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The Weakerthans: Poetic Justice

Posted by Rob Ortenzi on 13-Feb-08 @ 04:29 PM

John K. Samson got his start playing in a politically charged punk band, but for the last decade, he's fronted THE WEAKERTHANS, one of today's most underrated units. After a four-year break, the band have returned with a new album that could take them to the next level-while keeping their ideals intact. Story: Jonah Bayer Photos: Tim Harmon John K. Samson is seemingly rife with contradictions. Despite being best known for playing bass in the breakneck political punk band Propagandhi, the Winnipeg, Manitoba-based songwriter is chairman of the Weakerthans, a group utilizing decidedly non-punk attributes as pedal-steel guitar and sonnets in their songwriting. Although he runs the leftist publishing house Arbeiter Ring Publishing, he allowed a Weakerthans song to be used in the film Wedding Crashers. Despite his unassuming apprearance, Samson is probably the punkest person in the pages of this magazine. While his former act have made the choice not to talk to publications like AP (we'll get to that later), Samson has grown old gracefully, releasing albums on his own schedule and continuing to question his own ideals as he travels further into adulthood. "Constantly sporadically" is how he describes the work ethic for him and his band-guitarist Stephen Carroll, bassist Greg Smith and drummer Jason Tait-behind their latest album Reunion Tour. He makes no apologies for the fact that it's been four years since his Anti-/Epitaph debut, Reconstruction Site. "It's hard for some writers to work within the market because the market demands you put out a record every year," Samson says about the four-year gap. "But I don't think that's necessarily true anymore. I think you have the freedom now to put your album out when you want to-and usually, we know when [our songs are] done. "We're of the belief that art should be the result of a lived life. We've been living our lives over the past four years; this is what came out of it." Inspired by an art exhibit he saw at the Tate Modern in London by American painter and printmaker Edward Hopper (the songs "Night Windows" and "Sun In An Empty Room" are also titles of Hopper's works), Reunion Tour is a largely fictional affair that shows Samson stepping outside of himself and exploring other people's points of view, while retaining Hopper's characteristic sense of isolation and solitude. "When I started writing this record, one of the first intentions was to write songs from the perspective of people I don't necessarily like," Samson explains, "so this record is full of fairly unlikable people." He's not kidding: From dot-com millionaires to busdrivers to aging metalheads, Reunion Tour runs the gamut of unruly characters. However, when asked if he would ever consider writing a novel, Samson, a self-described "thwarted fiction writer," balks. "I've never been able to have to focus for it," he says, "I can only manage about two-and-a-half minutes-which is about right for a pop song, I guess." Musically, Reunion Tour has just as many identities as it does lyrical protagonists, from the nearly perfect pop-friendly opener "Civil Twilight" (which is probably the only song to namecheck the Canadian province Ontario and actress Jennifer Jason Leigh) to the keyboard-heavy and tempo-dropping "Virtute The Cat Explains Her Departure" and the stripped-down, acoustic ballad "Bigfoot!," which displays woodwinds, as well as a striking vulnerability reminiscent in early Weakerthans tracks. Oh, then there's "Elegy For Gump Worsley," which features Samson eulogizing the former Montreal Canadiens goaltender over a bed of delicate guitars and electronic flourishes. Regarding the sonic non sequitur that surprisingly does work, Samson explains, "It's an interesting kind of break from melody, which I kind of like. Jason [Tait] really wanted to work on an instrumental track, and I really enjoy spoken-word stuff, too, so I wrote this poem which I think works rhythmically and thematically with the music." Despite this flair for experimentation and the various instrumentation that drips all over Reunion Tour, Samson still considers the Weakerthans to be a punk band-sort of. "Punk is where we learned to play and that's the foundation that our music is built on, but I don't have any interest in being marginalized or put in some cultural ghetto," he explains. "I want to play for whoever wants to hear us. We like so many different kinds of music, and we'd like to explore all of them and try to work them into our own music." That type of open-mindedness extends to the Weakerthans' DIY ethics. But as the members continue into their 30s, they've