Biography
Brendan Canty (born March 9, 1966 in Teaneck, New Jersey) is an American musician, best known as the drummer for the band Fugazi.
Canty and friend Guy Picciotto (vocals, guitars) were bandmates in several Washington D.C. area bands in the early and mid-1980s, including Rites of Spring, One Last Wish, Insurrection, and Happy Go Licky. He also played drums with the short-lived Deadline, featured on the Flex Your Head compilation.
Canty joined Fugazi in 1987, and Picciotto joined not long afterwards.
Many of Fugazi's songs since Steady Diet of Nothing are based on guitar riffs introduced to rehearsals by Canty. An adept multi-instrumentalist, Canty also writes songs on piano (he plays a skeletal version of "Bed for the Scraping" on the Instrument DVD), as well as bass lines for some songs. He is also noted for using a ship's bell as part of his Fugazi drum set in recent years.
In between Fugazi tours, Canty frequently composes soundtrack music, primarily for Discovery Channel and The Learning Channel documentaries. He also contributes to or helps produce other Washington D.C.-area recordings. During Fugazi's post-2002 hiatus, Canty took part in a side project, Garland Of Hours, with vocalist/cellist/keyboardist Amy Domingues and drummer/percussionist Jerry Busher, both of whom have contributed to Fugazi recordings and performances. Their first self-titled album was released on the Arrest Records label founded by Busher and Canty's younger brother James, formerly of Nation of Ulysses.
In 2004, Canty and director Christoph Green co-founded the DVD label Trixie to release an ongoing series of music-related films entitled Burn to Shine. The series involves independent alternative music bands from a particular region showing up to perform one song live, without overdubs or corrections, in a house that is about to be demolished. The first volume was filmed in Canty's home region of Washington, D.C., and features performances from Bob Mould, Weird War, Q and Not U, Ted Leo, French Toast, The Medications, fellow Fugazi member Ian MacKaye's side project The Evens, and Garland Of Hours. A second volume, filmed in the Chicago area, was released in 2005, and a third filmed in Portland, Oregon came out August 20 of 2006. Three more volumes are currently in production featuring other cities.
Using the same crew and filming style as on the Burn to Shine series, Canty and Green made a concert film of a Bob Mould show, entitled "Circle of Friends." Canty not only produced this film but also plays drums during the show, which took place at Washington D.C.'s 9:30 Club. Canty and Green also made Sunken Treasure: Live in the Pacific Northwest, a 2006 Jeff Tweedy (Wilco) tour film, and are at work on other film projects.
In late 2004 and early 2005, Canty contributed drum tracks to Bob Mould's 2005 solo album, Body Of Song. Canty was also the drummer for many dates on the winter 2005/2006 tour in support of the album. Canty returns as the drummer for Bob Mould's District Line, to be released February 2008.
Canty's score for the Sundance Channel documentary series The Hill premiered on August 23, 2006.
He produced Ted Leo and the Pharmacists's Living With the Living and The Tyranny of Distance albums. He also produced Benjy Ferree, The Thermals's The Body, The Blood, The Machine, and French Toast records, as well as mixing the self-titled debut album for The Aquarium.
Brendan Canty is the brother of James Canty, and writer Kevin Canty. Brendan Canty lives in Washington, D.C. with his wife and four children.
Artist descriptions on Last.fm are editable by everyone. Feel free to contribute!
All user-contributed text on this page is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply.
