new broken social scene

finally, a shiny new broken social scene album is scheduled to drop on may 4th. this time around they picked up vocals from fiest and stars' amy millan, leaving me with the ever incessant question: could this band get any better? the answer is always yes, and they always prove me right. the wonderful mr. bobby jeffries sent me this article from pitchfork.com and i must gush and share. read the full article, plus the kevin drew tell-all interview here.

"It's been five years since the nebulous indie rock guitar maelstrom known as Broken Social Scene last graced us with a full album of their sprawl. But after a couple semi-solo albums and near-constant touring, the group is ready to let loose their official follow up to 2005's Broken Social Scene with a new, as-yet-untitled LP due out May 4 via Arts & Crafts.

Thanks to Broken Social Scene's revolving-door member policy, you never quite know who's going to be (or who's not going to be) involved in a new BSS record. This time, the album was written and arranged by a core six-piece (pictured), including singer-guitarist Kevin Drew, singer-bassist Brendan Canning, drummer Justin Peroff, guitarist Charles Spearin, and singer-guitarist Andrew Whiteman, along with relative newcomer Sam Goldberg on (what else?) guitar. Of course, that's not all.

The new album's extended cast features many names fans will recognize from their previous triumphs with the group: Leslie Feist, Stars' Amy Millan and Evan Cranley,Metric's Emily Haines and Jimmy Shaw, Jason Collett, Do Make Say Think's Ohad Benchetrit, John Crossingham, Marty Kinack, Julie Penner, Leon Kingstone, and Lisa Lobsinger.

And there are a bunch of newbies, too, chief among them being the LP's producer, post-rock icon John McEntire, who plays in Tortoise and the Sea and Cake and has manned the boards for his own groups as well as others including Stereolab and Teenage Fanclub. Along with McEntire, Sea and Cake's Sam Prekop, Tortoise's Doug McCombs, Pavement's Spiral Stairs, former Death From Above 1979 singer-drummer Sebastien Grainger, Poi Dog Pondering's Susan Voelz, Helen Money's Alison Chesley, and the Weakerthans' Jason Tait can all be heard (somewhere) on the album.

Recorded at McEntire's Soma Studios in Chicago and Shaw and Grainger's Giant Studios in Toronto throughout last year, the new record does not, however, feature the talents of producer Dave Newfeld, who played a sizable role in shaping the band's self-titled release and their 2002 breakout, You Forgot It In People. But rejuvenation and reinvention are intrinsic to these anthem-prone Canadians; if you're looking for stability and constancy, it might be best to look elsewhere."