Earlier today I read Side One Track One's review of In The Aeroplane Over The Sea, which got me thinking about mixtapes I've received, and songs on them that have got me into bands. With that in mind, here is the story of the first time I heard Broken Social Scene. (As a side note, In The Aeroplane Over The Sea is possibly my all-time favourite album and I plan to write a very lengthy post about that when I find the time to gush appropriately).
When I was at university in Australia I met a girl who was into some very cool music (in fact, far cooler music than me; I was impressed by her Les Savy Fav t-shirt while she looked down on me for wearing a Thursday t-shirt). Shortly after I left the country she sent me a mixtape in the post of 15-or-so mostly indie songs by bands I'd either never heard of, or never heard. I like a bit of indie, but it doesn't always do it for me and there were only really two songs the particularly caught my ear. One was The CN Tower Belongs to the Dead by Final Fantasy and the other was the first song on there - Ibi Dreams of Pavement - A Better Day. It was a great opener to a mixtape and a great song.
That summer I went to Pukkelpop festival and saw BSS play on the Sunday evening. They were absolutely incredible to watch; sometimes up to 15 people on stage banging away at various instruments. The set-list was great too. Despite not knowing the songs at the time, I remember hearing Anthem For a Seventeen Year -Old Girl and It's All Gonna Break. I've seen them a number of times since and, with the exception of their set at the Explosions in the Sky ATP, the shows never quite lived up to my memories. (That year's Pukkelpop line-up remains one of the best festival bills I've ever seen - Radiohead, Massive Attack, Daft Punk, Beck, Cursive, Turbonegro, BSS,...)
Anyway, shortly after Pukkelpop I had a look for the self-titled album and found a new copy on eBay for a bargain price, expecially considering it's a double. The album itself spans three sides, with the fourth taken up by the Ep To Be You and Me. There are some great songs here, but given that there are 21 songs overall, there are a few that fall into the background and I forget about. The highlights are definitely Ibi Dreams of Pavement, Windsurfing Nation, Superconnected and It's All Gonna Break. Ibi should be the opener in my opinion - it worked well on the mixtape and would do a similarly good job here. I absolutely love it when the horns start playing on any of their songs.
It's a pretty lovely package too. Nice, thick vinyl, gatefold sleeve and picture inner sleeves. Written inside are notes on the songs including "Get Canning to title more songs" on Handjobs For the Holidays, and "Make sure ghosts doesn't sound like goats", a mistake that would've made It's All Gonna Break a very different song. The EP is alright, but given the strength of the outro of the album, I could live without. It's nice that it's there though.
Overall, a very good record by an awesome band who I might not have heard had it not been for that mixtape. I lost contact with the friend who sent me it a while back (honestly, who isn't on Facebook these days?). After seeing Final Fantasy I tried to email her to say thank you for putting his song on the cd, but I assume she no longer check her uni email. I realise the chances of her reading this are slim, but thank you Kate for playing me Broken Social Scene and Final Fantasy.
Format: double 12", gatefold sleeve, picture sleeves
Tracks: 21
Cost: £8.53 new
Bought: eBay
When: 31/10/06
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no
