Broken Social Scene

Field Trip 2017 Preview: The Bands We Are Most Excited To See

Posted on by Ricky in Everything | Leave a comment

fieldtrip

Summer usually means one thing: music festivals. This year is a bit different because a few notable festivals (Bestival, TURF, Riot Fest) decided to stop operating and so everyone started writing think pieces about the death of music.

Have no fear, Toronto’s favorite record label still runs strong and with new records by their most prominent acts coming out there was no way Field Trip would have been cancelled (we’ll see for 2018). Taking place once again at Fort York, Field Trip promises to be a fun weekend of good music, truck food and covfefe

So this year, two of us at the Panic Manual are covering the event. It only made sense for me and our exalted photographer Elisabeth Isles (from Devonshire, England) to collaborate on who we are most excited to see.

Broken Social Scene

Ricky says
A quintessential Toronto group by now, BSS is back after a long layoff with a new album. You know it’s very Toronto to see BSS in Toronto and frankly I’ve never seen them live except for a few fleeting minutes at SXSW. So for me it’s a Toronto bucket list thing. Yet for many it will be a cathartic experience as to journey through a BSS set list is to journey through memories in Toronto, one song at a time. I’m sure everyone is wondering how good new LP Hug of Thunder might be, but personally, I’m wondering if they will be filming to sequel to their movie from earlier this decade:

tmib

How excited would you be for that? Probably not, but one can only hope.

Elisabeth (from Devonshire, England) Says
With all due respect, the only way I ever really enjoy Kevin Drew is in small doses. Thankfully he is only 1/12 of Broken Social Scene.

Feist

Ricky says
Another Arts and Craft artist back after a long layoff, it’s almost like they need money or something. With new album Pleasures in tow, Feist is perfect for the early evening set as her gently sultry voice is the perfect vehicle to carry us into the night. I have personally not seen Feist since 2003 or 2004, back when what is now CB2 was still a concert venue. She’s put out a few records since then, I think some of them are okay.

You know what would make this awesome? If Jarvis Cocker showed up for their song Century as the last song of the set. And then the stage goes dark, and then suddenly, I feel goosebumps all over as a realize that Field Trip’s secret set is none other then PULP! An excited crowd gathers, as we look at the stage, something like this happens

Oh my god, how awesome would that be! Make it happen Kevin Drew.

Did I just write Field Trip fan fiction? yes.

Phoenix

Elisabeth (from Devonshire, England) says
I feel like Phoenix is destined to forever headline smaller festivals and I am okay with this because they play their shows like they’re the biggest band on earth

Badbadnotgood

Ricky says
An underrated feature of Field Trip is how earth friendly it is. Half the bands are local and as such we don’t have a high carbon tax from having to fly bands in, except for Phoenix. Those French fuckers. A great local band is Badbadnotgood, who exist in a musical space that is exclusively theirs and as such have been able to collaborate with such high profile acts as Ghostface Killah. Their album last year built on their existing popularity and they always put on live shows so this set will be very good. Will Kaytranada show up? Tune in and find out.

Portugal The Man

Ricky says
It’s only fitting I see Portugal The Man, before I see Portugal the country (in July). The American band has quite a following and will be touring for a new record for the first time in four years. This seems to be a theme. Anyways, check out this org chart someone made on wiki, the conglomerate I work for doesn’t even have this much detail.

Cloud Nothings

Elisabeth (from Devonshire, England) says
They’re a cool band, or at least that’s what all my cool friends tell me.

Ricky says
As a Raptors fan, I like nothing from Cleveland

LP

Elisabeth (from Devonshire, England) says
I am genuinely excited for LP. That voice is amazing. Listen to this live video of “Lost On You” and tell me I’m wrong

Thundercat

Ricky says
thundercat

How can you not want to see a show with a dude dressed like that. Known more for his collaborations with Kendrick Lamar and Flying Lotus, Thundercat is playing out the show on solo and it looks like it’ll be a fantastic time. Also, if he were to show up in a random alleyway and tell me that I’m actually an alien prince and I need to return to my home planet to regain my throne from a group of squidlike aliens, I would probably believe him.

