extended jams or maniacal freak outs or anything. But the album is very charming (John Samson is unfailingly polite) and the one big surprise is quite a surprise!
On the track “Wellington’s Wednesdays” Samson introduces a guy: “This is Ernesto. He’s from Mexico. He’s going to play a guitar solo.” While listening to the disc I couldn’t imagine this peculiar introduction for a band member. My version of the disc comes with a concert DVD of the show. I didn’t get to watch the DVD until recently and… mystery solved: Ernesto is a fan in the front row. Samson talks to him mid-song, pulls him up on stage, introduces him and gives him his guitar to play the solo! Then Samson jumps into the front row to watch. How cool is that?
The video doesn’t deviate from the audio, except for leaving in a few moments of patter from Samson. In fact, I found the video to be somewhat choppily edited. When Samson plays “One Great City!” (solo…which wasn’t obvious from the audio. I mean, you can tell he’s solo, but it’s much more dramatic in the video) at the finish of the song, it immediately cuts to the next full band song, rather diminishing the return of the band. (Although I do like the jump cuts to the audience which reveal what appears to be a room full of teenagers–it’s adorable!)
The other confusing thing is that the recording notes say that it was recorded over two days, and yet the video appears to be one night’s show. And the audio matches it, so who knows.
But those are little quibbles. The music is great, the sound quality is fantastic and the song choices are great. There are some cool surprises on the disc (like the horns and violin), but mostly what you get is an enjoyable evening at a small hometown concert with fans who love to sing along to the chorus of “One Great City:” “I hate Winnipeg!”
[READ: December 18, 2010] Stephen Leacock
What I’ve really been enjoying about this series of Extraordinary Canadians is how the writers of the books (at least the three I’ve read so far) are writing in such very different styles. Obviously Coupland did his own thing. Vissanji is a novelist, and he wrote his in a more novelistic way (its not like a novel at all, but it’s constructed in a kind of narrative style). Macmillian is a historian, and I suppose for that reason, this biography feels more like a history (of Leacock, but also of economics) than a simple biography.
The strangest thing about this book is that although MacMillan obviously likes and respects Leacock, a surprising amount of the book is taken up with her talking about things he either said or did wrong or about his books that really aren’t that funny. This is surprising because Leacock is a noted humorist. (In 1947, the Stephen Leacock Award was created to recognize the best in Canadian literary humour).
This biography looks at his life, but mostly it focuses on his academic and humorous works. Leacock was an economist although he seems to generally disapprove of economists. He had begun by teaching high school but found it incredibly stifling. Eventually he found his niche at McGill University where he was well-respected and highly regarded by students and faculty alike. (more…)
I Just Read About That... 