2008 Woodie Awards
Broken Social Scene expands U.S. influence, artist ability, versatility
Indie band launches artists into many musical genres
Chris Riemenschneider
MCT Campus
Issue date: 10/14/08 Section: The Mix
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That's how Brendan Canning summarized his all-star band/collective/clique Broken Social Scene, which has become the Canadian indie-rock version of "American Idol." BSS is best-known as the launching pad for "1 2 3 4" mega-hitmaker Feist. Since its 1999 genesis, other members have also gone on to issue albums as Stars, Metric, Jason Collett and Apostle of Hustle.
Over the past year and a half, Broken Social Scene also has become the Canadian indie-rock version of the Wu-Tang Clan, issuing solo albums by its two principal members, Canning and Kevin Drew, under a "Broken Social Scene Presents" brand.
Canning's record, "Something for All of Us," is the latest, and thus it's the album du jour for the BSS tour. The tour doesn't include the starlet singers, Feist or Emily Haines of Metric, but it will feature Apostle of Hustle's Andrew Whiteman and Land of Talk's Lizzie Powell.
Talking by phone from his home in Toronto, Canning gave a more thorough explanation of the beast that is Broken Social Scene.
Q. Are these Broken Social Scene solo albums more like the Kiss solo records or the Wu-Tang Clan's?
A. I'd say probably Wu-Tang over Kiss. With Kiss, there was some serious strategizing, because those records all came out at once and the covers matched up. As far as the Wu-Tang goes, their solo acts within the group made better records than those Kiss records. Except Ace's was pretty good.
Q. What was the strategizing, if any, behind these albums?
A. It was just sort of necessary because Kevin and I don't have the other band outlets that everyone else in the group has.
Q. Will there be "BSS Presents ..." albums by other members, or will you focus back on a regular BSS record?
A. I don't think we'll do "Broken Social Scene Presents ..." for anyone else. There are other people within the band releasing other records. And yes, there will be another Broken Social Scene record. We don't have any kind of date, but we have every intention of doing another one. We are playing songs on this tour that are new Broken Social Scene songs, ones people haven't heard.
Q. How did BSS come about in the first place?
A. It was Kevin and myself making the "Feel Good Lost" record. We started recording in the autumn of 1999, with no certain purpose as yet. We had just kind of known each other a bit from around town and decided to get together and make a record. Then we started playing shows, and for those we rounded up a collection of Kevin's friends and my friends.
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