Do Make Say Think
Do Make Say Think came together in Toronto in 1995-96 and self-released their self-recorded, self-titled debut CD in 1997. Constellation Records re-issued this record the following year and have worked with the band ever since. Four of the founding members continue to play in the group: Ohad Benchetrit, James Payment, Justin Small and Charles Spearin. Jason MacKenzie played drums, keyboards and electronics on the first two records, and Dave Mitchell joined in 1998.
Do Make Say Think have consistently released superlative and critically acclaimed instrumental rock albums that feature highly original hybrids of psych, jazz, punk and electronica. They surpass the all-too-familiar confines of generic post-rock with every album, and are one of the few bands working today that manage to forge compelling instrumental rock with just the right balance of noise, narrative depth, compositional acumen, inventive mixing and editing, and melodic hooks. They have fostered a devoted audience in North America and Europe, and have toured extensively on both sides of the pond, as well as in Asia.
Do Make Say Think records are marked by a fiercely independent approach to recording and mixing that is re-imagined for each release, but which always remains the band’s own; Charles and Ohad have emerged as a distinctive production team, now working out of Ohad’s Toronto studio th’Schvitz. Members of DMST are involved in numerous other groups as diverse as Justin’s messy garage-soul rave-up Lullabye Arkestra; Charles’ and Ohad’s collaboration in playing and producing in Broken Social Scene.
The band’s sixth full-length album (Other Truths) was released in the autumn of 2009.
Do Make Say Think have consistently released superlative and critically acclaimed instrumental rock albums that feature highly original hybrids of psych, jazz, punk and electronica. They surpass the all-too-familiar confines of generic post-rock with every album, and are one of the few bands working today that manage to forge compelling instrumental rock with just the right balance of noise, narrative depth, compositional acumen, inventive mixing and editing, and melodic hooks. They have fostered a devoted audience in North America and Europe, and have toured extensively on both sides of the pond, as well as in Asia.
Do Make Say Think records are marked by a fiercely independent approach to recording and mixing that is re-imagined for each release, but which always remains the band’s own; Charles and Ohad have emerged as a distinctive production team, now working out of Ohad’s Toronto studio th’Schvitz. Members of DMST are involved in numerous other groups as diverse as Justin’s messy garage-soul rave-up Lullabye Arkestra; Charles’ and Ohad’s collaboration in playing and producing in Broken Social Scene.
The band’s sixth full-length album (Other Truths) was released in the autumn of 2009.
In a few weeks Do Make Say Think will head out for a week of shows in the UK, France, and Belgium, bookended by appearances at both Primavera Sound Festival iterations in Barcelona and Porto. Having had the pleasure of seeing them live last Fall following a long break, we can offer a solemn promise: these show will be seriously awesome.
See below for dates, and stream Other Truths, their latest full-length, while you're at it.
| DD/MM/YY | PLACE | VENUE |
|---|---|---|
| 23.05.13 | Barcelona, SP | Primavera Sound Festival |
| 24.05.13 | Laval, FR | Les 3 Elephants Festival |
| 25.05.13 | London, UK | Victoria Park Field Day Festival |
| 26.05.13 | Kortrijk, BE | De Kreun |
| 27.05.13 | St. Nazaire, FR | VIP |
| 28.05.13 | Bordeaux, FR | Theatre Barbey |
| 30.05.13 | Biarritz, FR | Atabal |
| 31.05.13 | Porto, PO | Optimus Primavera Sound Festival |
In a few weeks Do Make Say Think will head out for a week of shows in the UK, France, and Belgium, bookended by appearances at both Primavera Sound Festival iterations in Barcelona and Porto. Having had the pleasure of seeing them live last Fall following a long break, we can offer a solemn promise: these show will be seriously awesome.
See below for dates, and stream Other Truths, their latest full-length, while you're at it.
| DD/MM/YY | PLACE | VENUE |
|---|---|---|
| 23.05.13 | Barcelona, SP | Primavera Sound Festival |
| 24.05.13 | Laval, FR | Les 3 Elephants Festival |
| 25.05.13 | London, UK | Victoria Park Field Day Festival |
| 26.05.13 | Kortrijk, BE | De Kreun |
| 27.05.13 | St. Nazaire, FR | VIP |
| 28.05.13 | Bordeaux, FR | Theatre Barbey |
| 30.05.13 | Biarritz, FR | Atabal |
| 31.05.13 | Porto, PO | Optimus Primavera Sound Festival |
Constellation celebrates its 15th Anniversary with a series of five mini-festivals in Europe this November: the locations are Bern, Paris, Munich, Vienna and Leipzig, in partnership with some of our favourite venues and partners that have supported the label and its artists over the years,
Go here for an at-a-glance round-up of the line-ups, locations and ticket links.
