If Josh Rouse was wed to Modest Mouse who was recently separated from the Beta Band you would the new couple would be Canadian rock collective Broken Social Scene. In 2002 this band released their second album, You Forgot it in People. The album garnered a modest amount of success in Canada centering around their hometown of Toronto. The band ever won a "prestigious" Juno Award in early 2003.
But at the beginning of 2003 no one had heard of these guys in the States. Ryan Schrieber, the editor of Pitchfork Media made a New Years resolution to go through "boxes upon boxes" of promotional cds he gets sent in hopes of finding those diamonds in the rough. In that often futile effort Schreiber found ths BSS album. On February 3rd, 2003, Schreiber published this review.
It was so enthusiastic that it generated a buzz strong enough to sell out the small Canadian label completely out of the first printing. The Canadian label put out a larger run for the states that has since sold out. I tried to find the album twice at record stored with no success during this print run.
Finally, Mercury records has signed as distribution deal with BSS. On top of that BSS has a video on MTV2. BSS has a degree of buzz that is approaching a fever pitch.
I almost bought the album twice online. Both times I wavered and the the album sold out. Today I purchased it. It lives up to the hype. The earlier matrimonial description does BSS justice. They are that good. This is the best rock album we will see this year. Enough said.
"Enough Said"?? Great, now you AND Todd are droppin' the final word on all sortsof things...
Posted by: JosiahQ at June 18, 2003 12:33 PMFor those of us who are currently too obsessed with Gillian Welch to listen to anyone else (and I'm probably using the plural to no avail here), care to tell us WHY this album is worth the $18.99?
Posted by: mesh at June 18, 2003 2:04 PMYa like, what does it sound like? Do they use guitars?
Posted by: JosiahQ at June 18, 2003 4:12 PMYes they use guitars, it's a rock album. Why do you have to spend $18.99 on it. It's sounds like the by product of a relationship between Josh Rouse (Who I know Mesh is familiar with), Modest Mouse, and the Beta Band. They have two cds, the first one is all inaccessible experimental stuff. The second one, You Forgot it in People is a pop-rock gem. It is on the same pedestal (in my mind) as the best three pop-rock albums of last year, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, and Turn on the Bright Lights. 2003's threesome will include You Forgot it in People without a doubt. I'm not making a Loddy Toddy assertion, I have no objective aesthetic standard here. However I do think that given the general criteria of rock criticism that many critics agree on, this album does it all and more.
Posted by: matt at June 18, 2003 11:50 PMAnother thing the two of you sound like old men. Stop that.
Posted by: matt at June 18, 2003 11:51 PMMy hemorrhoids are killing me.
Posted by: mesh at June 19, 2003 1:11 AMdamn kids STAY OFF THE LAWN!!
Posted by: JosiahQ at June 19, 2003 11:50 AM