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Broken Social Scene On World Cafe

Alright. Open your arms and get ready to receive. Our guest today is Broken Social Scene.

The Canadian supergroup formed in 1999 out of a friendship between musicians Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning. The band's sound is big, so is its lineup, which can well to 15 people strong. You know the names: Feist, Emily Haines and James Shaw of Metric, Amy Millan and Evan Cranley of Stars. They all contributed to the new album. Feist even came up with the album title, Hug Of Thunder.

Drew and Canning told us that story, and they performed with band members Ariel Engle and Andrew Whiteman of AroarA, Charles Spearin of Do Make Say Think, David French, Sam Goldberg and Justin Peroff.

We recorded this session with Broken Social Scene on Tuesday Oct. 3, 2017 — the day after Tom Petty died, and two days after 58 people were killed in Las Vegas, in the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history. It was a heavy day, but the right day to hear from a band on a mission to spread love. To me, Broken Social Scene's music is always a reminder of two things: There is comfort in chaos, and you have community. We talked about all of that, but kicked things off with a live performance of "Halfway Home."

Copyright 2017 XPN

Talia Schlanger hosts World Cafe, which is distributed by NPR and produced by WXPN, the public radio service of the University of Pennsylvania. She got her start in broadcasting at the CBC, Canada's national public broadcaster. She hosted CBC Radio 2 Weekend Mornings on radio and was the on-camera host for two seasons of the television series CBC Music: Backstage, as well as several prime-time music TV specials for CBC, including the Quietest Concert Ever: On Fundy's Ocean Floor. Schlanger also guest hosted various flagship shows on CBC Radio One, including As It Happens, Day 6 and Because News. Schlanger also won a Canadian Screen Award as a producer for CBC Music Presents: The Beetle Roadtrip Sessions, a cross-country rock 'n' roll road trip.