''Reunion Tour'' is the fourth studio album by

The Weakerthans The Weakerthans are an award-winning and Juno-nominated 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, Manit ...

, released on September 25, 2007, in Canada and the

U.S. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

''Reunion Tour'' Digital Liner Notes on Anti.com.
/ref> The album was released on both

compact disc The compact disc (CD) is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format that was co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. In August 1982, the first compact disc was manufactured. It was then rele ...

and

vinyl record A phonograph record (also known as a gramophone record, especially in British English), or simply a record, is an analog sound storage medium in the form of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove. The groove usually starts nea ...

. The album was produced by

Ian Blurton Ian Blurton (born 1965) is a Canadian musician and record producer. Early life He was born in Champaign, Illinois in 1965, and moved to Toronto in 1973. Musical career He has been a part of Toronto's indie music scene since the early 1980s. He ...

, who previously produced ''

Left and Leaving ''Left and Leaving'' is the second studio album by The Weakerthans, released July 25, 2000, on G7 Welcoming Committee Records. In ''Chart'' magazine's 2005 poll of the Top 50 Canadian albums of all time, ''Left and Leaving'' ranked in sixth plac ...

'' and ''

Reconstruction Site ''Reconstruction Site'' is the third studio album by The Weakerthans, released on August 26, 2003. A song cycle about grief, regret, loss and eventual hope, the album is thematically framed by three tracks, "(Manifest)", "(Hospital Vespers)" and ...

'' for the band. Blurton has described the album as the band's most experimental to date,Uptownmag.com Feature.
/ref> and guitarist

Stephen Carroll Stephen Carroll is a Canadian rock guitarist, and a member of the indie rock band The Weakerthans. Originally a member of the punk rock band Painted Thin, he appeared as a guest musician on the first Weakerthans album, ''Fallow'', and became a p ...

told '' Uptown'' that the album features "lots of ambient stuff, tape loops, and some more keyboard than before". Prior to the album's release, the band released mock "

webisodes A webisode (portmanteau of "web" and "episode") is an episode of a series that is distributed as part of a web series or on streaming television. It is available as either for download or in streaming, as opposed to first airing on broadcast or ...

" about the making of the record on the

Epitaph Records Epitaph Records is an American independent record label owned by Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, most acts signed to the label were punk and pop punk acts, while there are many post-hardcore and emo bands ...

website.

Chart performance

The album debuted at #22 on the

Nielsen SoundScan Luminate (formerly Nielsen SoundScan, Nielsen Music Products, and MRC Data) is a provider of music sales data. Established by Mike Fine and Mike Shalett in 1991, data is collected weekly and made available every Sunday (for albums sales) and eve ...

chart for Canada in its first week of release, and at #4 on the alternative/modern rock chart.

Awards and nominations

The album was nominated for the

2008 Polaris Music Prize The 2008 edition of the Canadian Polaris Music Prize was presented on September 30, 2008, at the Phoenix Concert Theatre in Toronto. The prize was won by Caribou for his album ''Andorra''. Unlike in prior years, the Polaris Prize committee did ...

Track listing

# "

Civil Twilight Twilight is light produced by sunlight scattering in the upper atmosphere, when the Sun is below the horizon, which illuminates the lower atmosphere and the Earth's surface. The word twilight can also refer to the periods of time when this ...

" – 3:17 # "Hymn of the Medical Oddity" – 3:08 # "Relative

Surplus Value In Marxian economics, surplus value is the difference between the amount raised through a sale of a product and the amount it cost to the owner of that product to manufacture it: i.e. the amount raised through sale of the product minus the cost ...

" – 2:37 # "

Tournament of Hearts The Scotties Tournament of Hearts (''french: Le Tournoi des Cœurs Scotties''; commonly referred to as the Scotties) is the annual Canadian women's curling championship, sanctioned by Curling Canada, formerly called the Canadian Curling Associat ...

