When the Canadian music collective known as Broken Social Scene arrives in Tokyo next month, they'll be bringing a few members of their family tree along. Found on the group's Web site, the "tree" is actually 40-plus band and artist names scrawled on a paper bag and connected by the squiggly white lines.
Most of the family members are relatively unknown outside of their native country, but that's changing quickly. In the past three years, Broken Social Scene and fellow countrymen such as The Arcade Fire, New Pornographers and Peaches have drawn ever-larger spotlights to the underground music of Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal.
BSS's scribbled genealogy offers a good-sized window onto the Canadian scene, and serves as an example of the communal trend now affecting indie music. The idea of one musician, one band is fading. Like the Elephant 6 group in Athens, Ga., the Saddle Creek Label in Omaha, Neb., and to a lesser extent, Glasgow's Chemikal Underground Records, artists are increasingly forming collectives, where they can play, write and record with several different bands under the same umbrella. These collectives also support each other on tour and provide backing vocals and instruments for recording sessions.