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Canning Goes To Front Of Scene

Posted Nov 20, 2008 by Clarisa Gerlach

Updated Nov 20, 2008 at 04:35 PM

It’s Brendan Canning’s album but it’s Broken Social Scene’s tour.

Of course a large percentage of Broken Social Scene plays on the album, and ihe album, “Something For All of Us,” is credited to Broken Social Scene Presents Brendan Canning.

Welcome to the world of Broken Social Scene, a Canadian group inevitably referred to as a collective, centered around songwriters Canning and Kevin Drew.

The group, which sometimes swells to 15 on stage, has included at one time or another, Feist, Emily Haines, members of Stars and Apostle of Hustle, and seemingly every Canadian musician who isn’t in The Arcade Fire (or Rush).

For “Something For All of Us,” Canning took “the lead in the directorial sense,” he says. “There was a little more pressure on me. Not everyone had to had to spend countless hours in the studio like with a band record. It was mainly me and the guys who produced the record,” Ryan Kondrat and John La Magna.

Canning didn’t have far to travel to work on the album.

“Ryan is my next-door neighbor and John lives a block and a half away,” Canning says. “Ryan’s been saying for a couple of years they had a studio just up the street. They primarily had done work on TV shows there. I went in and helped them a bit with that sort of work in January 2007 and we had a big old time.”

The resulting album is a fine addition to the Broken Social Scene catalog, a collection of carefully ornamented guitar pop, spotlighting Canning’s voice, which bears an eerie resemblance to Elliott Smith on the quieter material.

Broken Social Scene, meanwhile, is working on a Broken Social Scene which will feature God knows how many members peripheral and otherwise. You could think of them as the Wu-Tang Clan of alternative rock, minus the arrest record.

“Yeah, our arrest warrants aren’t too many,” Canning says. “We like to cross the border freely.”

Broken Social Scene with Land of Talk performs at Jannus Landing in St. Petersburg tonight (Nov. 22). Call (727) 896-2276 for ticket information.