A Big, Beautiful Mess”

“A BIG, BEAUTIFUL MESS”: COLLECTIVITY, CAPITALISM, ARTS & CRAFTS AND BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE by Ian Dahlman Bachelor of Arts (Hons.), Psychology and Comparative Literature & Culture University of Western Ontario, 2005 London, Ontario, Canada A thesis presented to Ryerson University and York University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the Program of Communication and Culture Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 2009 © Ian Dahlman 2009 I hereby declare that I am the sole author of this thesis. I authorize Ryerson University and York University to lend this thesis to other institutions or individuals for the purpose of scholarly research. Ian Dahlman I further authorize Ryerson University and York University to reproduce this thesis or dissertation by photocopying or by other means, in total or in part, at the request of other institutions or individuals for the purpose of scholarly research. Ian Dahlman ii “A Big, Beautiful Mess”: Collectivity, Capitalism, Arts & Crafts and Broken Social Scene Ian Dahlman Master of Arts, Program in Communication and Culture Ryerson University and York University 2009 Abstract: The aim of this thesis is to critically examine the emergence of new forms of collectivity in Canadian independent popular music. A case study was conducted centring on the Toronto-based collective Broken Social Scene and its label Arts & Crafts, and original interviews were conducted with Stuart Berman, Charles Spearin, Jason Collett, Jeffrey Remedios, and Brendan Canning. An analysis of the major labels and a history of the sensibilities of independent artists establish the habitus of an independent artist at the end of the 1990s. The particulars of Toronto’s music scene show the organic origins of the band’s collectivity to be in process-based composition and performance. Broken Social Scene’s political economy and internal dynamics suggest that Arts & Crafts acts as an aegis for the group’s membership and processes. Finally, Broken Social Scene’s metaphorical self conceptualization revealed the important structuring role the paradoxical affect of love plays for the group. iii Acknowledgements First, I would like to thank my family. Mom and Dad, I could never have done this without your unwavering support, thank you for helping me pursue my passions. To my brother Keith, thank you for the sympathetic ear, the shared love of the music, and the unyielding minesweeper procrastination. I also owe a great debt to my thesis supervision committee. To Rob Bowman, thank you for all the fantastic advice, your guidance allowed me to go into these interviews feeling calm and prepared. I also must absolutely express my gratitude to you for a passing distinction you made between the Beatles and the Rolling Stones one day in class, little did I know how infinitely illuminating thinking about process and product would be. To Steve Bailey, thank you for the beers and genial discussions at the Only Café, a pleasure that always left me thoroughly engaged and impassioned. To Angela Blake, thank you for your critical eye and accommodating nature. The faculty at Ryerson and York’s Communication and Culture program deserve affectionate praise, and particularly two individuals were indispensable. To Jennifer Brayton, thank you for your unparalleled generosity, it allowed me to not only share my research but also get feedback from people across the country. To Murray Pomerance, thank you for your incisive intellect and curiosity, and for inspiring and challenging me like no one else at ComCult. The support and warmth was always felt, and I look forward to a long and rewarding friendship. All my friends and colleagues deserve boundless thanks for all the beers and venting, especially in the name of the glorious sport of dodge ball! To Andrew DeWaard, thanks for the stupendous edit buddy, trading revisions like the good ol’ days of undergrad; it is remarkable, miraculous, divine providence! To Jennifer Johnson, thank you for everything big and small, for being my muse and my escape, and for letting me develop my thesis continually between us, this would not have been nearly as good nor as fun without you; there just aren’t enough words. Thank you to the staff at Arts & Crafts, particularly Stephen McGrath – you got me so much and I kept asking for more, thank you for your inexhaustible patience and efforts. Stuart Berman, Charles Spearin, Jason Collett, Jeffrey Remedios, and Brendan Canning, thank you for the brilliant interviews, you were all so warm, welcoming, and genuinely engaged that it made my job easy; I hope that I captured your sentiments faithfully and that you enjoy the following pages. Finally, thank you to Broken Social Scene itself – your 2005 Hillside performance planted the seeds for this thesis, and your music is a never-ending source of joy and inspiration. I can’t wait to hear where the big, beautiful mess will lead next. Funded in Part by a Grant from the Canadian Media Research Consortium and the Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies iv Table of Contents Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 1 Chapter One: The Music Industries and Major Labels .................................................... 17 Chapter Two: Independent Sensibilities .......................................................................... 42 Chapter Three: The Formation of a Collective ................................................................ 60 Chapter Four: The Political Economy and Dynamics of a Collective ............................. 82 Chapter Five: What is a Collective, How is Broken Social Scene? ............................... 110 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 127 Appendix: Interview Catalogue ..................................................................................... 134 Works Cited ................................................................................................................... 135 Discography ................................................................................................................... 139 v List of Images Image One: Sticker from the cellophane wrapper of You Forgot It In People ................ 60 Image Two: Still from music video for “Almost Crimes” (You Forgot It In People) ..... 98 Image Three: Cover art for Broken Social Scene............................................................ 115 Image Four: Broken Social Scene t-shirt print ............................................................. 116 Image Five: Back cover for Broken Social Scene .......................................................... 124 vi Introduction some boys I know they speak with broken mouths I have to sit inside their stomachs to find out what they’re really about -“Stomach Song” (Feel Good Lost) Write, form a rhizome, increase your territory by deterritorialization, extend the line of flight to the point where it becomes an abstract machine covering the entire plane of consistency. -Gilles Deleuze & Félix Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus (11) To introduce Broken Social Scene, the Toronto-based independent rock music group, it is perhaps best to begin with a moment – a window upon the collected musicians. On November 8th, 2005, after an interview on KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic radio show,1 the band began preparing to perform an acoustic rendition of their song “Ibi Dreams of Pavement (A Better Day).” Kevin Drew, one of the co-founders of Broken Social Scene, wipes his brow and lets out a heavy, sigh-laced “OK, here we go,” as the band fiddles with its instruments: “gonna count it in.” Someone whistles in the background, imitating the opening guitar distortion on the recorded version and gets a few laughs. Drew looks around, “should we shut the door? It’s bothering me that it’s open.” As the door clicks shut, Drew’s voice jumps up and a quick “here we go” flies out, punctuated by a few staccato notes coming from a piano, after which he begins the count. However Drew, whose count is supposed to lead the group into a unified burst of all the instruments, cannot bring himself to start on his own time. He tries only to stop short: “one, 1 The interview with Nic Harcourt on the Santa Monica-based station was fortuitously captured on film by KCRW and is currently available for streaming online. 1 two... wait wait wait, can someone count it in? I’m kinda going crazy.” Brendan Canning, the other co-founder of Broken Social Scene, gently murmurs “this is my count,” and then repeats a single low G on the piano in time as Drew counts with his notes: “one, two, three, four.” But at the end of the first full count, Canning plays the opening chord while Drew keeps counting, and only a piano and a guitar are heard launching into the song. Drew’s count dissolves into a big grin and a chuckle, as Canning asks “didn’t anybody get my count?” All the band clangours with laughter and teases “awww” as Drew responds “that’s OK, I...,” but he is cut-off by Canning beginning a new count, “one, two,” which the rest of the ensemble responds to by chiming, in choir unison, “three, four!” Finally, on that joint, communal count, the eight present members of Broken Social Scene are able to begin the song in unanimity, without a hitch, while echoes of the laughter can be heard beneath the first few chords of the song as they play. In this moment, we see the workings of what the press has labelled – and to

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