He's the one with the bag on his head

By Mike Doherty - Thursday, October 14, 2010 at 3:40 PM - 0 Comments

Photograph by James Leighton Bur

It was a banner summer for Canadian musicians: Arcade Fire, Justin Bieber, Drake and K’naan planted our flag proudly atop global charts. But if purveyors of anthems to arenas overwhelm you, may we suggest Timber Timbre. Their self-titled third album is a stark, eerie collection of off-centre blues and folk that sneaks up on listeners like a “night crawler crawlin’ out in the yard”—a typical image from one of singer Taylor Kirk’s songs. With European festivals ahead and a new album in the works, Timber Timbre are ready to bring their music to the world—in as self-effacing a way as possible.

“I’ve always been really shy,” says Kirk, over brunch at a quirky Montreal diner. “That’s amplified by doing something so revealing.” Having learned to play guitar as a child in a church basement in the hamlet of Myrtle, Ont., Kirk made his first recordings alone, while living in a timber-framed cabin in Bobcaygeon, in 2005. In the “scary” isolation, with crickets and the ghostly noises of rural Ontario bleeding into the microphones, he says he felt “uninhibited—totally at liberty to try whatever comes to mind.”

He overdubbed himself on guitar, piano, harmonica and hand-clap percussion, and packaged the crackly, lo-fi results as Timber Timbre’s debut, Cedar Shakes, selling the homemade CDs at Toronto’s indie oasis Soundscapes—the only store that would take them. In Toronto, where he’d found a job delivering kegs of beer, Kirk began to play shows and slowly attracted a cult following.

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Speaking of freedom from state tyranny

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, July 16, 2010 at 5:13 PM - 0 Comments

While the haze still lingers, that weekend in Toronto now has a soundtrack, courtesy of Broken Social Scene and some enterprising videographer.

This video was made as a response to the G20 Summit in Toronto June, 2010. The rest speaks for itself. It was sent to us by a lover of our music who wants to remain anonymous. We are very proud to share this mash-up with you.

Video after the jump. Continue…

Broken Social Scene: precariously back together again

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, May 4, 2010 at 10:00 AM - 3 Comments

Photograph by Jaime Hogge

Inside a midtown Toronto studio on a chilly spring night, Broken Social Scene—tonight a seven-member lineup alongside several guests, plus a horn section and a trio of backup singers who were introduced to the band in the previous 24 hours—is recording a television special that won’t air until August. It is going about as awkwardly as might be predicted. The band is late to the stage, the show’s host is overwhelmed and the band members she is attempting to interview, founding collaborators Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning, aren’t helping much. A producer is telling the audience when to clap, the assorted players are being told where to stand, and Drew is concerned his parents, seated in the audience, are too close to the speakers.

Finally, after a misunderstood cue, Drew, now standing at the front of the stage in a fedora and grey jacket over a white T-shirt, waiting to perform a song from Broken Social Scene’s new record, thrusts his arms out and beseeches the audience: “Is this not us, or what?” Only when the band is finally allowed to play does everything get on track. Maybe it has always been so for a rock collective often defined by precariousness.

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The difference between the Sports and Cultural Olympics explained

By Anne Kingston - Saturday, February 20, 2010 at 2:36 PM - 0 Comments

“Welcome to the Cultural Olympics where there is no drug testing”—Singer-songwriter-Broken Social Scene member Jason Collett, kicks
off the second, and last performance, of Hall Willner’s Neil Young Project Friday night.

The mother Parliament

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, January 11, 2010 at 2:23 PM - 21 Comments

Via the Globe’s Doug Saunders and Broken Social Scene’s Julie Penner, news that the new Speaker in the British House of Commons is vowing to shorten that Parliament’s summer break. Seems British MPs sat for “just” (JUST!) 143 days last year. Seems Mr. Speaker believes a greater demonstration of accountability is necessary.

He confirmed plans for the Commons to cut short its three-month summer recess by sitting in September. He said it was “extraordinary” to suggest that the annual party conferences should take priority over Parliament. “The public want visible proof that we are doing our main job, which is to work in Parliament,” he said.