" – 3:34 # "Virtute the Cat Explains Her Departure" – 4:08 # "Elegy for

Gump Worsley Lorne John "Gump" Worsley (May 14, 1929 – January 26, 2007) was a professional ice hockey goaltender. Born and raised in Montreal, Quebec, 'Gump' was given his nickname because friends thought he looked like comic-strip character Andy Gump. ...

" – 2:43 # "Sun in an Empty Room" – 4:00 # "Night Windows" – 4:35 # "

Bigfoot Bigfoot, also commonly referred to as Sasquatch, is a purported ape-like creature said to inhabit the forest of North America. Many dubious articles have been offered in attempts to prove the existence of Bigfoot, including anecdotal claims o ...

!" – 2:23 # "Reunion Tour" – 2:07 # "Utilities" – 4:34

Song notes

"Civil Twilight" *The song is written from the perspective of a

Winnipeg Transit Winnipeg Transit is the public transit agency, and the bus-service provider, of the City of Winnipeg, Manitoba. Established years ago, it is owned by the city government and currently employs nearly 1,600 people—including approximately 1,1 ...

bus driver. *"My Confusion Corner commuters are cursing the cold away..."

Confusion Corner Osborne Junction, more commonly known as Confusion Corner, is a street intersection in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Located at the junction of City Route 62 and City Route 42 in the city's Fort Rouge neighbourhood, the intersection is a major traffic hu ...

refers to the intersection of Osborne Street,

Corydon Avenue Corydon may refer to: Literature *Corydon (character), a stock name for a shepherd in pastorals * ''Corydon'' (book), an early 20th-century book by André Gide People * Bent Corydon (born 1942), American author and journalist *Bjarne Corydon (bor ...

, Donald Street, and

Pembina Highway Route 42 is a major arterial road located in Winnipeg, Manitoba. It connects the suburbs of North Kildonan, East Kildonan, Fort Rouge, Fort Garry, and St. Norbert with the city's downtown core. In the north, it is a continuation of Manitoba Pro ...

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749,6 ...

, which is infamous for being difficult to navigate correctly. "Hymn of the Medical Oddity" *The song is about

David Reimer David Reimer (born Bruce Peter Reimer; 22 August 1965 – 4 May 2004) was a Canadian man born male but raised as a girl following medical advice and intervention after his penis was severely injured during a botched circumcision in infancy. ...

, a Winnipeg man who became a "queer experiment" when, after a botched childhood

circumcision Circumcision is a surgical procedure, procedure that removes the foreskin from the human penis. In the most common form of the operation, the foreskin is extended with forceps, then a circumcision device may be placed, after which the foreskin ...

destroyed his penis, his parents were convinced by psychologist

John Money John William Money (8 July 1921 – 7 July 2006) was a New Zealand psychologist, sexologist and author known for his research into sexual identity and Sex determination and differentiation (human), biology of gender. He was one of the first ...

to raise him as a girl and allow Money to study "her" as a test case in social construction theories of

gender Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to femininity and masculinity and differentiating between them. Depending on the context, this may include sex-based social structures (i.e. gender roles) and gender identity. Most cultures u ...

. Reimer committed

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and s ...

in 2004. *"...and ask

St. Boniface Boniface, OSB ( la, Bonifatius; 675 – 5 June 754) was an English Benedictine monk and leading figure in the Anglo-Saxon mission to the Germanic parts of the Frankish Empire during the eighth century. He organised significant foundations of ...

and St. Vital / Preserve me from my past..." Two jurisdictions of Winnipeg are named after these saints, owing to the city's heavy French history. "Relative Surplus Value" *

Surplus value In Marxian economics, surplus value is the difference between the amount raised through a sale of a product and the amount it cost to the owner of that product to manufacture it: i.e. the amount raised through sale of the product minus the cost ...

is a

Marxist Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...

term for the profit derived by capitalists from unpaid labour. For example, if an employee is paid $10 an hour but produces $40 worth of goods in that time, his employer has received $30 in surplus value since the worker has not been paid the full value of his output. *The song is written from the perspective of a man who has just been fired from his job, and is now relating his experience to an unnamed acquaintance. In an early live performance of the song on college radio station

KUCI KUCI (88.9 FM) is a college radio station broadcasting a variety format. Licensed to Irvine, California, United States, the station serves the Orange County area. The station is currently owned by Regents of the University of California and i ...

