Cool and the gang

The World Provider’s Hard Feelings
marks the end of an era

OBJECTIVELY WEIRD:
Malcolm Fraser, Kara Blake, Olga Goreas, Stacey DeWolfe

by LORRAINE CARPENTER

“The people who contributed to this record are all there out of pure love for the WP,” states Malcolm Fraser, founder and leader of Montreal’s prime source of DIY pop anthems, the World Provider.

Yes, “the gang’s all there” on Hard Feelings, a two-year labour of love by Fraser and his unbossed, unpaid friends. Once the solo domain of the Mirror film critic (full disclosure, of course), the act has expanded to include Stacey DeWolfe (a Mirror arts writer, ahem), Kara Blake and Olga Goreas. And an extended family of musicians and artists has contributed to the album and the Hard Feelings zine, 24 pages of jokes, lyrics, comix, skill-testers and more, in the spirit of Mad magazine. The zine goes for $10, and each copy features a personalized download code to acquire the album in MP3 format from zunior.com, a thoroughly modern M.O. for the thoroughly independent musician. (Note: Hard Feelings CDs will soon be distributed by Statik.)

“People in the music industry haven’t drunk the Kool-Aid of the WP,” says Fraser, explaining his unsigned status. “What we do is pretty particular. It involves showmanship, it involves a certain level of humour, though I’ve never felt like it was a joke or an ironic thing. But because of the cheap gear that we use, and the performance aspect, we seem to have these stumbling blocks. After all these years, I have to acknowledge that the consensus points toward the fact that it is objectively weird.”

Well, the fans aren’t complaining, and if Fraser is to be believed, they’re in store for an epic show this weekend. But with it comes the closing of a chapter in what he calls “the epic story of the WP.” Due to Goreas’s commitment to her other band, the Besnard Lakes, she’s going to leave the fold following this round of regional gigs.

“It’s the last chance to see this version of the WP live experience,” says Fraser, promising “bigger and better things, always” for the future. “It’s an exciting time to be alive.”

The first chapter of this story began in Toronto at the end of the ’90s, in the daring performance-art milieu of acts like Peaches, Gonzales, Mocky and Feist. The latter lady chanteuse took time out of her celebrity schedule to duet on “Valentine,” the lead track on Hard Feelings, and one of three songs culled from sessions for 2006’s Lost Illusions EP.

“That was an attempt to make slick pop music. Whether it succeeds or fails, I’ll leave that to the critics to decide,” he says. Four additional songs aimed to capture the energy of the live band, using “the Stooges Funhouse approach” to recording the ensemble live off the floor.

One of these is “This Is Hochelaga,” a celebration of the southeast neighbourhood in which Fraser lives, and something of a reaction against those who never leave a certain hip north-central ’hood.

“It’s a weird corner of the city,” he says of Hochelaga, where the anglo presence is finally on the rise. “As much as anglos are terrified of having to speak French, they’re more terrified of having to pay high rent.

“I’m a WASP anglo myself,” he says, commenting on francophones’ famed joie de vivre, “so I’m allowed to say things like, ‘Anglos are uptight, boring people.’ I would be offended if a francophone said that, but the stereotype is kind of true.”