Broken Social Scene...C/D?

Its funny since I have an intense dislike of By Divine Right that I even would listen to this band let alone like it.

If you're going to compare them to something negative, get it straight. "Boring Thrill Jockey crap" would be much more appropriate.

The live show is terrible though. Very boring guitar jams and long pointless songs with lots of people on stage.

But I suppose if you listen to the album enough, you'd probably like it and their live show. kinda like pachelbel's canon

classic.

i guess i'm a hippy, since i've got tickets for the show.

Is this the Trail of Dead of 2003 (I must admit I never listened to them) or is this great stuff?

When I first heard about all these Toronto post rockers coming together I feared the worst. Two or three years ago I was quite into Tortoise, Godspeed, A Silver Mt Zion etc but now I am not interested in that kind of prog for the late 90s at all anymore. It's always the same. Crescendos bore me now. But according to the reviews the album sounds more like indie pop? Is that true?

I actually really like this band, all sarcasm aside. Its a pretty diverse set of indie-friendly songs. good times.

like i said, i liked the live show. took a good amount of pics there, too, which i'll get around to putting online one of these days.

The MC for the event wasn't experienced at working a crowd. He was friendly and had a nice smile, but it seemed more like his buddies said he should do it because he was "outgoing" or something. Anyway it definitely wasn’t because he had any idea how to get people excited. For instance, they wanted to get a picture of the crowd going wild. In order to induce this state, the MC told us—just moments after the applause had died down for the opener—that they wanted a picture of the crowd going wild. "Okay, on three, ready? One, two, THREE!" Wooooo. "Now that wasn't very good." A narcotized awareness of being criticized en masse. Resentment. "One, two, THREE!!" Eh. He gave up. We absently sipped our dn-L and waited for Broken Social Scene. They arrived with three guitar players and said their first song was "for the Hudson River". I tried really hard to hear the lyrics but I couldn't make them out. It didn't seem to be about the Hudson River, but since they said it was it felt like a lie. All three guitars washed together in a sheet of flangey reverb, kind of like My Bloody Valentine and kind of like the Afghan Whigs. We had fun playing this game, my friends and I. "Who do they sound like?" I wasn't very good because I didn't really follow bands like that in the 90s, but they came up with a ton of them, so it was surprising how few abutments and protrusions there were in the music. They'd spackled all their fractures and just rolled along, just barely present on the radar. Like the Hudson River a bit, actually. I honestly have no idea why people care about bands like this. Maybe it's pleasant and ignorable, like baseball? Anyway, we threw the rest of out dn-L in the trash and went to get something to eat.

ALTERNATE REVIEW:

BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE

No wonder.

Hey bucky did you see Jeanine Garofolo? (Her name is forever pronounced now as "JEEN-ANN GARAH FOLO" by our crew, after a wonderful mispronunciation by the aunt of my colocateur.) She had a blonde dye job and looked skinny, almost gaunt, she was leaning against the railing and if she wasn't smoking she looked like she was (in any hair color, heh).

or the Black Eyed Snakes??

i know very little about either, save for the few BSS tracks i've downloaded (and like quite a bit). Opinions, suggestions, threats welcome...

BSS was fan-fucking-tabulous. they didn't play the piss-drinking song, tho..

'Anthem for a seventeen-year-old girl' is lovely; the rest of 'you forgot it in people' hasn't really grabbed me.

He is playing them on his programme - alas, it sounds a mess! I don't know why Bob would be interested in this.

that is an interesting phrase, though I am unsure of what you mean by it. Do you mean it is a slump in their career?

If you own a copy, try starting their latest at Track 7 (AKA "Windsurfing Nation") and then wrapping back 'round. I've found it makes BSS’s latest more accessible/penetrable/enjoyable—and a worthy successor to You Forgot It In People.

It's a gorgeous mess (or, if you will, orchestration) of indie rock elements (see also: Do Make Say Think, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, etc.) that takes risks their more polished peers wouldn’t know how to harness in an equally lyric’d setting.

It was cool.

sounded messy/cluttered over the speakers earlier, whereas on headphones the production/feel is wonderfully huggable.

It's pretty horrible.

The last two have been great, though.

xpost: same here, jaymc.

they're all acoustic versions...

