Reunion Tour
Encyclopedia
Reunion Tour is the fourth studio album by The Weakerthans
The Weakerthans
The Weakerthans are a four-piece Canadian indie rock band.-History:The band was formed in 1997 in Winnipeg, Manitoba by John K. Samson, after he left the punk band Propagandhi to start a publishing company. Samson joined forces with bassist John P...

, released on September 25, 2007 in Canada and the U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 The album was released on both compact disc
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...

 and vinyl record.

The album was produced by Ian Blurton
Ian Blurton
Ian Blurton is a Canadian musician and record producer. He was born in Chicago in 1965, and moved to Toronto in the mid 1970s.He has been a part of Toronto's indie music scene since the early 1980s, playing drums in the original line-ups for Cowboy Junkies and A Neon Rome before becoming the lead...

, who previously produced Left and Leaving and Reconstruction Site
Reconstruction Site
Reconstruction Site is a 2003 album by The Weakerthans. A song cycle about grief, regret, loss and eventual hope, the album is thematically framed by three tracks, "", "" and "", which set three different sonnets following a terminally ill hospital patient into the aftermath of his death to the...

for the band. Blurton has described the album as the band's most experimental to date, and guitarist Stephen Carroll
Stephen Carroll
Stephen Carroll is a Canadian rock guitarist, currently 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 permanent member after Painted Thin broke up.He also...

 told Uptown
Uptown (newspaper)
Uptown is an alternative weekly arts and entertainment newspaper in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Like most alternative weekly newspapers in Canada, Uptown includes articles regarding the arts and entertainment, CD reviews, concert reviews, book reviews and extensive current events listings...

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" about the making of the record on the Epitaph Records
Epitaph Records
Epitaph Records is a Hollywood, California based independent record label owned by Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz. The label was originally "just a logo and a P.O. box" created in the 1980s for the purpose of selling Bad Religion records, but has evolved into a large independent record...

 website.

Chart performance

The album debuted at #22 on the Nielsen SoundScan
Nielsen SoundScan
Nielsen SoundScan is an information and sales tracking system created by Mike Fine and Mike Shalett. Soundscan is the official method of tracking sales of music and music video products throughout the United States and Canada...

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

Track listing

  1. "Civil Twilight" – 3:17
  2. "Hymn of the Medical Oddity" – 3:08
  3. "Relative Surplus Value
    Surplus value
    Surplus value is a concept used famously by Karl Marx in his critique of political economy. Although Marx did not himself invent the term, he developed the concept...

    " – 2:37
  4. "Tournament of Hearts" – 3:34
  5. "Virtute the Cat Explains Her Departure" – 4:08

  1. "Elegy for Gump Worsley
    Gump Worsley
    Lorne John "Gump" Worsley was a professional ice hockey goaltender. Born and raised in Montreal, Quebec, he was given his nickname due to friends deciding he looked like comic-strip character Andy Gump.-Career:...

    " – 2:43
  2. "Sun in an Empty Room" – 4:00
  3. "Night Windows" – 4:35
  4. "Bigfoot
    Bigfoot
    Bigfoot, also known as sasquatch, is an ape-like cryptid that purportedly inhabits forests, mainly in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. Bigfoot is usually described as a large, hairy, bipedal humanoid...

    !" – 2:23
  5. "Reunion Tour" – 2:07
  6. "Utilities" – 4:34

Song notes

"Civil Twilight"
  • The song is written from the perspective of a Winnipeg Transit
    Winnipeg Transit
    Winnipeg Transit is the public transit agency in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. It is a bus-only operator.The Winnipeg Street Railway operated a horse car operation from 1882 to 1894...

     bus driver.
  • "My Confusion Corner commuters are cursing the cold away..." Confusion Corner
    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 hub through which most traffic between downtown and the...

     refers to the intersection of Osborne Street
    Winnipeg Route 62
    Route 62 is a major north-south arterial route in Winnipeg, Manitoba that has eight different street names.The official route begins on Salter Street in the city's North End; its northernmost point is often given on maps as the intersection of Salter Street and Redwood Avenue...

