Artist description psychedelic pop orchestra dealing in both pure pop and free form

Music Style pop

Musical Influences Echo & the Bunnymen, Julian Cope, Love, Syd Barrett, the PInk Floyd, Kevin Ayers, Spiritualized, Scott Walker, Spaceman 3, Brian Wilson, Brian's Stones, the Beatles, the Velvet Underground, the Cure, Big Star

Similar Artists Spiritualized, Echo & the Bunnymen

Artist History Formed as an acoustic unit in 1991 Poppy Seed slowly evolved into a full fledged psychedelic orchestra by the latter part of the 90s. Their debut was finally released in 1998 to much critical praise.

Group Members Steven Bromstein: vocals,guitars Matthew Roy: bass Ron Duffy: drums Jeff Burke: bassoon, space organ Steve Banks: space organ, guitar

Instruments live show includes: drums, bass, bassoon, guitars, percussion, space organ

Albums Days Dream Of You: released 1998

Press Reviews THE TORONTO STAR Thursday, January 15, 1998 By Lenny Stoute The pop side of psychedelia Looks like Jim Morrison, sounds like Morrissey … Steve “Poppy Seed” Bromstein’s justifiably cited as the poster boy for acid rock. For six years, he and his ragtag band, The Love Explosion Orchestra, which numbers anywhere from four to 11 members, have been shapers of the local acid rock scene, from a power base at El Mocambo’s Sedated Sundays shows. For a scene that initially was a refuge for red-eyed, psychedelic slackers, it’s been most prolific in throwing up new acts and making its sound heard mainstream. “ At one time it was just Trans Love Airways, William New and us, just friends grooving around. I think it’s great there’s now a new wave of bands like Wilder and Kennel District, who’re playing psychedelia. “Like ourselves, the scene’s gone through the period of long, really boring jams, and the bands that survived are the ones who’ve maintained an audience by growing past that.” Bromstein feels one reason it’s taken PS & TLEO so long to put out an album is tat they’ve maintained their audience through the live shows. “I recognized it would be impossible to get the feeling of those shows on a CD. I had to wait until I’d either re-arranged songs or wrote enough new ones that were strong of themselves.” Not to spare the pun. The songs on the Days Dream of You album live on the poppy side of psychedelia. A flowers ‘n’ mushrooms springtime is in the air, as tablas rattle and Jaunty horn lines strut by. Bromstein’s lyrics are put out as suggestions; some songs, like “Theme 2,” don’t have any, living by shimmering dissonance, tremolo and echo chamber, arranged like a fragile musical house of cards. “The biggest change is that we’re a pop band which draws on psychedelia, more than a pure psychedelic band. The horns have always given us that distance from the pure psychdelia, but now the songs are also freeing themselves of certain limits. “ there will always be the jams; they’re an integral part of the sound. But maybe not in every song, or be the main reason to write a song. “Another good thing about waiting to put out the first album; I’ve a song from’89 on it, and some were w4itten as we were making Days. You can hear how the group’s sound has grown over time. It hasn’t grown away from psychedelia, it’s become more orchestral. That’s why it took 11 players to generate the appropriately large sound I wanted for the songs,” explains Bromstein, who also produced. He’ll guarantee six pieces for the album’s release showcase Wednesday at the Rivoli, but allows that, with expected guests including Sinisters’ saxist Steve Shortell, the count could explode to the magic 11. R8 May 28 eye SUMMER RECORD GUIDE POPPY SEED/Days Dream of You (Independent): The debut CD by the El Mo’s Sedated Sunday maven Steve Bromstein offers a goodly sized dose of warm pyschedelic pop whimsy, the sort seldom heard since the members of the Teardrop Explodes started trying to kill each other. the sunny and Love-like “Empty Page” and “Lemon Coloured Dress” are my faves, but the looser-limbed, raga-style “Call Me Away Part 2” and Syd-ian “A Returning Daze” are equally fine. (JA) EYE January 15, 1998 Oyster-fuelled loving by Erin Hawkins “It’s kind of like what Jason from Spiritualized was saying