Read here for a longer post about the events.
See below for a rendering of the commemorative screenprinted poster that will be available at the events (being printed by the Dis-patch Collective from Belgrade, Serbia – whose Constellation artwork exhibit will also be on display in Bern and Vienna) and a little video clip we produced for the celebrations.
The Paris 15th Anniversary CST shows are now sold out.
Information about all CST 15th events can be found HERE.
Nous invitons nos camarades français à prendre note des autres concerts en France en novembre, ainsi que de nos événements à Berne et à Bruxelles...
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While we realise it's a bit of an extra journey for the good people of France, we remind everyone that about 50 passes still remain for the CST fest in Bern, Switzerland.
CST Heartland Festival passes for Bern are available here.
The Bern event is a Constellation takeover of the Heartland Festival and represents an expanded 4-day affair, with a CST art exhibit curated by Dis-patch Collective (Belgrade) and performances by several artists who cannot make the Paris weekend: Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Colin Stetson, Hrsta, Nick Kuepfer and Khora.
Details for each night of the Bern event (and single night tickets) can be found HERE.
If you are looking for information about Bern accommodations, we encourage you to contact Dachstock@Reitschule HERE.
* * *
We would also like to note the following Constellation-related concert dates happening in France and Belgium as the label celebrates throughout November with many artists on tour:
DO MAKE SAY THINK
16.11.12 Metz FR Musiques Volantes Festival TIX
SANDRO PERRI + ERIC CHENAUX
15.11.12 Nantes FR Stakhanov
16.11.12 Limoges FR Centre Culturel John Lennon
THEE SILVER MT ZION + MATANA ROBERTS
19.11.12 Tourcoing FR Le Grand Mix TIX
20.11.12 Strassbourg FR La Laterie TIX
COLIN STETSON
14.11.12 Brussels BE Ancienne Belgique VZW TIX
20.11.12 Poitiers FR Confort Moderne TIX
21.11.12 Rennes FR UBU1 TIX
22.11.12 Nantes FR Pôle Etudiant
23.11.12 Gent BE Theaterzaal Vooruit TIX
24.11.12 Rouen FR Le 106 TIX
25.11.12 Tourcoing FR L'Hospice d'Havré - Maison Folie de Tourcoing TIX
DO MAKE SAY THINK + SANDRO PERRI + ERIC CHENAUX
CONSTELLATION LABEL NIGHT @ AUTUMN FALLS FESTIVAL
26.11.12 Brussels BE Atelier 210 TIX
BERN • PARIS • MUNICH • VIENNA • LEIPZIG
As previously announced, this November we're staging some mini-festival events in France, Switzerland, Austria and Germany to celebrate our 15th year as a record label. These have come together really nicely, more artists have been added in recent weeks, and a whole new city (Munich) as well!
Check this page for confirmed lineups and ticket links, and keep reading below for further details and testimonials.
We truly feel the present is a great moment to take stock of what we've done over the past decade and a half. Bands with whom we have some of our longest-standing relationships continue to make music among the most vital and inspiring to grace our ears, while in the past few years we've begun new relationships with artists producing equally jaw-dropping work, whose vision and integrity remind us why we started doing this in the first place.
We've felt an outpouring of warm support from our many friends and allies in Europe and around the world in organizing these events, while back home we've had the privilege of participating in the inspiring and unprecedented (in Canada) popular movement protesting tuition increases and the fraud of neo-liberal "austerity" economics that took over the streets of Montreal this spring. These days we truly feel more connected than ever to the local and global communities we consider ourselves part of, accountable to, and inspired by.
We're deeply grateful to everyone who's found occasional or sustained meaning and common cause with Constellation thus far, and genuinely look forward to spending time and celebrating with everyone that can make it out to these events in Europe.
And it goes without saying, we are utterly humbled and honoured by the support we've received from all of our presenting partners in these five European cities, most of whom we've had a long-standing relationship with in various respects. We set out to collaborate with the people who historically have meant a lot to us and our artists, and could not have hoped for more. Thanks from the bottom of our hearts.
• • • • •
While the mighty Siskiyou has sadly had to pull out of any further appearances this year (read a message from the band here), our European mini-fest anniversary shows continue to be anchored by Do Make Say Think and Silver Mt Zion, along with Sandro Perri (backed by a full band), Eric Chenaux, Elfin Saddle and Hangedup. These six artists will be present at all four of our previously announced events in Bern, Paris, Vienna and Leipzig.
We have also now confirmed the participation of Carla Bozulich and Matana Roberts at all four of these events as well - whether as part of the "main stage" line-ups or in interesting site-specific or off-site performances. We're still ironing out a few of those ideas and logistics, but rest assured no performances will be running concurrently.
