This Book is Broken: A Broken Social Scene Story

by Stuart Berman, Brendan Canning (Foreword), Kevin Drew (Foreword)

The year was 2000. The alternative music scene had all but died, and pre-packaged pop stars had filled the vacuum. But in a basement apartment in the heart of downtown Toronto, two musicians were forming a creative partnership that would revive the mass appeal of indie music and forever change how we think of a band. In this biography of the ever-evolving indie-rock collective, Broken Social Scene, music columnist Stuart Berman tracks the group's inception by Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning; groundbreaking performances at Ted's Wrecking Yard that raised the band's local status to mythical proportions; Broken Social Scene's meteoric rise upon the release of breakout album You Forgot It In People; the creation of Arts & Crafts records with music-biz maverick Jeffrey Remedios; and life on the road with revolving bandmates, including members of Stars, Metric, The Dears, and international pop sensation Feist. Stuart Berman has drawn from hours of interviews with members and affiliates of Broken Social Scene, and exclusive, never-before-seen photographs, gig posters, and artwork to create a spectacular oral and visual history of this ever-evolving indie-rock collective.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Canada, Biography

278 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 1, 2008

Reviews

[Blair Stretch · Rating 3 out of 5]

A funny and roundabout telling of our mythologized besties. It didn't make me love BSS and more, but also didn't make me love them any less.

[Jesse · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty cool. The descriptions of the music community in Toronto that birthed BSS was very interesting, as well as explanations of the Canadian music industry. I liked the format, with an essay of sorts followed by quotes. The design was good, very based on the "You Forgot it in People" album cover. My only real complaint was simply that it didn't have anything on the last decades' worth of BSS stuff, as the book came out before any of that. Oh well.

[Jaime · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you're looking for history about this legendary Canadian supergroup, this is the place.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

fun, visually entertaining book about my favorite band forever, Broken Social Scene. in fact, I'm even listening to "Passport Radio" as I type this out, how corny...

there's not much to say about this book other than that This Book is Broken is Broken Social Scene's biography; it's pretty self explanatory. the author set each chapter up with a brief, stylish summary of what happened in x set of years followed by little commentaries by various band members. very clever and representative of the ever shape shifting Broken Social Scene. the book is also filled with various pictures of the band members, most of their early days in the 90s.

a great quote by Leslie Feist ties all that is Broken Social Scene together,

"Broken Social Scene will be a band even when we're old and grey, even if it's just at a potluck, because it was never something that needed to be defined."

\m/

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Broken Social Scene may be my favorite band of all time. Mostly, this is due to their great music. Still, the band's "collective" quality makes the cast of characters part of an intriguing draw to learn more about how such a band could exist. The book focuses upon the many talented and dedicated characters that comprise Broken Social Scene. This was exactly what I was looking for in a Broken Social Scene book.

[Leila · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was an incredible experience reading the story behind the scenes of Broken Social Scene and all of the people involved in the band and this new music scene that was happening in Toronto. The format of the book worked for me, and the interviews were really filled with content.