Elliott Brood

Elliott Brood (often written as Elliott BROOD) is a Canadian alternative country trio that got together in Toronto in 2002. The band is made up of Mark Sasso (lead vocals, guitar, banjo, ukulele, harmonica, kazoo), Casey Laforet (guitar, lead vocals, backing vocals, bass pedals, keys, ukulele), and Stephen Pitkin (percussion, sampler, backing vocals). Critics have described their sound as "death country," "frontier rock," or "revival music."

Sasso and Laforet grew up together in Windsor and started playing as a band after moving to Toronto following high school. Their first show happened in 2002 at Toronto club Holy Joes with two other musicians.

Those two dropped out after a few gigs, leaving Sasso and Laforet as a duo. They teamed up with producer Stephen Pitkin to record their debut EP, Tin Type, which came out in 2004. That EP was cut in two days inside Sasso’s living room.

Released in January 2004 by weewerk Records, Tin Type came in a brown paper bag with a handmade photobook styled after the American Old West. (Sasso, also a graphic artist, designs all of the band’s albums.) Pitkin recorded and co-produced the EP but didn’t officially join the band until their first LP, Ambassador, dropped on Six Shooter Records in 2005. Much of Ambassador was recorded by Joe Dunphy in a former abattoir at the Toronto Public Stock Yards, which had been turned into a studio called Monumental Sound. The album’s title refers to the Ambassador Bridge linking Windsor to Detroit.

The band’s second full-length, Mountain Meadows, arrived in 2008. It was co-produced with John Critchley at Green Door Studio in Toronto, where it was also mixed. True to the band’s habit of chasing unusual room sounds, they recorded at several Canadian spots: Healey Lake Lodge in MacTier, Wayne Town Hall in Wayne, Mount Robson Lodge in Valemount, and Halla Music in Toronto, plus Casey Laforet’s kitchen and Mark’s garage. That album was shortlisted for the 2009 Polaris Music Prize.

Until June 2008, Pitkin used a Samsonite "Silhouette" suitcase instead of a regular bass drum. He gave up the idea after smashing through several cases at bad moments, especially during a destructive encore on a double bill with United Steel Workers of Montreal at Le Divan Orange in Montreal. That wrecked case now hangs as an art installation on the wall of the Moho Tavern in Peterborough.