01 - superconnected
http://s50.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=3OHB9JVB60S3I0YJOWPTX210S7

02 - handjobs for the holidays
http://s50.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=2VKLK232E0VDR32ME0B2WW7RF3

03 - major label debut
http://s50.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=1Z6J1A90Z1ZKY1RDJAVE4BAH9Y

04 - interview
http://s50.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=3VE4JUX496VNP0EJDZGF1HK6SC

05 - ibi dreams of pavement
http://s49.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=2M7NQN7OW9N8P3BF0AN34D7TTH

06 - all my friends
http://s50.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=30YS3ZIIZXSXE0CSMWJNHDYED2

07 - intuition
http://s50.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=1145STYFTGY043SNHY7UEIXX4Q

Don't you hate it when you buy the Broken Social Scene (2005) album on your lunch break and then some menkaloid at Virgin Smegabore has gone done put a big sticky security protector on the lovely cardboard packaging and it gets all ripped up before you've put the cd on and then when you do put the cd on, the cd is really really boring anyway.

my cd has a crack in it, though. :( if you want we can swap.

song highlight: 'swimmers.'

i think i am going to like this album a lot...

http://exodus.interoutemediaservices.com/?id=c0aae8e8-9e32-494c-9515-ffad1fde7ba4&delivery=stream

Broken Social Scene? The worst? Really? Like, worser than Ashlee Simpson?

Care to go into any backing up (i.e., why's and/or what-for's behind) that statement? Or is it just fun to be contrarian (which, I might add is sooo ILM circa 1991)?

Better them then the Drake Juice Ho-bags biking around with Vice tucked into their American Apparel waistbands.

in other words, if they were better i would like their music.

they are the "hippest" flavour-of-the-month cats in the city (eg they were in grunge bands when it was grunge band time, house DJ's when it was house dj time, brazilian groove bands when it was brazilian groove time, etc.).

This description equally applies to Platinum Blonde.

exactly!

Maybe it's just BSS are easier to swallow then BDR since they don't sing that terrible hugger of trees song.

right...

you sounds like you pay more attention to "the scene" than you do to the music.

hehe. Good times.

I know nothing about their scene or what they did before this, and frankly that's ok with me. I don't care what clothes they wear. I don't care if they have beards or not. I don't care if they're hobos eating cold spam out of a can. if they play a mean fiddle and it moves me... then I'm happy.

if music doesn't have the ability to transcend scensterism or hipsterism or whatever its called, then you might as well be listening to justin timberlake or american idol or whatever corporate music's pimping

i wholeheartedly agree, and would much rather be listening to justin timberlake.

some people listen to music because they like to "be cool"

and some people listen to music because they like music

maybe someday there will be an "I love to be cool" message board and you can make fun of all the uncool people out there.

that depends on who you listen to. but if you're implying that no one is pimping justin timberlake, then you're delusional

sure lots of great bands are pimped, promoted and/or talked up by elitist hipsters and bloggers, etc... I'm just saying there is not much difference between tv/celebrity worship fandom and elitist hipster fandom. they are both using "cool" as a way of selling something that, in an ideal world, ought to be sold on the merit of its musical quality. whatever quality that appeals to you or your taste, etc. an artist's image is not a musical quality. would david bowie's music be any less enjoyable if his face was covered in green warts?

forget I mentioned justin timberlake. any number of sad celebrity types could be used here. what about gene simmons? courtney love? michael jackson, etc. do you like the music or do you like the image, the hyper-public personae, the mask of exploitation? there's a difference there and that's the point.

I only implied that your motives are suspect with regards to hating a band because of the image you percieve them to have.

Why is that the point? I love both the hyper-public personae AND the music, both together, webbed through each other, constructing and destructing one another; the music you hear revealing or obscuring the singer you thought you knew in different ways; shake the kaleidoscope and it changes. Every band - just like every web post, every politician's speech, every book or every painting - is addressing a PUBLIC, and if that band doesn't give a toss about how they make that address they're abdicating participation in an entire complex part of their art. I don't know if Broken Social Scene do that, and I don't really care, since I've never liked what little music of theirs I've heard, but to claim they do is not exactly a shining recommendation in my book. In any case, every band has a scene, every group has its way of hailing and being received by a public, and that can be - and usually is - a crucial element into whether a particular person gets excited by them or is bored or offput. No one needs to justify that to anyone.

