Music Monday.

I thought a new tradition for Mondays would be to put up a video of some of my favorite bands and songs.  Maybe some of them you've already heard of, maybe you'll learn some new ones, but either way i think finding out new sounds that you like is a little cooler through word of mouth than getting it through standard sources like the radio.  Which by the way USA radio is nowhere as good as Australian radio in my opinion, with nothing like JJJ to be found, and I'm happy to be steered in the right direction if any locals have good suggestions.

So to kick things off the first band I am going to feature is "The Weakerthans", a four piece indie band from Winnipeg, Canada.  I guess I first got onto these guys during high school, when in fact I was playing in a band myself.  After we began rehearsing regularly, we started to get 'musically coached' by one of the flute teachers who stayed back with us as we jammed after school and helped us hone our sound.  Flute teacher you say?  Yes sir, but this guy was also heavily into many underground punk rock bands that we had never heard of.  Each week he would bring in some new sounds and expanded out small little minds away from the commercial radio sounds we were spoon fed.  It was great!  One of those bands was Propagandhi, who we all flipped out over.  In their early stages, Propagandhi featured John Samson on bass guitar, who wrote and sung a couple of songs on their records.  In between the hardcore melodic sounds and highly politcal lyrics,  Samson's songs stood out, with his unique voice and introspective and often fragile lyrics.  It didn't take long that Samson didn't quite fit the Propagandhi mold and left, creating The Weakerthans.  So I followed up and ordered one of their albums (not regular record store shelf stuff back then) and was not disappointed.  Lyrically it is brilliant.  Possibly the best I have ever heard with such raw honesty and a talent for descriptive metaphors.  Anyway, enough talking...enjoy these couple of clips.