Broken Social Scene to stream first show of new tour
January 12, 2011
Broken Social Scene will kick off a second tour of the U.S. with a show at Terminal 5 in New York City that will be streamed live via YouTube thanks to Bowery Presents. The stream begins at 9PM EST on Tuesday, Jan. 18. Access it here and bookmark it!
I have long heard they put on a great live show, so I’m happy to see that this new tour will finally have them visit Florida for not one but three scheduled dates!
I got into the band late in their career, but I have since become familiar with their catalog inside out. I even got on the bandwagon too late to see them at an obscure date in the Fort Lauderdale at the Culture Room. They had no new album to promote at the time– (their last one had come out in 2005). Despite that, I still heard the club was filled to capacity.
Here are the dates for the new tour:
1/16/11 London, ON @ The Music Hall
1/18/11 New York, NY @ Terminal 5
1/29/11 Edmonton, AB @ Freezing Man Festival
2/10/11 Atlanta, GA @ Buckhead Theatre
2/11/11 Tampa, FL @ Ritz
2/12/11 Fort Lauderdale @ Revolution Hall
2/13/11 Orlando, FL @ Firestone Live
2/15/11 New Orleans, LA @ Tipitina’s
2/17/11 Houston, TX @ Warehouse Live
2/18/11 Austin, TX @ La Zona Rosa
2/19/11 Dallas, TX @ House of Blues
2/20/11 Tulsa, OK @ Cain’s Ballroom
Want a taste of them live on official MP3? You can download their Radio 3 CBC live session at Studio 211, in Toronto, from April 29, 2010. It looks like it features two exclusive, possibly new tracks.
Best records heard in 2010
December 30, 2010
I finally return just before 2010 ends, with a recap of the 10 best new records I heard this year (I probably spent too much time over-editing this post, but I also spent a lot of time catching up on tons of other albums that did not make the final cut below). I guess I should have finished this up before Christmas, as all the titles of the albums listed below link to Amazon.com, should you feel compelled to invest in these great albums. But, I’m not in this blogging thing for the money. Still, if you want any of these on vinyl, I would suggest you do it sooner than later anyway, as some LP records, unlike their CD or mp3 cousins, only get limited runs.
Without further ado…
1. LCD Soundsystem – This Is Happening (DFA/Virgin)
Not just the best album I heard the year, but one of the best I have heard in many years. LCD Soundsystem seemed to have merged an array of my favorite musical ingredients, including Krautrock, post punk, David Bowie and prog. The sometimes lengthy songs on This is Happening never relent, riding infectious, poly-rhythmic beats to some transcendent place in music well-rooted in the best of the rock ‘n’ roll canon.
2. Deerhunter – Halcyon Digest (4AD)
There is just something so other-worldly about this album. It harks back to the past of pop music while reaching to the future beyond. Deerhunter has brought its dream-like lusciousness to a smart, subtle level. Halcyon Digest seems to echo from some alternate, ghostly dimension in music.
3. MGMT – Congratulations (Columbia)
Congratulations was a bold step forward by MGMT, while staying true to its psychedelic art rock roots. The group moves beyond disco catchiness to something much more complex, earning comparisons to Pink Floyd, the Beatles and Brian Eno.
4. Mogwai – Special Moves (Rock Action)
Though I have been a dedicated fan of this post rock outfit, following their every release since 1998’s Kicking a Dead Pig, this live double album tracing their decade-plus career made me fall in love with the band all over again. Mogwai have always been generous with their releases, throwing in behind-the-scenes footage on DVD alongside their recent albums. This live package happens to contain a long-form film of the live show recorded in Brooklyn on DVD, capturing the group in their typical focused and intense form. I was able to find a rare triple vinyl edition package that also included a patch and signed poster, as seen in the image. Only 550 copies featured the signed poster and sold out rather fast on their website.
5. Arcade Fire – The Suburbs (Merge)
I like Arcade Fire because, as modern as they are, they seem very nostalgic and very anti-tech, even while offering a very baroque musical style that is brash, full of energy and in the now. Beyond their lyrics spelling this theme out, their vinyl records have always been produced with great care, and the Suburbs was no exception. They even posted images of every track on individual vinyl acetates, ahead of the album’s release (the image above is the first track, as featured on their website).
6. Beach House – Teen Dream (Sub Pop)
A consistently dreamy album built on delicate melodies instead of the wash of noise that is so easy for dream-pop bands to hide behind. I picked up the vinyl album after I saw them live for the first time. It came with a DVD with amateurish videos for each song. None of these videos come near to equating the splendor of the music that defies visual representation. It’s best left unwatched.
