Broken Social Scene’s “You Forgot It In People” turns 20

Broken Social Scene has always been less a band than a band collective — a former incubator of Canadian indie megastars who put Toronto on the map around the same time that other supergroups the New Pornographers were doing the same for Vancouver and Arcade Fire (*cringe emoji*) for Montreal. More than two decades after their inception, Broken Social Scene have come to symbolize a maximalist music era where indie ensemble bands reigned supreme – the more instruments, the merrier! Almost like a 90’s ska band, except nobody got paid to skank on stage. (Nothing against the ska community.)

Beginning in 1999 as a musical partnership between Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning, Broken Social Scene would eventually see nearly 30 members cycling through their ranks, with players hopping in and out based on availability. Some of these early names included the Leslie Feist, Amy Millan and Torquil Campbell from Stars, Emily Haines and James Shaw from Metric, the trio of Charles Spearin, Julie Penner and Ohad Benchetrit from Do Make Say Think, as well as Apostle Of Hustle, KC Accidental, Jason Collett and others who I no doubt let out (Fun Fact: Canning was once a member of Len, best known for “Steal My Sunshine.”)

So Many Canadian indie rock figures were born out of the crushing beliefs of the larger Broken Social Scene that the whole company should be investigated — or at least one episode of the podcast should be featured Sounds like a cult. Nowhere is this merry-go-round of talent better illustrated than on the band’s amazing second album, You forgot about humanswho turns 20 this Saturday.

When groundbreaking records reach a certain age, I usually try not to take it personally or start digging my own grave. The passage of time is inevitable and it always annoyed me when people boo-chicken about how their prime is behind them, it’s been X years since college finished, there’s no good music, blah blah – you got it.

That means: Write an essay for the 20th anniversary This certain album is a gut punch. It’s hard to think of a record that meant more to me as a young adult than this. I probably played every track at least a few times on my college radio show; I have traveled to Philadelphia and New York several times to see Broken Social Scene live (With Feist in the lineup!!). During one of those shows, my crush at the time confessed his reciprocal feelings when BSS played “Lover’s Spit”. To me, You forgot about humans is one of those albums that’s so steeped in coming-of-age nostalgia that, frankly, my pragmatism around anniversaries doesn’t stand a chance. My MySpace name was Broken Social Thing, for goodness sake.

The irony is in the lyrics You forgot about humans actually don’t make much sense – at least not enough to form universal emotional bonds. Unlike other contemplative indie projects of the era – Bright Eyes, The Mountain Goats, Elliott Smith – Broken Social Scene and You forgot about humans plucked hearts in a similar vein to their all-instrumental debut in 2001 Feel good lost. You forgot about humans have taken a giant step forward with lyrics and an expanded universe of featured players, but the words they use are vague, seemingly cryptic, and definitely leave room for interpretation, depending on who’s listening. To tap into a spectrum of feelings, BSS used a world of instruments, vocals and rhythms that could fill an arena or gently set a film’s narrative to music. BSS accomplished all of this across 13 tracks, yet guided every mood, voice and melody through the unified vision of Drew and Canning. We tend to forget: cramming so many creative personalities into one studio can so quickly lead to a big ole mess, either interpersonal or sonically. But BSS made it look easy.

Produced by David Newfeld, You forgot about humans was originally released on Toronto Indie Paper Bag Records. It slowly picked up steam in the months following its release, spurred considerably by a rave Pitchfork review (note the original album cover), at a time when the power of this site was first becoming apparent. During 2003, the album won Alternative Album of the Year at the Juno Awards, and BSS made the leap to longtime home label Arts & Crafts, which reissued it You forgot about humans to keep up with public demand. Likewise, the band made the wise decision to create a whole Miscellaneous album out You forgot about humans B-sides, aka 2004 beehives.

And they had plentiful materials to choose from. Recording at Stars And Sons Studio in Toronto, BSS crafted an explosive, downright upbeat collection of songs that meander away from post-rock (“Capture The Flag”, “Pacific Theme”, “Pitter Patter Goes My Heart”, ” Late Nineties Bedroom Rock For The Missionaries”) to guitar pop (“Stars And Sons”) to distorted banjo folk (or whatever the word salad “Anthems Of A Seventeen Year-Old Girl” best describes). Then we have the cascading, galloping wall of sound of “KC Accidental” which follows the ambient appetizer “Capture The Flag” as the album’s actual introduction and which I think is rightly remembered with the BSS around this time theirs shows opened.

