Don’t mention Celine - 10 Canadian bands that are well worth hearing

Having moved to the UK from Canada, I am constantly being asked by people if I am a fan of Canadian artists like Celine Dion, Shania Twain, Neil Young etc as well as more recent bands like Arcade Fire and The Dears.

Although, I am not denying that these musicians are all very talented, I would like to point out that there are a lot of other great musicians that have come out of Canada since Dion’s my ‘heart will go on’ days. In fact the music scene has exploded in recent years with a lot of great new musicians emerging.

In order to prove that I am not making this all up, here are 10 Canadian bands that you should know (in no particular order):

Now we could not have a list of Canadian bands without including the very influential post-rock band, Godspeed you! Black Emperor, from Montreal. The nine-piece group created almost orchestrated arrangement, and were known for their creative use of instrumentation and recorded sounds.

Final Fantasy (not to be confused with the game), is the solo project of classically trained violinist and singer Owen Pallett. Best known for his work with Arcade Fire, Pallett’s unique sound comes from playing the violin into a sampler controlled by foot pedals, which is then used to loop sonic textures and riffs, as he continues to play simultaneously. MySpace

Broken Social Scene, the Canadian indie rock supergroup. This collective, currently comprised of 19 members, was formed by Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning, and includes a number of the most important musicians in the Canadian indie scene. The band is characterized by the diversity of their sound and a sort of homage to grand orchestral styles, including violins, woodwinds, horns, and guitars.

K-OS aka Kevin Brereton, singer, songwriter and record producer, is best known for his unique blending of rap, funk, rock, and reggae. Unlike many Hip Hop artists, he chooses to be accompanied by a live band, something that is often forgone by many hip hop artists, and an element that adds to his unique sound.

Stars’ was formed in Toronto in 200 by Torquil Campbell, vocalist, and Chris Seligman, keyboardist. Their music is often describes as indie electro-pop, which combines narrative lyrics with a rich instrumental soundscape.

The New Pornographers based out of Vancouver, British Columbia, were formed in 1997, and quickly established themselves as a prominent force within the Canadian scene. Citing bands like Cheap Trick and The Cars as their Influence, they attempt to play with the structures and harmonics of the classic pop rock genre.

Boys Night Out was among the bands to come out of the Ontario post-hardcore scene. Their sound, which varies from album to album, combines elements of hardcore with pop punk, creating quite heavy but catchy compositions. Their album Trainweck, was a break from their earlier work, working with an experimental concept, in which they created a narrative that spanned the lyrical content of the album.

The award winning, Metric, can best be described as a fusion of new wave and rock. Creating fun synthesizer driven pop anthems for hipster kids. Formed in 1998, by singer Emily Haines, the band has seen great success in recent years with their most recent album Live It Out (2005), reaching double platinum sales in Canada. YouTube vid

The Most Serene Republic, is a seven piece collective from Ontario, best known for their grand ballads, featuring trombone, piano, EBow, guitar, and violin. As a collective, in order to fuel creativity they have a revolving door policy so the vocalist and the line up are constantly changing. This has earned them a great deal of criticism with one critic stating they give “less an impression of an indie rock than a utopian commune town meeting.” However, in the Canadian tradition of indie collectives, this band evokes and rewrites the image of the orchestral.

MSTRKRFT (pronounced Master Craft) started out as a side project between Toronto musicians Jesse Keeler, formally of Death From Above 1979 and Al –P. The electro-funk DJ style, is as Al-P has stated, all about “making people feel like they want to dance, at least a little bit, so it’s all about whatever it takes to get people there.” – personally I think they have succeeded.

Laura S