become less dismissive of getting involved with faceless corporations or even Hollywood. The most obvious example being their song "Aside" featured on the soundtrack and the closing credits for the Vince Vaughn/Owen Wilson comedy, Wedding Crashers. Would the band consider playing a corporate-sponsored festival like the Vans Warped Tour? "I think we take things on a case-by-case basis, because you have to," says Samson. "We've definitely done some things that we wouldn't have done 10 years ago. [The Wedding Crashers thing] was weird and fun to try, but there are definitely limits to what we'll do." Like? "We turned down a Starbucks thing because we felt weird about Starbucks," he answers when pressed, sounding unsure if he should even mention that the corporate coffee company approached them. "Maybe some other time we would have said yes, it's hard to say; but for now, we would say no." While there aren't any anarchy symbols littering the clean cover of Reunion Tour or songs about how America's president is a fascist, Samson maintains the album is a political effort that focuses on the personal side of the spectrum. "I think I'm pushing toward the idea that the exploration of one human life is a political act," Samson explains, referencing songs like "Relative Surplus Value" and "Night Windows." "If you try to empathize with someone you don't understand, the act itself makes you a more caring and liberal person." However, despite Samson's punk pedigree, these days, he listens to mainly folk and classical music-and while he feels a connection to today's acts, you're not going to find him rocking out to, say, Against Me!'s New Wave anytime soon. "I'm sure they're great and we probably have tons in common, but I'd have to say that most of the stuff I listen to couldn't be considered punk music," he says, regarding the Gainesville, Florida punk act and their ilk. "I think I probably identify with them because they come from the same scene and place as we do." Despite the success Samson has had both inside and outside of that scene, and as the Weakerthans transition into their mid-30s, their ability to continue touring full-time grows more difficult with each broken string and sore throat. "I think it's difficult for anyone to be in a rock band, but it's especially hard when you start to get older," he responds when asked how he maintains the balance between his music and family. "At this point, I think we all recognize there are certainly more important things than being in a rock band." How much longer does Samson see the Weakerthans continuing full-time? "We're certainly going to be dedicated fully to the band for the foreseeable future, but you always have to play it by ear," he responds casually. "There's no way to really plan beyond the next year-or the next tour for that matter-so we'd rather concentrate on what we can accomplish now." ALT PUNK'S NOT DEAD-IT JUST MELLOWED OUT Weakerthans frontman John K. Samson isn't the only punker who's moved onto roots-inspired rock as he's gotten older. In fact, the following list shows that sometimes the punkest thing you can do is stop screaming about the system and invest in a steel-string guitar. BLAKE SCHWARZENBACH After fronting the legendary punk act Jawbreaker for eight years, Schwarzenbach founded the decidedly mellower project Jets To Brazil. While the band's early material sounded like a more pop-friendly rendition of his previous band, by the time they released Perfecting Loneliness in 2002, JTB sounded like the second coming of Wilco. BRANDON BUTLER In the early '90s, Butler fronted the proto-emo act Boys Life, but his later projects (Canyon and the Farewell Bend) were decidedly less aggressive. In fact, Butler's latest solo album Lucky Thumbs sounds far more like Bruce Springsteen than it does Braid-and if you have any doubt about his authenticity, notice the monster truck in a front yard on the cover of the disc... FRANK BLACK Although nothing will probably overshadow the fact that Black fronted one of the most influential punk bands of all time, the former Pixies singer/guitarist's subsequent solo output contains elements of rock and blues to create a unique musical amalgam that's equally as satisfying. If you're not sure where to start, check out the excellent new compilation 93 - 03. JONAH MATRANGA Matranga is probably still best known as the vocalist for the post-hardcore act Far, but for the past decade he's made a living playing stripped-down acoustic tracks as onelinedrawing, as well as his own name since mid-2004. While Matranga's sometimes painfully honest songs are inoffensive enough to be played in Starbucks, he's also held his own sharing the stage with decidedly heavier acts such as Thursday. [JB]