At the most recent Bionic show in Toronto, I had the pleasure of chatting with guitarist Ian Blurton for a few minutes. Not only does Blurton wail with Bionic, but he’s also got producer credit on the upcoming Weakerthans album, Reconstruction Site.
Now, I had enjoyed a few beverages at this point, and I’m not going to try to quote Mr. Blurton, but the general gist was that he was pretty pissed off because the Weakerthans record was leaked onto the Internet well before its release date on August 26.
For those of you who went and downloaded the album already, here’s a collective “You Suck.” Bad enough that you had to do it to Sloan, but this is getting out of control, people.
The Weakerthans are trying really hard to get your CD dollar. And your vinyl dollar, if you’re so inclined. The new album is going to feature a CD-ROM component with a scrapbook of material from tour, photos, small films shot during the recording of Reconstruction Site and the director’s cut of the upcoming video, “Our Retired Explorer Dines With Michel Foucault In Paris, 1961.”
Only with the CD, though. I wouldn’t recommend trying to cram a vinyl record into your CD-ROM drive.
“We went to a great extent to try to include some material that we thought was interesting,” says Weakerthans guitarist Stephen Carroll. “I hope it works out. On one hand, I enjoy it and on the other, I find it kind of silly. It just feels extraneous, like really all you should be doing is making an LP because it’s the most accurate form for our purposes, for this type of music. I think that rock ‘n’ roll always sounds better on vinyl.”
Another bonus of vinyl for musicians: If you wanna steal it, you have to do it the old-fashioned way – shoplifting! Either that, or get cozy with a music writer or industry type and hit them over the head with your Pink Floyd box sets while their backs are turned. That’s rock ‘n’ roll.
“It has nothing to do with computers,” says Carroll. “I was kind of dreading have to put all that computer mumbo-jumbo on our record sleeve. You don’t want to have the words ‘Windows 98.’ It has nothing to do with rock ‘n’ roll.”
Look what our fave rockers have been driven to in order to get your attention these days. You should be ashamed of yourselves. Now finish reading this article, then shut off the computer and put on a record. Get your mom to show you how. And quit stealing records unless you’re man or woman enough to do it in person.
