There’s something about Broken Social Scene that belies its decade-long existence.
Perhaps it’s the fresh excitement of its new studio releases — in this case, “Forgiveness Rock Record” — or its collaborative melding of musical sensibilities that shift with the often changing band lineup.
Whatever it is, the band shows no sign of stopping the creativity that annually seems to boost it to rock critics’ “Best Of” lists.
“The ‘Forgiveness Rock Record’ … it’s sort of just musically thinking we wanted to put something in there that is influential,” Brendan Canning said. “Ultimately art influences society and the way it seeps in. Maybe it doesn’t seem overtly political but hopefully the music will inspire others.”
Basically that’s what Broken Social Scene has been about since Canning and Kevin Drew developed it. The band is a band, but in the very loosest sense possible — and it works just fine.
Although the latest record was written and arranged by Canning, Drew and other members in the Toronto-based band’s current incarnations, plenty of alumni are on the record, including Evan Cranley of Stars and Emily Haines and Jimmy Shaw of Metric. Add to that Sam Prekop of the Sea and Cake, Doug McCombs of Tortoise and Jason Tait of the Weakerthans, and you know why the record is so vibrant.
Little wonder the record label appealed to the band to release the “All to All” remix series, which includes seven different versions of the track originally on the “Forgiveness Rock Record.” The tracks started to be released every Monday early last month and were available exclusively for 24 hours. The first version was by former Death From Above 1979 drummer-vocalist and current Bad Tits frontman Sebastien Granger.
“With it being the most dance-friendly track on the record, our label wanted to put it a little further,” Canning said of the song selection. “We know a lot of people. … Sebastien Granger did the first one and we had fun with making it a slamming kind of dance track. Sebastien really nailed it because he reinvented the song quite a bit.”
Despite his enthusiasm, Canning has no expectations that the songs from the album or the remixes will end up on the heavy rotation of radio in mainstream North America.
“It’s just not,” he said. “That is predictable.”
Again, though, Canning is completely fine with Broken Social Scene remaining the cooperative indie band he co-founded, bringing its music to the masses through concerts.
“The songs grow into their own thing live,” he said. “We are not in this for fleeting success. At this point, we won’t have something real glitzy and glamorous but hopefully it will be full of substance.”