i don't know, marbles, i think the visual aspect of rock and pop music should be fun and/or mean something and to deny that it does kinda sucks a lot of life out of it. i don't mean everyone has to be beautiful - the way the minutemen and the ramones looked meant a lot too. you bring up bowie which is interesting, because he's probably one of the most image-conscious artists ever. the face covered in green warts phase was probably considered and abandoned at glitterbest. and i do think michael jackson and courtney love and gene simmons have all done really really interesting things visually in their careers... but talking about or being interested in those things doesn't mean that the music is meaningless either. anyway, i guess i know what you're saying, but i don't buy that bss are absent from "the marketing of cool".

I'm not claiming BSS does one or the other. but even "not giving a toss" is a stylized approach to the whole public address, so in that respect there is no way for a public personae to avoid it. (there is, I would argue, an element of class with regards to how one goes about it.) and yes, it is usually a "crucial element" that sadly influences a lot of people. however, if that image or lack there of, makes or breaks the music... well, can we even call it music anymore?

regardless even without the "artist", the song itself is a public address. are you saying that you can't enjoy a song without there being something else attached to it? can't a song come out of no where, completely below the pop culture radar, divorced of any posturing and yet still speak to you? if I had required of music to come with all that baggage I would never have ever fallen in love with The Clean (or for that matter, any number of artists that were introduced to me as music, not as cultural phenomenon).

given your expressed interests of needing an image to make music interesting, its not surprising that BSS doesn't do much for you. well, if some music is less interesting to you becuase you have a bias towards image and the band refuses to play up to that, then what can I say... your loss.

I agree I don't think BSS are absent from "the market of cool." and you're right about images meaning things. but this is a double edged sword and I guess this is why I have a problem it. the image *can* be powerful, but more often then not its just a ruse. its just more pop-culture clutter, a crumpled magazine cover rolling down the city street.

ps, fuck you

i sat outside for free at their $30 Prospect Park show last night (you can hear/see just fine at a certain angle) and it was ridiculous, all the new material is overwrought and awful; to make matters worse, each song was followed by ten minutes of terribly inane stage banter.

this is no longer the band my eight month pregnant gf took me to see at Bowery. this definitely isn't the band the OM staff were rec'ing to anyone and everyone a few albums back.

so what happened?

wait wait wait. BSS had video that played on MTV. and if not as image oriented as top 40 pop it doesn't mean they don't have an ethos to sell, which they do. obviously another victim of hipster fad-dom, they were a couple cycles between clap yr hands and flashmobs and who talks about that stuff now?

that said, the music was never great and apparently it's getting worse.

If you were raised by wolves in the Andes (Ed: are there wolves in the Andes?) then maybe. Otherwise, no.

even "not giving a toss" is a stylized approach to the whole public address,

ding ding ding!! Look, I have no idea what Broken Social Scene's "scene" is, or even exactly who their fans are. I can make a guess - "indie kids". People who like Built to Spill and Belle and Sebastian (both bands I really like, by the way). But I've seen Broken Social Scene play live. I didn't like their music and I didn't like their stage banter. Maybe I didn't like their haircuts either, I can't remember. But man if the music isn't enough to get me over a bad haircut or two, how good could it be??

Here's a thread you might be interested in, marbles - Fans and Critics

I DO like Michael Jackson though!!!

from billboard:

Broken Social Scene Taking Time Off After Fall Tour


July 07, 2006, 3:30 PM ET

Jonathan Cohen, N.Y.
Following a November U.S. tour, Canadian indie rock collective Broken Social Scene will take an extended break from the road and the studio, according to principal member Kevin Drew. Although dates are still being finalized, the group is planning to focus on places it hasn't often played, including Florida and other Southeastern states.

"We've become that band that doesn't really rehearse anymore," Drew told Billboard.com yesterday (July 6), prior to Broken Social Scene's performance in Brooklyn, N.Y.'s, Prospect Park. "We just get together and go tour and play live. We've lost a bit of that thing we had at the beginning where we tried to challenge each other a lot more."