Irvine, California Irvine () is a Planned community, master-planned city in South Orange County, California, United States, in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Irvine Company started developing the area in the 1960s and the city was formally incorporated on ...

, Samson described the song as being about the

dot-com bust The dot-com bubble (dot-com boom, tech bubble, or the Internet bubble) was a stock market bubble in the late 1990s, a period of massive growth in the use and adoption of the Internet. Between 1995 and its peak in March 2000, the Nasdaq Compos ...

. "Tournament of Hearts" *The

Scotties Tournament of Hearts The Scotties Tournament of Hearts (''french: Le Tournoi des Cœurs Scotties''; commonly referred to as the Scotties) is the annual Canadian women's curling championship, sanctioned by Curling Canada, formerly called the Canadian Curling Associat ...

is Canada's annual women's

curling Curling is a sport in which players slide stones on a sheet of ice toward a target area which is segmented into four concentric circles. It is related to bowls, boules, and shuffleboard. Two teams, each with four players, take turns sliding ...

championship. The song is written from the perspective of a man who spends all his free time at the curling club, partly out of his love of the sport and partly because of communication problems in his marriage: "Why, why can't I draw right up to what I want to say? Why can't I ever stop where I want to stay? I slide right through the day, I'm always throwing hack weight." *''

'' was also the title of the third album by

The Constantines Constantines is an indie rock band from Guelph, Ontario, Canada. History Constantines was formed in 1999 by vocalist and guitarist Bryan Webb, drummer Doug MacGregor and guitarist Paul Bright, all of whom had played together in the emo band Sho ...

, which that band released soon after touring with The Weakerthans in 2003. In an interview with

CBC Radio 3 CBC Radio 3 is a Canadian digital radio station operated by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, which plays a relatively freeform mix of indie rock, indie pop, alternative hip hop, folk, country and electronic music. The service, which lanuc ...

to promote the release of ''Reunion Tour'', Samson claimed that the Constantines chose the album title at his urging. "Virtute the Cat Explains Her Departure" *This is the second song the band has written from the point of view of Virtute, a cat. The first was "Plea from a Cat Named Virtute", which appeared on the previous album ''

''. The word ''virtute'' is the ablative of ''virtus,'' meaning "virtue," "strength," and "goodness" in

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

, and appears in the civic motto of Winnipeg, ''Unum cum virtute multorum'' ("one with the strength of many"). The story of Virtute concluded on Samson's 2016 solo album ''

Winter Wheat Winter wheat (usually ''Triticum aestivum'') are strains of wheat that are planted in the autumn to germinate and develop into young plants that remain in the vegetative phase during the winter and resume growth in early spring. Classification ...

'', with the songs "Virtute at Rest" detailing Virtute's final thoughts before death and "17th Street Treatment Center" documenting Virtute's owner's stint in a drug rehabilitation program. *The

Art of Time Ensemble Art of Time Ensemble is a Toronto-based musical collective of leading Canadian musicians from the worlds of jazz and classical music. Composed of classical, jazz and pop musicians, Art of Time Ensemble is known for exploring the intersection of ...

featuring (former

Barenaked Ladies Barenaked Ladies is a Canadian rock band formed in 1988 in Scarborough, Ontario. The band developed a following in Canada, with their self-titled 1991 cassette becoming the first independent release to be certified gold in Canada. They reach ...

singer)

Steven Page Steven Jay Page (born June 22, 1970) is a Canadian musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He was a founding member, lead singer, guitarist, and a primary songwriter of the music group Barenaked Ladies. Page left the band in Februar ...

covered "Virtute the Cat Explains Her Departure" on their 2010 record ''

A Singer Must Die ''A Singer Must Die'' is a collaboration between the Canadian music organization Art of Time Ensemble and vocalist Steven Page. It is Page's first release following his departure from Barenaked Ladies, although it was recorded before he left th ...

