Preview
BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE with Stars
Wednesday, March 26
Liberty Lounge (MRC)
The October arrival of Broken Social Scene’s stunning sophomore disc, You Forgot it in People, kick-started a sea change of critical opinion about Toronto indie music. The first fruits of a still-emerging, city-wide mother lode boasting equally masterful albums from Stars, the Hidden Cameras, Gentleman Reg and the Constantines, it swiftly ended the self-proclaimed world-class city’s prolonged humiliation about not being able to produce a world-class band to save its smug hipster hide.
Following a rapid-fire series of national reviews that declared it a masterpiece, You Forgot quickly sold out of its first two pressings, and recently received a Juno nomination for Best Alternative Album. A scaled-back five-piece incarnation of the Scene (which has swelled to as many as a dozen onstage members in its hometown) is now touring the country with friends and mutual-appreciation-society members Stars.
"When we got together as Broken Social Scene, it was other bands within the city that were inspiring us," says Kevin Drew, who co-founded the band alongside Brendan Canning. "Without consciously thinking, we made a record out of unity. It’s been a very long time for this record to come, so as soon as it came, I think it just enhanced everybody’s love for it and the idea that it’s such a celebration for everybody – not just ourselves."
But, perhaps inevitably, this recognition also brings a burden – something that the gracious but frank Drew can’t help but muse about.
"We used to jam before this record came out – now we rehearse. It’s quite a terrible transition," he says with a chuckle.
At only 26, Drew is a veteran of improvisational music. You Forgot is, by comparison, a pop record – albeit a pop record of uncommon depth and diversity, a post-rock equivalent of Primal Scream’s mixed-genre milestone Screamadelica. Although proud of the album, the commercial considerations that come with promoting its re-release (via EMI Music Canada) don’t sit comfortably with the normally impulse-driven musician.
Indeed, Broken Social Scene is a group that was so opposed to the idea of constraining itself to meet expectations that it was going to perform material from You Forgot for the last time in early December. Thereafter, it would return to the instinctual music-making methods it established with the understated, all-instrumental debut, 2000’s Feel Good Lost. But this tour necessitates a compromise, so expect to hear several of You Forgot’s many highlights when the band performs at Mount Royal College.
That isn’t to say that BSS is cheerless about its good fortune, though. The rare communal spirit that brought the sprawling collective together in the first place, and that kept it together throughout You Forgot’s difficult, three-month-long gestation, is what will keep it moving forward as it astonishes audiences across the country.
"We’re all very lucky to have been together to do this, and every day I get more and more happy that we did it," says Drew. "If, suddenly, my car swerves off the road, I will be OK, because we did it." |
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