I swear to God, Canadian music is much more than Broken Social Scene. It's a total accident that basically every successful Toronto rock star type is also in BSS, including a couple of the dudes from Do Make Say Think, an unusual and frequently spectacular post-rock band. Do Make is primarily instrumental (though the new album features both Akron/Family and Alex Lukashevsky from Deep Dark United, another Toronto-based experimental institution, on vocals) and they lean their elbows (and horns and drums and guitars) on the jazz tip with regularity.
Their more recent sonic harvests have become deliberate and measured, if not exactly calm, compared to the first few DMST albums that were somewhat drunk with ideas. The newest record, called You, You're a History in Rust, was made in the rural wilds of Ontario (which is the “not Toronto” part of the province), which seems to have brought a sense of grounded dignity to the compositions. More than a few ribbons of backyard church music flow through the record, but not at the expense of rougher structures and the wails and wanes that are Do Make signatures.
The cult-like reverence that people have for a complicated and rewarding band like DMST is a happy reminder that good music is still worthwhile—and that sometimes a great band can answer little prayers we didn't know we had.
Do Make Say Think with The Berg Sans Nipple at The Glass House, 200 W. Second St., Pomona, (909) 865-3802; www.theglasshouse.us. Sun., 8 p.m.. $12.