abut how their most recent album was recorded in two weeks, then he spent the next two years mixing it.” Poppy Seed & The Love Explosion Orchestra bandleader Steve Bromstein is on the phone from his group’s rehearsal space, trying to explain why it took so bloody long fo their debut disc to be completed. Faithful readers may recall the blurb on Bromstein, when he was chosen last March as one of eye’s coolest musicians in Toronto. Besides divulging that he was a Scorpio naturally attracted women, the Grand Poohbah of El Mocambo’s Sedated Sundays and the man responsible for tribute nights to the likes of Pet Sounds and Echo & the Bunnymen talked in the present tense about the Orchestra’s forthcoming album as if it were… um, forthcoming. So what gave? “Editing it into a cohesive whole turned out to be a much bigger thing than I expected,” Bromstein confesses. “I guess it inevitably had to be done like that because I didn’t really know what I was doing so I had to rely on other people’s creative input. And so, almost a year later comes Days Dream of You, a flighty psychedelic pop-rock orgy chock full of analgesic lyrics, unconventional time signatures and lofty brass arrangements. But even more impressive than his group being able to balloon into a large ensemble (11 full-time and transient players at last count) without a government grant is the fact that Bromstein, a studio novice, decided to take the helm of producer. When asked if integrating the tabla and horn sections into the tunes and achieving the desired sounds was nerve-wracking, Bromstein credits digital technology as much as the engineers for making the recording a cheaper and more cheerful experience. Still, the album’s 10 songs and three mini-instrumentals didn’t exactly come off as easily as Marv Albert’s Jockey for Hers. Says Bromstein, “I wanted to do a lot of stuff and I ended up overdoing it to the point where large parts had to be taken out and songs had to be cut. There was a point where it got bogged down into this mass that didn’t make much sense, which was kind of silly. We laid down the bedtracks and got everyone to come in and do their parts, but then I realized I had too many parts.” Which brings us back to the colossal gap between the four-song cassette by one lowly band known just as Poppy Seed in the early 90’s and the frothy Days Dream of You. It’s clear that if Bromstein had chosen to pull a Black Francis-style power trip, the album could have been out sooner, but he opeted tolet everyone do their thing instead. And as he’s quick to attest, when you’ve got such players as John Borra, bassoonist Jeff Burke, and saxophonist Bob Mover (who once played with Sonny Rollins and Chet Baker) on board, you can afford to clean out the lint catcher later on down the line. “When I started out, the idea was to use things other than electric guitars for the main melody, because I was getting tired of that sound. It’s kind of like what Love’s Arthur Lee said about their album Forever Changes. People were doing all this raunchy guitar stuff and their response was to make this orchestral album. So there you have it – Sass ‘n’ panache is obtainable on a shoestring budget, if you can hook up with sympathetic musicians who don’t mind the kind of wait between albums usually reserved for people like Peter Gabriel and the Stereo MCs – and I bet they don’t have oysters at their record release parties.” Are we taking about the kind you slurp back on the half shell? “Yaaah!” That’s very sensual don’t you think? “Sure. Why not? It’s a Love Explosion Orchestra thing. It’s an erotic pleasure.” The Toronto Sun, Tuesday January 20th 1998 It’s Musical Anarchy By Keiran Grant With a band that works best in anarchy, it sometimes takes a dictator to get an album recorded. Regarding Poppy Seed & the Love Explosion, that job belongs to frontman Steven Bromstein. Four full-time bandmates and seven guest contributors backed him up on his debut CD, Days Dream of You. But the Kensington market neighbourhood singer-guitarist and his art-rock band do their best work when they’re making things up on the spot. “Steve’s a totalitarian,” says bassoon player Jeff Burke with a hearty laugh. “We