7. Broken Social Scene – Forgiveness Rock Record (Arts & Crafts)
My love for Broken Social Scene stemmed from their sonic kinship with bands like the Sea and Cake and Tortoise. When they got together with those band’s drummer and key sonic engineer, John McEntire, for this new album, it felt like a perfect match. The results were indeed a magic melding of McEntire’s projects with BSS. A limited run of this album came out as a set of colored 10-inch 180 gram vinyl records with one song one each side. It was limited to only 500 copies, but it seems you can still get it on-line.
8. The Vaselines – Sex with an X (Sub Pop)
A brilliant comeback more than 20 years in the making. It’s like Eugene Kelly and Frances McKee had never separated at the end of the 80s. Their sly sense of humor remains intact, not to mention the brash song-writing that still echoes their garage-rock origins, albeit with a more polished and glossier production.
9. Of Montreal – False Priest (Polyvinyl)
Speaking of a more polished sound, Of Montreal followed up the most insane record of their career, Skeletal Lamping, with the better focused False Priest. It did not take many listens to fall under the glammy, soulful spell of this neo glam rock outfit’s landmark 10th album. More than ever, mastermind and singer Kevin Barnes shows off his leanings toward Prince-inspired stylings with not only his howls and moans but also his songcraft.
10. Stereolab – Not Music (Drag City)
Stereolab made a low-key return to the indie music scene at the end of the year with their new “non-album” composed of outtakes from the sessions that produced 2008’s Chemical Chords. Appropriately titled Not Music, the album reveals the “groop” at its most unrestrained in years. “Silver Sands” was just a low-key three-minute ditty on Chemical Chords, but on Not Music, it’s extended to take on a whole side of one of the slabs of vinyl to jam out in all it’s Krautrock-inspired glory. This was a glorious return to the old Stereolab I fell in love with in the early nineties. The collector-friendly (or frustrating, depending on how you see it) band has released only 500 copies of the vinyl version of the album on clear wax via the UK’s Rough Trade store. Yep, I got a copy.
Finally, though I know I have been on “hiatus” for a while (man, the indie world is quiet this time of year), I do plan a prompt follow-up to present readers with the most impressive re-issue I came across this year, and I did come across several cool things.
For now, do share your top own 10 albums in the comment section below (it doesn’t have to be vinyl).
Metric to open Art Basel Miami Beach with free show tomorrow
November 30, 2010
Probably one of the poppiest groups ever to open Art Basel in Miami Beach is set to take the stage tomorrow night at the Oceanfront stage, at 10 p.m. Metric is being flown down from Toronto to kick off a short few days of international music events during what has become one of the largest, most expensive art festivals in the world. At least the concert will be free.
Metric has achieved moderate acclaim among the youthful indie rocker set, most notably with its 2009 album Fantasies. Their last move was to offer a title song that opens the Twilight: Eclipse soundtrack.
But they got some impressive indie cred in singer Emily Haines, who has contributed lead vocals to my favorite Toronto-based band, Broken Social Scene. Not only did she work with BSS, but sang lead for some of the strongest, most ethereal of their songs, including “Anthems for a Seventeen-Year-Old Girl”, “Her Disappearing Theme” and “Sentimental X’s,” to name a few.
I doubt she’ll strip naked and jump into the surf as Peaches famously did a few years ago when she opened Art Basel in Miami Beach. Haines also probably won’t invite the audience to storm the stage like Iggy Pop did during his reunion with the Stooges only a couple of years ago, on the same stage. But, hopefully something interesting will happen. If anything, Metric’s music is dreamy in a pop rock kinda way, and I hope to catch some of the live show and share here later…
edit: I never made it to the show. I had a sickness in the family to deal with and had to forgo covering the event. I shall direct you my old freelancing grounds, the “Miami New Times,” as a consolation: “Metric at Art Basel.”
Broken Social Scene announce 2nd album and free live stream
April 21, 2010
About two weeks to go until the new Broken Social Scene album Forgiveness Rock Record sees official release, but already the group has announced a second new album.
In an email sent out today, the band announced that those who pre-ordered Forgiveness Rock Record from their website will be getting a download of a second, 10-track album entitled Lo-Fi for the Dividing Lights a day before Forgiveness Rock Record’s official release. In the email band member Charles Spearin explains:
I know that some bands write their songs, rehearse them and then record them. Not Broken Social Scene. In recording Forgiveness Rock Record we did it our usual way: swimming in chaos and making it up as we go along. We started by loosely sketching out 30 songs in my garage, driving to Chicago, recording 20 of those, and then writing 20 more. The point was to never stop working. Whenever we got exhausted or overwhelmed we would take a breath, pick up our instruments and jam purely ‘for spirit purposes’. It was musical-therapy of sorts. Part of what kept the ideas flowing was Soma’s smaller, second studio where we could test out new ideas and experiment with overdubs. While John worked in the main room, this B-Room quickly became our musical kitchen where we cooked up soups of sound without the pressures time and money.
