#enlist the cat in the impending class war

[elsiebrayisgay]

no other songwriter working today would ever hit you with the pair of couplets

"i've had a really nice night, but my dogs need to be fed // i must say that in the right light, you look like shackleton

comment allez-vous ce soir? je suis comme-ci comme-ca // yes a penguin taught me french back in antarctica"

frankly i don't even know if john k. samson would do it again. absolute winner of a lyricist that man.

[woodfrogs]

Thinking about how the cat mentioned in Confessions of a Futon-Revolutionist ("Enlist the cat in the impending class war") is Virtute and their owner says "We'll make believe we're strong" and then Plea from a Cat Named Virtute ends with "I know you're strong" and I'm in shambles

[give-pete-a-chance]

“Confessions of a Futon-Revolutionist” by The Weakerthans

Held like water in you shaking hands Are all the small defeats a day demand 10 to 6 or 9 to 5 Trying, dying to survive Never knowing what survival means Leave the apartment to buy alcohol Hang our diplomas on the bathroom wall Pick at the plaster chipped away Survey some stunning tooth decay Enlist the cat in the impending class war

Saturday Tunes

[fadedchorus]

The Weakerthans - Confessions of a Futon-Revolutionist

Leave the apartment to buy alcohol, Hang our diplomas on the bathroom wall, Pick at the plaster chipped away, Survey some stunning tooth decay, Enlist the cat in the impending class-war  Let's lay our bad day down here, dear and Make-believe we're strong, Or hum some protest song

[chakazard]

John K Samson, Chaka, and Virtute the Cat

Personally, I find that one of the best, or to be more strictly accurate, one of my favorite ways to handle negative feelings is to find music that fits the feeling and let the song bleed it out of me.  A year or so back, I was having a particular rough time, and none of the music in my arsenal was cutting it.   I don’t know why, perhaps because most of the depressing music I know revolves around heartbreak, and my marriage is one of the few parts of my life that doesn’t drive me into despair.  So I start searching around for songs for or about depression and nothing is really hitting me.  I’m finding, you know, a lot of slick slow ballads with vague lyrics and predictable changes and it’s all very sad-by-design and  that’s just not what’s going to latch on to my heart so I decide to look for depressing punk songs.  I find, maybe on a reddit thread although I haven’t been able to relocate it, two recommendations that absolutely hit the spot.  Off With Their Heads and The Weakerthans.  I don’t think two artists ever sprung so quickly to the list of my all time favorites.

The song in particular that was recommended from The Weakerthans is “A Plea From a Cat Named Virtute” which is from the perspective of a feline whose human companion has begun to neglect her as he spirals deeper into apathy and alcohol and isolation.  She urges him to reconnect with the past,  and promises to help take care of him if only he’d reverse course.  The lyrics are absolute poetry, equally art and craft, and of course they hit me particular hard seeing as I am a cat loving person with tendencies towards isolating myself when the going gets rough (”sad songs about cats are kind of my jam, I said when explaining my Vivat Virtute shirt). Both characters are incredibly full and relatable and one is a cat and the other doesn’t speak.  And of course, the whole album Reconstruction Site is incredible.  He’s constantly writing about settings and surroundings, particularly in his hometown of Winnipeg (one great city amiright?), in a way that makes it clear that he’s really singing about whatever emotion is too hard to face.  I start playing it daily to get me through the work day.  I start looking into the singer/songwriter, John K Samson.  I find that no less an authority than Frank Turner has said that the only songwriter who gets close to Samson’s level is Leonard Cohen (I got extremely happy once to see a picture on Facebook of Samson, Turner, and Fat Mike, three of my all time favorite lyricists). I google Virtute the Cat to find more takes on this incredible song.  I find out there’s a sequel.  It’s called “Virtute the Cat Explains Her Departure.”  My heart slides out of my chest and runs along the floor.  I find the song and it is even sadder than the title would indicate.  This is exactly what I needed.  The song brings instant tears to my eyes every time I hear it and it washes away all of the crap that builds in my emotions.  I keep finding new lyrics in their catalog to relate to, to obsess over.  Throw away my misery, it never meant that much to me. In love with love and lousy poetry.  Enlist the cat in the impending class war! (which I later find out is an early throwaway reference to Virtute herself) Then, in the best possible version of getting into a show right before the new season comes out, I learn Weakerthans frontman/songwriter John K. Samson has a new solo album which will contain 2 new songs which will complete the song cycle.  I honestly believe hearing the last song had a huge step in bringing me out of the seemingly never ending anxiety attack I had over the course of years.  Of course it was beautiful, of course it was perfect.  I may write more about the Virtute saga later, but this may make it redundant.

The last time John K. Samson played in New York I had to miss the show to give my best friend a ride the night before she left for Africa.  I just got to see him for the first time on Halloween at City Winery.  He played solo on electric guitar, no backing band.  He wore a black t-shirt and jeans and a hat he placed on his amp for the duration of his set.  Keeping in the Halloween theme established by headliner Craig Finn, he has a Paul Stanley star painted around one eye. He doesn’t talk much between songs, but he does refer to himself as a “Canadian singing Marxist sober Quaker”, he credits his ability to perform to the two anti-depressants he is currently taking, and he admits to stealing parts of Bob Dylan’s “When I Paint My Masterpiece” for his own “When I Write My Master’s Thesis.”  Simply, he is the living embodiment everything I’d want in a songwriter.  He played a 45 minute set while waitresses tried to take drink orders without disturbing the music, and sirens and DJs could be heard every time he silenced his guitar.  Somehow this seemed appropriate, shining the light on the realistic and very emotional lives of the people he sings about. Thankfully every note he played and every word he sung were crystal clear, both Weakerthans classics and some of the better numbers from his recent Winter Wheat album.  And yes, he did the all the Virtute songs, starting with “17th Street Treatment Center,”  which reveals how Virtute’s nameless companion does eventually find help for his problems.  And yes, I started tearing up when that song started, and that only increased when the runaway feline forgets her name (Latin for strength!).  But not as much as I feared.  This was after all a happy occasion.  Everyone at my table was also there to see Samson, and left either before or not long into Craig Finn’s set.  Unfortunately, that means they missed the encore, for which Samson joined the band (all in full Paul Stanley makeup) for 2 covers and 1 Weakerthans song (”Aside,” during which I stood up in my stool and raised my hand for the aforementioned reference to lousy poetry).  It’s pretty rare that the main act of the night invites the opener to do one of his songs.  (Finn introduced Samson by saying he felt like he knew Winnipeg already the first time he was there, and later realized it was from listening to the Weakerthans so often).  Another thing Craig Finn talked about during his set was that the ideal situation for both artist and audience is when the audience feels like the artist has taken something from their own life and expressed it for them.  Samson does this for me over and over again.  I feel very lucky to have found yet another artist to add to my ever expanding list of favorites.