The Weather Station, PRIORS, and Anarchy 99
The Weather Station
Ignorance // Next Door Records
A first listen, a second listen, a third, a fourth, and yet still the words don’t come; in the most literal sense, I am left speechless. From the first 30 seconds of the intro track, “Robber”, you know this album is something different—different from what we’ve heard from Tamara Lindeman prior, but also different and unique within the context of the Canadian music landscape. The Weather Station’s Ignorance is an invitation to grieve, to sway and spin, to close your eyes and feel your heart pumping blood through your veins to every single part of your body.
The first six tracks sound quite similar in tempo and instrumentation—we can sense that Lindeman is meaning to pound something home, make us feel comfortable and draw us in, like we’re slowly moving forward down the tracks and it would take an avalanche to slow us down. Mysteriously these similar sounding songs never get boring or redundant, but instead provide the perfect context for Lindeman’s voice to carry the feeling; light yet never weak, heavy but never pushy, daring yet never falling over the edge, Lindeman’s voice could have textbooks written about it and we would still never figure it out fully. This is Lindeman’s voice in its rawest form, as though she is singing only to herself: eyes closed, hands tightly clutched over her chest (as though if she lets go, she may fall apart), standing alone in the middle of an empty room. Her voice alone is a masterpiece to behold.
Sonically there is so much to unpack that the lyrics can take a back seat on the first few listens; as I sought to read the lyrics I found that they are all written out on The Weather Stations website, presented in a journal-type format (normally this would never be mentioned, but it was so beautiful it must be highly encouraged for you to read along here). It almost felt as though I stumbled upon a personal diary from worlds away; these lyrics are far from back-seat, they’re the whole damn vehicle. On the second track, "Atlantic", Lindeman sings: “I should get all this dying off my mind, I should really know better than to read the headlines, does it matter if I see? Or really, can I not just cover my eyes?” These songs are filled with question marks. Lindeman is rethinking past actions, questioning the state of the world, the state of her heart and relationships, the meaning of it all. Nothing is certain.
The avalanche inevitably comes by track eight, "Trust", where Lindeman finally recognizes: it’s over. Her marriage, the love shared, the hard work for resolution, it’s all over. This is the end of trust; this is the end of love. Strings, piano, and unresolved chords bring us to a cinematic climax that is so devastatingly beautiful it’s hard to imagine there’s an easy way out of this pain. However, Lindeman pulls herself together and gives it one more shot on “Heart”, stating that she doesn’t have the heart to conceal her love, but if it makes it easier on him, he can doubt her love and move on. She ends the album with a final recognition that some things cannot be joined back together; as the yellow lines on the highway separate the coming from the going, Lindeman realizes some things are simply destined to be divided.
Radio hosts or podcasters like to ask in jest if pain or breakups were actually positive experiences because it helped the artist to make really great art; the artist chuckles and nods, covering the truth. No, pain cannot be painted a rosy pink and parade around as what it is not—it is death, it is divorce, it is grief, it is division. But indeed, the simple truth is this: what is inherently divided can never be joined back together, but recognizing what is divided in life only further illuminates what is whole, and we can then set our wheels back on the tracks to chase what is whole.
- Lana Winterhalt
PRIORS
MY PUNISHMENT ON EARTH // Drink and Drive Records/Brain Gum
Like so many artists, PRIORS 2020 release plans got thrown to the wind. With optimism they held off their new LP MY PUNISHMENT ON EARTH hoping for a more traditional release and the possibility of touring. In the meantime individual members kept busy. Singer Chance Hutchinson released an EP (to raise funds for his ailing cat, how precious) of lofi garage jams with Jackie Blankarn of Pale Lips under the moniker Chance & Jackie, while guitarist Maxime Desharnais released a record with his new wavey punk project New Vogue. Yadda yadda yadda, covid didn’t disappear and to the luck of fans of driving garage-punk, PRIORS finally dished out the scornfully titled MY PUNISHMENT ON EARTH right on the cusp of 2021.
The five piece punch into your ears, fists-a-swingin’, with album opener “Brew Ha Ha.” The song shifts through tight verses and blasting choruses. With each passing verse the tensity grips tighter and tighter, begging for the release of a blasting chorus which is so aptly delivered each time through.
Lead single “Fox Force Five” is a real strutter. It’s jagged rhythm stomps along with rock n roll swagger. The track most strongly showcases the punk cynicism ever present throughout the record. Hutchinsons vocals cut like a knife with each tongue in cheek metaphor.
