Music

Better know a regional alt-weekly: a sampling of local scenes and bands to watch in 2011

by Nicole Villeneuve

Guess what? Canada is big. Geographically and musically. Often, until or unless a band finds its way onto the upper echelons of internet hype or elusive national press, they can go overlooked. To give you a sample what’s going on in music scenes across the country, AUX chased the experts: music writers and editors for some of the arts and entertainment alt-weeklies of major cities, coast to coast. This is not intended to be exhaustive, but instead a sampling of the bands and supporters—the communities—that make up Canada’s rich musical landscape.

Jen Zoratti (Uptown Magazine, Winnipeg) says:

Boats
I’ve had a major soft spot for this weirdo experimental pop project fronted by Winnipeg musician Mat Klachefsky for a long time. In 2007, Boats released a quirky little junk-pop opus called Intercontinental Champion that established the band as a major one to watch in the city, but lineup hiccups prevented it from really moving forward. In 2010, they made good on the promise of that release with their excellent sophomore record, Cannonballs, Cannonballs. Easily my favourite local release of the year, and there were a lot of them. Cannonballs, Cannonballs has a Saturday morning cartoon vibe thanks to Klachefsky’s high, nasal vocals, absurdist lyrics and whimsical arrangements, but it’s also a mature, polished pop record full of Arcade Fire-level anthems. Added bonus: Boats is just as ass-kicking live as they are on record.

Magnum K.I.
Although Winnipeg is known as a producer of hyper-literate indie rock outfits (see: The Weakerthans), the ‘Peg is also home to a burgeoning rap/hip hop scene. Magnum K.I., the musical partnership of MC Ismaila Alfa and DJ Kutdown, is definitely a frontrunner of this scene, thanks to their smart, socially conscious lyrics and expertly crafted beats. The duo’s self-titled full-length debut easily ranks among the best Canadian hip hop releases of this year.

Royal Canoe
Begun as a just-for-fun, one-off recording project by The Waking Eyes’ Matt Peters and a few of his friends, Royal Canoe has quickly evolved into one of Winnipeg’s hottest indie pop acts. The band’s debut, the aptly titled Co-op Mode, features a who’s-who of Peg players, and in a broader context, Royal Canoe is a prime example of a major trend that emerged in the Winnipeg music in 2010: collaboration and cross-pollination between bands. Courier News and Imaginary Cities are also two to watch in this vein.

Jenny Charlesworth (The Georgia Straight, Vancouver) says:

Hard Drugs
RIYL: The Wooden Sky, Big Star, Bruce Springsteen

Duffy and the Doubters
RIYL: The New Pornographers, Ladyhawk (this is lead singer Duffy Driediger’s new solo project)

Baptists
RIYL: Cursed, Coliseum, Motorhead

Alison Laing (The Coast, Halifax) says:

Long Long Long
This band is made up of some talented young men (I think most of them are still undergrad students) who used to play in a band called York Redoubt. Their songs are wonderfully strange—you get these Donovan-delicate piping harmonies and tight little melodies and then there’s these weird math-y detours that spiral into spacey breakdowns. You would think this type of music would be hard to sing along with but everyone does. They are going to SXSW in March which is very exciting for them!

Bloodhouse
Man I love Bloodhouse. I could blather about them for a while so I’ll try and hold back. When the songs included on the Bandcamp link emerged this past summer the whole city seemed to lose their minds. I don’t know what you’d call them exactly—psych-grunge maybe? Their songs are very heavy and hypnotic and I love the high echoing vocals. They make me feel spooky, but I can bang my head to it too, know what I mean?

Bad Vibrations
Bad Vibrations consist of KC Spidle, who used to play drums for Dog Day, his girlfriend Meg Yoshida on the drums and Evan Cardwell on bass. They make weird evil punk. I describe it as Motorhead crossed with Eric’s Trip—just really propulsive, and really great live show from a very respected band who have demonstrated a lot of get-up-and-go this year. They’ve released an album, a seven-inch, and a tape, and they’ve toured once or twice to Ontario/Montreal I think.

