The Weakerthans

Biography

The Weakerthans are a Canadian indie rock band from Winnipeg. The band, led by John K. Samson, has released four studio albums and is currently inactive.

History

The band was formed in 1997 in Winnipeg, Manitoba by John K. Samson, after he left the punk band Propagandhi to start a publishing company. Samson joined bassist John P. Sutton and drummer Jason Tait of Red Fisher, another band from Winnipeg's punk scene, and created The Weakerthans as a vehicle for a more melodic and introspective brand of songwriting than their previous projects.
The origin of the band's name was explained, in 2004 by Samson, as having come from "a few places." One was a line from the 1992 film The Lover: "Go ahead, I'm weaker than you can possibly imagine." Another was a line from Ralph Chaplin's union anthem "Solidarity Forever": "What force on earth is weaker than the feeble strength of one?" The band includes this line in the song "Pamphleteer" from the album Left and Leaving×Left and Leaving25 July 2000 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 12 tracks1Everything Must Go!4:362Aside3:213Watermark2:384Pamphleteer5:165This Is a Fire Door Never Leave Open5:076Without Mythologies3:127Left and Leaving4:468Elegy for Elsabet6:219History to the Defeated3:5510Exiles Among You5:1111My Favourite Chords4:2812Slips and Tangles2:58.
The band's debut album, Fallow×Fallow7 December 1997 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 12 tracks1Illustrated Bible Stories for Children1:432Diagnosis2:413Confessions of a Futon‐Revolutionist2:154None of the Above4:185Letter of Resignation3:236Leash3:077Wellington’s Wednesdays3:018The Last Last One3:109Greatest Hits Collection3:0310Sounds Familiar2:2911Anchorless3:5112Fallow5:27, was released in 1997 on G7 Welcoming Committee Records, and garnered positive reviews from Canadian music critics. Guitarist Stephen Carroll, formerly of Painted Thin, subsequently joined the band, and Left and Leaving was released in 2000.

In 2003, the band moved to Epitaph Records and released Reconstruction Site. The album was met with positive reviews from Canadian and international critics for its ambitious combination of punk, rock, folk, country and sonnets. It also became the band's best-selling record to date, and in September appeared on the !earshot National Top 50 Chart as a result of significant airplay on Canadian radio. It was the second Weakerthans album to be produced by Ian Blurton.
Sutton, who played on the band's first three albums, left in August 2004 and was replaced by Greg Smith.
In 2005, Left and Leaving was named one of the ten best Canadian albums of all time in Chart magazine's reader poll. In the same poll, Samson wrote the capsule review for another top ten finisher, The Lowest of the Low's Shakespeare My Butt, which he cited as a major influence on his own music.
Reunion Tour was released on September 25, 2007, in North America by Epitaph and ANTI-. The band released a video for "Civil Twilight", which consisted of a single, unbroken camera shot of the band on a Winnipeg Transit city bus.
Epitaph also re-released the Weakerthans' first two albums, Fallow and Left and Leaving, in Canada on November 6, 2007.
In February 2009, the band participated in Barenaked Ladies' annual Ships and Dip cruise. In a subsequent interview with Canwest News Service, Samson clarified that the band would be taking some downtime over the summer of 2009 before deciding when to start working on their next album. Shortly afterward, Samson announced a series of solo 7" releases about Manitoba roads, which he planned to release over the next 18 months. The first, City Route 85, was released on October 30, 2009, through Epitaph and ANTI-. After a second EP, Provincial Road 222, in 2010, the project instead evolved into Samson's first official solo album, Provincial.
In January 2010, the band announced that they would release a live album, Live at the Burton Cummings Theatre×Live at the Burton Cummings Theatre19 March 2010 · Album · LiveSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 36 tracks · 2 discsDisc 11Everything Must Go4:012Tournament of Hearts3:263Our Retired Explorer (Dines With Michel Foucault in Paris in 1969)2:314Night Windows4:455Reconstruction Site2:496Aside3:217Civil Twilight2:568Bigfoot2:549Plea From a Cat Named Virtute5:0510The Reasons2:4111Sun in an Empty Room3:5512Left and Leaving5:0413Wellington’s Wednesdays6:0614Benediction3:3315Manifest1:5716One Great City3:3517This Is a Fire Door Never Leave Open4:5218Virtute the Cat Explains Her Departure4:16Disc 21Everything Must Go4:012Tournament of Hearts3:263Our Retired Explorer (Dines With Michel Foucault in Paris in 1969)2:314Night Windows4:455Reconstruction Site2:496Aside3:217Civil Twilight2:568Bigfoot2:549Plea From a Cat Named Virtute5:0510The Reasons2:4111Sun in an Empty Room3:5512Left and Leaving5:0413Wellington’s Wednesdays6:0614Benediction3:3315Manifest1:5716One Great City3:3517This Is a Fire Door Never Leave Open4:5218Virtute the Cat Explains Her Departure4:16, on March 23. At the same time, they also announced that they were recording material with Jim Bryson for his album The Falcon Lake Incident×The Falcon Lake Incident19 October 2010 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 10 tracks1Raised All Wrong1:332Metal Girls2:593Fell Off the Dock3:064Wild Folk4:015Constellation4:126Freeways in the Frontyard3:507Up All Night4:038Kissing Cousins2:559Decidedly4:5810Anything and All3:10, which was released on October 19, 2010. In the same year, they were the subject of Caelum Vatnsdal's documentary film We're the Weakerthans, We're from Winnipeg.
In July 2015, media began to report that Tait had announced the band's breakup on Twitter. The band's social media accounts have been updated in accordance to the claims, defining themselves as "cryogenically frozen". Both Tait and Smith collaborated on Samson's 2016 solo album Winter Wheat, which Samson described as feeling in some respects like a new Weakerthans album.
The Gimlet Media podcast Heavyweight, launched in 2016, brought fresh attention to the band by selecting "Sun In An Empty Room" from the album Reunion Tour×Reunion Tour24 September 2007 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 11 tracks1Civil Twilight3:182Hymn of the Medical Oddity3:083Relative Surplus Value2:384Tournament of Hearts3:355Virtute the Cat Explains Her Departure4:096Elegy for Gump Worsley2:437Sun in an Empty Room4:008Night Windows4:369Bigfoot!2:2310Reunion Tour2:0811Utilities4:35 as the show's theme and closing music.

