New Book to Document the Life of Broken Social Scene

BY Brock ThiessenPublished Mar 17, 2009

This spring, Canadian indie rock darlings Broken Social Scene are set to get their very own biography via a new book entitled This Book Is Broken.

Written by Toronto journalist and Eye Weekly editor Stuart Berman, the book is drawn from hundreds of interviews with the band and tracks the BSS crew from their inception, documenting the group's now-legendary 2000 performances at Ted's Wrecking Yard in Toronto, the creation of Arts & Crafts and the band's ever-revolving cast of players. Over 150 exclusive bits of artwork are also featured within the pages, including gig posters, full-colour and black-and-white photographs, and snap shots from the group's personal collections, as well as a forward by BSS co-founders Brendan Canning and Kevin Drew.

This Book Is Broken is not due out through Anansi Press until May 16 but a limited amount of numbered and signed hardcover editions are currently available to pre-order over at Arts & Crafts' web shop.

Here's an excerpt:

Okay, I'll come clean. Broken Social Scene are friends. I've gotten drunk with them, passed out on their couches, been to some of their weddings; they've even helped me move.

These were the opening lines to my five-star review of Broken Social Scene's international breakthrough album,
You Forgot It In People, which ran in the October 11, 2002 edition of Eye Weekly. It was a somewhat apologetic preamble to a perfect score, which I had bestowed upon the band, who, at the time, were completely unknown outside of Toronto indie circles. But my belief in that album overpowered any instinct to respect the traditional distance between critic and subject - Broken Social Scene were a conflict of interest worth fighting for.

Latest Coverage