just do what we want anyway.” That little recipe for anarchy doesn’t quite explain why the album, to be unveiled tomorrow night at the Rivoli can be packed to the gunwales with guitars, horns, woodwinds, tablas, Bromstein’s cantor-like singing voice, and still come off like a melodic breeze. The resulting sound is difficult to describe: Part’60’s psychedelia – the group worships openly at the altar of acid-rock pioneers Arthur Lee and Love, and Syd Barrett – ‘80’s post punk and free jazz. There’s a set structure for improvising,” says Bromstein. “ I just leave these spaces and tell everyone, ‘take off here.’” It’s a tradition that goes back to the group’s rather accidental formation several years ago, when Bromstein, then gigging around as an acoustic solo artist, found his set being “hijacked” by Burke. “I was onstage by myself at Blue Moon Saloon, minding my own business, and Jeff jest started playing along,” he recalls with a laugh. “ I thought, ‘What a nerve.’ Then I realized how good it sounded.” The Love Explosion would later swell to include a variety of players, including Days Dream of You guest stars – former Chet Baker saxophonist Bob Mover, baritone saxman Steve Shortell and Toronto Tabla Ensemble member Edward Hanley, to name a few. Apart from being one of the few local rock bands with a lead bassoon player – “Most of the other ones I know of have me in them,” offers Burke – Poppy Seed & the Love Explosion are best known as the catalyst for the El Mocambo’s Sedated Sundays, which normally feature an extended family of bands playing tribute to musical heroes as diverse as Brian Wilson, Joy Division and Burt Bacharach. “For the bands that play the Sedated Sundays, it’s as if they’re playing their living rooms,” says guitarist Mathew Roy. “It’s a centre for the whole are, and everybody’s rooting for everybody and helping each other.” With fine, albeit little-known groups like Wilder, Wayne Omaha, Kennel District, Telejet, Mean Red Spider’s and Trans Love Airways at its epicentre, this community is an interesting new diversion, Bromstein says. “All these bands are accessible in a way that a lot of Toronto bands aren’t usually,” he says, hitting on an apt description of his own group. Cover for tomorrow’s Poppy Seed show is $4 and includes a copy of Days Dream of You. THE TORONTO STAR Thursday, April 23, 1998 Club Crawl by Lenny Stoute REVIEWS: Steve Poppy Seed promised us a journey into the heart of psychedelia and he and the Love Explosion Orchestra didn’t disappoint. The wind section boasted a bassoon, and where else are you gonna see alive tabla solo? Steering an ambient course through psychedelia is to invite self-indulgence, but to his credit Poppy managed to stop just short of implosion. The Horseshoe crowd nervously watched as Steve anounced a tune titled “Forever,” which didn’t last nearly that long. Poppy Seed & the Love Explosion Orchestra Days Dream of You (Independent) Psychedelia has been making a comeback” ever since the first Echo & the Bunnymen single, so it’s probably more useful to think of it in terms of a recurring acid flashback. Toronto’s Steve Bromstein knows this, so he’s got a twist in his tab. His group Poppy Seed & the Love Explosion Orchestra is actually an orchestra—or at least makes healthy use of horns-bridging Barrett and Bacharach while he sings like Julian Cope. A mellifluous, mellow trip, man. 7.5/10 (Chris Yurkiw) At Jailhouse Rock tonight, Thurs, Jan 21, with the Datsuns, 9pm, $4 POPPY SEED AND THE LOVE EXPLOSION ORCHESTRA Days Dream of You (Candyland) Nostalgia tends to be frowned upon in indie circles, but who can blame Steve Poppy Seed for looking to the past? After all, there are scant role models these days for young romantics with a penchant for free-jazz noise. So instead of searching for modern-day hero, Poppy Seed chooses to bask in the freaked-out genius of Syd Barrett and Love’s Arthur Lee. but Steve’s for more sane than those two, whichmeans his immaculate pop operettas – the seductive “What Trip Are You On?,” the acoustic breeziness of “Lemon Coloured Dress,” the late-night serenading of “Silver Moon” – are excess free and executed to perfection. The acid damaged side of