Elliott BROOD
Elliott Brood (sometimes stylized as Elliott BROOD) is an alt-country/ indie folk/ bluegrass band from Toronto who have put out three albums and one EP since 2004. I had never heard of them before I picked up a couple of free downloads from the Paper Bag Records website sometime last year. In case you haven’t noticed, I’m a big fan of that label and all their glorious Canadian-ness (The Rural Alberta Advantage, Austra, PS I Love You, Young Galaxy, etc). The boys also had a recent Daytrotter session that was quite good. I’ll say again… Join Daytrotter. You won’t regret it.
Like I said, I hadn’t even heard of these cats until about a year ago, and I still know almost nothing about them. They’re a three-piece. Before this album, people referred to their style of music as “death country”. Whatever that means. “Frontier rock”. Whatever that means. Mark Sasso and Casey Laforet were childhood friends in Windsor, Ontario (which, as a piece of trivia, is south of Detroit, Michigan). They moved to Toronto, where they met Stephen Pitkin. He produced their first EP, then became a band member before they recorded their debut record —Ambassador— in 2005.
From what I’ve read, the guys are all big World War I buffs. Once, when they were touring Belgium and France, they were driving on a country road and happened upon a WWI memorial cemetery. There, they saw a bunch of markers for Canadian boys. Their experience there was an influence as they wrote the Days into Years album.
This new album is the first time they’ve recorded with electric guitars. They didn’t totally shed their “urban country” roots, though. The traditional country/bluegrass instruments like mandolin, banjo, and lap steel are still prominent. The result sounds a bit like a cocktail made of Wilco, Sufjan Stevens and Dan Mangan. Today’s song is one of the more “rockin'” ones on the record. At least it starts out that way.
“Will They Bury Us?” by Elliott Brood
I like that the song starts off with a big burst of electric guitar, but by the end of the second verse, quite a bit of acoustic guitar and piano have horned their way in. In the bridge that follows, there’s lap steel. The banjo, which had been really reserved up until that point, starts to have more weight. Just to remind you that they’re not a full-fledged rock band.It gets bigger and bigger in the mix, but they reel it back in just before it goes full-on Sufjan on us. Then, in the coda, it slows down and gets more “country”. And I love the way it ends with the single piano note.
Days into Years, because it was released in September of 2011, will be eligible for consideration for the 2012 Polaris Music Prize. Their 2008 release — Mountain Meadows— made the 2009 short list. I’d be a little surprised if this record repeats their short-list nomination, but I’m guessing that they’ll make the long list of 40, which will be announced on June 14.
Buy Days into Years and other stuff from their web store here.
this is that song 
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