Canadian blues band The History of Gunpowder have posted a video of them playing Untitled #751, recorded during the sessions for their new album at the Weird Church in Cumberland, BC. The full movie is titled Swallows and will debut on the big screen at the Rio Theatre in Vancouver on September 1st, 2023.
Lead singer Alex is both proud and sad about this song. The story of 751 unmarked graves in June 2021 and the anxiety of someone close to him are playing catch. Take note of the three backing vocalists acting as a gospel-tinged choir in an ancient Greek tragedy:
Without going into my ancestral history, this song came about after the 751 unmarked graves were ‘discovered’ at Cowessess First Nation. My own community, and especially some of my Aunties, have told me these tragedies have been known to the community since they happened, and how couldn’t they. Once again, oral histories and community knowledge falls on deaf ears. This song came to me as I struggled with the impact of the release of these stories. The numbers are in the tens of thousands. It also has a second inspiration. Someone very dear to me, who is a bastion of resiliency and grace, suffered a similarly traumatic event, her strength became the story through which I could process these events. It is still difficult to sing this song until the chorus, when the familiarity of resilience comes a smile is offered to the song.
HCTF review of The Epileptic.
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