''Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone?'' is the second and final studio album by Canadian

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand in the early to mid-1980s. Although the term was originally used to describe rock music released through independent reco ...

band

the Unicorns The Unicorns were a Canadian rock band formed in the year 2000 by Nicholas Thorburn (Nick Diamonds) of British Columbia and Alden Penner (Alden Ginger) of Quebec. J'aime Tambeur joined in December 2003. The band announced their split in late ...

. It features several re-arranged versions of songs from their earlier self-released album '' Unicorns Are People Too''. The album was first issued on CD and on

vinyl Vinyl may refer to: Chemistry * Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a particular vinyl polymer * Vinyl cation, a type of carbocation * Vinyl group, a broad class of organic molecules in chemistry * Vinyl polymer, a group of polymers derived from vinyl ...

in North America by

Alien8 Recordings Alien8 Recordings is an independent record label founded in 1996 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The label was founded by Sean O'Hara and Gary Worsley. The label released material from prominent noise artists such as Merzbow, Think About Life, A ...

on October 21, 2003, and on CD in Europe by

Rough Trade Records Rough Trade Records is an independent record label based in London, England. It was formed in 1976 by Geoff Travis, who had opened a record store off Ladbroke Grove. It is currently run by co-managing directors Travis and Jeannette Lee and ...

in 2004. It has since been repressed in limited quantities on pink and brown vinyl by Alien8 and was re-released on August 26, 2014 on the band's own label, Caterpillar Records. The album received positive reviews both upon its release and in retrospective analyses, and it has been considered to be one of the best Canadian indie rock albums of all time.

Critical reception

The album received positive reviews. Shortly after its release, Eric Carr of ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork or hay fork is an agricultural tool used to pitch loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. It has a long handle and usually two to five thin tines designed to efficiently move such materials. The term is also applie ...

'' wrote that "even at their goofiest, The Unicorns' level of comfort with their material-- and the obvious confidence that engenders-- makes it all seem totally natural and new". After its 2014 re-issue, ''Pitchforks Stuart Berman called it "messy and often brilliant", writing that the album is "too complex to be classified as

garage-rock Garage rock (sometimes called garage punk or 60s punk) is a raw and energetic style of rock music that flourished in the mid-1960s, most notably in the United States and Canada, and has experienced a series of subsequent revivals. The style is ...

, too unsettled to be

psychedelic Psychedelics are a subclass of hallucinogenic drugs whose primary effect is to trigger non-ordinary mental states (known as psychedelic experiences or "trips") and a perceived "expansion of consciousness". Also referred to as classic halluci ...

, too hooky to be described as art-damaged, and too fiercely funky to lapse into

twee Twee (Dutch for two) may refer to: * Twee pop, a music genre * Twee River, a river that forms the Groot River (Western Cape), South Africa See also * Twi Twi (; ) is the common name of the Akan literary language of Asante and Akuapem. Eff ...

solipsism Solipsism ( ; ) is the philosophical idea that only one's mind is sure to exist. As an epistemological position, solipsism holds that knowledge of anything outside one's own mind is unsure; the external world and other minds cannot be known ...

". Adam Kivel of ''

Consequence of Sound ''Consequence'' (previously ''Consequence of Sound'') is an independently owned New York-based online magazine featuring news, editorials, and reviews of music, movies, and television. History ''Consequence of Sound'' was founded in Septem ...

'' wrote that, throughout the album, "death and darkness haunt everything, even the cheeky synth tones and joyous guitars, but that shouldn't stop you from dancing". Justin Cober-Lake of ''

PopMatters ''PopMatters'' is an international online magazine of cultural criticism that covers aspects of popular culture. ''PopMatters'' publishes reviews, interviews, and essays on cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, ...

'' called the album "one of the year's most enjoyable", and Adam Lalama of

Noisey ''Vice'' (stylized in all caps) is a Canadian-American magazine focused on lifestyle, arts, culture, and news/politics. It was founded in 1994 in Montreal as an alternative punk magazine, and its founders later launched the youth media company ...

wrote that it is "incontestably one of the coolest Canadian indie-rock albums of all time".

In popular culture

The album was briefly featured in the

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

sitcom A sitcom (short for situation comedy or situational comedy) is a genre of comedy produced for radio and television, that centers on a recurring cast of character (arts), characters as they navigate humorous situations within a consistent settin ...