Compared to past PRIORS records this one is full of hooks. It’s got that driving edge the band has always built their sound around but it’s sharpened. There’s less frills in the song writing, leaving ample room for ear grabbing vocal melodies. “Cool World” marks this shift in full tilt. The rhythm section meanders along as a dopey lead guitar line sets an underbelly for Hutchinsons signature clipping barks. Nothing too flashy, yet like a perfect pop song as each part satisfies exactly as you’d hope. While the guitars have more dirt, PRIORS tighten up on MY PUNISHMENT ON EARTH. The mix is cleaner and more cohesive, leaning less into chaotic-raw guitar work and digging deeper into crisper riffs, melodies and vocal lines that manage to bury themselves into that inner playlist of your mind.
-Kennedy Pawluk
Anarchy 99
Rockstar Super Heat // blacksquares
It is always worth refreshing blacksquare’s Bandcamp page, as you will undoubtedly find some new project that Toronto-based producer Devi McCallion has taken on. Aside from being one half of Black Dresses, McCallion has borne various names in a masquerade of sounds – to name a few, Cats Millionaire, Mom, Girl Rituals, and Anarchy 99. Anarchy 99 is a collaborative project between Devi McCallion and So Drove, an upcoming LA producer who brings a genre bending approach to pop into the mix and who has worked with the likes of Kreayshawn and Cupcakke. For all sakes and purposes, Anarchy 99 describes itself as a sort of demolition derby event in rock n’ roll which will simultaneously save it and be its worst enemy – Rockstar Super Heat broaches the concept of Anarchy 99 by embracing autotuned guitars, drum machines, midi, and catchy sequences. And as these albums go, there are a number of folks that got their hands into bringing this album together: on top of Anarchy 99’s production and composition, “Freaky Scene” had some extra production done by ESPer99, “Angel Wing Paradise” and “Roses” had some vocal editing by Ash Nerve, and the record was mastered by Ada Rook.
The opening track, “Plat 1”, introduces everything you need to know about Anarchy 99’s approach to this record. Starting with a slow guitar-bass build up into electronic beats releasing the song into a satisfying alt-rock soundscape. Not only does this start feel liberating, but it leads into a deconstructed experimental break. The record moves on to “Sorry (Fucked Up Shit)” which starts off as a conventional blues beat a la AC/DC, but it departs, as the song gets louder in its chorus and incorporates more airy ambient elements in its breaks as McCallion starts singing “I’m so sorry” as a refrain. “Angel Wing Paradise” has perhaps some of my favorite lyrical lines delivered with a fragrant whinny punk vocal style: “I don’t wanna be the head of the local DSA chapter / I just wanna be on the Digimon The Movie soundtrack / Blegh / Everything / Everything that you do / Is going to get ppl more vulnerable than you killed by the FBI.”
“WTF is My Heart” is one of the tracks that is most reminiscent of McCallion’s work in Girl Rituals, as it is more of a noise electro-pop song to dance to at a rave plagued by emotional confusion as you are getting slapped by the metallic stack beats stacking up on you. The album only gets more experimental with “Freaky Scene,” a song composed by disjointed bases and beats oozing out feedback. This track jumps between different levels of intensity while always coming back to its basic building blocks – even its glitchy breakdown still maintains that core of the song while keeping everything dynamic. “Super Heat” is almost the titular track to the whole record. In this track. Anarchy 99 comes back to its rock n’ roll basis filtered by the excursion of noise and feedback that the last few tracks take a listener through. Now, ironically, the track “AC/DC” was not the track that made me think of AC/DC. This song is more of a soft noise bedroom pop riffing on lyrics like “We took the highway to hell” and “I’m AC DC /AC DC / I’m easy-deasy / easy-deasy.” All things considered, “AC/DC” is a nice change in energy from the intensity the record cultivated so far, and it also brings some of the best lyrical content in the record. The second last track, “Conceited” brings us back to a more rhythmic dance beat that one could rage to get it all out before the album let’s things rest. In this respect, “Roses” brings things back to a discrete pop tune that starts of by setting an easygoing and quiet sound – the vocal harmonies and instrumental really give this track the dreamy feel that bring things to close.
With the release of Rockstar Super Heat, Anarchy 99 comes at us with a new vision of what rock n’ roll can be by embracing the lessons in contemporary pop music – everything ranging from noise, experimental pop, PC music, and hyperpop finds its own way to corrupt and transform rock n’ roll. Devi McCallion and So Drove bring about a spectrum of possibilities of what this genre-bending experience can look like, no song will sound the same and the flexibility of their approach opens up to various different takes on this sound. Since the release of Rockstar Super Heat, both of the artists have gone on to release a few other things: So Drove released the single track “Can’t Take Your Eyes Off Me” featuring Sally Spitz, and Devi McCallion released a compilation of remixes of her track “Black Cloud” featuring Backxwash, Ada Rook, ESPer99, crisis sigil, Katie Dey, Wet Adhesion, and gravedream. Both of these artists are prolific in their productions and collaborations, so give it a couple weeks to check their pages and see what else is new.
- Simone A. Medina Polo
