"You know what really makes this man, is wasting money on CDs with only one or two good songs." "Yeah, tell me about punk!" [Music] "What's up, posers? Welcome to Punk Lotto Pod. I'm your co-host, Justin Hensley. I'm your other co-host, Dylan Hensley." "And this is the show where we choose one year at random and select one punk, hardcore emo or punk adjacent album from that year to discuss." Head over to patreon.com/punklottopod to get access to all of our weekly bonus audio. For $1 it gets you last week's bonus audio where we did an "I'm listening" where we talked about the albums we listened to over the last month. Pretty heavy on newer records. We're getting to that time of year where if you have stuff you've been meaning to check out, it's probably time to check it out or to go back to records that you think might wind up being on your best of part of the list. So mine was very heavy on 2024 releases, and I think yours, you had a pretty decent amount of 2024 picks as well too, so not a few records to talk about. Yeah, you can also check out the newest episode of Challengeography on my Joan Jet series at part three. That will be taking a pause until the new year because once we hit, I'm going to say the last week of November, I'm going to start my best of lists. So I will start off with the biggest disappointments of 2024 and then move on to the formats, so best demos, best splits, best singles, and then I'll do best EPs, probably the first week of January as well. To correspond with our album of the year episodes as those start to come out on the main feed, so be on the lookout for that. You're going to get a lot of audio in December. Keep on the lookout for that. You can sign up for our $5 tier, which is our producer slash listening club tier, and we haven't nailed down a date yet. We might wind up doing it the first week of December. We have to just see if you want updates on that, check out our Patreon and I'll update it as soon as we land on a date. And we'll also talk about it in our Discord channel, so the Funklautopod Discord channel. I think we're going to talk about Swing Nutters, a juvenile product of the working class. So yeah, listen to that album, join at the $5 tier and come talk on a Zoom chat or a Skype chat, actually, with me and Dylan and whoever decides to show up in our producer tier. So we had fun in the last two of those, so definitely looking forward to add more people to that. And as a producer, you get your name and whatever it is you are trying to promote set on the show. So we'll do that in a little bit as well. Or you could sign up for our $10 tier where you choose the album we devote an entire episode to one time $10 donation. You choose the album. We talk about it on the show. We got one of those coming up shortly as well. So plenty of content going around at patreon.com/punkclotopod. So this week's episode, it was your turn to select the album for us to discuss. And I gave you the year 2003. And before we get into the album, you actually selected what were you considering for us to talk about? All right, so I considered the decline of British C-Power by the band previously known as British C-Power. Now, known as C-Power. I can't say the name C-Power without thinking of C-Parks. So I was thinking of a fire at C-Parks from the IT crowd. A show that I now prefer to just let live in my memory. I think the last time I revisited it, I was like, there's still a lot of really funny stuff, but it's just quite a home up. Yeah, and you know, the showrunner and the showrunner being a, you know, transphobe. Yeah, really. Kind of ruins the legacy of it. Yeah, but the legacy of the decline of British C-Power holds strong and is shining bright. I really enjoyed that record. I really liked this first few British C-Power records. I think they did such a cool take on like post Britpop, you know, post punk revival. It's like if Interpol was fun. Yeah, I don't know. They're an interesting band. That record is noisier based on what I've heard from it recently. It's noisier than I thought it was or expected it to be. It's a little harder than I expected it to be. It's definitely one that is on my radar to listen to and talk about from time to time, sometime next year probably because 2003 is one of those is going to share a calendar with 2025. So I will be deep diving 2003 next year and have already kind of started doing it this year. Because I did talk about a couple of 2003 records on the I'm listening, we just recorded. Remember when you said that you were going to try and like shake this thing and you were clearly not shaking it. You were playing next year's calendar. I have next year's mostly figured out. Yeah, there's definitely like tons of records that I know correspond with the calendar from next year. I don't know. I need to come up with some other wrinkles to my listening systems. But next year I have a lot more years to choose from. This year I had like two years to choose from. So I was like, well, I'm out of 68 records this month that I had one to listen to. And 96 records are not doing a lot for me either. So, yeah, this British Sea Power Record was already kind of on my radar. That's why it was one of the ones that jumped out to me to consider talking about a figured. That might be, is that the one? Is that the Sea Power Record to do? I don't know. Because if you look at the most popular releases on Sea Power's Spotify page, it's Disco Elysium, which I think is a soundtrack to a video game. Well, that doesn't count. And from the Sea to the Land Beyond, which is a soundtrack to a documentary. So there are no top two releases are soundtracks. Of their proper records, the highest number of ratings is the first record with 2700 ratings. And it's like cut it in half for open season and do you like rock music? I would say the first one is probably the one to do. But either one of the first three might be fair game. I think anything later their peak in popularity is probably that they've reissued the decline like two different times. So though they've also reissued open season and they just did the 15th anniversary of D like rock music this year. So they're also really good about just reassuring their stuff and keeping the legacy alive. God, I wish they'd come to the US. I don't know if they will. They haven't been here in years since before the pandemic. I think Machinery's a joy was the last time they were here and that was God. What year was that record? 2013? They're never coming back. I considered right now you're in the best of hands. And if something isn't quite right, your doctor will know in a hurry by Bear versus Shark because it's an all time great record. And it rules and I could talk about either Bear versus Shark record. I think they're great and always enjoy revisiting their records. We've never really done them properly on the show. We've never devoted an entire episode to Bear versus Shark. So that was a very strong contender. I figured that would be an easy one to talk about and probably have a fair amount to say about it. Yeah, this wasn't the thing, but Bear versus Shark announced a couple new shirts. Like they put out two new shirts and they're good looking shirts. They're Mark Paffey style designs like the kind of stuff you've seen on like the reissues that they did a few years ago. But I think I told you I was like, I just want to see them live at this point more than anything. Yeah. And it's shocking that the fest can't get them to play. I know they've been asked to do it since they reunited and they've not been able to get them lined up. They also don't really play outside of Michigan very often. I know they said that they don't want to play outside of Michigan. Is it because they were tour machines for like a decade and then got nowhere? I think they can't really. I mean, I don't know what the rest of the members. I mean, they all have kids and jobs, you know, like so I'm sure they're just like, we're not going to tour a ton. Like they did a little bit of touring recently. They just didn't come anywhere near us. Yeah, or at least like I didn't have the opportunity to see them. Like I could have gone to LA, but I think I was doing it was like the date just wouldn't have worked. Yeah, they said something like they don't really want. I think they don't want to play any shows outside of Michigan unless it's like for charity. Oh, okay. Like somebody put together a charity show. Like they just they don't want to travel with the band anymore. Then why did they do that audio tree? They might. I could see them just like maybe saying yes to like a festival. So the fest really should get them, but I don't know why they haven't. They just maybe haven't offered enough money, but I would. I could see them doing right. I could see them doing Chicago's not that far. Something kind of big, but yeah, maybe they'll get out when we were young 20, 26. My understanding for 20 minutes. My understanding of when we were young and sick new world, they're identical festivals in the sense of how they run. They're one day festivals where every band has 20 minutes to play, except for like the top top headliners. It's like rotating stages, right? Yeah, they apparently so I learned this listening to the POD cast. They were talking about the new Sydney world lineup and how that festival is originally a new metal festival and that this newest lineup is barely a new metal festival. And the understanding is they can't get any of the bands to come back a second time because it's that poorly run. And they're always behind schedule. They're trying to make up time by cutting people or you know, cutting people's time. And like the only people who do come back are like the top headliners. And they're the ones who were given like way more time and a nice, you know, experience backstage. So didn't they just do the when we were young, didn't they cut like the middle of a song on the used like mid set? Yeah, yeah, because they're behind. Because they're behind because what's the thing is they booked all those bands to do album maneuvers or like album sets and then didn't give them time to play the albums. Yeah, you know, the fest in Florida, they time those things perfect. They give some bands too much time. That is something that is the biggest complaint. Some bands have more time than they need, but at the same time, they don't they never get behind. I've never seen one go get behind. So the most behind I've seen anything happen at the fest was the descendants because the descendants were dragging their asses sound checking. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that was the only one they ran behind. And I bet they still ended at the same time they're supposed to. They were also the headliners that day. So I didn't know it was after them, I don't think. So yeah, I think they could have played for as long as they want to play city. City ordinance would have been the thing to cut them off. That was cold fest, cold fest, only one of like one of those ever. Yeah. Anyway, and I considered hidden hands of the sea destination by darkest hour, which I've listened to some stuff from that record recently. So sick. Yeah, still holds up. Those couple of darkest hour records, they're just fun. Cool riffs can't understand anything he's saying. That record definitely holds up. That would be one of the ones to do. I think there's probably two darkest hour records that are like the obvious choice. Yeah, hidden hands and undoing ruin are probably like, yeah, the big two. I guess if you had to choose another one, what, so sedate, secure or deliver us maybe one of those two, probably so sedated. But I think I feel like historically, so sedate is more important. Yeah. Honestly, the market you just is considered pretty important too. I never got into that record though. It's a little too standard metal core. It came out in 2000 though, so that could be part of the problem. It's just the genre progressed very fast past that very specific style of riffage. But I think at the time that was considered a really great record for the scene. We'll see. Once my metal core chronicles gets to the year 2000. We got a long ways to go. I think the reason I was, well, I was just saying like this would be fun. I guess maybe like the two reasons that I wouldn't want to do this when I ended up not picking that darkest hour record is I was a little concerned that a metal core record might not yield much conversation because I find hardcore and metal core fans when they're good to be kind of hard to talk about on the show sometimes. If there's not a lot of story and I don't know how much story there is with darkest hour other than they're still together. Yeah. And there's been some lineup change, but you know, they're still going. And what's his name? Schliebum has been in like 10 side projects that are all not as good as darkest hour. And also it's a Bush era political metal core record. And we just did the board against record. I was like, ah, let's not go fully political hardcore this month. I'm sure the lyrics on the Patriot virus on that record are probably really specific. Let's see how specific. You know what? Let's do this. Do we get like a Condoleezza Rice? Oh, you think I like my like an against me. Let's see. I pull up the lyrics on Spotify. Ah, no, it's it's a little more general. Yeah. Yeah, it does seem like a little bit more standard salvation in a warhead American. There's no references to to Colin Powell or Donald Rumsfeld, you know, yeah. I mean, I'm nostalgic for some of that old political discussion. You're nostalgic for being radicalized at the age of 13 by the Bush administration. I'm more nostalgic for like the songs and like writings and movies from that time period that were like critical of all that stuff. That's what I'm more nostalgic of. Yeah. That's like, oh, if only you knew what's to come. Terrible. Well, maybe they did know what was to come. They were just dealing with the current threat. Yeah. You know, previously we have covered the albums Brothers Sisters by North of America. Then we did an episode 266 with Good Friend Corey. At episode 234, I did Guitar Romantic by the Exploding Hearts with Good Friend Corey. So he got 2003 back to back, which I thought was funny. episode 199, we discussed in keeping secrets of Silent Earth 3 by Coheed and Cambria. Episode 144, we did, we're down till we're underground by give up the ghost with the band Easy Pray, who I believe they have called it quits. Episode 114, we did the Meadowlands by the Wrens. We did that with Sam Yield. The Wrens, I think some, they've talked about that record's finally coming out at some point, or it's closer to coming out than it's ever been. I don't know exactly when. Episode 92, we did the self-titled Black Eyes album with Bachai, who also broke up. Episode 30, we did Our Lady of Annihilation by most precious blood and Simulation Transparency, Alienation by Wolves with Grant from Bittermility Records. And yeah, that's our oldest episode, episode 30. So yeah, we've hit 2003 a few times. This decade is pretty good. The 2000s is pretty good for options. There's a lot to talk about, and it gives us plenty of fodder to come back to every time we do. I guess we should do some of the other records that came out in 2003. At least according to Rate Your Music, the number one punk record is Hail to the Thief by Radiohead. Cool. Not a punk band at all. In any way whatsoever. They have the- Oh, Zionist Radiohead. Yeah. Yeah. Whoops. Oops. We have the strokes, Room on Fire. Cool. White stripes, elephants. Yeah. Yeah. We have the strokes and the white stripes right next to each other at the top of the start. That tells you a lot about the time period. Yeah. The Mars Volta release D-Loss and the Comatorium. A good record I don't want to listen to or talk about. Yeah, I guess she'll be making us talk about that. Big band, important for people of a certain age, especially these records. This is the first three records by them. Enjoyable records. I don't know what there is to talk about, but other than the fact that they're weirdos trying to decipher the lyrics, that could be the whole angle of the episode. What's he saying? Oh, we have transatlanticism on my death cab for QD. That's a New Year's record, isn't it? It's like a record that people listen to on New Year's. Yeah, because it starts with the song the New Year. The New Year. Yeah. It is a good record. I think that record and plans are are good records. Not something I'm like super into. Completely forget. I totally forget that Chris Walla is from death cab for QD. Do you think Chris Walla and Chris Wallard would ever do an album together? The Walla Wallards. That's it. That's what you call it. No, probably not. Or just Chris Wallard fronts death cab for a record, and then Chris Walla does hot water music for a record. Yeah, but the main death cab singer has been. Yeah, so it doesn't work as well. Chris just plays a car. Yeah, he's not the singer of that band. The joke doesn't work, but I mean, I would rather hear Chris Wallard sing title and registration than Ben Giver do. I don't know which hot water music songs Chris sings. You know, I've been listening to hot water music for so long, and I still can't tell the power who sings what. I think Chris sings more than Chuck does. Yeah. And Chuck now, now you can tell them apart a lot clearer because Chuck has like, you know, two decades of solo material where he learned to sing. So now it just means he puts vibrato on everything he sings. It's like, you're not actually that good of a singer, but yeah, I've got this. Yeah, but I can do this. And Wallard doesn't do the vibrato. So that's how you can tell. Yeah. New records apart. Old ones, I still can't tell. Looking at this chart, like, what is actually punk on here? Plink it. Yeah. Well, technically, yes. Pop punk. Yes. Blink 182, a band neither of us will ever pick. God, no, no. I have no interest in choosing one of their albums. So if you want us to talk about a Blink 182 record, sign up for the $10 tier on our Patreon, or come on the show, do it with you. I'm not going to like it. I'm not even going to try to be nice about it either. So just, we'll be honest, take that into consideration. Same with if you did it a Fallout Boy record. There's one of those in 2003. That's the first one? I think so. I think it is the first one. No, it's not. Jesus. I never know which Fallout Boy record is which. They have two in 2003. Evening out with your girlfriend is the first one. Oh, the one that looks like a Myspace filter, I guess? You could have put your photo in the middle of that. 2003, I was 13. So a lot of this shit is just really notable to me and recognizable to me because I was paying attention a lot to, you know, punk and alternative music for the next 10 years. You know, I mean, a lot of a lot of this stuff I probably wouldn't have been aware of in 2013, but would have become aware of pretty soon after because we weren't quite there yet. Yeah, I'm trying to figure out what I would have been listening to in 2003. Beloved failure on was in 2003. Yeah, and that's a record I got. Did I get that in 2003 or did I get that in 2004? There's a chance you got it a year later. I probably got it