Do Make Say Think

"Weird Al" Yankovic was, somewhat appropriately, the weirdest choice on the lineup of the Godspeed You! Black Emperor curated ATP in December 2010. Alongside such giants of experimental and emotional music as Tindersticks, Neurosis, Deerhoof and Godspeed themselves, he stood out from the page from a million miles away. The main thing I remember about the show was CONTEXT. Going to see a "Weird Al" show by choice, you'd know what you were expecting. Seeing him up on stage in front of an enormous crowd tattoo'd and bearded men and hornrim glasses-wearing girls was a comedy in and of itself. The show itself was expertly produced, with Yankovic leaving the stage and returning right on cue after what must have been extremely complicated prop and costume changes. Yes there was a segway ('White & Nerdy'). Yes there was the Nirvana cover ('Smells Like Nirvana'). Yes he ate a banana ('Eat It'). All the hits, almost every song you'd expect to see was there, and it was pretty incredible to realise quite how much of an impact he's had culturally, the number of times you thought, 'oh yeah I know that one too!' was astonishing. His live band were impressive to boot, seeing as they had to run the gamut from grunge to disco to pop without slipping up. If there was one criticism to be had, he relied quite heavily on video segments from his DVD in between tracks, but that can be forgiven since he was still able to bring down the house before a crowd of earnest and discerning musos.

Do Make Say Think do not, on the face of it, make easy to listen to music. However, give this complex music some time and the rewards are endless. Now an eight-piece, the band was originally put together by Ohad Benchetrit (you may know his name from contributing to records by fellow Canadians Broken Social Scene) and they’ve released a number of fine records since 1998, the best of which are the band’s self-titled debut and and 2007’s You, You’re A History in Rust. An experimental rock band at heart, DMST embrace jazz, folk, and sampling like few bands do, and they are not afraid to extend a track well beyond five or six minutes. Not quite Godspeed! lengths, but that band is a good touchstone as they share a questing spirit when it comes to recording. Given DMST’s song lengths their live sets don’t often consist of more than five or six songs, cramming as much as they can into their set times…as well as trying to cram all their members on stage. As it’s instrumental music there’s plenty to look at onstage: admire Charles Spearin as he endlessly swaps instruments, David Mitchell and James Payment’s twin-drum assault on the propulsive ‘The Landlord is Dead’ and Benchetrit and Justin Small’s duelling guitars on the incredible and cataclysmic closing track ‘The Universe!’ Live appearances outside of Canada can be few and far between, but don’t miss out should they play a town near you.