Elisabeth (from Devonshire, England) says
Take a shot every time you see someone do air sax

Pharcyde

Elisabeth (from Devonshire, England) saysI saw them at NXNE and people really like them! That’s a fact!

Those are the acts we are excited to see! Who are you excited to see?

An Eulogy: Broken Social Scene (1999-2011, Coachella 2013-?)

Posted on by Ricky in Everything, Rickys Random Articles | 3 Comments

Toronto – In an interview published earlier today by esteemed online music journal Pitchfork Media, Kevin Drew of the popular Canadian rock band Broken Social Scene declared that the band was going on hiatus indefinitely after concluding their current tour for their most current LP Forgiveness Rock Record. Arguably one of the most significant bands to emerge in Canada in the past fifteen years, the 67 members of Broken Social Scene have done their part in shaping the landscape in Canadian music for years to come. Alumnus of the band have gone on to great success, especially bands such as Stars, Metric and of course, Feist. The abrupt news of their impending hiatus is sure to bring tears of sadness to many music fans all around.

My own experience with this Toronto band has surprisingly been quite minimal. I only saw Broken Social Scene once. It was 2009, during SXSW of all places. I was walking back to my hotel (the Sheraton..yeah THAT one) and it was about 1:15. As I was approaching Stubbs, I quickly remembered that BSS was playing there. Having never seen the band before, I decided to break my SXSW rule (never see a Canadian/Toronto band in Austin) and check out this act. Forgiveness Rock Record was about to be released later on in the summer and I was lucky enough to hear the track The Sweetest Kill performed then. It was a track I enjoyed. Kevin Drew then introduced some very special guests – Emily Haines and James Shaw to perform Anthem for/of/? a Seventeen Year Old Girl. The crowd went kinda nuts, and I was like “really? is this surprising? Metric is also playing at SXSW, what was the odds of this happening? 1 to 1?” Anyways, the two came out and then performed a beautiful rendition of the track. I then got hungry and went and got a panini, thus ending my first BSS experience.

My second/third BSS experience happened last year during the NXNE charity soccer game, Brendan Canning was on one team and I was on another and I ran into him almost full speed during the game. I kind of expected his seemingly frail body to collapse in a red hairy heap, but it turns out Brendan Canning is a beast on the soccer field so instead, he took the ball away and ran with it. He would later score a goal or two. This year I was in the same soccer game and at the barbecue afterwards, he made me a cheeseburger and I was rather happy about that, even though they used processed cheese instead of the real thing.

There you go, not only were Broken Social Scene important musicians to the industry, they are also people. People with real lives who have to move on, just like you or me. I never saw BSS here because I figured they would always play Toronto, and they would always bring random people on stage to sing songs, and I would always be able to roll my eyes and say ‘that’s so obvious’. Only now, it’s over and I lost my chance. That’s life I guess. The only blessing is that we won’t get to see any more crappy concert films disguised as some weird drama films like the one released last year. For that, I am thankful.

Best of luck to the band in the future, we’ll see you at your eventual reunion.

Broken Social Scene – 7/4 (Shoreline) by artsandcraftsmx

Concert Review: Broken Social Scene, June 19, The Island

Posted on by sarahw in Concerts, Everything | 15 Comments

Toronto – Broken Social Scene was the best concert I have ever attended. The End.

Just kidding! But seriously, Broken Social Scene (BSS) is one of those bands that you just NEED to see live. I love all their albums, but they do not do BSS any justice.

I made my way to the island early to try and avoid the crazy ferry lines that a sold out island concert would cause and arrived as Beach House went on.

Beers

First let me bitch about a few things, the beer garden logistics were horrendous. We had to line up to get into either one of the two beer gardens. Then line-up to buy a maximum of four beer tickets and proceeded to line up again to buy a maximum of two beers with the tickets. We stood in line for an hour (whole Beach House set) to get freaking tickets. After this madness we were forced to stay in the beer garden and drink all 4 beers because leaving meant having to rinse and repeat this entire rigmarole.