Chart performance

Reunion Tour debuted at No. 22 on the Nielsen SoundScan chart for Canada in its first week of release, and at No. 4 on the alternative/modern rock chart. The album reached No. 181 on the United States Billboard 200.
The Weakerthans became the first band in the history of CBC Radio 3's R3-30 charts to reach No. 1 with two different songs. The band's cover of Rheostatics' "Bad Time to Be Poor" reached No. 1 the week of June 21, 2007, and "Civil Twilight", the lead single from Reunion Tour, hit the top spot the week of November 15, 2007. As of 2009, "Civil Twilight" remains tied with Arcade Fire's "Black Mirror" as the longest-running No. 1 in that chart's history. "Civil Twilight" was also the No. 1 song in The R3-30's year-end Top 100 chart for 2007.

Current members

John K. Samson (lead vocals, guitar) (1997–2014)
Jason Tait (drums, percussion, vibraphone, keyboards) (1997–2014)
Stephen Carroll (guitar, pedal and lap steel, keyboards) (1997–2014)
Greg Smith (bass) (2004–2014)

Live show help

Jim Bryson (general support). Joined as of September 10, 2007.
Christine Fellows (keyboards/background vocals)
Brian Poirier (acoustic guitar and backing vocals)
Tyler Greenleaf (trumpet and trombone)
Rusty Matyas (general support) – performed with the band for the 2009 Rolling Tundra Revue
MacKinnon and Poirier also have their own band, FemBots, and were previously associated with the bands Dig Circus and Hummer. Both Bryson and Fellows are solo artists in addition to touring with The Weakerthans; Fellows and Samson are married. Matyas is a member of the bands The Waking Eyes and Imaginary Cities.

Side projects

Samson frequently collaborates with his wife, Christine Fellows.
Tait has recorded and performed with Broken Social Scene and Do Make Say Think.
Tait, Samson, and Fellows collaborated with poet and filmmaker Clive Holden on his multimedia project Trains of Winnipeg.
Carroll appeared on The Details' Draw a Distance. Draw a Border. and The Original Mark EP. He co-produced a couple of songs on The Original Mark EP as well as their upcoming full-length (2011).
In 2006, all of the Weakerthans except Samson performed on Bad Religion singer Greg Graffin's second solo album, Cold as the Clay. They also toured with Graffin on a tour supporting the album.
In 2000, the Winnipeg Free Press released a spoken word album by Catherine Hunter that included a bonus track featuring the Weakerthans doing backing instrumentation while Hunter read her poem "Rush Hour".

Won

Outstanding Independent Album – Reconstruction Site×Reconstruction Site25 August 2003 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 14 tracks1(Manifest)1:452The Reasons2:513Reconstruction Site2:454Psalm for the Elks Lodge Last Call2:455Plea From a Cat Named Virtute3:496Our Retired Explorer (Dines with Michel Foucault in Paris, 1961)2:247Time’s Arrow2:538(Hospital Vespers)1:409Uncorrected Proofs2:4310A New Name for Everything4:0411One Great City!2:5412Benediction3:2913The Prescience of Dawn4:3614(Past‐due)2:09 – Western Canadian Music Awards (2004)
Outstanding Songwriter – John K. Samson – Western Canadian Music Awards (2004)
Artist of the Year – The Weakerthans – Verge Awards (2008).
SOCAN Songwriting Prize – "Night Windows" (2008)

Nominations

Best Alternative Album – Left and Leaving×Left and Leaving25 July 2000 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 12 tracks1Everything Must Go!4:362Aside3:213Watermark2:384Pamphleteer5:165This Is a Fire Door Never Leave Open5:076Without Mythologies3:127Left and Leaving4:468Elegy for Elsabet6:219History to the Defeated3:5510Exiles Among You5:1111My Favourite Chords4:2812Slips and Tangles2:58 – Juno Awards (2001)
Video of the Year – "Psalms for the Elks' Lodge Last Call" – Western Canadian Music Awards (2004)
Alternative Album of the Year – Reconstruction Site×Reconstruction Site25 August 2003 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 14 tracks1(Manifest)1:452The Reasons2:513Reconstruction Site2:454Psalm for the Elks Lodge Last Call2:455Plea From a Cat Named Virtute3:496Our Retired Explorer (Dines with Michel Foucault in Paris, 1961)2:247Time’s Arrow2:538(Hospital Vespers)1:409Uncorrected Proofs2:4310A New Name for Everything4:0411One Great City!2:5412Benediction3:2913The Prescience of Dawn4:3614(Past‐due)2:09 – Juno Awards (2004)
Video of the Year – "The Reasons" – Juno Awards (2005)
2008 Polaris Music Prize — Reunion Tour