    , Corydon Avenue
    Winnipeg Route 95
    Route 95 is a city route located in Winnipeg, Manitoba. It runs in the southwest part of the city from Route 105 east to Route 42. It is named Roblin Boulevard west of Assiniboine Park, where it then becomes Corydon Avenue for the remainder of its route...

     and Pembina Highway
    Winnipeg Route 42
    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 Winnipeg
    Winnipeg
    Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of Manitoba, Canada, and is the primary municipality of the Winnipeg Capital Region, with more than half of Manitoba's population. It is located near the longitudinal centre of North America, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers .The name...

    , which is infamous for being difficult to navigate correctly.


"Hymn of the Medical Oddity"
  • The song is about David Reimer
    David Reimer
    David Reimer was a Canadian man who was born as a healthy male, but was sexually reassigned and raised as female after his penis was accidentally destroyed during circumcision. Psychologist John Money oversaw the case and reported the reassignment as successful, and as evidence that gender...

    , a Winnipeg man who became a "queer experiment" when, after a botched childhood circumcision
    Circumcision
    Male circumcision is the surgical removal of some or all of the foreskin from the penis. The word "circumcision" comes from Latin and ....

     destroyed his penis, his parents were convinced by controversial psychiatrist John Money
    John Money
    John William Money was a psychologist, sexologist and author, specializing in research into sexual identity and biology of gender...

     to raise him as a girl and allow Money to study "her" as a test case in social construction theories of gender
    Gender
    Gender is a range of characteristics used to distinguish between males and females, particularly in the cases of men and women and the masculine and feminine attributes assigned to them. Depending on the context, the discriminating characteristics vary from sex to social role to gender identity...

    . Reimer committed suicide
    Suicide
    Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...

     in 2004.
  • "...and ask St. Boniface and St. Vital
    St. Vital
    St. Vital is a provincial electoral division in the Canadian province of Manitoba.-Historical riding:The original St. Vital riding was established at the time of the province's creation in 1870, as one of twelve "francophone" constituencies...

     / 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
    Surplus value
    Surplus value is a concept used famously by Karl Marx in his critique of political economy. Although Marx did not himself invent the term, he developed the concept...

     is a Marxist
    Marxism
    Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...

     term for the profit derived by capitalists from unpaid labour
    Surplus labour
    Surplus labour is a concept used by Karl Marx in his critique of political economy. It means labour performed in excess of the labour necessary to produce the means of livelihood of the worker . According to Marxian economics, surplus labour is usually "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
    KUCI is a college radio station broadcasting a Variety format. Licensed to Irvine, California, USA, the station serves the Orange County area...

     in Irvine, California
    Irvine, California
    Irvine is a suburban incorporated city in Orange County, California, United States. It is a planned city, mainly developed by the Irvine Company since the 1960s. Formally incorporated on December 28, 1971, the city has a population of 212,375 as of the 2010 census. However, the California...

    , Samson described the song as being about the dot-com bust.


"Tournament of Hearts"
  • The Scotties Tournament of Hearts
    Scotties Tournament of Hearts
    The Scotties Tournament of Hearts is an annual Canadian women's curling championship, sanctioned by the Canadian Curling Association. The winner goes on to represent Canada at the women's world curling championships. Since 1985, the winner also gets to return to the following year's tournament as...

     is Canada's annual women's curling
    Curling
    Curling is a sport in which players slide stones across a sheet of ice towards a target area. It is related to bowls, boule and shuffleboard. Two teams, each of four players, take turns sliding heavy, polished granite stones, also called "rocks", across the ice curling sheet towards the house, a...

     championship. The song is written from the perspective of a man who spends all his free time at the curling rink, 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."
  • Tournament of Hearts
    Tournament of Hearts (album)
    Tournament of Hearts is the third full length album by the Constantines. It was released September 27, 2005 on the Canadian label Three Gut Records. Sub Pop released the album outside of Canada two weeks later, on October 11, 2005. In an interview with CBC Radio 3 to promote the release of...

    was also the title of the third album by The Constantines
    The Constantines
    -History:The band was formed by Steve Lambke, Bryan Webb, Doug MacGregor, and Dallas Wehrle in 1999, following the break-up of Webb and MacGregor's emotional hardcore band Shoulder...