''. "Elegy for Gump Worsley" *

was a Canadian hockey player who died in 2007. He is viewed as a

punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

sports icon, having also inspired the

Huevos Rancheros Huevos rancheros (, 'ranch-style eggs') is a breakfast dish consisting of eggs served in the style of the traditional large mid-morning fare on rural Mexican farms. Basic dish The basic dish consists of fried eggs served on lightly fried or cha ...

song "Gump Worsley's Lament" and the title of Sons of Freedom's 1991 album ''Gump''. "Sun in an Empty Room" *The song is written from the perspective of a man who is in the process of moving out of an apartment and is looking at an empty room that was once filled with furniture. *The song takes its name from a painting by American painter

Edward Hopper Edward Hopper (July 22, 1882 – May 15, 1967) was an American realist painter and printmaker. While he is widely known for his oil paintings, he was equally proficient as a watercolorist and printmaker in etching. Hopper created subdued drama ...

. *The song is used as the closing theme for the Gimlet Media podcast Heavyweight hosted by Jonathan Goldstein. "Night Windows" *The song's title is taken from a painting by

, and is written from the perspective of a man passing the window where a deceased loved one once lived. "Bigfoot!" *The song is written from the perspective of Bobby Clarke, a driver on the Nelson Channel ferry near

Norway House Norway House is a population centre of over 5,000 people, some north of Lake Winnipeg, on the bank of the eastern channel of Nelson River, in the province of Manitoba, Canada. The population centre shares the name ''Norway House'' with the north ...

Manitoba Manitoba ( ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population o ...

, who captured a two-and-a-half minute video of an alleged

sighting in 2005.Cokemachineglow
/ref> "Reunion Tour" *The song is written from the point of view of a

roadie The road crew (or roadies) are the technicians or support personnel who travel with a band on tour, usually in sleeper buses, and handle every part of the concert productions except actually performing the music with the musicians. This catc ...

on tour with his recently reformed band. "Utilities" *A different rendition of "Utilities" was previously recorded for the Canadian edition of the 2006 compilation album '' Help!: A Day in the Life''.

Personnel

*Stephen Carroll – guitars, vocals, pedal steel, keyboards *

John K. Samson John Kristjan Samson (born 1973) is a Canadian musician from Winnipeg, Manitoba. He is a singer-songwriter and best known as the frontman of the Canadian indie folk/rock band The Weakerthans. He also played bass in the punk band Propagandhi duri ...

– vocals, guitars, keyboards *Greg Smith – bass, vocals, keyboards *

Jason Tait Jason Tait is a Canadian musician from Winnipeg, Manitoba. He is the drummer for the Canadian indie rock band The Weakerthans. Tait has also been a contributing member of Broken Social Scene and The FemBots. Career Tait played drums for the Pa ...

– drums, percussion, vibes, glockenspiel, keyboards, banjo, loops *Michael Barth – trumpet ("Reunion Tour", "Bigfoot!") *Tyler Greenleaf – trombone ("Reunion Tour", "Bigfoot!") *Izabella Budai – flute ("Reunion Tour") *Sean Dealey – additional snare rolls ("Reunion Tour") *

Julie Penner Julie Penner (born 1976) is a Canadian violinist who has played with The FemBots, Broken Social Scene, Do Make Say Think, Hylozoists, The Lowest of the Low and The Weakerthans. She also worked as the music producer for Stuart McLean's ''The Vi ...

– trumpet ("Elegy for Gump Worsley")

References

{{Authority control 2007 albums The Weakerthans albums