Tonight, on the Dewick-MacPhie stage, Tufts' Concert Board presents hypnotic indie-rock collective Broken Social Scene as the 2006 installment of the Tufts Rock Show. The band, which hails from Toronto, begins the international leg of its tour in support of its fourth full-length album, 2005's "Broken Social Scene."
The brainchild of guitarists/vocalists/co-frontmen Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning, the Canadian band rotates up to 14 other musicians to imbue their music with a stunning grandeur few other groups can achieve. Formed on top of Drew and Canning's former band, KC Accidental, BSS debuted with 2001's "Feel Good Lost," a warm, melting instrumental album released by Noise Factory Records. By 2002, Drew and Canning had formed their own Toronto-based label, Arts and Crafts Productions, from which they released their sophomore album, "You Forgot It in People."
Part tender, part fierce, but all achingly beautiful, "You Forgot It" is considered by many independent music authorities to be one of the best records of the young decade, and rightly so; it is a stunning musical achievement.
Despite featuring musicians by the boatload, it is a shockingly intimate record, full of lyrical confession and stirring guitars. Trumpets subtly purr, drums echo, guitars howl, and voices cry -- often all at once. Producer Dave Newfeld, who also plays on the record, mixes each track so spaciously that the near-countless instruments don't bunch up, but so snugly that you can't get lost in the spaces. The album won a Juno Award (the Canadian Grammy) for alternative album of the year.
In the wake of critical accolades and mounting buzz, the band released "Bee Hives" in 2004. The disparate collection of B-sides and rarities serves as an important collector's item for the band's many crazed fans, but upon release it disappointed many expecting the gratifying catharsis of "You Forgot It."
In October of last year the band released their proper follow-up to "You Forgot It," the eponymous "Broken Social Scene" (which the Daily gave four stars). Though not quite as good as its predecessor, the album still wound up on many reputable year-end top-10 lists.
As complex, diverse and, at times, epic as their 2002 release, "BSS" also features a handful of admittedly ambitious yet woefully unsuccessful tracks that make the self-titled effort oh-so-slightly worse. Without the trip-hoppy "Hotel" or the muddled string-based "Major Label Debut," this would be an utter gem.
"BSS," in a similar vein as its predecessor, is a sprawling, delicate blitzkrieg of a rock record. Stacking level upon level of squealing electric guitars, sympathetic acoustic guitars, furious and impeccable drumming, twisty bass and airy vocals, it forms a precarious sonic layer cake.
"7/4 (Shoreline), " whose first title refers to the unconventional time signature that drummer Justin Peroff seems hell-bent on pounding out, careens in and out of Canning's waifish vocals and Leslie Feist belting "And you're walking away / but where to go to?" After the song seems to end, a crescendoing trumpet flourish stomps them both to shame.
With Peroff's manic hi-hat, umpteen swirling guitars and a pulsing bass line, "Fire Eye'd Boy" starts dangerously, growing until Drew's rogue guitar charges into the mix and slices the song to chilling ribbons.
Their songs seem to breathe with the combined energy and constant shuffling of the band's many members, and nowhere is this dynamism more evident or relevant than on stage.
In October, on the first BSS tour, the band played Boston's Avalon and basically started a small lightning storm.
Maintaining the shaky balance between their many instruments for each and every second, BSS tore viciously through "You Forgot It" treasures such as "Almost Crimes" and "KC Accidental" as well as new ones like "Fire Eye'd Boy," "7/4 (Shoreline)" and bombastic finale "It's All Gonna Break."
In addition to speaker-shattering bangers, the band surprised concertgoers with subdued tracks like the humble banjo plucks, bleating violins and synthy vocals of "Anthems for a Seventeen Year-Old Girl."
It was a magnificent performance, and Concert Board expects more of the same tonight.
"I am so incredibly excited for this show," says Concert Board co-chair, senior Alice Chiou. "[BSS] are famous for their energy, and I am really excited to see how well it fills a small venue like Dewick."
Charged with booking the Rock Show's opening act, Concert Board's smaller cousin AppleJam has lined up Brooklyn-based band The National.
Also riding on the coattails of a critically acclaimed 2005 release ("Alligator," which also wound up on several year-end top 10's, including the Daily's), The National play at Tufts one week before a prestigious headlining gig at the PLUG Independent Music Awards.
Said AppleJam co-chair Dan Stern of the melodious Americana group, "We are really lucky to have gotten this band."
"A few months from now," he added, "they are going to be too big for us to afford, and they definitely won't be opening for anybody."
Dan Stern is also a contributing writer for the Daily.