a year later. Ooh, here's when I was listening to in 2003. Back again by disciple. So that kind of gives you an idea of what seismic by dogwood came out that year. That's the one you would have listened to. Oh, I would have purchased the beautiful letdown by switch foot in 2000. I bought that myself with my own money and listened to it. And, you know, actually, that's probably one of the earliest experiences of me realizing that a record can not live up to expectations. Yeah. So I really liked the song, the single from it, which one is that meant to live? Yeah. And bought it on the strength of that. And the fact that I just knew who they were, because they were a Christian rock band, and then listened to that record. And I think the first listen, I was like, this isn't as good as I thought it was going to be. And I, you know, continued listening to it, you know, you're 13 years old and, well, I would have been 12 when it came out. And you have limited options to choose from. So you just listen to the CDs that you have. And there was enough that I liked about it to make it easier to come back to it, because it does have that riff. That meant to live riff is good. I mean, man, it just lived on that riff alone. Yeah. So it is doing heavy lifting. Listen to these embarrassing records that I would have purchased in 2003. Five hundred friends, he cheeses of Nazareth. Yeah. Yeah. A compilation of outtakes and silly songs that they made specifically for it. Grand incredible G.I. Gantic, the OC Supertones side project, Matt Morgansky and Ethan Luck, where they're not playing Scott. They're just playing kind of like kind of punk rock sort of stuff with three songs about the Los Angeles Lakers, three songs, the Lakers. Yes. I also purchased MXPXs before everything and after that year, a record I did not like in real time. I'm like, oh, I do not like this. PODs payable on death. The follow up to satellite where they added living sacrifice, guitar is Jason Truby, that is terrible. Such a bad record. And I think I have, let's see what else if I pull up, see if there's any other embarrassing selections there. Well, I'm not embarrassed by this, but Shadow's owned by static X. Hell yeah. Love that record. Still love that record. Best record. Yeah. Stuff you would have bought? Yeah. Oh, I got it. I got it pulled up. Don't worry. Okay. I'll run it. I'll run it down. Phenomenon, my thousand footcrutch, I believe I got that for Christmas in 2003. That sounds right. Yeah. When you picked yourself. Yeah. And that was probably the exact six month to a year period where I could enjoy thousand footcrutch. The new metal that I purchased, like that's the end of the, that's the end of the run. Yeah. For new metal for me personally. Yeah. Two last I'll make a write, but three do. I rely on K, which was one that I really liked. It was not as good as the anatomy of tongue in cheek. And I'd imagine listening to these reliant K records now. I don't think there's a chance that those hold up, but they don't. Very low odds. I don't know that I would have gotten this record in 2003. It probably got it in 2004, but far from nowhere. My slick shoes came out that year. That is actually a good record. That's a fun record. It holds up pretty well. Super fast, skate punk, mostly just songs about girls. It was on Sidewind dummy. Yeah. And yeah. Okay. So 2003 was a big year for disappointing records for me. I got worldwide by audio adrenaline. Oh, no. When that came out. And that one was like, I, I probably thought to myself at some point within a year of getting it that I was like, I'm not going to buy any more audio adrenaline records. Well, I remember when Lyft came out, we were like, I don't think this is, this is like, I've stepped backward. Like, we didn't like it as much falling underdog. Yeah. Yeah. And worldwide, I was just like, Oh, I guess I'm over this now. Yeah. Going even further in that direction. Okay. I think that's all there may be other stuff that I might have had. Lucerne Blue put out Tales of the Knife. Oh, I mean, we could just go down the Christian rock charts because all of this shit is like extremely familiar to us. Yeah. A good one. I will say, the light of things hoped for by Brave St. Saturn came out that year. And the last five iron frenzy and is near. Yeah, I think we didn't get it. We didn't get it. We didn't get it until they did the live for the live album packaged with it the next year. Yeah. Yeah. It was like originally on the the last album was originally sold at the merch table. And I mean, I'm glad I didn't. I mean, I would have liked to have seen five iron back then in real time. That would have been fun to see. But also, I would have been annoyed to have to buy like the special edition later. So glad to have that. But we, we fell for buying the special edition a year later, a lot more in the coming years. That would be more of a middle core thing for us. Yeah. Oh, I got one extra song. All right. It was worth paying more for it the second time. Now it's got a cardboard sleeve on it. Yeah. And a backstage DVD. Yeah. Thanks, Haze today. Uh, yeah. 2003. I, you know, there's a lot of stuff that we could keep going and talking about stuff that came out that year. But I, I will talk about probably a lot of this stuff next year revisiting on Patreon as I'm hitting a lot of the stuff. I'm in my calendar project that's been going for a long time. I've primarily been interested in like 60s, 70s, a little bit of 80s stuff, because a lot more of it has been like kind of unfamiliar territory for me. And a lot of the years, the later years that I've hit haven't been, it's haven't been as interesting. Like 2005 was like kind of interesting, but I've been getting more like early 90s. And so like, you know, I'll hit the classic stuff that I know. But like, I was kind of looking ahead and I was like, two of the years that I'm, I'm picking going to have to choose from to listen to or 97 in 2003. And both of those years have a lot of stuff that I enjoy that I like to revisit. So I think I'll have fun with the more recent years to choose from. I mean, the classic stuff, older stuff, I'll continue to deep dive with too. But you'll get more of the 97 and 03 stuff on the Patreon. I'm listening. So if you want to hear me talk about 2003, I will. You got a whole year of it coming. Because there's a lot of it. I mean, I can go pretty far on these charts and just have it stuff jump out where I'm like, Oh, I know that record. I know that record. I know that one. I want to listen to that one. You know, you know, I could do that trick where I go to the last page to see if there's something on there that I recognize. And since I'm the psycho who the sicko who pays for the extended charts, let's see on page 38, do we have anything that I've even heard of? The name street brats actually sounds familiar to me. And I don't know if I'm just thinking like lower class brats, maybe, but they're on here from Tierra. I have heard of that name. Don't know the album. But on page 25, there's definitely stuff I recognize like genital grinder. Yeah. Yeah. And the banner. The why are the banner way back there must be a really early one, but not much that I actually want to listen to. Hey, there's an armchair Martian record out there. And that is, um, that's a Jon Snowgrass. His band. There's a all sounding. There's a there's a Saint Catherine's record on page 24. Good friend Corey described to me as no one's favorite band. Like too long lived to be no one's favorite band. Maybe how he described it very much in the grab ass Charles in the school of punks. Yeah. We got a we got a valiant Thor record back here, which one stranded on Earth, probably the other one. Yeah, I don't think I know that one. That's where they came up with the the lore on that one. Oh, okay. Yeah, we should stop because we could go forever on 2003. That would be a we've probably done the charts on that one before, but I've considered maybe we should just redo some charts, but we'll see. Yeah. Let's get into this actual good record that we're going to talk about, not to tip the hand of, you know, our thoughts on this record, but you saw the, you saw the name of the episode, you know, what we're talking about. If you've listened to this show before, you know, our feelings before we get into the album though, we'd shout out our producers. So shout out to Dave Brown, host of the podcast, one band, five songs and writer of the blog, Oklahoma lefty, shout out to Steve Long, host of the podcast Rebel Rock Radio, Jason W, writer of the newsletter, songs about chocolate and girls, as well as the host of the podcast, 1000 plays are less and Phillips Booker, who sponsored our 10 yard fight episode while back. So thank you all producers. Thank you so much. And if you would like your name added to that list, sign up for our $5 producer slash listing club tier. So today we are talking about reconstruction site by The Weekndans. I want to call requests through heating vents, and hear them answered with a whisper no, to crack the coat of muscle slack and intense. Let every second step and boots on the snow, complete your name with accents I can't place, but stumble where the syllables combine. Take depositions from a stranger's face, paint every insignificance a sign, so tell me nothing matters less or more, say whatever we think actions are, we'll never know what anything was for. If near is just as far away as far, and I'm permitted one act I can say, I choose to sit here next to you and wave. Stats on the band to get going from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. They formed in 