Top 10 Canadian albums of the decade

By macleans.ca - Sunday, December 13, 2009 at 9:07 AM - 41 Comments

10. Feist – The Reminder (2007)
For all the excitement and self-congratulation that defined the decade in Canadian music, these 10 years may ultimately be remembered for two records (Arcade Fire’s Funeral and Broken Social Scene’s You Forgot It In People) and one star (Feist). The potential for stardom was clearly there when Leslie Feist emerged with Let It Die. But she surpassed all imagination with The Reminder, a seductive pop record that was at once charming and eccentric, of the iPod moment and timeless. (Aaron Wherry)

9. The Constantines – Shine A Light (2003)
With a burst of frantic, jagged guitar on opening stomper “National Hum,” The Constantines leave no doubt they’re intent on making a racket. And what a glorious racket it turns out to be. Shine A Light is that exceptional album that’s as smart as it is intense. From the brooding menace of “Nightime/Anytime (It’s Alright)” to the rumbling, Springsteen-esque “On to You,” there’s a rare depth to the urgency of their music. It’s soulful rock ‘n roll that proves loud doesn’t have to mean dumb. (Philippe Gohier)

8. Sam Roberts – The Inhuman Condition (2002)
Sam Roberts kick-started the summer of 2002 with the bongo-heavy single “Brother Down.” Soon after, Roberts was shuttled into the studio with major label money—and it’s been a jam-band, epic, psychedelic, anthemic rock party ever since. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. But the first EP, featuring six straight-ahead infectious pop-laced rock ditties, heralded one of the most exciting—and unabashedly Canadian—new voices of the decade. (Shanda Deziel)

7. Tangiers – Hot New Spirits (2003)
For awhile there, Toronto was a pretty weird place to live: SARS, a garbage-strewn civic strike, the final days of Mel Lastman, a blackout that became an excuse to party. All the while, the city’s music was starting to reassert itself. Hot New Spirits is the lost gem of that time—an anxious, nervy, joyous announcement to the world. Other bands would come to define the scene and the decade, but this is what it sounded like before we knew where we were going. (Aaron Wherry)

6. Sarah Harmer – You Were Here (2000)
Sarah Harmer’s “Lodestar” is like a Tom Thomson painting set to music, a gorgeous portrait of a “great black night” and a fateful canoe trip. For that alone, You Were Here deserves to be one of the best Canadian albums of at least the last decade. But Harmer also proved that both her singing and songwriting shine through no matter the subject or genre, whether it’s jaunty pop, swinging jazz, guitar rock or bluegrass. She’s likely the only performer who’s covered both the Beastie Boys and Dolly Parton in her live set, and she deserves an MVP award for her generous spirit with artists both greater and smaller than herself. You Were Here shows off all her good sides; it’s hard to imagine there’s anything else. (Michael Barclay)

5. Wolf Parade – Apologies To The Queen Mary (2005)
This Montreal band’s debut album revealed an obsession with ghosts and a penchant for danceable indie rock. The two songwriters, guitarist Dan Boeckner and keyboardist Spencer Krug, laid themselves bare, whether on the daddy-issues track, “You Are a Runner and I Am My Father’s Son,” or the ecstatic closer “This Heart’s on Fire.” Four years later, all 12 tracks sound just as poignant and powerful as the first time you heard them. (Shanda Deziel)

4. New Pornographers – Mass Romantic (2000)
The word ‘supergroup’ usually conjures up images of Crobsy, Stills, Nash and Young, or for the truly-depraved, Asia. Yet this Vancouver octet—pieced together from local scenesters including Dan Bejar (Destroyer) Carl (A.C.) Newman and Neko Case—definitely qualifies. Their 2000 debut, Mass Romantic, blends power pop, Beach Boys-style harmonies, and some wickedly catchy tunes. Bonus points: The Fubar-themed video for “My Slow Descent in Alcoholism.”  (Jonathon Gatehouse)

3. Black Mountain – Black Mountain (2005)
It’s entirely possible the members of Black Mountain have never heeded Bob Dylan’s clarion call from “Rainy Day Women” (“Everybody must get stoned!”), but you’d be forgiven for thinking otherwise based on their self-titled debut. That said, unlike all too many of their psychedelic, stoner-rock brethren, what makes Black Mountain stand out is their willingness to exercise restraint. The album is heavy and heady, but never gets weighed down by its proggy leanings. Standouts “Modern Music,” with its catchy “1-2-3, another pop explosion” chorus, “No Satisfaction,” with its blissed-out campfire vibe, and the swaggering, bluesy “Druganaut” show a band with impressive range—and the good sense not to overindulge it. (Philippe Gohier)

