Add this album to my list of “looking forwards to…” The new Wolf Parade album will be out in June (or maybe July from Sub Pop) and is named after one of my earliest memories growing up, Expo ’86.
Anyone in my age bracket or older that lived in British Columbia in 1986 likely has some fond memories of the World’s Fair that dominated Vancouver. Every time you ride the Expo line of the Skytrain or take in a IMAX film at science world, you’re basking in the legacy. I thought it was pretty neat when I read an interview with WP’s Dan Boeckner about why they chose Expo ’86 as the title for their new record:
Pitchfork: Do you have a title for the album yet?
DB: The title for the record, as far as we know now, is– unless we get sued for using it– Expo 86.
Expo 86 was a World’s Fair that happened in Vancouver in 1986. It’s been this thing we all talked about as a band. We all grew up in British Columbia, and we were all at Expo, which lasted about three or four days. It’s a weird little thought experiment– basically, we were all young children at the same big event. I remember Expo 86 was as big as the Olympics were this year in Vancouver. They completely reorganized part of the downtown core, and they built this giant geodesic dome called “Science World”. Now it looks completely, totally dated and a product of its time. They built monuments, built rides. It was something I don’t think we’re going to see in Canada ever again because World’s Fairs have fallen out of favor, at least for the Western World.
Pitchfork: Do you have any particular memories of going to Expo 86?
DB: I remember going to the German Pavilion, which was totally terrifying. Each country had a pavilion showing off their prime exports or a little bit of the culture, and the German Pavilion was this super austere, really cold Bauhaus-style minimalist building. It freaked me out as a child.
I remember the UFO HTO water park, Expo Ernie! and MFing Rainbow War. I still have a an Expo ’86 t-shirt that is wearable… not that I wear it much, it’s been co-opted by Ms. Coral Crawford.
Fun fact: The above cover for the new Wolf Parade album features some greasy looking youngsters about to fuck some ship up… those kids are actual family members of Wolf Parade’s Dante DeCaro. Wait an minute? the same Dante that used to be in Victoria favourite sons Hot Hot Heat? yes, the same one!
And one more degree of Kevin Bacon; Expo ’86 had a chief operating officer named Jim Pattison. He now owns The Zone @ 91-3! Believe that.
That’s it… Go with yourself.
Me, Expo Ernie, and my brothers CJ and Matt: May 1986
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