The Weakerthans

After a hiatus spent writing and launching a publishing venture, Propagandhi guitarist John K. Samson felt compelled to resume performing and recording, prompting the creation of Winnipeg's Weakerthans and steering his songwriting toward an entirely new direction. Whereas Propagandhi had specialized in rapid, high-volume punk paired with explicitly political lyrics, the Weakerthans adopted a melodic, inward-looking approach. The original lineup paired Red Fisher drummer Jason Tait with bassist John Sutton; the band took its name from a line spoken in the film adaptation of Marguerite Duras' The Lover: "Go ahead, I'm weaker than you can possibly imagine." The members upheld exacting standards both politically, rejecting major-label or distribution agreements tied to exploitative systems, and personally, by championing vegetarianism, and they earned widespread critical acclaim for their 1998 debut, Fallow, which appeared on the cooperative imprint G7 Welcoming Records. Guitarist Steve Carroll joined in time for the early-2000 release of the second album, Left and Leaving, with the Watermark EP arriving the following year. A 2003 agreement with Epitaph yielded Reconstruction Site, the band's breakthrough record. Shortly afterward Sutton departed and was succeeded on bass and keyboards by Greg Smith, and in 2007 the group issued its fourth album, Reunion Tour, after a decade together.