One evening, as a kind of exercise in spontaneity, Kevin, Brendan and I each took turns writing and recording minute-long “songs” with minimal overdubs just to see what would happen. We kept saying to John “we’re making you an EP!” It was a sort of first-thought-best-thought approach to music making. Within a few hours we had six lovely little soundscapes, one of which ended up being the closing song on Forgiveness Rock Record, ‘Me & My Hand’, and the rest became the beginnings of Lo-Fi For The Dividing Nights.
As we continued to work on Forgiveness the B-room became more and more important as both a musical and social outlet – there are a lot of us in Broken Social Scene and it’s hard for us to sit on our hands – so naturally Ohad, Sam and Sebastian each recorded a song in the same spontaneous way. ‘Song For Dee’, the only traditional “song” on Lo-Fi For The Dividing Nights, Brendan, Kevin and I recorded when we found out that our good friend Wayne’s dog died and we wanted to cheer him up.
All of the songs on Lo-Fi For The Dividing Nights were recorded in Soma’s B-Room while Forgiveness Rock Record was being made. What these songs have in common is that they were all written in a spirit of playfulness and fearlessness where we could throw our discrimination to the wind and let the judges and critics take the night off. This tiny B-Room sanctuary fomented a very positive frame of mind, ultimately leading to one of the most enjoyable album-making experiences we’ve ever had. We hope you enjoy listening to these songs as much as we enjoyed recording them.
The album will also be available at some independent music stores (unknown as to what format, however!) as well as via iTunes. Here is the track listing:
1 – New Instructions
2 – Sudden Foot Loss
3 – Shabba Lights
4 – Song For Dee
5 – Eling’s Haus
6 – Professor Sambo
7 – Never Felt Alive
8 – Paperweight Room
9 – Turbo Mouse
10 – Far Out
I’m looking forward to it as much as Forgiveness, as I know these guys do create some amazing soundscapes. You can hear some of that via this post.
It also turns out you no longer have to wait until Forgiveness Rock Record’s May 4 release date to hear the whole thing. NPR is streaming the album in its entirety right now. Check it out here. I’ve already heard it twice all the way through, and have heard some amazing things, some of it, IMO, even better than the three tracks released in advance earlier. I had wondered whether this new album would feature some of the heart-stopping moments of albums passed, but fear not. Stand outs for me so far include “Texico Bitches” and “Sentimental X’s.” I can tell the album will only grow more beautiful with further listens.
Finally, you can also watch BSS perform “Forced to Love” on David Letterman tomorrow night, April 22.
Without the physical disc being actually present to appreciate, this is a lot of great news for BSS fans to tide them over until release date.
Broken Social Scene stream new single for free
March 30, 2010
The new album is still over a month away, but Broken Social Scene are offering two more tracks, “Forced to Love”/ “All to All,” off their upcoming album Forgiveness Rock Record for nothing on their homepage.
“Forced to Love” is breezy tune with high-pitched keyboards and guitars driving the song in the hook and harmonizing vocals that remind me sometimes of Pinback. It’s a raucous tune that sounds bright, open and playful.
We finally get to hear a female voice in “All to All.” It’s a mellow tune riding electronic ticks, burbles and swooshes. It crescendos on an incessant whir of guitar and Lisa Lobsinger’s breathy vocals open wide, warm and dreamy.
So far, so good. For me, it has become difficult to compare BSS to anything else but themselves. The Scene are truly in their own category as far as quality of music. All the new songs are great and certainly catchy in their complex BSS way. Still, none of it has yet to make my heart skip a beat like the luscious finale of swooning strings and voices in “Shampoo Suicide” or in the repetition of warped vocals in “Anthems For A Seventeen Year Old Girl”: “Park that call/Drop that phone/Sleep on the floor/Dream about me.” And nothing from this new album has so far given me the shivers like the crystalline interplay of guitar and bass in “Guilty Cubicles.” It’s those simple, yet transcendent moments in Broken Social Scene’s music that made me a fan of the group in the first place.
You can buy the mp3s or higher quality FLAC files of these two newly released tracks from their on-line store. They are also taking pre-orders for the new album there in CD, LP, MP3 and a deluxe limited edition set (a cumbersome-sounding vinyl set spread across no less than seven 10-inch slabs of wax. Only 1,000 will be made, and they will set you back $125).
Oh, and the track listing has not been easy to find, so I will provide it here. Got it from Amazon, though:
1. World Sick
2. Chase Scene
3. Texico Bitches
4. Forced to Love
5. All to All
6. Art House Director
7. Highway Slipper Jam
8. Ungrateful Little Father
9. Meet Me in the Basement
10. Sentimental X’s
11. Sweetest Kill
12. Romance to the Grave
13. Water in Hell
14. Me and My Hand
Broken Social Scene offer free new track
February 20, 2010
Quick update on the Broken Social Scene news from Feb. 17, 2010. Their website is offering the free download of the first song from the aforementioned collaboration with John McEntire.
