If Lizzie Powell’s career were a dance, it would be stompy and determined, surefooted but with occasional blips of hesitation. This dance would be based on simple choreography: two steps forward and… sigh, one step back. By all accounts, the Land Of Talk frontwoman (and sole core member) was a piss-and-vinegar dynamo growing up in the Guelph indie-rock scene.
In general, 2008 was a great year for Powell. After a number of ill-fitting business arrangements, she and her changing roster of bandmates seemed to find a suitable home with Montreal’s Secret City, the label that brought us Patrick Watson, Miracle Fortress and Plants & Animals. And after years of promoting LOT’s modest Applause Cheer Boo Hiss EP, Powell and co. unleashed their long-awaited full-length upon the world. Produced by Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon, Some Are Lakes was tougher and more melodic and vulnerable than Powell’s past material. It’s a remarkable disc that stands as one of 2008’s best releases.
Touring Some Are Lakes included a stint opening for, and playing with, Broken Social Scene. “The cheesy aspect of it is that I totally felt like I had a foster family,” says Powell over the phone. You can hear her sheepish smile. “With Broken, it was like being on the bus with a bunch of brothers who didn’t give a shit about what anyone else thought. Actually, it was almost like being on the bus with a bunch of girls. Those guys are totally into gossip and talking about love, history, mystery, romance.”
But with the triumphs that graced LOT’s 2008, so too came tribulations. In mid-December, so quietly many didn’t notice it till weeks later, Montreal’s Fusion3 — the distribution company owned by Justin Time honcho Jim West, responsible for distributing a number of labels including Secret City — filed for bankruptcy.
So how has Secret City been affected? It was only one of many labels distributed by Fusion3, but given the close relationship (it’s run by West’s son Justin), one wonders whether Secret City benefited from special treatment. When asked for comment, Jim West replied by email, “Secret City is a completely separate corporation from Fusion3 and as such it is on its own as far as seeking other distribution is concerned. I’m sure they are working on it as we talk. ”
Secret City honcho Justin insists that his label is suffering just the same setbacks experienced by any other Fusion-distributed imprint, and that they “hope to have a new distribution arrangement in place for February 1st.”
While he doesn’t confirm whether there are just as many Land Of Talk albums in stores now as there would’ve been prior to the Fusion bankruptcy, West says that, thanks to “great retail support,” they’ve been able to “maintain product visibility during this transition. And with a new distribution arrangement, we will continue to operate in the same way we have always operated.”
Label shit is the last thing on Powell’s mind right now. The singer is slated to have surgery on a hemorrhagic polyps on her vocal cords. She took a break from performing after December 17; her Jan. 15 gig at the Horseshoe will be one of three final shows before she goes under the laser.
“If anything happens with this surgery, these could be my last shows ever,” she moans. “Right before my last appointment, I saw a mouse in my apartment and screamed. And when I saw the doctor the next morning, she looked at my throat and said, ‘How did this new trauma happen?’ I hate the thought that I have to be so careful with my voice.”