    , which that band released soon after touring with The Weakerthans in 2003. In an interview with CBC Radio 3
    CBC Radio 3
    CBC Radio 3 is a radio station that consists of two parts devoted to Canadian arts and music: a radio service which is available on Sirius Satellite Radio and streaming audio, and several daily and weekly podcasts from the CBC Radio 3 website...

     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 Reconstruction Site
    Reconstruction Site
    Reconstruction Site is a 2003 album by The Weakerthans. A song cycle about grief, regret, loss and eventual hope, the album is thematically framed by three tracks, "", "" and "", which set three different sonnets following a terminally ill hospital patient into the aftermath of his death to the...

    . The word virtute is the ablative of virtus, meaning "virtue," "strength," and "goodness" in Latin, and appears in the civic motto of Winnipeg, Unum cum virtute multorum ("one with the strength of many").


"Elegy for Gump Worsley"
  • Gump Worsley
    Gump Worsley
    Lorne John "Gump" Worsley was a professional ice hockey goaltender. Born and raised in Montreal, Quebec, he was given his nickname due to friends deciding he looked like comic-strip character Andy Gump.-Career:...

     was a Canadian
    Canada
    Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

     hockey player who died in 2007. He is viewed as a punk
    Punk rock
    Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...

     sports icon, having also inspired the Huevos Rancheros
    Huevos Rancheros
    Huevos Rancheros are a Canadian indie rock band formed in 1990 from Calgary, Alberta, Canada.-History:Huevos Rancheros perform an instrumental blend of rockabilly, surf, Grunge and punk music. The band currently consists of guitarist Brent Cooper, bassist Tommy Kennedy and drummer Richie Ranchero...

     song "Gump Worsley's Lament" and the title of Sons of Freedom
    Sons of Freedom (band)
    Sons of Freedom were a Canadian alternative rock band of the late 1980s and early 1990s. The band, consisting of vocalist James Newton, guitarist Don Harrison, bassist Don Binns and drummer Don Short, formed in 1987 in Vancouver, British Columbia....

    '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
    Edward Hopper was a prominent American realist painter and printmaker. While most popularly known for his oil paintings, he was equally proficient as a watercolorist and printmaker in etching...

    .


"Night Windows"
  • The song's title is taken from a painting by Edward Hopper
    Edward Hopper
    Edward Hopper was a prominent American realist painter and printmaker. While most popularly known for his oil paintings, he was equally proficient as a watercolorist and printmaker in etching...

    , 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, Manitoba
    - Treaty and York Boat Days :Held annually each summer, the York Boat events serve as the main attraction.-External links:* * * *...

    , Manitoba
    Manitoba
    Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...

    , who captured a two-and-a-half minute video of an alleged Bigfoot
    Bigfoot
    Bigfoot, also known as sasquatch, is an ape-like cryptid that purportedly inhabits forests, mainly in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. Bigfoot is usually described as a large, hairy, bipedal humanoid...

     sighting in 2005.


"Reunion Tour"
  • The song is written from the point of view of a roadie 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 K. Samson
    John Kristjan Samson is a musician from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. He is a singer-songwriter and currently the frontman of the Canadian folk punk band The Weakerthans...

     – vocals, guitars, keyboards
  • Greg Smith – bass, vocals, keyboards
  • Jason Tait
    Jason Tait
    Jason Tait is a Canadian musician. He is the drummer for the Canadian indie rock band The Weakerthans, and has also been a contributing member of Broken Social Scene and The FemBots. He also played drums for the Painted Thin album Small Acts of Love and Rebellion, released in 1995...

     – 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
    Julie Penner 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 currently works as the music producer for Stuart McLean's The Vinyl Cafe on CBC Radio.-History:Penner began classical violin...

    – trumpet ("Elegy for Gump Worsley")
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