1997. The album was released August 26th, 2003 on Epitaph Records. This is the band's third studio album, and the personnel on this record is John Paul Sutton on bass and vocals, Jason Tate on drums, percussion, vibraphone, glockenspiel, keys, we didn't need all the other instruments, but whatever. Stephen Carroll on guitar and vocals, lap steel guitar, pedal steel guitar, keys and piano, and John K. Sampson on guitar and vocals. The album was produced by Ian Blurton, who produced all of The Weekndans albums, and produced two by the band Cursed at songs about Burning Lovers by Burning Love. Callahan and The Weekndans are Cursed from Manitoba, too? No, Cursed were from Ottawa, away from Ottawa. Yeah, Toronto band, I think. Yeah, yeah. So additional musicians, we have Rusty Maddis on trumpet, Christine Fellows on piano, and Sarah Harmer on vocals, and we'll get into the more of the backstory a little bit later. So what made you choose The Weekndans? I think I said it's seasonally appropriate, but I think that was the deciding factor. I was pretty close on all of them. They were all pretty strong considerations. So ultimately, that'll be easy to do, and probably easy to talk about. You said seasonally appropriate, and I instantly agreed with you. This time of year, I listened to The Weekndans probably more than any other time of the year. There's something wistful about this time of year for me. I am mostly nostalgic during this time period, too. This is when my nostalgic kicks in overdrive, and I don't know if that's just because this time of year is so closely tied to Halloween Christmas Thanksgiving, and usually your fondest memories of those holidays tend to be around when you're a child, so I guess that could be part of it. I don't know that other people think of The Weekndans in the same way that we do, but, yeah, there's just something about this band that just feels right walking through the leaves in. Yeah, I guess I think it was generally appropriate to. I think people generally describe The Weekndans as a fall and winter band, and it just feels right. But also, the other big thing was of the bands that I was considering talking about, this was the most important one that we haven't really properly done on the show, because we did a John K record before, but we've never done a weaker thanz record. And we did that, John K, so much of the conversation was just about The Weekndans. So I was just like, we should just do The Weekndans. We should talk about The Weekndans and do one of their records, because that's why you're listening to a John K record. Yeah, because you like The Weekndans. So, yeah, you know, it was seasonally appropriate, and I figured there'd be enough to say about it. So, do you remember how you got into The Weekndans? I feel like it's probably similar to us, to me, but I think you introduced them to me. So, the earliest I remember, we, I remember listening to fallow in your car. Maybe it makes more sense to start with me then, because I remember the first time ever hearing The Weekndans was on the hopelessly devoted to you compilation. It was the hopeless comp. I was like, that doesn't seem right. Would it be hopeless? But yeah. Yeah, because they were on Sub City records, which was like a sub label of hopeless, I believe. Yeah, because they put out the, what, the first record? No, Sub City was left in leaving. Okay. Yeah, left in leaving was on Sub City. Yeah, I think fallow was attributed to Sub City as well later. Yeah, because technically, election leaving is also on G7. Yeah, but in the US, that's the one that got the most attention there. So, would I heard it on vinyl? Yeah, they, there's like, I think there were two songs, I believe, on the comp. It was a two disc, two disc comp. One was like the bands of the last, you know, decade. And then the other was like, the newer bands. So like, you're all time lows, whereas the other one had your Samyams and D4s. Like, oh, this is the dividing line, isn't it? The label went from being cool to chasing trends. Don't worry, now they have Fatrick, right? It's going to. I don't know if that's finished or not. So yeah, I would have heard the first couple of songs there. I think there were two songs there, and there was a DVD with it too. And I think they had a video or two. There's definitely one video on there. It was just objects on like pastel backgrounds. It was very similar to that one Marilla's Forest Music video, just like things on a colored background. Like, okay. Very 90s videos, basically a visualizer. Yeah, yeah. And then, yeah, that's probably, I either would have just gotten fallow and downloaded it, or maybe was more introduced through our friends, because they were huge weaker thans fans. And yeah, that's probably, I probably heard those songs, met them, learned they loved the weaker thans, remembered I liked those songs on those comps, and then went back and get downloaded the albums. The fallow and left the living would have been the two. They were the two that I had listened to the most for the longest period of time. It took me a while to get to Reconstruction Society and Reunion Tour. I was just like stuck on those first two. They were just so perfect that like, I was not ready to move on to the third and fourth albums for a very long period. I had just fallow. I feel like I had just fallow for like two years. I was just like, and listening to it a lot. Which, so I was like, people don't like fallow as much. No. And I guess I understand that if you absorbed all of the weaker thans, either you progressed with the band, or you came to them after the fact, and you just like, oh, I'm going to listen to their four records because they only have four records and it's really easy to do. I can see why fallow would not be on the same level as the other three. Man, it was so good. And I just spent so much time with that one record that I'm like, it's five stars. It's just as good as everything else. See, I'm the same way. I spent so much time with fallow and left-and-leaving that I love them. I actually love them more than the second two, just because I spent so much more time with them. But I think they're all of equal level of quality, you know? So yeah, I'm a big like, fallow is amazing fan, whereas I think a lot of people aren't. Because their introduction was probably this album. Why don't you ever want to play? I'm tired of this piece of string. You sleep as much as I do now and you don't eat much of anything. I don't know who you're talking to. I made it search through every room. But all I found was dust that moved in shadows of the afternoon. Just a little backstory. So this band was initially formed by John K. Samson after his time in the Skate Punk melodic hardcore, now just a metal band. I don't know how you describe them. But Propaganda, he had quit the band following the second Propaganda album. He wanted to start a publishing company, like that was what he wanted to do next. And also focus on, you know, his own songwriting. If you listen to those first Jew Propaganda records and you hear the John K. Samson songs on it, you go, this guy doesn't fit in these bands. This guy should be in something else. And it's noticeable whenever you listen to a side, the Propaganda version versus the weaker the answer version. Very clearly, this guy's not supposed to be here. But John P. Sutton and Jason Tate had played together in another band called Red Fisher in Winnipeg. And they joined up with John. And that is the wickerdance. The wickerdance first lineup is a three piece. The idea of the wickerdance was to focus more on melodic and introspective type music than what Propaganda was doing, which was, you know, stick the fucking flag up your fucking ass. Yeah, not very introspective. But yeah, which makes it makes the early Propaganda stuff a little more charming when, when you remember that John K was in the band, the guy who is, who was born wearing a cardigan. He quit the band to be a publisher. Yeah. So as a three piece, they released their debut album, Fallow in 1997, which had rave reviews at the time. See, you got to remember that people at the time loved it, because it was so different, because it's great. Yeah, it's a fucking awesome record. Yeah, I think the only people who don't like Fallow are the ones who came late to the party. I think that's really what it is. We came late to the party. We just started at the beginning, like you're supposed to. You go in order. It's like movies and books. There's four records. It's not, you just start at the beginning. It's not like an artist that's been around for 40 years. And you're like, just pick the most popular one to start. Yeah, yeah. They then add their second guitarist, Steven Carroll, to the band. He was from another band in Winnipeg called Painted Thin, and they released left and leaving in 2000. And so they released both those records on G7, which was the propaganda record label that they formed together. And then Sub City released left and leaving in the US. And so basically, their deals were up with Sub City, and they were looking for somewhere else to put out records. At the time, they were asked, why did they change labels? And they went with epitaph records because they said back then they had like five different distributors whenever they were putting out the first two records. And it was just getting too difficult to maintain like, all right, who still owes us money? Where are we shipping these off to? Who's getting what? It was just a headache to deal with five different distros. And so they're like, if we go with epitaph, they do it all in house. It's