If there’s such a thing as an official Toronto chapter of the Sea and Cake fan club, then they have at least nine members -- and upwards of 20 should the rest of Broken Social Scene’s extended professional family be in the area. According to BSS guitarist Andrew Whiteman, there isn’t a person in the band who isn’t a fan of the Chicago post-rock act.
“I suppose there’s greater or lesser fans, but everyone is for sure,” he says -- a bit of BSS trivia that has led to some excitement, on his part at least, as the band prepares to tour North America with one of their all-time favourites in the opening spot.
Sea and Cake’s Sam Prekop and John McEntire both feature on BSS’s current album Forgiveness Rock Record (and then there’s the little detail of McEntire, also of Tortoise, recording the disc at his Soma Electronic Music Studios in Chicago). As such, both are likely to turn up on stage during BSS’s sets during this tour (the first Canadian stop is in Winnipeg, Oct. 6).
“I don’t care if they play with us, I want to go play with them,” says Whiteman with a dry chuckle, hopeful he’ll get to join the band for a “three-guitar jam.” But he’s probably not the only member of Broken who’s wishing upon wishes. He’s not even the biggest Sea and Cake -- or Tortoise -- fan in the group.
“I suppose [the biggest fan] would be either Kevin [Drew] or Charles [Spearin],” Whiteman says after a split-second of reflection. “That’s how I got into Tortoise, is through Kevin -- when we first met, first started playing, you know,” says Whiteman, remembering how Drew used to feed him records by both groups during the band’s early days in the late ‘90s and early 2000s -- long before BSS was featuring in movies (This Movie is Broken), touring Australia, Europe and Asia (as they did earlier this summer), winning Junos (Alternative Album of the Year 2003, 2006) or had even recorded their artistic breakthrough, You Forgot it in People (2002).
Despite the band’s common diet of Chicago-scene indie rock, Whiteman won’t say those records had any direct influence on Broken Social Scene’s gestational period. (“Well you know, they’re an amazing band, but you can’t really credit them any more than you can any other amazing bands,” he says.) He does, however, draw a connection between those old Sea and Cake/Tortoise CD swaps and their current working relationship with McEntire. It wouldn’t have been possible without Drew’s brand of fandom.
“He’s so sincere about his love of music and the passion it’s inspired in him, and he loves to spread it,” says Whiteman. Years ago, that was translated in sharing CDs. Now, says Whiteman: “Kevin, it’s important for him to make connections with these people whose music really mattered to him.”
For previous examples, you could look back to the band being joined onstage by Modest Mouse’s Isaac Brock in 2008, their appearance with J. Mascis of a then newly reunited Dinosaur Jr. at the 2006 Olympic Island Festival in Toronto, or Pavement’s appearance with the band at this year’s Toronto Island show. And according to Whiteman, there’s more than super-fandom involved in BSS reaching out to their favourite bands.
“It’s got to be personal to really kick in,” he says. “What if we met John [McEntire] and we didn’t like him or he didn’t like us?” Thankfully, when the band accepted an invitation to try recording with him in Chicago, Whiteman says “that’s not how it went.”
“We went in true Social Scene fashion, and we had no songs and we had no idea what we were doing, but we went to make up a couple songs on the spot, and just hang out, and we just did that for a couple days and we liked it -- and he liked it.” says Whiteman. “He liked the fact that we’re not organized. … I think he liked that approach.”
The same non-philosophy will apply to any collaborations on stage during the bands’ fall tour, Whiteman expects -- though a few things have admittedly been planned, including the setlist additions of Forgiveness track “Romance to the Grave” (which features Prekop on vocals) and “Sentimental X’s” (don’t spaz out, fans of Feist, Emily Haines, Amy Millan: Whiteman says the track’s trinity of female vocalists isn't expected to appear anywhere along the tour).
Tour dates are scheduled until Dec. 19 in Quebec City, but Whiteman’s already predicting what he’ll be up to in 2011. “We’re going to tour our asses off all next year,” he says. Though nothing’s confirmed yet, he expects the band will return to North America, hopefully including Mexico in their itinerary. And one other thing: “This hasn’t really been talked about, but I’m hoping we’ll gather our energies enough to spend a little bit more time in the studio and release another record,” he says. Forgiveness Rock Record, the band’s fourth album, debuted in May, and according to Whiteman, some “42 jams” were written during the making of that disc. “So we’ve released 14,” he says, which accounts for the Forgiveness album tracks, “and then we released that little EP that had nine or 10 little bits on it,” (he’d be referring to the digital EP Lo-Fi for the Dividing Nights). “So you know, there’s still another 20 songs that are in some stage of being written or in some stage of completion from half way there to almost there to a few great ideas.
“There’s amazing songs that didn’t make it on that record that I would love [to release],” he says. “I don’t want the songs to sit around for two more years. I don’t want to go to the studio and pull my hair out tweaking them, I want to get them out there.”
That said, making plans isn't always in “true Social Scene fashion.”
Broken Social Scene is one of the bands featured on Dose.ca's Essential Mix. Download the free Essential Mix on iTunes at www.dose.ca/mix.
Broken Social Scene’s Canadian tour dates include:
Oct. 6, Winnipeg
Oct. 7, Saskatoon
Oct. 8, Calgary
Oct. 9, Edmonton
Oct. 10, Kelowna
Oct. 12, Victoria
Oct. 13-14, Vancouver
Dec. 16, Ottawa
Dec. 18, Montreal
Dec. 19, Quebec City
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