BSS Vs. Race Cars

05/15/09 4:54pm

by Kate Harper (CHARTattack)

This week's Olympic Island Festival cancellation had many people scratching their heads. No reason was given for canning the festival at the time, but Broken Social Scene are blaming the infernal din caused by the Honda Indy Toronto (formerly known as the Molson Indy).

The Olympic Island Festival would have fallen on July 11, on the same weekend as the Indy. If you've lived in Toronto during the racing events, you know how loud it is and the general chaos it causes in the city.

"The racetrack runs on Lake Shore Boulevard and is the noisiest fucking thing going and beyond irritating…sorry racecar fans," singer/guitarist Kevin Drew wrote on the Broken Social Scene blog today (Friday).

"For us to ask, Rattlesnake Choir, Apostle of Hustle and Beach House to play while the sounds of racecars roar across the lake is absolutely ridiculous and insulting.

"The audience would have to put up with the sounds of racecars the whole day, a rumored ferry workers strike, not to mention all the fucking traffic while some of our main streets by the lake are shutdown.

"The promoters were also worried about ticket count up to this point, and so began the evaluation of the weekend. The day is supposed to be yours, ours, the lakes and the people of Toronto and beyond. It was starting to look like trouble so we all decided to shut it down. It was hard to do."

Let there be no more wondering why Olympic Island was cancelled.

Broken Social Scene will play a free show at Toronto's Harbourfront Centre on July 11 instead.

Broken Social Scene are currently holed up in Chicago's Soma Studio with producer John McEntire (Bell Orchestre, Stereolab) recording their first album since 2005's self-titled release.

"We did a one-day session with John last October and it was a perfect fit," Drew wrote. "This plan has been in the works for nine months and it has all come together quite sweetly in the moments leading up to being here...he is a hero of ours when it comes to recordings so it seems very balanced that we are here.

"We spent the last couple of weeks at Chuck Spearin's house/rehearsal space/backyard writing tunes, drinking coffees, hanging with the family...and now it's time for the record button."

The disc will be BSS' first without Dave Neufeld, who produced their last two releases. Neufeld is working on Mexico City band Chikita Violenta's record and has given Broken Social Scene his blessing to record with McEntire, even though he says he's "not a religious guy."

You can see Broken Social Scene here:

July 3 Rothbury, MI @ Double JJ Ranch (Rothbury Festival)
July 4 Des Moines, IA @ Western Gateway Park (80/35 Festival)
July 11 Toronto, ON @ Harbourfront Centre
July 26 Lake Tahoe, CA @ Squaw Valley Ski Resort (Wanderlust Festival)