They have entitled the track “World Sick,” and it is quite a powerful number. Featuring BSS’s signature dynamics, the song builds from the ether of silence to the bombast of heavenly noise like only Broken Social Scene can swing it.
As usual, the drumming is solid and penetrating, putting the other instruments up to task, and they do not let down. As the drums fade in through the atmospheric shimmer of delicate guitar noises, a swinging guitar line begins driving the song, which actually recalls McEntire’s other project, the Sea and Cake. As the vocals take over, the guitar continues to insist as an echoing bit of guitar tremolo accents the end of the lyrics’ lines and the song swells to swishing cymbals and over-lapping guitar bits, sounding lush and a bit like early Spiritualized when things got ecstatic in their songs. The song ebbs and crescendos a couple of times only to quietly peter out to soft strums and a delicate percussive patter. It makes for a lovely six-and-a-half-minute piece that sets the bar high for the rest of the album.
Despite my early Tortoise expectations, this song actually has the brightness of a Sea and Cake song magnified with the potency of the larger band that is Broken Social Scene.
Download it by clicking through here.
Also, the group has a title for the album, not to mention cover art (see image). They have dubbed it Forgiveness Rock Record … Hmm, I wonder if they are asking fans to forgive them for taking five years to follow-up on their last album? If this offering is any hint, the wait has been worthwhile.
John McEntire of Tortoise to co-produce new Broken Social Scene
February 17, 2010
The idea for Broken Social Scene to have John McEntire, of Tortoise, Sea and Cake, not to mention Gastr Del Sol, co-produce their new album (slated for release on May 4, according to their website), sounds like a natural fit.
I first heard BSS during a musical interlude on an NPR news broadcast. I was instantly moved by the gentle, rambling ambiance of “Guilty Cubicles,” a short instrumental track from their album Feel Good Lost. Seeking them out, I found hard-rocking, multi-layered songs that could shame Arcade Fire interwoven with cool instrumental moments that recalled post-rock Tortoise, which makes me think McEntire will add an interesting progression to the growth of the collective from Canada.
In his blog entry on BSS’s website, BSS founding member Kevin Drew, wrote about the group’s visit to Soma studios in Chicago back in May of 2009:
“I am happy to announce we have started recording our first record in four years and decided to do it with the one and only John McEntire. We did a one-day session with John last October and it was a perfect fit. This plan has been in the works for nine months and it has all come together quite sweetly in the moments leading up to being here…he is a hero of ours when it comes to recordings so it seems very balanced that we are here.”
As a long-time Tortoise fan, it confirms why I gravitated to BSS so many years later. “Love and Mathematics” from Feel Good Lost sounds like a particularly good example of how BSS recalls early, hey-day Tortoise.
I leave you with BSS’s video from one of my favorite songs of theirs (which features a pre-fame Feist), the wonderfully obtusely titled “7/4 Shoreline:”
The idea for Broken Social Scene to have John McEntire, of Tortoise, Sea and Cake not to mention Gastr Del Sol, co-produce their new album (slated for release on May 4, according to their website), sounds like a natural fit.
I first heard BSS during a musical interlude on an NPR news broadcast. I was instantly moved by the gentle, rambling ambience of “Guilty Cubicles,” a short instrumental track from their album Feel Good Lost. Seeking them out, I found hard-rocking, multi-layered songs that could shame Arcade Fire interwoven with cool instrumental moments that recalled the post-rock Tortoise, which is why I feel McEntire will add an interesting progression to the growth of the collective from Canada.
In his blog entry on BSS’s website, BSS founding member Kevin Drew, wrote about the group’s visit to Soma studios in Chicago back in May of 2009:
“I am happy to announce we have started recording our first record in four years and decided to do it with the one and only John McEntire. We did a one-day session with John last October and it was a perfect fit. This plan has been in the works for nine months and it has all come together quite sweetly in the moments leading up to being here…he is a hero of ours when it comes to recordings so it seems very balanced that we are here.”
As a long-time Tortoise fan, it confirms why I gravitated to BSS so many years later. “Love and Mathematics” from Feel Good Lost sounds like a particularly good example of early, post rock Tortoise.
I leave you with BSS’s video from one of my favorite songs of theirs (which features a pre-fame Feist), the wonderfully obtusely titled “7/4 Shoreline:”
OK, one more video, because this song is also so damn cool, “Major Label Debut (fast)”:
Fellow Broken Social Scene fans, do share any other links you might make between the music of Tortoise and BSS, or am I wrong about the connection?
Independent Ethos 