"The last few years have been hard," he continued, noting the dramatic uptick in media interest in Canadian rock bands. "Things kept getting bigger and changing. But we've had an incredible, incredible, incredible run. It's something that can't be taken for granted. If we kept going [without a break], we'd be taking it for granted. Next time, we'd be doing college tours for money. That sucks the music out of you. Next thing you know, you're trying to get teenagers to buy your albums."

During the time off, there will be plenty of music forthcoming from group members, including new albums from Andrew Whiteman's Apostle Of Hustle, Feist and Dave Newfeld. Of the latter, Drew reported, "I'm not sure what he's going to call himself, but he has a crazy, hip-hop psychedelic folk album going now."

Feist's album will feature several BSS members ("I'm not too sure who has ended up where," Drew admitted) as well as contributions from Mocky and Jamie Lidell.

Drew is also messing around with songs he's recorded over the past two years with BSS contributors Ohad Benchetrit and Charles Spearin, but he's unsure what form the material may take. "Sometimes it sounds like a young man's U2," he said with a laugh. "Right now, it's a pretty stereotypical recording that needs to get away from me. I might throw it out there to see if some people want to beat it up a bit."

Last month, BSS teamed with J Mascis for a charity show in Toronto, during which the artists rocked through a set of Dinosaur Jr songs together. Drew is hoping the parties can get together for future charity dates when their schedules permit.

"It was some of the most fun I've ever had live," Drew said. "I mean, I used to play a canoe paddle to Dinosaur Jr. before I played guitar. That night on stage, I looked around and we were singing 'Get Me.' It was like, you know what? This is it. I'm turning 30 and I've achieved everything I've ever wanted to do in indie rock."

yeah! that's what I've been saying! but now consider this... what if they had good haircuts? does that have any effect on you appreciating their music? why do you even care what haircuts they have? what do haircuts have to do with enjoying music? what makes a good haircut vs a bad haircut? what kind of haircuts are best for appreciating... say, classic rock? why are haircuts even being considered at all?

can't a song come out of no where

If you were raised by wolves in the Andes (Ed: are there wolves in the Andes?) then maybe. Otherwise, no.

care to explain what you mean by this? the question isn't whether the song is completely original and uncomparable to anything you ever heard before. the question is can you appreciate a song without knowing anything about the artist?

Anyone heard the new BSS Presents...Kevin Drew etc. etc. thing?

Yeah is there no thread for Spirit If...? I just got it this weekend and I like, but then I am a pretty big fan of BSS. Backed Out On The..., TBTF, F--ked Up Kid and especially Lucky Ones are the highlights at this stage.

Agreed. Spirit If... is a really nice record, but I'm also a really big Broken Social Scene fan, so maybe that helps. I love that Lucky Ones song. This might end up in my end of year list.

So, that title.

Also after all the hoohah over the MGMT cover, this one is uglier:

http://www.brokensocialscene.ca/images/cover.jpg

Awful cover, but I'm digging the advance track.

Didn't see this thread earlier. But this now exists: Broken Social Scene - Forgiveness Rock Record

Wait, did ppl dislike the mgmt cover? I loved it!

I'm used to Anthony Ausgang's work via Spacemen 3 related stuff so when I saw the MGMT cover I was all "Hey, that guy!"

The general reaction was more or less, What the hell were they thinking?

Which is the same reaction people are (rightfully) having to the title of the new BSS record

Anyone else try to get the e-mail for the free download of the new track? Signed up, but the e-mail never showed up.

Worked for me this morning. Also . . . http://hypem.com/artist/broken%20social%20scene

I usually have no time for BSS side projects (occasional exception: Apostle of Hustle) but this is pretty good!

http://pitchfork.com/news/53972-video-kevin-drew-good-sex/

there are so many side-projects, and so few broken-social-scene albums, that bss seems to be the side-project.

What y'all think of Kevin Drew's latest, Darlings? Two songs in and I'm liking so far.

really wanted to like it cause I love this guy's work in BSS, but kind of underwhelming. I think "Spirit If" is much stronger.

Listening to the self-titled BSS album now. 10 years later, and I still love this album. Perhaps it's nostalgia, but I think it holds up nicely.

CLASSIC, the s/t is the best one!

yep. really good. i might need to dig it out too although i remember it coming out in '06, not '05 for some reason.

i like the alternative version to Shoreline that came with a free EP on the back of the album.

u sure u don't mean "Major Label Debut (fast version)"?

