(As a side note, I've noticed that Saskatchewan's recent boom has seen condescension traded for outright hostility in these parts. Hmm.)
People know about it now that the issue's out, the boys having been voted 1.5 million times (that's half again Saskatchewan's population) thus becoming the winning unsigned band to make the magazine's cover and to appear in a feature written by Austin Scaggs. Cool beans.
I always used to like the writing in RS. Even had a subscription for a few years. I've lost touch and interest because it (and the USA) have greater interest in hip hop, R & B and pop than I do. I didn't keep up much with the competition, but I bought the Sheepdogs album. I like it. You've probably heard it sounds like the Allman Brothers meets Skynyrd meets bayou blues. It does. As I listen I actually find it a little disturbing that it's not from the 1970s, but it's good. I think I'd like it on its own, without the connection.
August 5th the issue comes out, and I guess there's some backlash. Not for its portrayal of the band, but for Scaggs' depiction of the fine city of Saskatoon. Its remoteness, its mosquitoes, the backwards nature of it all, blah blah blah. People from Bridge City must have got so into this that they figured it was about the city winning and not the band.
The boys come off looking like sort of deadbeat barflies and dopeheads who aren't all that worldly. That might be accurate.
Wouldn't worry about it too much, folks. Scaggs is a big city writer, he works for an international magazine that once employed Hunter S. Thompson, and he honestly knows squat about Canada (referring to poutine as a local--as in Saskatonian--dish). As Scott Thompson once said, "Americans know as much about Canada as straight people know about gays."
There's good in there too, folks. I liked seeing my beloved university's football team inside, as well as frequent mentions of old haunts like Lydias and the Yard and Flagon. There's even a nice bit of Stephen Harper bashing, which I love seeing get a touch more international. Mind you, he's referred to as "ultraconservative" (H.S.T. would have had the balls to say "robotic douchebag with a knack for ignoring democracy and pissing on the environment"), and RS is nothing if not decidedly liberal.
So chill, dear Saskatchewan. Good band, great moment. So far as ignorance and rude treatment goes, take it from me living where I live, it's not isolated to Americaland.
