I’m very attached to this vinyl record and while I’m supposed to pick the top ten tracks from Broken Social Scene, I think it would be an injustice to select a single track in isolation as this piece of wax really ought to be played in its entirety, so my recommendation is to embrace this soothing record from start to finish. There are myriad spin-off projects solo records, solo acts and various bands that could well be considered under this ‘mothership’, as Stuart Berman wrote in “This Book Is Broken”: Broken Social Scene exists in a state of perpetual temporariness, in a continued history comprised of passing phases.Īs the band tours, bandmates come and go, with the line up being as few as 6 to as many as 19, especially when arriving in a city and musician friends, guest horn players, are invited to perform.įeel Good Lost, their debut album from 2001, is filled with post-rock/ambient lo-fi jams and is a warm, beautiful record (Canning’s contribution to Len’s Steal My Sunshine helped pay for the recording). The origin of the band is well documented, but basically more than twenty years ago it grew out of the nucleus of a friendship between musicians Brendan Canning and Kevin Drew, who then invited others to join and this creative collective began to grow from a Toronto basement apartment.
It was a good complement to the emphatic, unwieldy strategies of Broken Social Scene, and in some ways it was preferable.This is an introduction to Broken Social Scene, the Toronto touring ensemble that is one of Canada’s finest exports. It also emphasized the immediacy of her songs: on “Death by Fire,” a propulsive rock tune, and “It’s Okay,” a muted ballad, she made a virtue of directness and brevity, letting small details speak for themselves. The sparseness of the setting, with just bass and drums behind her, underscored her composure. Opening the show with her fast-emerging band Land of Talk, she proved herself a strong guitarist and a calmly arresting lead singer. Then she sang “Anthems for a 17-Year-Old Girl,” inhabiting a part originated by Emily Haines.įor those in the crowd who had arrived early enough, Ms. Powell had stood in for Feist on “7/4 (Shoreline),” a dreamy salvo named after its time signature. “She’s brought us back to life.” He didn’t say why the band had needed the jolt Too much touring? Too many shift rotations? but his acknowledgment was duly noted. “One of the great things that’s happened to us lately is this girl Liz Powell,” he said, referring to a newer member of the fold. The guitarist Andrew Whiteman took more license, paring the musical entourage down to three pieces for “National Anthem of Nowhere,” a signature theme of his side project, Apostle of Hustle. Drew, who have each released albums in the last year, the results sounded, well, like Broken Social Scene. Here that flexibility extended to the set list, drawing from solo material by various band members. Drew but also to the bassist Brendan Canning and a host of others, notably (but not currently) including Feist. Even the center of gravity in the group is an unstable proposition, with eight or more people usually flailing about onstage and vocal duties falling not only to Mr. Indeterminacy has always suited Broken Social Scene, a Toronto indie-rock band known for its large pool of collaborators and a soaring, hazily layered sound. Whether because of coyness or confusion, the show was a sprawl of false endings and farewells.
Drew pledged would not be back for a while. Their uncertainty affected many of the songs, which seemed to buckle, only to rear up again it also applied to the band itself, which Mr. But he and the rotating cast onstage often seemed vague about just where that was. Kevin Drew, a founder of Broken Social Scene, kept looking toward the finish line during the band’s sold-out CMJ Music Marathon show at the Brooklyn Masonic Temple on Friday night.
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