Wow, there’s actually some solid progress here. Maybe next year will finally be the year that we get a new album? Kris must have albums worth of material at this point!
Kristopher Roe (The Ataris) talks The Weakerthans The loose timeline is to have recording of the new album done by March, maybe April.
saw the ataris over the weekend open for mxpx, caught the end of their set. musically they sounded tight but kris didn't sound that great, his voice sounded strained, it was the first night of the weekend shows so maybe that was a factor. I hadn't seen them live in a decade, but i don't remember them being particularly good then either. also, when did mike get out of prison? i was surprised to see him up there slappin bass.
Never posted in here when I saw them in August, but that show was the opposite. Kris sounded awesome but the lead guitarist had a string painfully out of tune for the entire show.
that's good to hear, friday night was not it for them, plus they were outshined by mxpx musically, and vocally
We must have been at different shows because my brother (who has never been a huge Ataris fan) and I both thought they, and Kris in particular, sounded fantastic. Sure, there were a couple moments where he was straining a bit, but nothing egregious or out of left field for a band in this genre. Especially one whose members are pushing 50.
yeah after he hurled a musical instrument at my friend's face that definitely changed my view on him, but I'm glad rob got another job playing for bowling for soup. he just comes off as inauthentic after saying he doesn't like pop punk or playing it anymore, but also what else is he gonna do? No one gives a shit about anything else he does besides the ataris, but that's most likely contributing factor of why he can't hold down a line up or get a new album out. also, the biggest crowd response they got was from the don henley cover.. mxpx just blew them away musically and vocally. they were incredibly tight.
Definitely agree that mxpx was incredibly tight and fun, but based on this, it just sounds like you don't like Kris and the way he operates and maybe that was impacting your enjoyment of the set? Boys of Summer is always going to get the biggest reaction because it's their biggest song. A bonafide radio hit having the best crowd response in a set of non-radio hits isn't noteworthy, no matter what band it is. Finding Kris inauthentic is fine, and you're probably right that his distaste for this style of music is why he can't hold down a lineup and hasn't put out new music in a while, but there's an mxpx thread you can post in about how great they were if you want. You don't have to put this band down to talk about how much you enjoyed mxpx. Life is better when you ignore things you don't enjoy and focus on things you do.
Kris was recording some more a couple day ago. I'm happy to see that this new album may actually be happening!
I still think it has some really bad sequencing issues. That second track murders it before it has a chance.
agree with that ^. my old band opened for them in 2007 touring this record, so I was lucky enough to see a lot of these songs played live with like 7 people on stage. secret handshakes hits hard.
Want the leaked version a different order? I know it had different artwork and a few extra tracks. IIRC that sequence was much better than the final LP