2. Broken Social Scene – You Forgot It In People (2002)
This is family values. This is it all coming together. The result is a seminal indie rock record. And in that achievement it became clear just how much was possible, launching a mid-decade renaissance for the Canadian music scene. The sight and sound of these friends and lovers crowding on stage together to make music defined the messy rush of wonderment that followed. (Aaron Wherry)

'Learn to Speak Music,' by John Crossingham

By Michael Barclay - Thursday, October 29, 2009 at 11:23 AM - 2 Comments

Rock’n’roll is a young person’s pursuit. While reading John Crossingham’s Learn to Speak Music—published by Owl Kids Press and presumably written for the magazine’s target demographic of 9 to 13—the question is: just how young?

Crossingham has written a children’s book explaining in careful detail everything you need to know about starting a band: rehearsing, songwriting, and putting on your first gig. By the time he starts explaining the difference between a PZM and a Shure SM-57 microphone, you have to wonder exactly how young his audience is—and if they’re at all impressed with Crossingham’s international touring experience as a member of Broken Social Scene, a band that doesn’t exactly command a tween audience. Continue…

Avert your ears

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, July 8, 2009 at 9:35 AM - 0 Comments

Kady reviews the latest developments and Paul explains the back story to L’Affair Ablonczy. Paul also asks an interesting question: Is a band like Broken Social Scene okay with playing a show provided for by a fund at least one Conservative MP thinks should be distributed on some sort of moral basis?

That is a dilemma. Perhaps for both Brad Trost and Broken Social Scene. Especially if the band does appear and makes a point of singing the following (adult language and situations ahead). Continue…

You think it's easy to make priorities?

By Paul Wells - Tuesday, July 7, 2009 at 9:55 PM - 61 Comments

While Colleague ITQ tries to make head or tail of the Ablonczy/Pride fiasco, here’s a little background on the miserably ill-conceived, comically shoddily administered Marquee Tourism Events program from which the money to Toronto Pride flowed.

In Ottawa — the community, not the capital, to the extent the two are separable — we became aware of MTE — you can pronounce it “empty,” as in, “Is this program full of good sense, or empty?” — a few weeks ago, when at about 10 a.m. on a Wednesday word got out in music-fan circles that the New Orleans jazz trumpeter Terence Blanchard was going to play a free outdoor concert in Confederation Park. That night. Like, 10 hours later.

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From the mouths of musicians

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, July 2, 2009 at 4:50 PM - 10 Comments

CBC.ca asks several dozen Canadians to say nice things about the country. Andrew Whiteman doesn’t play along.

Canada is an experiment in possibility. And as any gambler will tell you, don’t bet on potential. At least not while we seem to lack the political heave-ho to put vision into practice.

BTC: NDP et cetera

By Aaron Wherry - Sunday, September 14, 2008 at 6:50 PM - 3 Comments

Five years ago this might’ve appeared in the form of a notebook for a Sunday newspaper. Now you get to read it without getting ink on your hands. Progress…

-Perhaps to the chagrin of his speechwriters, Jack Layton tends not to follow his script too closely when delivering speeches, rewriting sentences and skipping the odd bit as he goes. At one point on Saturday, the teleprompter read only, “Tell taxi driver and gas price story.”

For the most part this understandably lends him a looser, more conversational tone. And sometimes his ad-libs improve on the text. But, at least on Saturday, his cadence was off and not sticking to his script (with the cadence his speechwriters had built into it) actually ruined some of his applause lines. To large degree, a public speaker needs to guide his or her audience. Obama, to lazily use an obvious example, tells his audience how and when to cheer with pace and tone and volume. Layton’s deviating from his script actually resulted in his audience cheering, on several occasions, before he could get to the kicker.

All that said, he’s probably still the best public speaker of the national party leaders. As small a compliment as that is.

—This poll escaped much notice this weekend, but is probably worth consideration. While Harper, Dion and Duceppe all hurt more than helped their respective images this first week, Layton at least broke even. Continue…