stylus magazine on reunion tour by the weakerthans. i bought the first half of the record today. always a couple songs grab you, and those songs try to convince you to learn to love the rest. “relative surplus value” is whispering in my ear about that.
it makes me happy to see the weakerthans, because everyone at the show is young, they all seem to care about music, and they seem nice. clearly my rock n roll cred is in danger. i learned about the weakerthans from sonya, who doesn’t write on her website much anymore.
(via osmium)
The only Weakerthans song I know is one that Sonya put on a mix she made for me back in 2003. It was called “Songs for Being Sad and Destroying Villages,” and had a crying T rex knocking over houses drawn in pencil on the front. I listened to it for the first time after one of those two-hour, middle of the night bad-idea conversations with an ex, after I’d cried in the bath, while I sat on the floor of my apartment and ate crackers and drank Sprite while the sun came up. It was the perfect mix.
(via sarahb)
do you remember which song, sarah? my completely subjective weakerthans experience comes from being at a conference in cancun. mia had given me her i-pod for the week, and i’d put a bunch of songs on it in a hurry the night before flying out—with a fever and the flu. i got to mexico, finished my presentation while mark and paula were out having fun, and gave it the following morning. the room was full, i was sharp, and it might have been the most impressed with myself i have ever been. i walked out, went to the cheesy resort bar, drank a “beer,” and felt really depressed. i decided i would not participate in the conference for the remaining five days, got up, went to the cold and gusty beach, sat down, and listened to “aside” from left and leaving a whole bunch of times.
so, to me, that song means depressed beach in cancun after a good presentation. how universal and accessible.
(via osmium)
The song on the mix was “Left and Leaving.” It’s good; I have it on my iPod now.
I love that we’re reblogging this instead of just emailing.