all them. You know, we don't have to worry about different avenues of where our music is being distributed. So in 2003, epitaph records also released, indestructible by rancid, blackout by the dropkick Murphy's, anchors away by the bouncing souls, from the ashes by Pennywise, plague soundscapes by the locust, into the valley of death by death by stereo, stories and alibis by matchbook romance, thick freakness by the black keys, streetcore by Joe Strummer and the Mezcaleros and sans saucy by Frenzel ROM. A lot of this stuff was put out on like Hellcat and fat possum. I was so surprised. There were multiple fat possum records that were also tagged as epitaph records. My guess is that possum was also being distributed by epitaph at that time. So that's how you get a black keys record on your discogs page now. Yeah, with this record, they spent more time on pre-production than they had on their previous records. They wrote it in a more collaborative way, definitely taking more from each other. There was one interview I read where they were like, you know, so nobody else ever writes lyrics for the band. You write them all yourself. He's like, yep, that's the one area where I'm like, this is mine. I am the lyricist of this band, which makes sense. It started as his project. The quality of the production is noticeably a little stronger. In an interview, Samson chalked that up to the mixer, Adam Casper. He's like, we recorded it basically the same way we record all of our records, but we had him mix it. And I think that's where people were really into the production on this record. And I guess out of the four records, I mean, at least the first two records, there is a noticeable step up in production quality on this album, despite basically having the same producer on all the records and engineers. But the album is somewhat of a concept album, kind of about death and grief and mortality. There's a running theme throughout the record. The songs manifest hospital vespers in pastu. They are all the songs on the track listening to have the the parentheses around them. And they are all part of a theme of like someone who has a terminal illness in a hospital and living in a hospital. And then there's even the song, which song is it? It's like about being in a hospital. Not sure. Maybe I'm thinking of something off reunion, reunion tour. But yeah, a little bit of a little bit of a concept record of sorts. But all right. So revisiting it. What did you think of it? I mean, I love it. You know, it's I love all four of the weaker thans records. I knew easily going into it that I'm like, well, I know every song on here. Like, you know, I know this record beginning and really well, there's not going to be any real surprises. So it's just kind of a case of like, where does this one hit me right now? So I guess I kind of had like, I kind of had my ears tuned to this record, though, with maybe the hope or the expectation to hear something different because it was so familiar. I wanted to try to listen to it maybe a little deeper. And I've you know, I've dabbled in I've listened to songs from this record recently, just like kind of drawing on like the production of this record. It's interesting you mentioned the production being like a significant change on this record, which, you know, I I've recognized it before. And I would I would say that it's like the last two are the the shiny, or prettier, weaker thans records that sound a little smoother and have a little more arrangement to them and more experimentation. So I've kind of listened to some of it recently with that mindset. But I tried to listen to the whole record as best as I could as if I'd never heard it before, which obviously, you know, is not possible, because I know I'm singing along with it immediately. But I also kind of had it like I've listened to reunion tour recently in the past year. And so I was maybe comparing it a little bit to that record while I was listening to it. And also trying to think about, I mean, I say all of their records are five stars. Now I could probably rank them, but could I rank them? Was something that I was kind of chewing on while I was listening to it too. I was like, do the do each of the four weaker thans records offer something unique? Is there something specific to each one that makes it different enough from the others that makes it ultimately un-comparable, makes them all un-comparable? You know, they're all delicious fruit, but they're all different kinds. Not all weaker thans records are apples. So my ranking is more based on like, would I spend more time with this really how I rank them? Yeah, but yeah, they all offer something different. And I guess if you pushed me to say what's my favorite weaker thans record, like I think ultimately the most appropriate to the spirit of the weaker thans, and John K. Sampson as a writer, would be to pick the one that has the most sentimental importance to me, and that'd be fallow, for all of its whatever flaws that other people assigned to it. I think it's a great record, and I love it. And there's a reason I was perfectly content with that one for two years. I think every weaker thans record, as much as I say, they're five stars, they all have just a tiny little element to them that I don't quite care for, which that's something about the weaker thans. There's something about them that I don't quite like despite loving them. You know what I mean? It's the humanistic, I think it's one of the things that makes them so great as a band is that they're flawed. They're not really perfect if you actually put them under a microscope. They're human beings, and they have little irks, and it's like family of course I love them, but they do these things that kind of annoy me. And I think the weaker thans have always done something that slightly annoys me. And I think that's, I don't know, part of the beauty of the band and part of the charm of the band. We make the jokes. That's the thing, we make the jokes about how soft they are. They're soft, it's a weenie band. They're not, they feel like there's something to poke fun in. So I think my takeaway from this record, and I guess what I ended up maybe spending the most time on thinking about while I was listening to this record, is what's the thing I don't like about the weaker thans on this album? Because I think I could say reunion tour. The thing I maybe don't like about that record is that it's a little too experimental. Reunion tour is my least favorite album by them. It's the one I spend the least amount of time with. It doesn't have nearly as many of the songs that I go back to specifically. Yeah, it's a good record, but yeah, it's definitely my least favorite. I think like fallow, I might say it's a little too earnest. It's kind of its flaw, its character trait, left in leaving. Maybe it's just too long-winded. It's probably the longest record. That one's my favorite, left in leaving is the one I go to the most. And I don't even notice the length on that record. I know it is pretty long. It is definitely one of the longer albums, but I don't know. I never noticed it when I'm listening to it. It's the one weaker thans record to me that I think has the most error of pretension to it. So this one reconstruction site, it's a pretty balanced record. There's a little bit of pretension with the parentheses songs. There's a little bit of experimentation. There's a little earnesty. I think some of the things that I came away with too. The weaker thans have a, well, I guess I'll say this, maybe the flaw with reconstruction site is it's exactly the record that most people would say is their best. Yeah, I mean, it is very buttoned down. It's very like it nails all of the weaker thans things that they do. And it's very, the lyrics are all very John Kay. And I think that something that the weaker thans gets a lot of praise for is John Kay's writing. I think he's a great writer. I think he's a really, really good writer, but I wouldn't call him my favorite lyricist. I think he's a really good songwriter. And I think he has, he has a lot of really interesting imagery. He uses a lot of concrete language. He elevates mundanity. And I think, you know, the assessment of him as the most empathetic songwriter or whatever, like, I don't totally agree with, but he has empathy is very core to his writing. But I think there's always been something about him and I kind of realized it in listening to this record is a lot of the time he explains the themes of the lyrics too much in the text. The thing that I don't like about John Kay as a writer is he doesn't leave enough subtext. And I think he does a lot of like shifting Mick, like too many metaphors within one song. I think he's great at metaphor, but I think he just makes too many metaphors and everything. And then also like explains the metaphors. And I'm like, John, we're smarter than this. I don't know. I've never really felt that way at all about any of his lyrics. I actually think I prefer his lyrics to most other songwriters. I like how concrete he is. I like how it's he's not very abstract with his writing. I'm yeah, I think it's my dumb brain. I don't like really abstract lyrics. I just don't get much out of them. Yeah, that's why I like people like John Kay, why I like Blake Schwartz and Bach, who like, he probably thinks he's more abstract than he actually is. He's got some pretty concrete lyrics in there. Like, see, that's the thing is like, there's a difference between Blake and John Kay. And those are the two that people compare the most in your poet laureate punk songwriters. And I prefer Blake over