There is no filler on it You forgot about humans. Each track complements the last, although the mood shifts from the sprawling “Anthems” to the tight, punchy “Almost Crimes” (my personal favorite track on the album, although to this day I have no idea what it means, “fuck the because” ).

This is also one of those albums that, despite being a smash hit on release (or at least after it got 9.2 Best New Music on Pitchfork), still had a wildly successful long tail. I know that’s an exaggeration, but it didn’t feel like it You forgot about humans Voiced every indie film and prestige drama filmed between 2004 and 2008? Only “Lover’s Spit” was in lie to me (2005), willow park (2004), The Love Crimes of Gillian Guess (2004), Queer as a people (2003) and the Canadian series terminal city (2005). (That beehives Version of “Lover’s Spit” was also featured Nip/tuck.) The L word Needle drops “Pacific Theme” and “Looks Just Like the Sun”. “Stars & Sons”, “Shampoo Suicide” and the B-side “Da Da Dada” accompanied the Ryan Gosling indie soundtrack Half Nelson (2006). And “Anthems” served as a indeed Anthem for the teenage character Knives in Scott Pilgrim vs The World (2010).

Speaking of “Anthems,” here’s a nice reminder from Brendan Canning of how the song came about after Kevin Drew told everyone they sounded like “a friggin’ bar band”:

We were rehearsing for a broken social scene show at the Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto. The band line-up, still changing all the time, but at that point it was me, John Crossingham, Jimmy Shaw, Emily Haines, Jason Collett, Justin Peroff and Kevin Drew. Kevin was upstairs doing something but when he came downstairs he said we sounded like a bloody bar band so we decided to come up with something better. “Anthems” was slowly being thought through. I remember whispering the theme of the song to Emily: “Used to be one of the Rotten Ones and I like you for that.” I murmured it as we played and then she interpreted it and made it her own . We spent another week brainstorming lyrical ideas and getting the song where it should be, but it was a very “current” way of writing.

Not the origin story one would expect from a gripping ballad that has become a sentimental favorite for thousands of listeners, but whatever works I guess!

BSS not only created the mold for an unpredictable hybrid of post-rock-meets-stadium-rock-meets-folk-pop, they introduced the rest of the world to the art-school indie-rock wave emerging Toronto flows. They knew Feist if. (An image of Drew and Feist slowly dancing to “Lover’s Spit” will forever be etched in my brain.) They helped pioneer the very idea of ​​indie ensemble bands like Edward Sharpe And The Magnetic Zeros, Sweden’s I ‘m From Barcelona to make known. the strumbellas, the polyphonic spree, the world is a beautiful place and i’m not afraid to die anymore… just to name a few.

Today BSS is still around – the collective has gone on hiatus before, but the hiatus never seems to last more than two years. In 2022 they issued the cross-career Old Dead Young: B-sides & Rarities discontinued while the band’s last studio LP was in 2017 Embrace of Thunder. (Kevin Drew was also confronted Allegations of being anti-vaxthat’s a hard thing to write, so I’ll just stop here.) They’ve released five LPs in total, and their self-titled LP from 2005, IMO, is just as special as You forgot about humans. Everything after that didn’t particularly register as important listening (sorry everyone Skirt of Forgiveness enthusiasts), but that’s no knock on the overall artistry of BSS. This thinking has everything to do with timing and my own journey of growing up. Other high school or college grads from the ’00s – if you know, you know.

Ultimately, the idea of ​​packing 15+ people into an art rock band isn’t a long-running thing. It only works occasionally, if it works at all. The only comparable (contemporary) act I can think of might be War On Drugs, but that’s only because Kurt Vile was among its former members and every indie artist in Philadelphia has a 6 degree connection to Adam Granduciel – and the band anyway is definitely Granduciel’s show. The actual makeup of BSS may be reminiscent of a bygone era, but their bounty of creativity and general influence still stirs hearts in Canada and far beyond.