Newspaper Page Text
t
Toronto
Post-Rock Act Do Make Say Think Brings The Volume
never experimented with vocals before, and we enjoyed that im
mensely. We just wanted History in Rust to be a continuation of our
sound without sacrificing what we want to do and without making
the same record again."
the Canadian sensations that stormed our nation a few
years back. Broken Social Scene, Arcade Fire and Wolf
Parade are three huge examples of fresh young bands that sprang
fully formed from the loins of what seemed, in a Yankee's eyes, a
secret scene. Being Canadian, Do Make Say Think has been in a
somewhat unique position of being doubly "trendy." Now that both
the Canadian and post-rock surges of newsworthy global awareness
T he age of post-rock, that epic swirl of gui
tars and noise, in some ways has passed into
the annals of history. But still it soldiers on.
Though no longer the darling of the music me
dia, it still pops the mainstream bubble from time to
time, and its veterans continue to draw large numbers
of faithful fans. Explosions in the Sky scores a weekly
prime-time TV show. Mogwai is churning out sound
tracks to fairly large-scale films. Godspeed You! Black
Emperor is still on hiatus, and collaborating with Vic
Chesnutt.
A genre that took the tried-and-true mechanisms
of indie rock and molded them into big graceful slabs
of cinematic drama, post-rock exploded into the public
consciousness in the late '90s. Do Make Say Think
was there in the salad days and continues to gradu
ally hone its sound into tighter and sharper pieces of
widescreen shrapnel, condensing the genre's tendency
to sprawl a single track across an entire LP side with
out losing an ounce of emotional heft. The band has
always strayed to the rockier side of the hyphen, with
loose jazz underpinnings, but it's been the balance
between the rock and the post that's most consis
tently impressive. The album Winter Hymn Country
Hymn Secret Hymn was the culmination of everything
mesmerizing about the sound, and when it dropped in
2003, the genre was just beginning to need a boost.
Sort of a meeting of Tortoise's TNT and Mogwai's Young
Team—except better than both—the record firmly
squeezed in beside Godspeed's second album in the
hearts of fans.
In Februar y oF Ibis Y ear ' You ' You’re a History in
I Rust practically tiptoed into record stores.
Perhaps this was simply due to the nearly four years
since Winter Hymn; or maybe it's that Canadian post
rock just doesn't sell magazines anymore. Aren't you a
little sick of our northern neighbors trumping us? But
the album is brilliant all the same, sounding a bit like
a compendium of DMST's discography while subtly par
ing down the grandeur—and not so subtly featuring
guest vocalists. It was inevitable, what with several
members moonlighting in Broken Social Scene.
It's a fa ; rly common assessment that Winter Hymn was the
album that saw the potential of a truly great band reach fruition,
and it's always interesting to hear the following release. The judg
ment is thus unfair much of the time, and the band's multi-instru
mentalist Ohad Benchetrit agrees.
"I really do feel that Winter Hymn was the point where we fully
realized our sound," says Benchetrit, "and then after that we said,
'Well, what do we do nowr We made an effort with this album
to do what we love but to explore things we've done in projects
outside of the band. An effort not to repeat ourselves, but we are
what we are. Some things were easy, others not so much. We'd
have tapered off, Benchetrit says the quieter life is no
problem.
"I think the same thing I've always thought about
that," he says. "Music comes from everywhere; it's so
rare tha't anyone anywhere does anything truly unique.
We went through this twice, with the rise and fall of
post-rock, the influence of Constellation [Records, in
Montreal], the hugeness of Godspeed.
"Then there was a second wave, a bigger one,
mostly centering on Arcade Fire and Broken Social
Scene. The latter was more of a firsthand experience
for us, of course. I think it's a coincidence that these
bands were Canadian. Perhaps the scene was perceived
to exist partly because focus had shifted there due to
these bands. It was a timing thing."
quiet/ loud dynamics of post-rock have
become cliche over the past several years
to the point where it's often more admirable if a band
avoids it. Do Make Say Think certainly employs this
drama, but in a way where it's not so overbearing and
obvious. This is yet another of the band's strengths.
The quietly building passages of development leading
to big epic surges of release and climax are inherent
in the genre—but you could say the same thing about
most media. Films and books require tension-building
and release just as much.
"We feel the same, that's it's become very cli
che to keep doing the loud/ soft, loud /soft," says
Benchetrit. "So we made an effort not to be so typical
on the new record, but that goes back to not want
ing to repeat our own selves. But there's nothing like
that feeling when everyone's hitting the crescendo
together—that's powerful and I'll always enjoy that.
The idea really is to figure out a way to achieve that
epic sense without resorting to the same tricks. We
wanted the big surge without simply making the gui
tar get louder."
As Do Make Say Think's vision has clarified, so has
the live show. One could debate the merits of seeing a
one-time only performance, a personal experience ver
sus reproductions of album tracks. But when a band's
albums are this explosively beautiful, with such a inimitable grasp
of composition, it's really no question after all.
Michael Wehunt
r
WHO: Do Make Say Think, Haml
A
WHERE: 40 Watt Club
WHEN: Friday, September 21
HOW MUCH: $10 (advance), $12 (doer)
\
J
• COMPLETE LISTS Of
ATHENS' RESTAURANTS,
CLUBS. BARS, HOTELS,
PARKS AND SO MUCH MORE
•CHECK OUT THE EXPANDED
EXTRAS ONLINE @
Flagpole.com/Guide
• FOR BULK REQUESTS, CALL
28 FLAGPOLE.COM • SEPTEMBER 19, 2007
NEWS & FEATURES I ARTS & EVENTS I MOVIES I MUSIC I COMICS & ADVICE I CLASSIFIEDS