First off, apologies for not being as prolific with this blog as I would have hoped - returning to uni, and having to cope with revision and exams seems, at this point in time, slightly more important than telling people what to listen to. However, this is a track I've been meaning to thrust in peoples' general direction for some time, so best to get this done now, and then service will resume as normal sometime in the next week or so, hopefully.
To be honest, my knowledge of The Weakerthans is somewhat limited, other than the fact that they're Canadian, signed to Burning Heart (a subsidiary of Epitaph, the legendary punk label), and their lyricist, one John K Samson, is a genius. The band's 2003 album Reconstruction Site is a loose song cycle about a dying hospital patient, with some off-topic interludes inserted along the way. 'Plea from a Cat Named Virtute' is one such interlude; it's sung from the perspective of a cat belonging to a manic depressive. When I first heard the track, I was astounded by just how spot on it is - the track has Virtute looking at the way his owner leads his life. While the cat doesn't fully understand his owner's motives for his actions, he still gives him advice on how to get out of the rut he's in, including "opening up the house" and "inviting the tabby two doors down". Because quite frankly, we all know that even if cats could help out their owners, they'd still put priority on getting their leg over too.
Other than that, there's little else to say about the song, other than that there's a sequel to it on the band's latest album, last year's Reunion Tour, which sees Virtute explaining why he buggered off. It features the word "loamy", and quite frankly, that's reason enough to seek it out. If you're a fan of The Hold Steady or any other literate indie rock, with emphasis on the ROCK, The Weakerthans are definitely a band worth seeking out.
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