his Love Explosion Orchestra does emerge on occasion (in the form of three improvised interludes), but otherwise, Poppy Seed’s one smooth operator. Contact: Station P, P.O. Box 604, Toronto ON M5S 2Y4. -- SB Kitchener-Waterloo Record, Wednesday November 25th 1998 Poppy Seed & the Love Explosion out ther, man By Nick Krewen Psychedelic man. Poppy Seed & the Love Explosion Orchestra is as spacey as they come, man. Like, man, we’re talking pure incense and patchouli on Poppy Seed’s indie album Days Dream of You. Some free-form improvisational jamming, and even saxes, trumpet, tabla and a bassoon. But none of the music seems quite as spacey as brainchild Steven Bromstein, who seems to have trouble concentrating on the conversation from the beginning of the interview. “So where do we start? Have you heard the disc? Have you got a plan?” asks Bromstein in rapid succession before the telephone receiver is warm in the reporter’s hand. “Yeah,” comes the reply. “When did you first become interested in music?” “Went to school. Traveled. Played music. Ummmm. Yeah.” He sings briefly into the telephone. “Dum-de-dum. Yeah. I did a degree. When we went over to Europe, we did some busking, played a bunch of gigs. That’s where the career choice sort of happened. Yeah. That’s right.” Is it a coincidence that the first song on the album is called What Trip Are You On? For the next 15 minutes much of the conversation travels down a similar road. So here, dear reader, are the salient points: Bromstein, now 30, has played music most of his life. he attended Concordia University “majoring in nothing in particular” and minoring in three subjects – political science, English and fine arts history. Poppy Seed has been together since ’91, often uses rear-projection screening in their concerts, is currently a six-piece band that includes a bassoonist and a female percussion player, and its first album Days Dream of You is currently in its third printing. if you like the music of Syd Barrett or early Pink Floyd with the new wave touch of Echo and the Bunnymen, then be at the Metropolis Thursday by 9p.m. Hopefully the performance will be more cohesive than the interview. INDIE NATION: HMV’s guide to the world of independent music Volume 4 March 1998 POPPY SEED & THE LOVE EXPLOSION ORCHESTRA Days Dream of You (Candyland Records) I’m barely capable of writing a grocery list that’s 100 words of less, never mind a CD review, but here goes: Poppy Seed & the Love Explosion Orchestra do the hippy trippy shake, recalling the prettier parts of Teardrop Explodes, Scott Walker, and early Pink Floyd, only they get their point across with a bassoon (!) as opposed to an electric guitar, which usually works wonders, believe it or not, even ir it is hard to imagine a nation of kids air-bassooning along, but you just never know, right? (Exclamation and ampersand not included, this review is exactly 100 words, says my computer.) Scott ‘out of breath’ Woods Ici (vivre a montreal) 16 Juillet 1998 Ambiances -ROCK Patrick Baillargeon Jeu 16 Juillet Poppy Seed And The Love Explosion Orchestra Poppy Seed and the Love Explosion font beaucoup parler d’eux a Toronto en ce moment. Le groupe qui a longtemps anime les Sedated Sundays du El Mocambo Club devrait bientot etre dans les parrages afin de nous faire decouvrir leurs trips. Le premier album de la formation, Days Dream of You, propose une pop lysergique fortement coloree de cuivres, Bob Mover (que l’on a pu voir avec Sonny Rollins et Chet Baker) vient y souffler quelques notes: de tablas; de basson et j’en passe. Le resultat es tres interessant, tres proche d’un Teardrop Explodes moins fucke ou d’un Smiths pas mal fucke. Avec The Whereabouts et The Vendettas. (PB) Café Campus 57 Prince-Arthur E. 20h 5$ 844-1010 Ici (vivre a montreal) 16 Juillet 1998 Ambiances -ROCK Patrick Baillargeon Jeu 16 Juillet Poppy Seed And The Love Explosion Orchestra Poppy Seed and the Love Explosion font beaucoup parler d’eux a Toronto en ce moment. Le groupe qui a longtemps anime les Sedated Sundays du El Mocambo Club devrait bientot etre dans les parrages afin de nous faire decouvrir leurs trips. Le premier album de la formation, Days Dream of