RE: "Stealing Tomorrow" Video

Watch:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GvdQG46vkc

Great Lake Swimmers are seriously popping out the videos for this album!  (see: "Palmistry", "Pulling on a Line", "Still", and I believe there is one for "Chorus in the Underground" in the works.)  Five videos!  Before this, there were two for Ongiara ("Your Rocky Spine", Backstage With the Modern Dancers"), two for Bodies and Minds ("To Leave it Behind", "Bodies and Minds"), and none for the self-titled album (there was a film for "I Will Never See the Sun"- a friend saw it on CBC's now-defunct ZeD, but I have never seen it, and it doesn't haunt the Internet).

Now that I'm finished showing off, I'll get to the point.  This increase in videos is good, because it is clearly reflecting a degree of success and an increase in money devoted to promotion.  The band has been touring like crazy, released a live album recorded in a Canadian Legion, and were even nominated for a Juno!  They lost to a band I've never heard of, but that's not the point.  And let's be honest here, winning a Juno isn't exactly something to be proud of.  I mean, it's Canada's version of the Grammys, and almost as bad given that Nickelback and Avril Lavigne usually win more than anyone.  Winning a Polaris is what you really want, because they actually award creative merit.  Oh, GLS have been shortlisted for a Polaris before.  Oh yes.  

So this brings me to the "Stealing Tomorrow" video.  While it is perhaps a bit cheesy in parts, it still kind of melts my heart.  Great Lake Swimmers often make me really miss Canada.  They are one of those bands so rooted in place, but also displacement, and this is something that really resonates with me.  From references to the CN Tower to evocation of small town Ontario, they truly just remind me of what I know.  I'm convinced that the photographs on album art for "Bodies and Minds" are the shores of Lake Erie.  I just love this band with all my heart.  They're great music for train rides through small towns, late nights when you can't sleep, and long walks through forests.  They're also one of those bands that have a certain sense of timelessness, which I think is the best.  There are no fads here, only beautiful songs.

Oh, and I'm kind of totally in love with Tony Dekker.  Seriously, did you watch that video?  LE SIGH.  I want to go for walks in grassy fields with him.  He also has a killer beard, lovely voice and writes some of the most beautiful love songs ever (ie "Unison Falling into Harmony"*).  One time, I saw this video where he was playing some songs in a grain silo**, and he hoisted himself out of it to go get his guitar, and it was seriously like the hottest thing I've ever seen.  I normally don't really dig guys with guitars, but I'd let him sing me songs any day.  I'd also like to think he really likes canoeing and Tom Thomson paintings.

* Seriously, if someone were ever trying to win my heart, they should put that song on a mix tape for me.  "I will try to know you, though you defy my grasp" SWOON.  Fuck, I could do an entire blog post about how that song just floors me every time I listen to it.

**For those not in the know, the self-titled Great Lake Swimmers release was recorded in a grain silo.  Other albums have been recorded in churches, community halls, and similar awesome locations.