I listened to this album a lot on headphones & eventually saw them live around this time (mighta been early 2007?) it sounds real good but kinda overlong/underwritten

... & I could understand haters calling it "overproduced" but they would be missing the point b/c the production is brilliant. "Ibi Dreams Of Pavement" is like 4 minutes of the roof being ripped off the house by hurricane winds & falling trees.

I will have to give this another chance because I was one of those overproduced haters. I liked Forgiveness Rock Record a lot, despite the ridiculous album title.

you might be right, bernard snowy. it's been ages since i last heard it.

It's getting better with age. I still prefer "You Forgot It In People" any day of the week, but "Ibi Dreams of Pavement" is incredible, maybe their best ever song.

xp "Major Label Debut" is the song about "just coming here to come down" that was v.laidback & chill on the album, but uptempo with horns on the EP

I take pleasure in the silliness of things like "Forgiveness Rock Record" or "Major Label Debut (Fast)" as titles

Fire-eyed Boy is my fave

I think their drummer has a lot to do with the greatness of the s/t

I put on almost crimes today and it was still pretty great

this new Brendan Canning album has the muddiest production

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JtdYQtIhdY

New song!

happy they're back

I wonder if anyone who listens to the new one knows what it's about ?

"Our Faces Split the Coast in Half" is CLASSIC. never been able to figure out the lyrics to that one...

That song has lyrics?

i mean it could be gibberish vocalizing but idk always sounded like words buried in there

New single kind of underwhelming?

i hadn't thought of them in years but Hug of Thunder came on my Release Radar today and I rather enjoyed it.

I've come around to the single. It sounds nice and warm now like bss does

bought the record and have invested several listens but something just seems off. probably user error

This album is wayyyy better than I expected. I put off listening to it because I was never a big fan of these guys, "7/4 (Shoreline)" excepted, but this is really hitting the spot for me right now.

I'm a particular fan of "Halfway Home," which has the muscle and drive that "7/4" has and most of their other tracks do not, and "Towers and Masons."

I tried really hard to like this album but I ended up trying way too hard for it to be natural.

The album is great for biking. Good rhythmic drive, though not too tight to pedal along to, and a lot of climaxes. Have heard it a lot over the last couple of weeks.

I think Frederik has confused the new BSS album with his favourite porno.

LOL

Porno is bad for biking. Everyone knows that.

lol!

Spoken like a true specialist :D

yeah I'm a fan of the album, but people listening to music while biking are dangerous and scare me.

I keep thinking that this album is named Days of Thunder.

Not really a fan of this record. Too middle of the road. This band caught lightning in a bottle a long time ago.

What do we think of this new EP?

I like it.

I’m probably wrong but this single “can’t find my heart” sounds like maybe the most urgent and real thing they’ve done in years
https://open.spotify.com/track/6iRYhL6cwnuT2EnWsiDW15?si=P-zPnBW6Q4m3ACmWMuWj6Q

Twenty Broken Social Scene threads? Really?

Got a cheap used copy of their first album the other day. I love it...great driving music, reminds me of Yo La Tengo at their meandering-instrumental best.

I should prob give it a go, along with the last two, but #3 never hit me like #2.

yeah I don’t really like too much of their other stuff but the first album is beautiful. Clemenza, you might like their previous album as KC Accidental, it’s sort of in the same vein

Will definitely look for that, thanks. This, the first song from the debut, is a good test. If you love it as much as I do, you'll like the whole album; if it bores you, ditto.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZuikjeK6Do

Was just thinking about them the other day. Love the s/t.

I had one of those experiences where seeing them live made me like the records less. (Granted, I saw them live, for the first time, only a couple years ago. Maybe they were mind-blowing 20 years ago but the show I saw very much had the vibe of dads in search of their lost glory.)

Steve west air drum fill

I saw one of them open for Television in 2014, and in a low-key, non-disastrous way, it was one of the least effective professional shows I've ever seen.

“One of them?”
Had to be Kevin or Brendan right

I looked into KC Accidental and ended up ordering a used compilation from Amazon. The two original CDs are too expensive--one a little, the other ridiculous--and I couldn't find them on Soulseek.