Do Make Say Think
By Tim Bugbee
Monday. Apr 16, 2:15 PM
live at The Middle East Downstairs (Cambridge, MA) March 27th, 2007.

Collectives. Seems like the rock world is getting overrun with these loosely-coupled gangs. The word probably gets a bad rap from being branded to behavior back in the stinking hippie days, when visionaries / freaks like Father Yod et al would lure malleable young minds together for spiritual psych freakouts (not to mention the consensual sex), but today's collectives don't curry that sort of thing (though they could still wear the uniforms, like The Polyphonic Spree). The most well known collectives these days are centered around eastern Canada, specifically the Constellation record label and the Broken Social Scene trunk and branches. Do Make Say Think bridge both of these worlds, recording for Constellation and having two key members lending time to the Broken Social Scene clique (Charles Spearin and Ohad Benchetrit, along with relative newcomer Julie Penner on violin and horn; I think the ability to play a trumpet is a prerequisite for playing with Do Make Say Think). But unlike most collectives, they don't trade in the psych world; it's indie rock and jazz influences with an ill-worn “post-rock” tag also tossed out by some. However, don't make the mistake of getting them confused with strict guitar instrumental mavens like Mogwai, Jakob, or Russian Circles, though... the swing of Tortoise perhaps colors their sound (especially with twin drummers James Payment and David Mitchell lithely propelling the sound forward), but it's a sprawling sound all their own, taking bits and pieces of scattered rock history along the way. The set opener (from the excellent new LP You, You're a History in Rust) "Executioner Blues" blithely moves arpeggiated guitar figures forward in ascending circles of bliss until the whole thing takes a hard swerve to the ‘60s and lands straight in the lap of "A Day in the Life." Epic. We're off to a great start. The subtle jazz'd drum patterns of "Frederica" are next, and gradually fall back to Spearin on fuzzed out bass, leading the band at the front of the phalanx. And speaking of phalanx, the other great thing about being in a collective is the ability to draw from a deep pool of reserves, and the tour van/bus must have been maxed out; two drummers and a front line of six is quite the traveling show, and the stage was littered with mic stands (never a photographer's friend), guitars, other stringed instruments, horns, and at least one keyboard, all of which were put to good use.

And so it continued. The band took their basic blueprint and stomped all over the newer stuff. We also got "Herstory of Glory" and "A With Living" to close it out. Was disappointed that "The Universe!" didn't get an airing, as it's the clear highlight of the new record for me, but also plenty of stuff from & Yet & Yet and the previous disc, Winter Hymn Country Hymn Secret Hymn, which really powered forward with their readings of "Horns of a Rabbit" and "Reitschule." If you've ever seen an eight-person crew on the water kicking ass, all in lockstep, you can kinda get a flavor of what was poured over our heads that evening. Great show.

Openers The Berg Sans Nipple are at least runners-up, if not unanimous winners, of the dopiest name award. Let's hope that it was just some unfortunate Gallic translation gone horribly awry. But damned if these guys weren't one of the surprises of '07 for me. Lazy writers might see "Air" when faced with two guys (one French) beyond piles of electronic gear, but they are so much more… they've got a backbone, a love of percussion, and a very propulsive and electronic sound (but not Krautrock: that would be a major cultural faux pas, though if they lived in Strasbourg one could make a stab and extrapolate that they were long-lost cousins of To Rococo Rot). "Ghosts" from their new record is one of the best songs of the year, I'd say: great drums to move the song off the curb and into the flow of traffic, excellent melody line courtesy of some vintage analog synth, and enough odd bits to really engage the listener. Recommended.
www.domakesaythink.com

Tim Bugbee

Got something constructive to say? By all means, rant away. Gonna blab about something unrelated and/or talk shit? Don't expect your comment to stick around.