Tanya Davis
Tanya Davis is a local musician/poet who is starting to make some waves. She just released an album called Clocks and Hearts Keep Going that was produced by Jim Bryson. Her music is quite sweet and unassuming and thoughtful and her lyrics are very good and occasionally quite heartbreaking. Her poem “How to Be Alone” was made into a short video directed by a local filmmaker named Andrea Dorfman and after Roger Ebert name-dropped it, it hit 300,000 views on Youtube or something like that. For me she really exemplifies a sense of warmth and a sense of self-reflection that I associate with Halifax. She is not flashy or forced or anything other than herself, and in a city with an insane glut of female singer-songwriters, this really makes her stand out.

Duzheknew and Cousins
Cousins (heavy echoing indie pop) and Duzheknew (new wave dancing) are two separate bands, but the members play for both groups often, if that makes sense (they also released a split tape this year called Duz/Cuz – kinda cute right?). They are major contributors to DIY art and culture in Halifax – Adam O’Reilly, who fronts Duzheknew, makes tons of show posters and t-shirts and all sorts of crazy art to promote his shows and Aaron Mangle (drums/sings in Cousins) also does a lot of posters and artwork (their homemade Cousins t-shirts are really great) and I have to admit their obvious LOVE for making stuff really contributes to my enjoyment of the bands. Despite the fact that their bands are pretty hot amongst the indie kids here, they don’t seem to think much of it. They just love doing stuff and making stuff. Both of those guys are going to SXSW too and I think Cousins might be on the cusp of receiving a bit more exposure.

I guess if you want to talk about an overarching theme, Halifax seems to be entering a weird punk thing with people releasing tapes and seven-inch singles on their own. People in all these bands seem to be producing music and art to accompany their music because they like to, and there is this really wonderful lack of self-entitlement to all of them that I find very refreshing. I think there is an understanding that everyone is broke and so you have to use your little window of existence to produce great art and great music regardless of whether you make money on it. Real nice!

Chris Bilton (Eye Weekly, Toronto) says:

METZ
One of Toronto’s best bands, period. The mighty METZ also serves as the greatest example of glacially-paced self-promotion: mind-blowing live shows leave audiences wanting to hear more music, which is only available two songs at a time via their criminally infrequent seven-inch releases, which brings audiences back to their shows for another hit. At this point, I’d sell my soul for a full-length METZ album.

Owen Pallett
Watching The Artist Formerly Known as Final Fantasy perform at this year’s Polaris Prize, it was clear that Pallett’s music is not of this universe. He has essentially ascended to Radiohead territory, where even his failed experiments are more interesting than most bands’ best songs. Heartland ranks pretty high on my Top 10 albums of the year.

Tie: Fucked Up and DD/MM/YYYY
Pretty much every release/show/festival/side project from Fucked Up is covered in awesomesauce. The fact that that they are so prolific puts them in danger of being taken for granted—and then you see them incite a massive mosh pit at the Toronto Reference Library and everything is right with the world. Similarly, DD/MM/YYYY have been traipsing all over the planet spreading the good word about New Weird Toronto for so long now that when they do happen to play on home turf, they’re A-gaming it with performances to rival the likes of Crystal Castles and Marnie Stern (both of whom they convincingly opened for this year).

Also, jazz is alive and well in Toronto. Stellar albums by Drumheller, Lina Allemano Four and Brandi Disterheft (who’s studying in NYC with Ron Carter!) are but a few examples of folks who are “chasing the Trane,” and gaining on it.

Rupert Bottenberg (Montreal Mirror, Montreal) says:

Poirier
He’s on Ninja Tune.

Sweet Mother Logic
Though they just lost one of the two cellists who fronted the band…

Jérôme Minière
Really sweet and savvy franco-art-pop. I love it.

As for live shows, the Unsettlers are really raising the bar lately, adding a contortionist to their regular line-up and delivering a great, fun show.