Lindsay Dobbin’s Broken Deer

Photo: Karyn Haag

I’ve become interested in the work of Lindsay Dobbin, a 26-year old artist and musician living in the Land of the Midnight Sun, Home of the Northern Lights, the Yukon, Whitehorse, Canada. From her Myspace page:

Thanks to my grandfather’s interest in accumulating objects, I had a record and 8-track player in my room when I was four, five, six. I would spend hours alone listening to albums passed down to me from as far back as my great grandmother’s collection. I had no sense that more than one of each recording I possessed existed. I just assumed that Elvis, Diana Ross, Gladys Knight, the orchestral disco guy and many others created the sounds I listened to for me alone. Music was this private, magical experience that tied everything together in my small world.

Cool, right? Through music, Lindsay expands her world, reaches out to others and reminds us—perhaps reminds herself—that we are not alone, that there is someone else out there, listening, at that very moment, to that same Elvis record.

Broken Deer, an artistic avenue through which Lindsay Dobbin speaks her dreams, has a new cassette available on "the world's worst hi-tech label," Al Bjornaa’s awesome Scotch Tapes. It’s a split-release with Fuck Montreal, and Al tells me that it’s something very special. Limited to 100 copies and packaged in a neat, yellow O-card, the Broken Deer/Fuck Montreal split may have a quiet, dusty fate. Al has a difficult time describing the music. “It’s totally different from anything I’ve heard before,” he says with some hint of frustration; he fears it’s one of those tapes that’ll wind up stuck on his shelves, selling few copies simply due to the bands’ obscurity. “If people listened, the tapes would be gone instantly.”

So, along with a bunch of Al’s other new releases, I placed an order for three copies of the Broken Deer/Fuck Montreal split. Can’t let this sort of deep magic collect dust on a shelf in Batchawana Bay, wherever the hell that is. It’s the sort of thing that should be shared with friends and spread all across the world, really.

“White Woman,” animated by Alice Cohen for Broken Deer’s upcoming album, POLARAURA.

You can also visit Lindsay's blog, Peel and Form, and let it serve as the deep, dark soundtrack to your day.

COMMENTS
Stu gatz's picture

I assumed you were also a fan of "Rose Palm and her five Sisters."Get a life and get a lady friend.

Trey's picture

Stu, why so negative and hostile? I avoid reading blogs that do not interest me, maybe you should do the same.

Jim Tavegia's picture

Thank you for finding a song that even I could play on the guitar. I also sing much better than that, but I am keeping it to myself. I had a nightmare like that in 1958. Scary to even think about.

KBK's picture

When you live up noth like that, like I did, it puts s different spin on your mind, on your life on your perceptiions. It changes how you see thw orld and it puts a medittive aspect into things that easily escape and do escape to the point of permanently ~LOST~ in the people in the 'big city'.The big city does not equate to mental expansion and growth -just the opposite. Ego itself is reflection of the act of externalization and the 24/7/365 life of the city is the surest way to an extremely low level of growth in the ways it needs be, the way it needs be -in order to actually find the true depths of meanings in life.So, I live near a city, but never in it. Never. As an example, some of the best and most expressive songwriters (this is an audio/music site, is it not) to ever exist were not born or did not grow to maturation in any city.

KBK's picture

When you live up north like that, like I did, it puts s different spin on your mind, on your life on your perceptions. It changes how you see the world and it puts a meditative aspect into things that easily escape and do escape to the point of permanently ~LOST~ in the people in the 'big city'.The big city does not equate to mental expansion and growth -just the opposite. Ego itself is reflection of the act of externalization and the 24/7/365 life of the city is the surest way to an extremely low level of growth in the ways it needs be, the way it needs be -in order to actually find the true depths of meanings in life.So, I live near a city, but never in it. Never. As an example, some of the best and most expressive songwriters (this is an audio/music site, is it not) to ever exist were not born or did not grow to maturation in any city.

Al @ Scotch's picture

thanks for writing about this stephen. much appreciated. this tape is such a contrast in styles. lindsay's half is one of the best things i've heard this year... and i get a lot of music coming through these doors... i actually crazy glued a copy of it in a walkman. its something i do when i find a tape that i know i will love forever. i have a pretty extensive tape collection but its my walkman collection that garners all the attention.and stu... jeez man... leave the city, buy a fishing rod, do some yoga on the edge of a lake and chill... you are going to have a heart attack from reading blogs... (imagine if he did? eeep... i might actually feel bad...)xoxoALwww.scotchtapes.ca

DLKG's picture

Stephen,I love the broken Deer music and the video is also phenom! I guess you'll be letting us know if an Lp comes out? You're not going to get me to like cassettes. I hated them from day 1 when they were a necessary evil.

DLKG's picture

Stephen,I love the broken Deer music and the video is also phenom! I guess you'll be letting us know if an Lp comes out? You're not going to get me to like cassettes. I hated them from day 1 when they were a necessary evil.

Stephen Mejias's picture

DLKG: Thanks for your comment. Glad you're digging Broken Deer. You can buy the CD release of Broken Deer's Our Small Going (also available as a set-your-own-price download) from Gandhara Recordings:
http://www.gandhararecordings.org/dm/albumpage.php?id=3And Broken Deer's Polaraura will be available on June 21.

Al @ Scotch's picture

"Polaraura" will be out June 21... on 8-track! This is not a joke. But I think gandhara is taking care of the digital download thingie...

Stephen Mejias's picture

On 8-track?! I had been considering picking up an 8-track player. Now I have to.

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