You, propose une pop lysergique fortement coloree de cuivres, Bob Mover (que l’on a pu voir avec Sonny Rollins et Chet Baker) vient y souffler quelques notes: de tablas; de basson et j’en passe. Le resultat es tres interessant, tres proche d’un Teardrop Explodes moins fucke ou d’un Smiths pas mal fucke. Avec The Whereabouts et The Vendettas. (PB) Café Campus 57 Prince-Arthur E. 20h 5$ 844-1010 R8 May 28 eye SUMMER RECORD GUIDE POPPY SEED/Days Dream of You (Independent): The debut CD by the El Mo’s Sedated Sunday maven Steve Bromstein offers a goodly sized dose of warm pyschedelic pop whimsy, the sort seldom heard since the members of the Teardrop Explodes started trying to kill each other. the sunny and Love-like “Empty Page” and “Lemon Coloured Dress” are my faves, but the looser-limbed, raga-style “Call Me Away Part 2” and Syd-ian “A Returning Daze” are equally fine. (JA) CAPITAL CITY (Ottawa) January 21-27 1999 Poppy Seed’s Psychedelic Pop With a spaced-out psychedelic pop sound, it’s no surprise the word acid gets bandied about wherever Toronto guitarist/vocalist Steven Bromstein goes. But in reality, classifying Bromstein’s band Poppy Seed and the Love Explosion Orchestra as a mere whacked-out, free-flowing hippie act would be inaccurate. For behind the spontaneous grooves and other-worldly vibes lies a rich six-piece outfit oozing with musical skills. “The whole album is a mix,” says Bromstein from his Toronto home about the band’s debut release Days Dream Of You. “Every tune has some improvisation, and some songs are almost completely improvised.” With its echoing guitar lines, beautiful horn sections and rapid tabla playing, Days Dream Of You is worh a peek. Check the Love team this Saturday (January 23) when they play Barrymore’s (323 Bank). Tickets are $6 at the door. ECHO serving Kitchener, Watterloo, Guelph and Cambridge November 26th 1998 FLOATING IN SPACE PULL OUT THE SKINS AND GET STINKY WITH POPPY SEED AND THE LOVE EXPLOSION ORCHESTRA By Jake G. Richards It’s just after two in the morning when you stumble through the door after a hard day of work and an even harder night of partying. Your body is ready for bed, but your mind is reeling, still very much awake. There’s bugger all on television and it’s too damn cold outside for sitting on the balcony to let your senses wander. It’s you, four walls and a brain that refuses to slow down. At first, the time alone appreciated for the opportunity to organize your thoughts and to reflect on your life, but soon, the silence becomes deafening and cabin fever starts to look like a real possibility. What do you do? Go over to the stereo and plop in Poppy Seed & the Love Explosion Orchestra’s Days Dream of You CD (If you don’t own a copy, don’t fret, you can pick one up tonight when they play Metropolis). Dim the lights, curl up on the couch with the headphones and a hoolie and turn the volume up loud. Close your eyes, lie back and imagine yourself driving through lush Spring countryside as the cool waves of psychedelic sound wash over you. From the uplifting grooves of the opening track, “What Trip Are You On?” to the sheer fucking brilliance of the bass laden “Candyman”, this is the sort of album that when heard for the umpteenth time continues to reveal sounds previously undiscovered. The multiple layers of sound that meld together here produce a thoroughly enjoyable listening experience, best described as head music. Poppy Seed & the Love Explosion Orchestra have been around in one form or another since ’91 with Steven Bromstein leading the way on guitar and box. The current members in the orchestra include: bassist Matt Roy, drummer Ron Duffy, Jeff Burke playing bassoon, Steve Banks on keyboards and Maria Lopes rounding out the ensemble with percussion and vocals. When Bromstein, aka Poppy Seed, called from his digs in Toronto to discuss the upcoming show in K-W, we started talking about other artists of a similar vein such as Julian Cope, Spiritualized and early Verve. I asked him if it’s difficult to find a niche in a marketplace that draws an audience primarily with radio friendly hits as opposed to escapist music. “I really think that it’s less of an issue now than ever