Ahead of their upcoming album, Super Turbo, Alexander and the Great Ones have released the first single, “A Love Letter to Alan Smithee,” and they’re not afraid to admit it in public.
“It’s title borrows from the tradition of a directors using the pseudonym Alan Smithee when they want to disown their work,” explains Alexander MacNeil, the band’s namesake and frontman.
It’s an infamously famous concept, with plenty of well known examples, that you might not even be aware of. Beginning with Death of a Gunfighter in 1969, Alan Smithee has been credited with such films as Mighty Duck the Movie and even the TV-adaptation of David Lynch’s Dune.
“I wrote that song in my sleep while I was dating a local film maker and got up in the middle of the night and played it. It was very much a finished product by the time I woke up,” says MacNeil.
According to MacNeil, Smithee-credited films have a certain patina. Despite the varied sources, there’s at least one thing that’s consistent about the films: they’re not great. It also says something about MacNeil’s former relationship.
“A lot of the imagery is like 40s film stuff, intentionally campy in a way that feels off. There was always something slightly off about that relationship.”
Amidst an unfavourable laundry list of corny film tropes and effects MacNeil laments, “No love before you could capture the right vibe, because they’re all digital and you’re on 35.” It suggests that while they might not be entirely compatible, there is still something genuinely unique about the classics.
“That’s one of my favourite lines I’ve ever written,” says MacNeil. “I think it’s what makes the song work. I think it rarifies them like they were out of context, out of time and place. There is also authenticity in analog mediums and if nothing else, it’s subject was completely authentic.”
Produced and engineered by Dale Murray (Christina Martin, Cuff the Duke) and MacNeil says the song “pays homage to artists like Elvis Costello, Joni Mitchell, and Nick Lowe.”
You can practically hear the skinny tie and and thick-rimmed glasses in Alexander’s voice.
Tour Dates:
07.04.19 – Toronto @ Junction City Music Hall
07.05.19 – Kingston @ Musiikki Cafe
07.07.19 – Peterborough @ The Garnet
07.09.19 – Ottawa @ Avant Garde
07.10.19 – Montreal @ Brasserie Beaubien
07.11.19 – St. Andrews @ Dominion Hill Country Inn
07.12.19 – Fredericton @ The Capital
07.13.19 – Saint John @ Pub Down Under
07.14.19 – Salisbury @ Grady’s Pub
07.15.19 – Charlottetown @ Baba’s Lounge
07.18.19 – Halifax @ The Carleton