John Kay. And I think I realized and listening to this record why I prefer Blake to John Kay, John Kay is a smart guy who knows he's a smart guy and he has a lot of empathy for people, but he's always outside. Blake Schwartz and Bach is a smart guy who thinks he's smarter than he is and is often very stupid. And there's something that I can get into with Blake of just being like dumb and not realizing it and just kind of living it. And that's the difference with Jawbreaker songs and weaker than songs is I can live a Jawbreaker song. There's not as many weaker than songs that I live. And I don't think it's a good thing to live Jawbreaker songs, but it's just human life. You make poor decisions and you are pessimistic and petty at times. And John Kay is someone who I feel like tries to work out all of his pessimism and pettiness and make them go away. I don't know. Anyway, who is hyperanalyzing we could answer. There's just a little bit of a smarm to John Kay that I'm like, I can't quite get along with. He's a little more twee. Actually, he's much more twee than Blake is. Blake's not twee. Blake's not twee at all. He's very Wes Anderson-y with his lyric writing. And at his most Wes Anderson, our retired explorer dines with Michael Foucault in Paris 1961. I'm like, really? This is my least, one of my least favorite, lyrically one of my least favorite weaker than songs. I'd agree lyrically. It is one of my least favorite as well. It does. It feels like, oh yeah, that's a Wes Anderson short that he made before the French dispatch or whatever that movie was called. You know, it feels very much like, oh, like a B side to a life aquatic. The subplot where the time Steve Zissu went to the Antarctic. Yeah, yeah. Late afternoon, another day is nearly done. The darker gray is breaking through the lighter one. A thousand sharpened elbows in the underground. That hollow, hurried sound. A feet on polished floor. And in the dollar store. The clerk is closing up. And counting loony's trying not to say. I hate want to pack. The driver checks the mirror seven minutes late. The crowded rider's restlessness enunciates. The guests who suck the jets were lousy anyway. The same route every day. And in the turning lane. Someone stalled again. He's talking to himself. And here's the price of gas. Repeat his phrase. I hate want to pack. Yeah, that one is, you know, dine's with Michel Foucault in Paris, 1961. Just, it's like a, I think it's specifically like, it's like somebody is a, the main character of the song is like a Shackleton fan. Yeah, it's got a great course though. Yeah, really good hook, but like conceptually lyrically, it is one that I was like, Oh, I remember the band Sprainer covered this song. Because it was like a tribute to, he was like a Booker, I believe in like Philadelphia, who like passed away in like a car accident. But they, they were like, we chose this song to cover because it was one of his favorite songs. And I remember thinking, this one's his favorite, like, I'm criticizing a dead guy. Like, this is your favorite weaker than song. No way. I remember being really annoyed by that. I think the most, if the, it's the comment, it's the comment that vous a swa is just, we come see, come say, come see, come saw. Yes, the penguin taught me French back in Antarctica. It's the penguin taught me French line. It takes me out entirely. I'm like, you lost me. Now I don't care about this. I'm not invested in this Antarctic Explorer story anymore. You made a talking penguin. That's true. That just seems sillier than you normally get from, which I say that the song is immediately after a plea from a cat named Burchud, for tote, sorry, which is a song sung from the perspective of his cat. But it's like, well, I have a cat and I'm an often depressed man. So that's at least I can live this one. That was relatable. That's one of the, the Fertuté songs are the, you know, the most lived experience of weaker than songs, common lived experiences that I can find. Can't listen to these songs without getting choked up. Oh, yeah. I listened to that one yesterday. I was making my notes and my note, and it is, god damn it, John. That song, man. Well, and it's also worse to knowing the full trilogy of songs, it's just like, ah, there was not a real Fertuté though. It's like a composite of a lie. It's a lie song. I did read a review that was like, and John sadly has broken all of our hearts by admitting that these are a composite of multiple cats he's known throughout his life. And it works though. He's a good storyteller, so it works. Works too, god damn well. What's the, it probably varies depending on what line, what line did you choke on? Oh, okay. Let me say this time, because it varies depending on what mood you're in when you listen to. Let me pull up the exact lyrics to the song. I think for me, it was, let your losses dangle off the sharp edge of a century, talk about the weather or how the weather used to be. Let's see, I mean, mine is, it mines the cheap one. It's the one where like the music cuts, trims down and the ally down and lick the sorrow from your skin, scratch the terror and begin to believe you're strong. Yeah. God, right now, as I'm saying that, god damn. And like, that's the magic of John K. Samson's lyrics, that the fact that I can just read a lyric to a song and like get like chills and what tears welling in my eyes, just god damn. That's, it is the vertouté songs his crowning achievement as a songwriter, like is it his most effective songwriting? Or is it just because we're cat owners? Yeah. And we just, we feel it more than, we feel it more than garage sale Saturday. You know, that, you know, coffee cups I stole from all night restaurants, you know. I mean, I think when he sings about, I mean, like I kind of, you know, maybe like curled my lip a little bit at the, at the parentheses songs on this record, but like hospital vespers is, is incredible. I mean, lyrically, the, the, the lyric on this record listening to it this time that I like actually like broke and sobbed for a minute. Was, was the, before the, before the nurses came, took you away. I stood there on a chair and watched you pray, where that's hospital vespers. Yeah, ways, hey, can you help me? I can't reach it pointed at the camera in the ceiling. I climbed up and blocked it so they couldn't see turn to find you out of bed kneeling. That was the turn to find you out of bed kneeling. I was just like, I feel like there was something in the benediction or benediction that I also kind of like hit on. Trying to think of which one it was though. Maybe not. Yeah, that's the thing, like these lyrics. I know you were criticizing them to start with, but they affect me much more in a way than most most other people's lyrics do. I mean, honestly, the reason is like, that's a love song to someone who, you know, rolls their eyes at like, you know, lovey-dovey type stuff, you know, and that honestly feels like my wife. Like the, the lines about, you might roll your eyes at this, but I'm so glad that you exist. Like, yes, she would roll her eyes if I were to say that line to her. I think John K. Samson can be wordy. And I think that he, I guess what I, what I'm the, the bigger point I'm getting at is that I think maybe sometimes, I don't know if it's, if he's doubting himself in his efficacy, or if he's unsure if the audience will understand what he's saying, or if he just needs to fill space, which could very practically be the case because in songs, you kind of have to fill space. But that is one of the most unsung elements of songwriting that people really don't like to accept. They really hate the idea of, well, I just needed a word that fit. Yeah, it's like, I just got magic out of it. I got to have another verse because the song calls for it, you know, but I think John K can write and what I love about him as a writer. And like, he can write such incredibly efficient lines. Like, he can just say hold along in the tender grip of watches and ellipses. And you think that through, you got to like, piece together what the puzzle of what he's saying. And it's the tender grip of watches and ellipses. Like, like, he's got phrases in trying to think of some of the songs on this record specifically. I mean, even just half of the refrain, the first refrain of a new name for everything, like, so long past past do says so much in so few words. Dot and dash our days, I think is a great phrase. He just, he has so many just little, it's, it'll be one phrase in a whole verse or a chorus. And I'm just like, and that's good. Damn, that's good. How do you write that? And it's that little phrase carries all of it. It says everything that I need that verse or that chorus to say. And like, obviously, you just got to fit the, you know, structure of a song and have more words. But I'm just like, he can do he does a lot with a little and that's his strongest point. But then he also does a lot. And I think that's what loses me is there's, there's too much extra. What, and it's not to say that I don't think he's one of my favorite lyricists, but he's just, he keeps him from that top spot. And it's not to say that you can't write, you know, extremely wordy songs, Bruce Springsteen, you know, famously wrote incredibly wordy songs. And I think they're great, but you know, different styles of writing. But I'm always, I'm always a fan of the, of the really efficient like, it's what I, you know, it's one of the things that I get out of so much of country music where it's like, this song has one great line, but it's a great line. One great city is one for me that really stands out