At first, it's kind of weird to wrap your head around the notion of a Weakerthans CD-single.

These days, after all, singles are usually less about music than marketing. Ever since the pop charts were commandeered by bubble-pop boy bands and carbon-copy dance-music outfits, it seems the once-proud single has fallen to the lowest rung of the musical ladder -- a cheap bauble churned out to generate airplay and squeeze a few more bucks out of the fans. Gone are the days of unreleased B-sides and live cuts; now, your typical single holds the radio version of the tune being flogged and pointless, space-filling remixes by deejays nobody's heard of or cares about.

Of course, punk singles have always been different. In many cases, they're the main means of communication between independent bands (who can't afford to record and distribute an entire album) and their young fans (who can't afford to blow all the bucks a full CD costs). And it's not like a lot of punk bands are deluding themselves about getting on the radio. So they have the freedom to use their singles to their fullest potential. They can experiment with different sounds and songs. They can keep an audio scrapbook of live tracks and other songs that might fall through the cracks. They can woo new fans with an inexpensive calling-card. Or they can reward the faithful with extra goodies.

That seems to be what Winnipeg post-punk quartet The Weakerthans are aiming for with the CD-single of Watermark, one of the rockier tracks from last year's highly (and deservedly) praised album Left and Leaving.

First, naturally, comes the titular track, an exceptional slice of intelligent pop-punk whose chugging, propulsive guitar lines and instantly hummable melody are so flawless that you won't mind (or most likely even notice) that the tune doesn't really have a chorus.

Outstanding as Watermark is, it's really the appetizer for the other tracks here, a pair of live ballads recorded at the band's video recent release party. Both cuts -- Illustrated Bible Stories for Children and The Last Last One -- come from the band's previous disc Fallow. Both find The Weakerthans -- singer-guitarist John K. Samson, drummer Jason Tait, bassist John Sutton and guitarist Stephen Carroll -- accompanied by mandolins and accordions that lend these songs a homespun, chamber-folky intimacy. Both prove the band are just as comfortable with gentle melody and melancholy as with rugged, adrenalin-fuelled punk. And both make it even clearer that Samson is perhaps the most honest and distinctive songwriter this city has produced of late.

Besides the audio tracks, the single also houses a multi-media portion containing the Watermark video, an artsy, locally produced clip with the band cut up and reassembled into mosaic-tile squares. If you don't wanna watch the musicians, you can try to spot the local landmarks -- there's the Walker Theatre; is that the Arlington Bridge? -- in the background.

Sure, a few more tunes -- maybe even an extra studio track or two -- woulda been nice. But all in all, not bad for a single. Especially considering the competition.

Friday, January 19, 2001

Weakerthans hit the mark