Additionally, we'll have Hrsta at most engagements, and have managed to yank Colin Stetson out of his crisscrossing solo tour schedule to appear on the final night of the Bern fest.
The Bern weekend will be truly epic, with a minimum of eleven CST bands appearing over four days, and the Dis-patch Art Collective from Belgrade, Serbia installing their wonderful exhibit "Ce côté en haut: The Fragile World of Constellation" - an exhaustive retrospective of the label's album and poster artwork. Looks like there will also be a label-related photo exhibit in Bern, as well as a couple of day shows, art talks and other off-site things going on too.
Also: Munich! The excellent Feierwerk venue in Munich has come on board to host two nights featuring 3-band bills each evening, with DMST, Perri and Chenaux playing on Nov 19 and SMZ, Hrsta and Matana Roberts playing on Nov 21.
Again, click HERE for a re-cap of the main stage line-ups in each city along with ticket links, and/or watch the video clip at the end of this post for a listing of those main stage line-ups at each event.
Other cool things we can tell you about:
It's already pretty darn exciting that Do Make Say Think will be performing their classic album Goodbye Enemy Airship The Landlord Is Dead in its entirety for their live set, but our presenting partner the Viennale will additionally be programming a series of experimental films to be projected during the band's set in Vienna. Since the Viennale is one of Europe's most respected and iconoclastic film festivals, this is sure to be a very special visual accompaniment to a very special musical performance.
Mike Moya was a founding member of Godspeed You! Black Emperor back in the early 1990s but pulled back from the band by the end of that decade to concentrate on Montreal-based projects as well as his excellent psych-folk group Hrsta throughout the 2000s. Moya then re-joined GY!BE when the group came off hiatus in 2010 and has been back in the third guitar chair with them ever since. Hrsta will perform at all the CST European events except Paris, and will be joined by new Godspeed drummer Tim Herzog, GY!BE/SMZ violinist Sophie Trudeau and Musique Fragile artist Nick Kuepfer for these sets.
Carla Bozulich will be premiering new material in a non-Evangelista guise; admittedly the distinction between these two identities has always been somewhat fluid, but we are super excited about the new music Carla has been working on and this will be a first opportunity to hear some of this stuff live.
Jerusalem In My Heart will perform in Leipzig. Date and location specifics have yet to be finally determined, but rest assured this will be very special and very cool. JIMH is the mutli-media project founded by Radwan Ghazi Moumneh, a musician and sound engineer who is a close collaborator of Constellation on many fronts. He has engineered and/or mixed numerous albums in the CST catalogue, has made films and videos for several CST artists, has performed as part of Land Of Kush, and will be helping to stage-manage the Europe events. JIMH now includes experimental filmmaker Malena Szlam, who will join Radwan for the performance in Leipzig, involving multiple 16mm film projections and his totally unique and intense blend of synthetic and organic Arabic-influenced sound.
The Dis-patch album art exhibit will transition from Bern to Vienna and be installed in an anteroom of the Porgy & Bess venue in Vienna from opening night of the first CST show on Nov 21 through to the end of the 4-day Blue Bird festival on Nov 24.
Dis-patch will also be bringing limited edition screenprinted posters and hand-stitched cotton LP bags which are going to be quite lovely. We'll have 100 posters (4-colour on archival A2 size paper) and 50 bags available at each event in Bern, Paris, Vienna and Leipzig (apologies, but these will not be available in Munich). We promise these are going to be really nice items, reasonably priced and, y'know, all commemorative and stuff.
Anyway, we think these are going to be good times for all.
Now watch a video:
We're very pleased to announce a series of 15th Anniversary concerts that will take place in Europe this fall.
We'll be partnering with some of our favourite venues and arts organisations to present multiple-night mini-festival events featuring a diverse cross-section of artists, including newer groups like Sisksiyou and Elfin Saddle, long-standing roster acts like Sandro Perri, Eric Chenaux and Hangedup, and two of the label's best-known bands: Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra and Do Make Say Think.
Thee Silver Mt Zion will be returning to Europe for the first time since touring behind their acclaimed Kollaps Tradixionales album in early 2010, and premiering new material including pieces released as a tour-only 2x7" in the USA earlier this year. Do Make Say Think, one of the most consistently acclaimed and long-standing instrumental rock groups of the past decade-and-a-half, will be performing their classic sophomore album, Goodbye Enemy Airship The Landlord Is Dead, in its entirety.
At each of the two-night events, Do Make Say Think will close one show and Thee Silver Mt Zion will close the other. Exact line-ups for each night in each town will be confirmed and announced later this summer, but every concert will feature at least 4 bands and sets by at least 8 different artists across the two nights.
