November 21, 2008

Broken Social Scene


You Forgot It In People - KC Accidental

Broken Social Scene - 7/4 Shoreline
BSS Presents Kevin Drew's Spirit If... - Frightening Lives
BSS Presents Brendan Canning's Something For All of Us - Hit the Wall

One of my favorite bands of all time. BSS is a Canadian indie rock supergroup, an amalgam of nineteen musical minds from an array of different bands coming together to fuse indie rock, baroque pop, shoegazing, dream pop, and experimental rock. They played in Atlanta at the Variety Playhouse two nights ago with opener Land of Talk (a post for them soon to come, they absolutely rocked). It was the second time I've seen them and I still maintain that BSS is the best live band I have ever seen. Not only are all of the members incredibly musically talented (each member rotated roles throughout the show, almost all of them playing bass, guitar, synth, piano, and percussion at least once), they are also truly a web of musicians not dependent on one single entity: at one point, pseudo-frontman Kevin Drew's voice fell out, so he took a break for one song while the rest of the line up played an Apostle of Hustle cover. I'd take every opportunity I possibly could to go see them live again.

I've been consistently impressed by every release with a BSS tag on it, be it EP, LP, B-side, whatever, they never fail to create beautiful music.
BSS has had four traditional LP releases, with Bee Hives being a collection of B-sides. Recently, Broken Social Scene has decided to do a series of "Broken Social Scene Presents..." releases, which are solo efforts by individual members of the band assisted by the rest of BSS. I've posted a small mix from some of their albums, check them out, I promise they won't disappoint.

3 comments:

non serviam said...

I need to tell Kevin Drew I'm pregnant.

Vizitrone said...

They've been one of my absolute favorites for few years now as well. In March this year, I finally had an opportunity to see them perform live. The show was at a rather small venue in Osaka, Japan, and unfortunately six of them had made it there. Ag one point though, the entire warm-up-band (Stars) joined them on stage and played an absolutely amazing version of 7/4 (Shoreline) where the little stage was completely full of people. The only downside was that the voice of Stars' female vocalist didn't have quite the same punch as Feist's does in the original. :( Aw well, still one of 2008's best shows for me too. :D

ryan said...

At least you got Amy!

I think Stars+BSS trumps DMST+BSS, but it's kind of a different show.