Let’s talk about music.
Rather, let’s talk about side projects. Yes, sometimes they are dreaded by super-fans, worried that their favourite band is taking a permanent hiatus. But the side-project is not always a bad thing. Sometimes bands just NEED to do something different in between recording and touring. They need an outlet. They need to do something drastically different or just want to work with different people. These can sometimes be solo records, new bands, two members of a band who do something else while their front man is in re-hab … whatever the case is, side projects will always be there and we must learn to embrace them.
Take the Broken Social Scene for example. They have so many members, that the BSS is actually a side project for some of them (Amy Millan, Feist). For others, they have created side projects outside of the BSS while they are on “hiatus”. Most notably, I want to bring up Andrew Whiteman’s project, Apostle of Hustle. While watching their show this week at Winnipeg’s the Collective Cabaret, I noticed something odd about the line up. They were touring with the band Memphis, who are also very much a side project. Memphis is the side project of Stars frontman Torquil Campbell and long time friend Chris Dumont. They are often mistaken for a band on the Arts & Crafts label, but are actually on Paper Bag Records. Arts & Crafts is the label that holds BSS, Stars and Apostle of Hustle, and it has almost been noted that the “indie music sound” in Canada can be attributed to how any band on Arts & Crafts sounds, or that these are the only bands that matter in indie music. It’s odd that the term for “independent artist” has changed so much to only exemplify a label, but I digress.
We were talking about the Apostle of Hustle show. There was a veritable who’s-who of Winnipeg rock that piled into the tiny club on Tuesday night. I’m not a name dropper, so I’ll just note that literally every fifth person in the bar was from a prominent Winnipeg band. It was ridiculous. The hometown openers (All of Your Friends) were amazing and stole the whole night, in this writer’s opinion. But it blew my mind to see that a side project (or two in this case) could generate so much buzz. The thing about them that always gets me is that you may be a fan of one band (Stars) and know nothing about the side project (Memphis) and still decide that you want to see the side project live. It’s odd in the case of Memphis, because their sound is somewhat reminiscent of the earlier Stars records, before Amy Millan appeared as co-front person. So if you have been a fan of Stars for a long time (which people will tell you they were to score indie points, but most weren’t until Set Yourself on Fire came out), you should be a big fan of Memphis, correct? I’m so lost myself actually, I’m not sure what I’m supposed to like anymore.
So the Broken Social Scene blew up big a few years ago, in North America and beyond. The core members are Leslie Feist (aka Feist, formerly a member of By Divine Right), Andrew Whiteman, Kevin Drew (who is currently solo and used to front KC Accidental), Justin Peroff (who also moonlights as a DJ named Juicetan) and Brendan Canning (formerly of Len, Blurtonia, hHead and By Divine Right fame). I’m confused if BSS is actually the side project that has spawned many side projects, or if it is simply an entity that exists outside the world of side projects. Maybe it’s just the fact that I’m a Can-rock junkie and I love playing “connect the rocker”. Initially, Can-rock super-group the New Pornographers were supposed to be a one-off side project, but instead it caused Todd Fancey and Kurt Dahle to leave Limblifter, Dan Bejar to sometimes put Destroyer in the back seat and Neko Case to occasionally leave her other boyfriends behind.
I don’t really know where I’m going with all of this, it’s just that I’m getting a little tired of people coming down on side projects, because sometimes side projects become the main focal point. Sometimes a band can morph into a side project (David Usher uses most of what used to be Moist for his solo work) and sometimes a side project really is just a one-off (remember Oysterhead with Trey Anastasio, Les Claypool and Stewart Copeland?). But at the end of the day, you should just put on your vinyl copy of Swan Lake’s Beast Moans and be thankful that so many brilliant musicians are making music together, in the confines of a band or otherwise, and that we don’t have to wait years and years in between.
I don’t care if there’s a million and one Wolf Parade off shoots, I’ll take them all over Chinese Democracy any day.
Nicholas Friesen is an award winning filmmaker, actor, photographer and radio personality.
For more information check out these links:
http://www.arts-crafts.ca/bss/
http://www.arts-crafts.ca/apostleofhustle/index2.html
