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(C) and (P) 1997, Wooden Stars. I own nothing. Just sharing a great song from a great album. I've read that there's this thing called "fair use", through which one is exempt from normal copyright laws, as long as the usage of the copyright-protected material is limited and lives within a certain criteria. One of the examples of fair use in action is "commentary". Another is "teaching". So I'll make this a little meditation on the music. The main goal is to spread a bit of the work of one of the most unjustly neglected bands to ever come out of Canada. There is no malicious intent here.

The Wooden Stars made four full-length albums of original material and recorded an album with Julie Doiron. They were sometimes compared to the Rheostatics but sounded nothing like them. I've come to the conclusion that these two bands were each used as reference points for the other because music writers needed something to compare them to, and neither band sounded like anyone else. There are elements of math rock and post-rock in some Wooden Stars songs, with tricky time signatures and unpredictable dynamic shifts, but the music always resists easy description or categorization.

In late 2013, Montreal musician and writer Malcolm Fraser released "Wooden Stars: Innocent Gears", something of a biography of the band. I'm still a little shocked the book exists, given how few people knew the band themselves existed even while they were actively touring and releasing albums. Though I do wish Malcolm had found a way to get at a bit more of what made these people tick as writers, it's a good read. There's a lot of information that was new to me, and I think he does a good job of articulating what's special about the music --- and what a difficult thing that is to articulate.

All the Wooden Stars albums have their own distinct personalities. "The Very Same" is the most freewheeling, an explosion of manic creative energy. It's a little staggering to consider that it was recorded by a group of musicians who were all still teenagers at the time. "The Moon" is the most conventionally pretty of all their albums, more accessible and with somewhat more traditional song structures. "People Are Different" is the closest they ever came to straight-up rock. As of this writing it looks like it may be the last Wooden Stars album we'll get.

I always had a hard time telling the voices of guitarists/songwriters Mike Feuerstack and Julien Beillard apart (those two guys were made to sing together), but the book has helped with that. The division is most notable on the last two albums, and it's interesting to hear the way the two influenced each other even as their writing became less collaborative, Julien's songs growing friendlier to easy melody while Mike's grew darker and more literate. "The Summer I Drank Myself To Death" remains one of the most gorgeously depressing songs I've ever heard. And the way "Outlaws" imagines the end of a relationship as something that's happening on a film set, its intimacy ruined by the presence of people who are only interested in capturing the mechanics of the moment, with nothing invested in the people they've made their actors, is brilliant. The words read like poetry on the page.

Another thing Malcolm Fraser's book did --- it gave me a new appreciation for Julien's brother Mathieu, and what he brought to the band. His bass-playing on "The Very Same" is jaw-dropping. After reading about why he chose to leave before "The Moon" and how he's regretted that decision for the last sixteen years, and revisiting the albums he was a part of, there's a new emotional kick to the Mathieu-sung "Country Violins" coming at the end of "Mardi Gras". When the music fades back up after a false ending for one last syncopated drum beat and some tentative guitar arpeggios, there's no bass heard from there to the final drum hit. It's like the sound of Mathieu's absence fully felt when he hasn't yet left, the rest of the band petering out, unsure of where to go without him.

That's just music stirring up feelings, though. In reality, they didn't waste any time getting a new bassist. But as solid as Josh Latour was, I've come to really miss Mathieu on the last two albums. His unconventional way of playing created a great unpredictable rhythm section dynamic, and once he was gone, Andrew McCormack's drumming lost some of its spark. There never seemed to be any friction between him and Josh like there was with Mathieu, where it sometimes sounded like a fight might break out between their instruments mid-song.

I don't think the Wooden Stars ever made a bad album. But "Mardi Gras" may be their very best. The songs strike a perfect balance between chaos and beauty, the lyrics are cryptic, hilarious, heartfelt, disturbing, and sometimes all of those things at once, and there's some of the best electric guitar interplay you'll hear anywhere.

If you like this, I recommend visiting the Zunior website and buying the whole album.