to because it's, it's a very, each versus like a different person in Winnipeg. And the, you know, the, in the dollar store, the clerk is closing up and counting loonies, trying not to say, I hate Winnipeg, just, you can see it, like it's so concrete, you can see it. The crowded writer's restlessness enunciates, the guests who sucked, the Jets were lousy anyway. Jets are doing great this season, actually. They're like 13 and one. So as of this recording, so the Jets are great right now. So not so precious right now, but our golden business boy will watch the North End die and sing, I love this town. Then his, then let his arcing wrecking ball for claim. I hate Winnipeg. Like, I love that song so much. That song, I think, is one of his best written songs overall. Yeah, like, I feel like it sets up a conceit and executes it. Like, it delivers on that, like, just the shifting narrative. Like, you're getting these different narratives and it comes to this last perspective and punctuates it. Like, that's, that's a great song. I mean, it's a great super catchy, really memorable, has a great sense of place, which is something I love. I love a sense of place in songwriting. That's one of the better songs, I think he's ever written, just from a technical standpoint. Yeah, yeah, I made a, I made a meme one time and I posted it. It was a photo of three professional wrestlers all from Winnipeg, Kenny Omega, Chris Jericho and Don Callis. They were in a photo together and I just put the text over it. I hate Winnipeg and I posted it in a weaker than Facebook group. And I was like, I don't know how many wrestling fans are in here. And then every single wrestling fan in that group found it and was like, holy shit, this is so good. So like, I've always loved this song. It feels like the opening theme to a TV show, which I think about it. One of the songs on this record is the theme song to a TV show, like a Canadian TV show that was like, oh, this show was huge in Canada, but nobody seen it in the US. Let's see. I bet if you got Acorn TV, you could probably watch it. Reconstruction site. It is one great city serves as the theme song for the Canadian television comedy drama, Less Than Kind. Less Than Kind ran from 2008 to 2013. It's Canadian television comedy drama series that stars Jesse Camacho as Sheldon Bletcher, a teenager growing up in a loving but dysfunctional Jewish family in Winnipeg. I don't know any of the other names. I don't know the names of anyone in this show, like never heard of it. It had no US crossover whatsoever. Is this? No, this is not the album. There's another bigger than song that became like the theme song for a podcast that was like really popular, but Son of an Empty Room was a theme song for the Gimlet Media podcast Heavyweight show I never listened to. But yeah, this, like, as far as standout tracks on here, stuff that I think stands out from their catalog in general, I do think the reasons, plea from a cat, named for Tute, a new name for everything, one great city, those feel like the really standout tracks on this record, songs from the Elks Lodge, Elks Lodge, Last Call, like those all feel like very standout songs on the record and in their greater discography. Yeah, I don't know. I think my favorite songs, I think Psalm for the Elks Lodge, Last Call is like also a pretty sneaky good song. Yeah, before we say good night. That outro. Oh man. I really like Times Arrow. I really like a new name for everything is. Oh yeah. A new name for everything is probably my favorite or one of my favorite top three weaker than songs of all time. The Precious of Dawn is great. There were songs on here that I have always heard, but they never really stood out to me until I listened to it. Times Arrow stood out, uncorrected proof stood out to me as like, whoa, that's like one of the harder rocking songs. Precious of Dawn hit me a little harder this time around than the original, multiple previous listening. A new name for everything is great. It's like super twangy. I really love the country twang on weaker than songs that utilize it. Yeah, I love that steel guitar lick at the beginning. The little squeak it makes. Yeah, we spend so much time talking about the lyrics. I think also that the music is great. In the weaker than I think it gets, I think the music in the weaker thans probably takes a little bit too much of a backseat in how much people talk the way that people talk about the van, because the lyrics are very front and sitter and very important. But I think there's a good interplay between the lyrics and the music. I think that there's good song structure that happens, in how it relates to the music and you get the lyrics and you get those really dynamic elements that can help really punch the important things. But I think they're good guitar playing players. I think they're not showy. They're not writing big guitar soles or anything, but there's interesting lead guitar parts and they like to incorporate other elements. I think they do it really well, because as good as the lyrics are, if the music wasn't as good as it is, I don't know that I would have spent so much time absorbing the words. I think the reason I come back to those John K solo records are really good. I think they're well written, but I don't come back to them the way that I come back to weaker thans songs, because the music is just not quite as good. It really is something to what everyone else in the band is doing. I think when a weed is the stronger album, because it does actually feature two of the weaker thans on the record, I think it's better than provincial, and it does feel more like a weaker thans record. But yeah, it's not quite the same. I've got some reviews and some quotes that I pulled out here that we can run through kind of quickly. They did wind up touring with the Constantines, Lucero, murder by death, and a band called Roy throughout the next year or two. And I think when I hear about my friends, when they first all the weaker thans, it was with Lucero. I think they came through here. Talk about a show, man. I love see Lucero is very much in the same sense, like a very concrete, you know, Ben Nichols is a very concrete lyricist, and he's another guy that I just really like his lyrics. They're not really about anything, and he openly admits they're not really about. I think the way he writes his songs is just setting up scenes. I think there's a reason why his brothers are director, because they're just kind of good with imagining scene scenarios. But yeah, imagine that show. That's so good. And I prefer Ben Nichols as a songwriter over John K. Like, I know that the song's not really about anything, but he writes better characters, like John K, great phrases and images, great sense of place. Ben Nichols also great phrases, great characters, great sense of place. I don't know. That's someone who checks more boxes of what I look for an lyricist. They toured for about a year and a half in support of this record. John hates touring. He has said, I don't know if that's in recent years he hates touring, but they toured a lot, I think, and especially during this era of the ban. And he said that he found an interview, or I found an interview in 2005 where he said we were in the States on Election Day in '04. I said even in the couple weeks after that we were touring in the Midwest, and a scene that the nation I understand to be the United States, a progressive, wonderful active, thoughtful, open people were in mourning and were defeated. I think that's true to a certain extent. I think there's lots of talk of trying to heal the wounds and not be divisive. But I think the opposite needs to be true. This is the time to be divisive. And in the next few years, it's our jobs as progressives to stand up for what we believe in. And when I read that, I was like, God damn it, John. He's talking about the 2004 election where Bush won the second time, and people were defeated after that. But then the fact that we're doing this like a week after the election, and the part about we need to not be divisive, and then he turns around and says, yes, we do need to be divisive. I was like, God, why are you guys were right? The propaganda family tree, they're more right than wrong when it comes to this kind of stuff. Because you have to have actual virtues. Yeah, I just thought that was a very interesting, very timely quote from 20 years ago. God. The record was very positively reviewed. It became their best selling record to date. And I think that's partly why this record is one of the ones people go to first from them. It's because it's the one that got the widest distribution. It sold really well. It did really well in Canada. All music gave it a four out of five stars. Pitchfork gave it a 5.6 out of 10, because this is during the period where Pitchfork hated everything. And like they did a review for the pinback album that came out around this time period too. And it was like a garbage fucking review that just complained about the show that the person went to who wrote the article and then left early. I was like, what is this fucking what is the point of this article? You know, it's just terrible. And the Pitchfork article for this record, it's bad. It's really bad. But there's one part of it that I just really, really hate. He goes on for a really long time about how the album cover is better than the music on the record, because it's like some famous Canadian artist. And like this artist is so much more creative and inventive than anything on this record. And like it's Marcel Dizama. I'm not familiar with their work outside of album