They should have sold beer tickets at the entrance to the beer garden and lineups inside should only have been to get the beer. I could have avoided this by not drinking, but seriously, an island concert in 40-degree weather with no beer? It tasted so good when it hit my lips…

The Main Event

Okay back to BSS. Seeing as how Broken Social Scene has about 100 members, concert-goers outside of Toronto rarely have the opportunity to enjoy the band in full force. Luckily, most members live in Toronto or were in town for the MMVA’s (I think?). They opened with World Sick, the single off their Forgiveness Rock Record album. From there it got better and better and better. At the forth song, Kevin Drew brought Feist on stage (YES, Leslie Feist) and they sung 7/4 Shoreline. Amazing. About halfway through, Kevin brought Emily Haines on stage (YES, Emily Haines of Metric) to sing Sentimental X’s. Other notables that joined in were James Shaw (Metric) and Sebastian Grainger (Death From Above 1979). They sang most songs off their new album and threw in classics like Stars and Sons, Fire Eyed Boy, Cause = Time, Almost Crimes and Lover’s Spit.

At any given time during the show there were at least 10 band members on stage (I counted at each song, seriously) including two drummers and about 5 guitarists as the backbone. They changed it up for each song, bringing on special guests, including a violinist, having a backup brass ensemble, and a flute at some points. Kevin Drew apologized at many times during the show because “everything kept breaking” but I couldn’t tell (this is not because I was drunk, it’s because I don’t know any better and I was just so happy to see them live).

Highlights

The best part of this show, apart from THE WHOLE THING, was definitely seeing Feist and Emily Haines sing their parts. I felt all proud to be Canadian at this point and was thinking about how great our current music scene is, there are so many excellent and influential bands hailing from Canada and we have some amazing festivals and concerts that expose them to the masses.

For the finale (Ibi Dreams of Pavement was actually the finale, but I don’t like that song so we’ll ignore it) they played Meet me in the Basement, an EPIC tune and my favorite off their new album. BSS is truly an instrumental band, and the guitar riffs in this song are probably going to go down in musical history books! I don’t want to be too cliché but they killed it with this song. They sound like a tightly woven modern rock orchestra and while I still love the song, it’ll never be the same unless I hear it live.

Broken Social Scene – World Sick by AlwaysHustle

Concert Review: Broken Social Scene, May 9, Sonic Boom!

Posted on by Brent in Concerts | 1 Comment

Toronto – To show appreciation for their fans a few days after their fifth album Forgiveness Rock Record was released, Broken Social Scene came up with the clever idea of four in-store concerts Sunday at Criminal Records (2pm), Rotate This (4pm), Soundscapes (6pm), and Sonic Boom (8pm). The album was coincidentally released on the same day as New Pornographers’ Together album.

One could call it an east coast vs. west coast indie super-group rivalry or just some fictitious marketing ploy done up in an article a couple weeks ago by New York Magazine. Either way, one of the hardest working bands in Canadian rock today were still full of energy after a long day and able to plough out a set of just under an hour in the sweaty basement of Sonic Boom. Two lines snaked throughout the store with the “non-ticket holders” line being far longer. The band’s crew was in the back room entertaining themselves with friends and family all out in support. It’s always a family affair at a BSS show and this was no different tonight with Kevin Drew bringing his parents along to celebrate Mother’s Day, even singing his mother a slightly satirical ballad to thank her for all the support over the years. Along with Drew, Brendan Canning, Charles Spearin, Andrew Whiteman, Justin Peroff, Lisa Lobsinger, and Sam Goldberg rounded out the main lineup. As well, Julie Doiron was invited on stage to sing with Lobsinger on Anthems for a 17 Year Old Girl and their horn section on several other songs. Broken Social Scene begin their European tour in London this Thursday.