Album 2: Whiners and Losers


Released May 15, 2013

>>>>>>>Listen to the album here<<<<<<<<<


Featuring:


Zombie Neighbours, Looks Like The Sun Coming Down, Him, Her, Me & You, Talk the Talk (Walk the Walk), Jelly Roll, Coolness Rules, Dreadful Flight, Lendy, Golden Life, Love For A Women, Dirty Bird, Easy Money and (for the first time on a Whiners album) a title track: Whiners and Losers 

 
About Whiners and Losers:

As noted already … you can listen to the album here.
 
The band:
Keith McDonald: vocals, guitars, other “loop” instruments
Jamie Manov: vocals, guitars, bass, other “loop” instruments
 
Tracks: (links are to lyrics)
Your ABCs (McDonald)
Coolness Rules (McDonald)
Whiners and Losers (McDonald)
Easy Money(McDonald)
Lendy (McDonald)
Dirty Bird (Manov)
Dreadful Flight (McDonald/Manov)
Golden Life  (McDonald)
Love For A Woman (Manov)
Her, Him, Me & You (McDonald)
Zombie Neighbours (McDonald)
Jelly Roll (Manov)
 
Guests: 
Marc Silver - Organ “Love For A Woman” 
David Green – lead guitar on “Easy Money”
 
Produced, mixed and mastered by Keith at The Whiners Studio in Toronto 
May 2011 – April 2013.
 
c. 2013 Keith McDonald and Jamie Manov 
 
Keith says:
Oh baby ... what a long haul! Figuratively speaking, making the album was like Jamie and family flying out to Calgary while I made the trip by foot! And, speaking of babies, Jamie managed to have two (well OK, it was twins but it still counts as two right?) while this album was in process. So, we celebrate three lives at this point adding “Whiners and Losers” to the mix of “new life”. 
 
Actually, with two new sons and a daughter already showing music prowess, I think Jamie is trying to build a Whiners live band from the ground up here. But I digress.
 
Of course, the biggest impact on the album was Jamie’s move away from The Whiners home base in Toronto at the end of 2011. That rather took the Mickey (and maybe the Peter, Davy and Mike too) out of me. An oddity and piece of intimacy worth mentioning here: On the phone call from Jamie, I was able to pre-announce to him about his decision to, er, commute to Calgary, Alberta every day. To this day, I’m not sure how I knew he was going to say he was moving westward but I did. Perhaps that is part of our connection. While not always finishing sentences for each other (or songs), we do have a connection sure to produce more Whiners' material but that's to the future.
 
The thing about album #2 is that it was almost ready to go about 6 months after we released album #1: “Happy Accident”. Both Jamie and I were of the mind we’d be old school and do two albums a year. Now, some two years later, the second album is a different beast altogether. How so? Well, there is a theme apparent here that I wasn’t able to see or define until recently, Had events not happened the way they did, I would never have found it. What is it? Life! Or maybe I should say: Golden Life.
 
From school and the pressure to “be cool” to observing the life of the planet, to relationships, to work, to financial meltdowns, to travel, to strange neighbours on the floor above ... “Whiners and Losers” celebrates all of it!
 
I use the word “celebrates” very deliberately. Jamie and I found our stride here with real joy in the writing and recording process. Why, we even got to having a title track this time out. Though we named the album first and the song came second. And a special shout out to twitter and all the #whiners constantly complaining. The title song goes out to you. On this album, you’ll hear us trade off vocals and share pieces of the music puzzle that we weren’t doing on album #1. If we aren’t a “band” yet, this will do ‘till the real thing comes along! Or at least the rest of Jamie's kids join in.
 
I’m thankful for what we learned on “Happy Accident” and thankful we took things so much further with “Whiners and Losers”. But, I’m most thankful to Jamie!  Even after his physical departure, I felt his spirit in every song. As I finally did get to the mixes and mastering, Jamie’s spirit is what got me through the process. Back to the baby analogy, I could hear Jamie saying: “push” frequently to finally get this second album from us to you and out into the world. 
 
Like life, any road you take should be long and filled with surprises. Of that, there are many found on the 46 minutes that make up "Whiners and Losers". I hope you dig it as much as we do. 
 
A few shout outs to: Brenda and Betty, Fender guitars, GarageBand and to anyone who has given The Whiners a listen. Tell your friends!
______________________
You can find The Whiners everywhere on social media including the proverbial facebook page: facebook.com/thewhiners and their website: thewhinersband.com – the lads would simply love you to be in touch!

 
Strip of shots of Keith and Jamie mugging for camera

 
The Whiners: Whiners and Losers