The event at Bern's Reitschule is unique in that it runs for a full three days, starting on Friday 16 November with the final European date of Godspeed You! Black Emperor's fall 2012 tour (a golden opportunity to see the group in a smaller, grittier venue with some truly awesome natural room compression).
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Here's the plan:
NOV 16-18 • Bern, CH • Dachstock Reitschule
Presented by Heartland Festival and Dachstock
3-night passes available now HERE and HERE
The Constellation event in Bern is a full label takeover and collaboration with Heartland Festival, in conjunction with the Dachstock collective who administer an awesome 700 capacity live room at the Reitschule complex - where many a fine Constellation memory has been forged over the years (and often then half-obliterated in the ensuing post-show massacre of brain cells at the bar).
NOV 17-18 • Paris, FR • La Maroquinerie
Presented by Volume
Running concurrently with the Bern weekend, these two nights at La Maroquinnerie will be anchored by Do Make Say Think and Thee Silver Mt ZIon respectively, with three other bands each night. La Maroq has been a favourite venue of Constellation artists over the years, and the site of beautifully raucous yet wonderfully attentive packed houses for several of the label's artists. Despite the club's literally subterranean and cave-like setting, the full range of Constellation sounds have always gone down perfectly there, from the quietest and most fragile moments to galloping punk-rock explosions. La Maroq brings out the passion and devotion of music-hungry Parisians who don't mind getting a little down and dirty to achieve sustained experiences of musical immersion, levitation and physicality. This will be good times!
NOV 21-22 • Vienna, AT • Porgy & Bess
Presented by Viennale and Blue Bird Festival
Constellation has had a very special and heartfelt relationship with the Viennale (Vienna International Film Festival) in recent years, beginning with their production of filmmaker Jem Cohen's "Empires Of Tin" project. We are very proud to be celebrating its 15th Anniversary in conjunction with Viennale's 50th Anniversary this year, and excited to be partnering with the Blue Bird Songwriter Festival as well, which will be expanding to a four-day event with the first two days devoted to Constellation.
NOV 23-24 • Leipzig, DE • UT Connewitz
Presented by UT Connewitz and Southern DE
Another venue and local promoter collective that is close to Constellation's heart, UT Connewitz is a glorious old theatre space that has hosted countless of the label's artists over the years. Like Paris, this will be 4-band bills anchored by Do Make Say Think and Thee Silver Mt Zion each night, in one of our favourite settings, booked by some of the very best people. Simple as that.
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Stay tuned for more information and finalized lineups in the coming months. There will be also be special collaborations and other little surprises at various events, for which we will supply more information down the road (or, regarding the surprises, maybe not, so that they in fact remain surprises). In the meantime, here's an assortment of MP3s to tide you over:
MP3s:
Do Make Say Think • The Landlord is Dead
A Silver Mt Zion • Thee Dirty Olde Flag
Hangedup • Klang Klang
Siskiyou • This Land
Elfin Saddle • The Wind Come Carry
Sandro Perri • Love & Light
Eric Chenaux • Dull Lights (White or Grey)
| DD/MM/YY | PLACE | VENUE |
|---|---|---|
| 23.05.13 | Barcelona, SP | Primavera Sound Festival |
| 24.05.13 | Laval, FR | Les 3 Elephants Festival |
| 25.05.13 | London, UK | Victoria Park Field Day Festival |
| 26.05.13 | Kortrijk, BE | De Kreun |
| 27.05.13 | St. Nazaire, FR | VIP |
| 28.05.13 | Bordeaux, FR | Theatre Barbey |
| 30.05.13 | Biarritz, FR | Atabal |
| 31.05.13 | Porto, PO | Optimus Primavera Sound Festival |
SPARKLERS - Sandlin Gaither
NEON - Norman Wong
PRE-DRINKS - Norman Wong
DMST ON GRASS - Norman Wong
CORNERED - Norman Wong
BAFFLED - Norman Wong
NOIR - Norman Wong
Other Truths
Do Make Say Think CD / 180gLP / DL
ALBUM TRACKS
- Other Truths Album Mix
Other Truths - The Landlord Is Dead
Goodbye Enemy Airship
The Landlord Is Dead
MIXTAPES AND PODCASTS
DIGITAL SINGLES / EPs
 | Other TruthsDo Make Say Think CD / 180gLP / DL |
CST062
 | You You're A History In RustDo Make Say Think CD / 180gLP / DL |
CST045
 | Winter Hymn Country Hymn Secret HymnDo Make Say Think CD / 2xLP / DL |
CST025
 | & Yet & YetDo Make Say Think CD / LP / DL |
CST020
 | Goodbye Enemy Airship The Landlord Is DeadDo Make Say Think CD / LP / DL |
CST010
 | Do Make Say ThinkDo Make Say Think CD / DL |
CST005
