New Broken Social Scene LP For May

No title yet for John McEntire-produced platter; tour dates set for May w/presale starting today.

By Blurt Staff

Broken Social Scene will be releasing their new, as-yet-untitled album on May 4^th on Arts & Crafts.  Co-produced by the band and Tortoise's John McEntire at Soma Studios in Chicago, with additional recording at Giant Studio and The Schvitz Studio in Toronto, the new album is the follow up to their acclaimed self-titled record, released in 2005.  

There are a lot of cooks in the kitchen for this one, because in addition to the current lineup of Kevin Drew, Brendan Canning, Justin Peroff, Charles Spearin, Andrew Whiteman, Sam Goldberg  and Lisa Lobsinger, there's a virtual clusterfuck of guest appearances.

Among  them are BSS alumni Leslie Feist, Amy Millan and Evan Cranley of Stars, Emily Haines and Jimmy Shaw of Metric, Jason Collett, Ohad Benchetrit of Do Make Say Think and Years, John Crossingham, Marty Kinack, Leon Kingstone and Julie Penner.

But wait, there's more! Also guesting is a who's-who of indie rock icons: John McEntire, The Sea and Cake's Sam Prekop, Tortoise's Doug McCombs, Pavement's Spiral Stairs, Sebastian Grainger, Poi Dog Pondering's Susan Bells, Helen Money's Alison Chesley and The Weakerthans' Jason Tait.

The details:

Founded ten years ago by Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning, Broken Social Scene very quickly established themselves as one of the most vital voices in independent music.  Assembled by Drew, and made up of an assortment of musical friends, lovers, and strangers, the band emerged fully-formed from their hometown of Toronto in 2002.  They were an instantly engaging energetic entity:  a tightly-knit community bursting at the seams with talent, personalities, songs and many, many guitars.  Their albums - which were recently regaled on many "Best of the Decade" lists for the 00's - were cinematic, critically-acclaimed splashes of concept and melody, marrying a dizzying onslaught of sounds with finely-crafted choruses.  The band's ability to weave a plethora of voices, specific genre elements, and varied instrumentation into a postmodern aural pastiche launched them instantly onto the international stage.  Between 2002 and 2009, Broken Social Scene was seemingly everywhere, touring from Mexico City to Moscow, winning Juno Awards, scoring acclaimed films like Half Nelson, making multiple appearances on late-night television shows, and more.  Live, their shows were notoriously epic, cathartic affairs, sometimes lasting over three hours - the result of just wanting to keep playing.  They made their own videos, created their own art work, and simply looked like they were probably having more fun together than any other band out there.  As a group, or on their own, Broken Social Scene's members released some of the 00's most notable independent albums, predominantly from under the umbrella of their own label, Arts & Crafts, cementing their status as one of Canada's most important musical exports.

With their new album, the first Broken Social Scene record following the acclaimed Broken Social Scene Presents... series, Broken Social Scene decided it was time to try something new.  As a core six-piece who had spent most of 2007 and 2008 on the road, Drew, Canning, Spearin, Whiteman, Goldberg and Peroff spent early 2009 working on new material in Toronto.  The pairing down of the band's massive personnel list for the first time proved extremely fruitful; they created spacious songs written as a band by a band, resulting in more cohesive, melody-driven compositions than previous BSS output.  They then decamped to Chicago, recording outside of Toronto for the first time, which allowed them to fully immerse themselves in the recording process.  In producer John McEntire - a musical hero for many of the band's members - they found a fresh perspective on their own sound; this continued to fuel the creative process, resulting in nearly 40 songs written in and out of the studio, a number of which were put together as the first new Broken Social Scene record in five years.  

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Broken Social Scene will also be playing select dates around their new album's release.  A pre-sale for tickets to shows in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York starts today via GalleryAC.com.  The dates: 

5/1/10             San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore

5/3/10             Los Angeles, CA @ Henry Fonda Theatre

5/7/10             New York, NY @ Webster Hall

5/13/10           London, UK @ Brixton Academy (w/ Pavement)

5/14/10           Minehead, UK @ All Tomorrow's Parties

5/17/10           London, UK @ Heaven

5/18/10           Amsterdam, NE @ Melkweg

5/19/10           Cologne, GR @ Burgerhaus Stollwerck

5/21/10           Paris, FR @ La Maroquinerie

6/19/10           Toronto, ON @ Toronto Island (w/ Pavement, Band of Horses)

[Photo Credit: Norman Wong]