A handful of friends contributed to the album, including vocals by Leslie Feist (who had played in By Divine Right and had her own solo act under the name Feist), drums by Justin Peroff, and trombone by Evan Cranley (of the Montreal band Stars). During the show, Drew performed a solo song on guitar and synthesizer, improvising for 30 minutes.ĭuring that winter and into 2001, Drew and Canning began to record the first BSS album. The show was actually billed as John Tesh Jr. December 17, 2000, marked the first official BSS show at Ted's Wrecking Yard in Toronto. Their music was experimental, long-winded, and improvised.

Drew had recorded under the name KC Accidental and played with Do Make Say Think Canning was known for playing in By Divine Right and HHead, among other prominent Canadian indie rock bands. It was in Toronto in 1999 when Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning started laying the foundations of Broken Social Scene. The belief that we should never settle for a compromised existence when it comes to the thing we truly love.' Where it Began Barclay described the essence of BSS as 'the variety that comes with surrendering ego to a musical potlatch. Their second album, 2002's You Forgot It In People, did well in United States and won the group a Juno award in Canada. Their music was part experimental and part indie rock and pop. Torontonians Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning started BSS as a duo, but over the years the group's size varied, with their live shows consisting of anywhere from six to 19 musicians on stage for a performance. But in terms of why we did all this in the first place, that will never leave.'

One of their publicity releases stated, 'Broken Social Scene is, always has and always will be a group of friends and loves.' 'No one's going to take the music away,' BSS founder Kevin Drew told Michael Barclay in Exclaim!. But the group consider themselves more of a collective than a supergroup. Billboard once described Broken Social Scene (BSS) as 'a new genre of music: symphcore … typified by soaring vocal croons, hushed keyboards, and delicate string arrangements,' and praised the group's 'otherworldly orchestral pop.' The New York Times called BSS 'a Canadian band that doesn't want to make its music too easy.' Broken Social Scene could be called a supergroup, since its members have all had prior success in different bands and some still do.

Best broken social scene songs