Besides Asides

So some of you may or may not know but this blog takes it's name from a song by Alkaline Trio called "San Francisco". I'm not sure why I chose it other than thinking it was a funny musical reference. I don't think even I realized how much I really loved the band until I embarked on creating this three "disc" collection of non-LP material. In the past decade AK3 has released two such collections but there was enough material left over for another. So what did I do? I decided to make my own and split it up into b-sides, studio demos and acoustic songs.

The first "disc" is the b-sides, many of which happen to be covers, so I structured this disc to represent the band's influences. The ruckus intensity of the band's early work can be heard in the 80's hardcore punk of The Misfits and Nomeansno. Matt Skiba's flair for the gothic and dramatic in his lyrics can be seen in TSOL, the Sisters of Mercy and the Rocky Horror soundtrack representing in another crop of covers. A love for the great pop-punk history of their own city can be heard in the familiar sounds of the Smoking Popes and Pegboy renditions. Finally, the band reveals what has drawn them toward the full pop-rock sound of their current work with covers of The Cars and The Psychedelic Furs.

The second part to this Skiba/Adriano love-in I've got going on is packed full of studio demos from the band's 1996 demo tape, to bits from the LP's "From Here To Infirmary", "Crimson" and "Agony & Irony". As well as, demos of b-sides like "War Brain" and "Burned Is The House". This "disc" was made to represent the band's process, how they take The Misfits, Smoking Popes and The Cars and work it into the unique sound we all love or hate.

The last piece of this collection is full of acoustic versions of songs the band recorded for their LP's as a full band. After all is said and done it comes together for a little deconstruction. In some cases I like these stripped down versions of songs better than their originals, "Fine" for instance. The two songs that open up this disc "Snake Oil Tanker" and a live acoustic cover of Tegan and Sara's great "Wake Up Exhausted" I chose to start things off not only because of chronology but also they reveal the band's lighter side which is a lot of their charm that they don't take the gloom and doom too seriously.

Thanks to Pants for the artwork, enjoy:

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Download Part 2

Download Part 3

The Weakerthans aren't a band with an extremely prolific body of work outside their main LPs. However, the b-sides that do exist aren't the easiest to track down either, so I thought they would be a great candidate for the blog . Tracks 10 to 15 are live studio recordings from CBC Radio 3 Sessions, with just John and his guitar solo. While there isn't a single song here that is an original Weakerthans song not on any of their LPs their re-arrangements of their own songs are truly interesting and their covers are top notch. Enjoy!:



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