before. There is a whole scene of this stuff, so we’re just finding the scene internationally through the web. It’s easier than ever before to hook up with like-minded people. Through the Internet you can hook up with somebody in New York or wherever who is into that sort of music and can help you to get a show. You can do that now and it won’t even cost you a phone call, whereas that has never been possible before”. Bromstein describes the material on the CD as a condensed version of what they do live where, “We tend to do a fair bit of improvisation. I’d say it’s a more rockin’ live for sure. We’re not a really loud band, but you certainly wouldn’t say we’re a quiet band either. We fit in with the traditional psychedelic bands pretty much.” When asked about future plans, Bromstein contemplates recording and adds, “I’m not expecting Poppy Seed to become huge from here, so I think inevitably we have to walk the same ropes as Radiohead or Spiritualized or whatever. We’re hoping to get over to Britain, not necessarily move over there, but do a lot of shows there. That’s just a goal. If we could get it together to do that, that’s probably more of a goal before touring across Canada.’ I could write further on our conversation, but I am running out of room and besides, the best way to get to know this band is to simply get out there and catch the show, for it will make more of an impression on you than anything I could possibly hope to relate. So pull out the skins and get stinky for some hypnotically intelligent music that will transport you away from the winter doldrums. POPPY SEED AND THE LOVE EXPLOSION ORCHESTRA play METROPOLIS (125 King St. W, Kitchener, 749-2121) tonight, November 26 Hour July 9, 1998 Poppy Seed & the Love Explosion Orchestra: a story about a guy named Steve Mitch Joel Well it isn’t Ratt Scabies or lance D’Boyle, but as far as stage handles go, at least Poppy Seed – as Toronto’s Steve Bromstein is known in music circles – isn’t likely to offend anyone’s finer sensibilities. Which is apropos, since Bromstein is one of the least offensive guys you’re ever likely to meet. Along with The Love Explosion Orchestra (actually a six-piece band), Bromstein’s only sinister motives involve funking you up real good with his (mildly eccentric) brand of modern pop psychedelia. Bromsteinis no stranger to Montreal (and, yes, he’s the brother of Gazette columnist and Hour writer Elizabeth Bromstein), having spent some years studying political science here at Concordia before wrapping up a degree from the University of Toronto. Now the 29-year old songwriter is trying to focus on the band, though for his indie debut, Days Dream of You, he forsook the convention of taking a live band into the studio. “I got specific people to come into the studio and do some sessions,” says Bromstein. “Poppy Seed wasn’t very band-like at the time. It was still in the phase where I just got musicians whose sound I wanted on the album, although I use the same horn players live, as well as some of the guys that actually played on the record.” He begins every sentence with “dum da dum,” which either signals an abberant thought or perhaps the possibility that he’s answered these questions before. Bromstein begins exlaining how his bandcame to become a psychedelic pop outlet without an injection of electrons from Black Sabbath and Hawkwind. “ I was influenced by a lot of 80s stuff like Echo & the Bunnymen and The Jesus and Mary Chain,” he says (and photos of his hair would seem to verify this). “Autumn Lake, one of the first songs I wrote for Days Dream Of You, was written in Montreal back in ’89. Everything in Montreal was completely punk rock, which it probably still is.” (I guess he missed that whole Bran Van thing…) “There was no interest in pop, and when I started writing these songs back then it felt like nobody was really interested in my song styles.” But now the seed’s been planted and the only question that remains is… just how big is this Poppy gonna grow? Poppy Seed &the Love explosion Orchestra with The Whereabouts at Petit Campus, 8:30 p.m. July 16th

Location Toronto, ON - Canada

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