How I Met Your Mother ''How I Met Your Mother'' (often abbreviated as ''HIMYM'') is an American sitcom created by Craig Thomas (screenwriter), Craig Thomas and Carter Bays for CBS. The series, which aired from September 19, 2005, to March 31, 2014, follows main char ...

'' in the episode "

Girls Versus Suits "Girls Versus Suits" is the 12th episode of the fifth season of the American situation comedy television series ''How I Met Your Mother'' and the 100th episode overall. Written by series creators Carter Bays & Craig Thomas and directed by P ...

Track listing

2014 reissue

''Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone?'' was reissued on 26 August 2014 to coincide with the band's brief reunion tour, ten years after their initial split. It features new artwork and includes four bonus tracks which are all previously unreleased other than "Evacuate the Vacuous" which appeared on '' The Unicorns: 2014''. "Rocket Ship" is a cover of a song by

Daniel Johnston Daniel Dale Johnston (January 22, 1961 – September 11, 2019) was an American singer, musician and artist regarded as a significant figure in Outsider music, outsider, Lo-fi music, lo-fi, and alternative rock, alternative music scenes. Most ...

, which is rumoured to have been recorded for the 2004 tribute album '' The Late Great Daniel Johnston: Discovered Covered''.

Personnel

* Nick "Neil Diamonds" Thorburn and Alden "Ginger" Penner – vocals,

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

synthesizer A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...

s, percussion, drum machine,

toy piano The toy piano, also known as the ( in German), is a small piano-like musical instrument. Most modern toy pianos use round metal rods, as opposed to strings in a regular piano, to produce sound. The U.S. Library of Congress recognizes the toy pia ...

, toy organ,

echoplex The Echoplex is a tape delay effects unit, first made in 1959. Designed by engineer Mike Battle, the Echoplex set a standard for the effect in the 1960s; according to Michael Dregni, it is still regarded as "the standard by which everything e ...

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

bass guitar The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...

, tape,

recorder Recorder or The Recorder may refer to: Newspapers * ''Indianapolis Recorder'', a weekly newspaper * ''The Recorder'' (Massachusetts newspaper), a daily newspaper published in Greenfield, Massachusetts, US * ''The Recorder'' (Port Pirie), a newsp ...

glockenspiel The glockenspiel ( ; or , : bells and : play) or bells is a percussion instrument consisting of pitched aluminum or steel bars arranged in a Musical keyboard, keyboard layout. This makes the glockenspiel a type of metallophone, similar to the v ...

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German language, German ', from '—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a Reed (mou ...

* Jaime "J'amie Tambeur" Thompson – drums ("Tuff Ghost", "Jellybones", "I Was Born (A Unicorn)", "Inoculate the Innocuous", and "Les Os") * Brendan Reed – vocals ("I Was Born (A Unicorn)") *

Richard Reed Parry Richard Reed Parry (born October 4, 1977) is a Canadian multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer, best known as a core member of the Grammy Award-winning indie rock band Arcade Fire, where he plays a wide variety of instruments, often switchin ...

–

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz musical ensemble, ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest Register (music), register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitche ...

("I Don't Wanna Die"); bowed bass on ("Sea Ghost"); additional recording assistance *Joellen Housego –

fiddle A fiddle is a Bow (music), bowed String instrument, string musical instrument, most often a violin or a bass. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including European classical music, classical music. Althou ...

("Tuff Luff");

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

("Let's Get Known") *Randy Peters –

penny whistle The tin whistle, also known as the penny whistle, is a simple six-holed woodwind instrument. It is a type of fipple flute, a class of instrument which also includes the recorder and Native American flute. A tin whistle player is called a whistl ...

("Tuff Luff");

clarinet The clarinet is a Single-reed instrument, single-reed musical instrument in the woodwind family, with a nearly cylindrical bore (wind instruments), bore and a flared bell. Clarinets comprise a Family (musical instruments), family of instrume ...

("Let's Get Known") *Tim Kramer –

cello The violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), tuned i ...

("Ready to Die") *Maxime Pellisier – clarinet ("Child Star") *Deanna Fong – vocals ("Les Os") Recorded, mixed, and produced by Mark Lawson.

References

{{Authority control The Unicorns albums 2003 albums Alien8 Recordings albums Lo-fi music albums