covers, but they did the, they did two, they might be giant album covers. They did Guaro by Beck. They did a Sufjan record cover from 2017. And they did a shame. They did a couple of covers for shame. They did their 2023 album. But there's one specific line that really pissed me off. It said that reunion site or reconstruction site, the title track sounds like smash mouth. And I was just like, what the fuck are you talking about? What Smash Mouth ever sounds anything like that song? Some syncopated drumming, I think is really the thing that they're pointing out, because nothing on that song sounds remotely close to Smash Mouth. I wish Smash Mouth sounded like the weaker that it sounds like, it sounds like Cheryl Crow. Yeah, more than it sounds like Smash Mouth. It sounds like wallflowers. Yeah. And then I got a quote from Jam Showbiz, which was like a Canadian site that said, it's their first for their influential and respected indie label Epitaph. In a nice bit of synchronicity, it's also their most inspired, coherent, adventurous, engrossing, and fully realized work. A disc that clearly establishes the read-thin, reedy voice, voiced Samson as the most gifted and creative songwriter this city has produced, in a generation. A disc that finds the other talented members of the weaker thans, guitarist, keyboardist, Stephen Carroll, bassist, John P. Sutton, and drummer, professionalist, Jason Tate, matching him in stride for stride with their bold and expressive musical contributions. Read-thin, reedy voice is a little redundant there. We use read twice. Yeah, percent. But it's a Winnipeg paper that wrote about it. And apparently, Winnipeg itself is known for being an art city and a really strong musical center place. So part of our great one-grade city's lyrics, he loves Winnipeg. He's from Winnipeg. He lives there. He's probably not going to move. And that he thinks that after touring around the country, that all cities are basically the same. So he's like, eh, you just kind of make of what you have wherever you are. But he has this, he says like an anti-boosterism. He's like, I wanted to write a song that was like, just bring it down just a peg. I like this city, but I'm not going to write songs about how great it is. He's like, but it's a great art city. And lots of bands have come out of there. And I'm sure we wouldn't know them. They live in Canada. But yeah, they appeared on the earshot national top 50 chart due to significant airplay on Canadian radio. They won the Outstanding Independent Album at the 2004 Western Canadian Music Arts Award, Music Awards. He also, John also won Outstanding Songwriter at that year's awards. They were nominated for the Alternative Album of the Year for the Junos, which the Junos was like the Canadian Grammys. The reasons was nominated for best video at the Junos, which I watched the video for that. It's like, it's a silly, silly video. We'd be sillier than you'd expect, I guess, from them. But this is a Sutton's final album with the band. He leaves after this record, and he's replaced by Greg Smith. They put out Reunion Tour in '07. They go on Break in '09, and the Jockis Ampsen releases a series of seven inches, and the provincial album in 2010. They do that album with Jim Bryson in 2010, where the weaker thans are at the backing band, and Jim Bryson is the singer. He's just like, he's a Canadian singer songwriter. I remember asking, I was like, is that any good? And my friend's like, no, not really. It's just like, it's the weaker thans music with somebody else singing, and it just doesn't work the same. And then they go on hiatus. Tate says in 2015 that the weaker thans have broken up. And I remember when that came out. They now call themselves cryogenically frozen, so they consider it a hiatus, not a full breakup. My understanding is, and this is just more based on, like, chatter at the time that Stephen Carroll is the holdout. He's the one who kind of doesn't want to do it right now, because Tate and Smith, both there on Winter Week, and John hates touring too, so that's part of it. Yeah. That's probably why there's no big push for them to do anything as a band right now, because the expectation would probably be to tour alongside of it, because I don't, yeah. I think any label they were going to take them on would hope they would tour too, to promote it, and they would probably feel obligated to tour to promote it. But I don't know. Do some more muffs. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, that reminds me the day that they announced that they were breaking up or that they were done. I remember that day, because I then proceeded to listen to all four weaker thans. Oh, God. Sitting. Try to drown yourself in weaker thans. So I remember at one point, it was probably halfway through the fourth record. I was just like, I went outside, like I got up from my desk, and I just went outside and just like, they're there for like 10 minutes. It's like, this was a mistake. I mean, they didn't have new music for like a long time, so it really shouldn't have been that. I think everyone kind of assumed they were like done or just choosing not to be active, but I guess whenever he said it out loud, that was the power of I was like, what? You know, John had done his solo records already. They did that one record with Jim Bryson, you know, but they hadn't done one as a band since '07, like eight years between records. But yeah, I do remember it being like, what? You can't be done. Just kind of refusing to accept reality. But you know, the fact that you don't really consider this so fully broken up, well, neither was Fugazi. So and that's never happening. And we know what the odds of that are. If it happens, they're not going to tell anybody it's happening. They'll play at that like show in the part thing that they do in DC, like where like Discord bands play all the time. And you know, the events will sometimes go play and they can only do it like they would only be able to ever agree to doing that if they trusted whoever was putting it on to not leak it that they were going to be there. Because Fugazi would I'm sure they were like, if anyone finds out we're doing this, we're not doing it. Yeah, the only way it's happening is if there's a quirky show and who's not in quirky? Is it Gee? Oh, it's just Ian. It's Ian and Joe. So like Joe is the core key. You have to get branded in. And so it would be like quirky played a show and then Gee and Brendan like came up and played a song. That's the closest we're ever going to get to a real Fugazi reunion, I think. Because they don't want to sell tickets for more than a certain dollar amount. And I don't think they can exist in the modern musical landscape without charging a certain amount. Only doing house shows around the country, not going to work. But I mean, just the the flood of people. Yeah, coming to it would just be unsafe. Yeah, yeah, I think there's just no feasible way to do it with their unless they sold out their own beliefs that would be the only way you could actually get it done in a way that was safe. You're right, safe seems to be like the only way to do it. Because otherwise, they're going to get fucking bikini killed. Remember when they, you know, reunited and like the tickets for that thing, like sold out instantaneously by bots and, you know, second sellers and all that. Yeah, yeah, there's no way to do Fugazi the right way. So they should just never do it. Wicker thans though, on the other hand, I feel like you can do. Just probably the other weaker thans would be. So that's my prediction. We'll see the weaker thans before Fugazi. Yeah, I mean, I'd be happy with just seeing John Kay because I think he just plays bigger than songs anyway, too. And it sets. But yeah, that's kind of all I have written down here in my notes. Given a rating and get out of here. Is it truly a five star record for you? Yeah, it's five stars. I'm not changing my ratings. I'm finding minuscule quibbles with the weaker thans. You know, it's like nothing substantive. You know, it's just like, I'd have done that differently. A little too wordy on that stanza there. Yeah, I give this one. Because I actually have an hierarchy of wicker thans albums, I'm not going to give it five. I'm going to give it a 4.75. I do think the other records are actually better. And I mean, I guess I could use like the Dave Meltzer Wrestling Observer ratings and say this is a five, but like fallow and and left and leaving our sixes. I could do that. But if I have a hard line, nothing's allowed to go past five. Fine. Those get fives. This gets a 4.75. So that's where I'm at. I don't break my scale. I guess it's the difference between me and Dave Meltzer. But there's many differences, but he makes a living writing about wrestling. I make dozens of dollars. But I think that'll do it. So thank you all so much for listening. You can follow us on all social media at Punk Lotto Pod. I guess people have decided to use threads in blue sky more. So cool over there there too. You know, and Punk Lotto Pod at gmail.com, our voicemail line to a two six eight eight punk. Get those voicemails ready for the best albums of 2024. We will play your voicemails. If you give us your list of your favorite albums of the year, we'll play it. So thank you all so much, and we'll talk to you next time. [music] To order Punk, call the number on your screen. Rush delivery is available. Remember this special offer is not sold in stores.
This week Dylan was assigned the year 2003 and he selected The Weakerthans third album, Reconstruction Site. Come cry with us over a song about a cat.
