I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE-World Cafe March 2, 2006 (2006).

Broken Social Scene played at the World Cafe not long after their release of Broken Social Scene (their 3rd album).  This download is primarily an interview between World Cafe’s David Dye and BSS’s Kevin Drew & Brendan Canning, but there’s also three songs that the band played for the session (it’s impossible to know how many songs they played in total, because the songs were recorded prior to the interview–I’m not even sure how many members played live as they were never introduced.)

The songs sound interesting in this recording.  I haven’t listened to the album in a long time, so I don’t recall if these versions sound like the disc; however, these three tracks are fascinating for how quiet they seem to be, despite the fact that there are so many people in the session.  “Something for the Holidays” has at least one violin, a horn section, guitars and several vocalists, and yet it’s rather quiet.  Not mixed quiet mind you, but like everybody is whispering (even the horns).  It makes for an amazingly intimate session.

“Major Label Debut” is a bit more stripped down, but there are clearly a lot of people playing.  The final track, “Ibi Dreams of Pavement” really sounds like a Pavement song in the beginning.  The slightly out of tune violins work perfectly, and whoever is singing has a Stephen Malkmus thing down quite well.

The interview is fascinating (and quite lengthy).  They discuss the origins of the band, how fifteen people can play and tour together and the amazing success that so many of the individuals of the band have had (Feist, Metric etc).  There’s also an explanation about the origin of the title and the sounds of “Ibi Dreams of Pavement.”

It’s a good session and is certainly going to get me to listen to their discs again.

[READ: April 4, 2011] “The Counterpart”

This bizarre story can certainly be called Kafkaesque, if for no other reason than that the narrator, Aleksey, wakes up from a night of drinking to find out that his nose is gone.  Not torn off, not bloody, not broken, just gone.  His face is now flat with two holes for breathing.

This bizarre incident no doubt stems from his childhood hatred of his large Semitic nose (despite his being a Christian) and the years of abuse he received about it.  First he thinks his lover, Tatiana, is somehow responsible.  But when she comes over she is just as surprised as he.  Nevertheless, she is insistent that he must carry on as normal, for he must improve his lot (and thereby hers).

Because Aleksey is not faring so well (nose aside).  He has not been given tenure, his wife and child have left him and he is stuck translating poor Russian works into English.  Tatiana has set up a job interview for him and the interview is today.  But how can he go with no nose?

Aleksey mopes around for much of the day, thinking he sees his nose everywhere.  And then at last, when he goes to the interview… there is his nose, conducting the interview.

What?  Exactly.  It’s a very funny, totally surreal story.  But there is a lot more going on than the superficial joke about the nose.  There’s a lot at stake with his relationship ( agreat plot twist).  The subtext and backstory is quite profound and well constructed.  Despite the absurd premise, it’s a very successful story, and even if it doens’t make “sense” it conveys a lot.