Elliott Brood

Lore & Background

Mark Sasso and Casey Laforet grew up together in Windsor and began playing as a band after moving to Toronto following high school. They played their first show in 2002 at Toronto club Holy Joes with two other musicians, who dropped out after a few shows. Sasso and Laforet continued as a duo, hooking up with producer Stephen Pitkin to record their first EP, Tin Type, released in January 2004 by weewerk Records. The EP was recorded over two days in Sasso's living room and came packaged in a brown paper bag containing a handmade photobook in the style of the American Old West. Pitkin recorded and co-produced Tin Type but did not officially become a band member until the release of the first LP, Ambassador, in 2005.

Much of Ambassador was recorded by Joe Dunphy in a former abattoir in the Toronto Public Stock Yards converted to a recording studio called 'Monumental Sound'. The album was named for the Ambassador Bridge connecting Windsor with Detroit. The band's second full-length album, Mountain Meadows (2008), was co-produced with John Critchley at Green Door Studio in Toronto and recorded at various locations across Canada, including Healey Lake Lodge, Wayne Town Hall, Mount Robson Lodge, Halla Music, Casey Laforet's kitchen, and Mark's garage. The album was shortlisted for the 2009 Polaris Music Prize.

Until June 2008, Pitkin's contribution was embellished by his use of a Samsonite 'Silhouette' suitcase instead of a conventional bass drum. After pummelling through several cases, he retired the idea following a destructive encore at Le Divan Orange club in Montreal. The destroyed case now resides as an art installation on the wall of the Moho Tavern in Peterborough. In 2010, the band wrote the score for Adriana Maggs' film Grown Up Movie Star, and their song 'West End Sky' garnered a Genie Award nomination for Achievement in Music: Original Song.

Reader's Guide

Elliott Brood emerged from Toronto's alternative country scene in the early 2000s, quickly distinguishing themselves with a raw, percussive sound built around Pitkin's suitcase drum and Sasso's graphic design work on album packaging. Their early EP Tin Type and debut LP Ambassador established a frontier aesthetic that carried through their career. The band's second album, Mountain Meadows, earned a Polaris Music Prize shortlist, raising their profile nationally. Their 2011 album Days Into Years, released on Paper Bag Records, spent eight consecutive weeks in the top 10 on the National Campus and Community Radio Association's !earshot radio charts, peaking at No. 1 in the folk/roots/blues category. The album won the 2013 Juno Award for Roots & Traditional Album of the Year: Group. Elliott Brood toured extensively across Canada and internationally, opening for acts such as Wilco, War On Drugs, The Head and the Heart, Blue Rodeo, The Black Crowes, Corb Lund, Do Make Say Think, and The Sadies. They headlined the first 'Wood, Wires, and Whisky' tour across Canada in fall 2007 and played major festivals including BBK Festival Bilbao Spain (2014), Sasquatch Festival (2013), Pickathon in Portland, Oregon (2011/2009), and the Olympic Village in Whistler for the 2010 Winter Olympics. Their legacy lies in blending folk instrumentation with a gritty, experimental edge, and in their distinctive visual and sonic identity rooted in Canadian landscapes.

Did You Know?

• Stephen Pitkin used a Samsonite 'Silhouette' suitcase as a bass drum until June 2008, when a destructive encore at Le Divan Orange club in Montreal ended the practice.
• The destroyed suitcase from that show now resides as an art installation on the wall of the Moho Tavern in Peterborough.
• The band's debut EP Tin Type was recorded over two days in Mark Sasso's living room and packaged in a brown paper bag with a handmade photobook.
• Their album Mountain Meadows was shortlisted for the 2009 Polaris Music Prize.