Brendan Canning
Brendan Canning is a multi-instrumentalist and indie rocker from Toronto. He was a founding member of the hugely influential band Broken Social Scene and was one of the few constant members. He has had his hand in a bunch of other projects, plus this “solo” record. He also has a new band called Cookie Duster, and they’ve just released their first record, which is called When Flying Was Easy.
After Broken Social Scene released their self-titled fourth album in 2005, they had an unusual plan which would allow for the members to let their individual creative juices flow. The idea was to have a series in which each member got to have their own album, with the support of the other members. While the theory was excellent, the execution was flawed. I may be assuming a lot, but my guess is that the idea was to get some of the peripheral but permanent members some time in the spotlight. You know… The other dozen or so people not named Kevin Drew or Leslie Feist. My guess is that this plan was “for” people like Ohad Benchetrit, Justin Peroff, Andrew Whiteman and even Charles Spearin. The people who gave a lot to BSS but never got recognized. And were never allowed to contribute much creative
The flaw of it is that the first of only two in the “Broken Social Scene Presents:” series was the Kevin Drew “solo” record Spirit If…. He’s at the front, and every member of BSS helped out. This makes it literally no different from a BSS record.
The Brendan Canning “solo” record was the second in the series. It’s technically not “Brendan Canning”. It’s “Broken Social Scene presents: Brendan Canning”
Unfortunately, the series stopped there. In 2010, BSS released their fifth and final record Forgiveness Rock Record. After touring in support of that album, the band went on “indefinite hiatus”. I hate that so many bands do that these days. They don’t “quit” or “break up the band”. They “go on hiatus”.
Anyway… It’s no surprise that a lot of the songs on Something For All Of Us sound like Broken Social Scene. I mean, for all intents and purposes, it is BSS. I like most of the songs, and I love a few of them. Out of the ones in the “love” pile, the song “Love is New” is worth noting. It has a really strange Love and Rockets vibe to it. It also has a sort of strange video that features lots of folks from BSS. Watch that video here. This isn’t about that, though. This is about “Possible Grenade”. This is that song.
“Possible Grenade” by Brendan Canning
I especially like the 35 second instrumental break that starts at 2:56. It’s kinda spacey and there’s one guitar line in there amongst what must be five guitar parts. It’s hard to point out, but it reminds me of The Edge and what I used to like about U2 so many years ago. While most of today’s song is sort of bass-centrtic, that little break is all about the guitars.
Buy a physical (LP or CD) or digital(mp3 or FLAC) copy of Something For All Of Us from the Arts & Crafts web store here.
this is that song 
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