Music

The Calgary Songs Project picks 30 tunes to represent the city

by Jesse Locke

For the past few months, musician/writer Kenna Burima and photographer/tireless scene booster Arif Ansari (head archivist of the shockingly in-depth Calgary Cassette Preservation Society) have been toiling away on the Calgary Songs Project. To celebrate 30 years of performing arts company One Yellow Rabbit’s High Performance Rodeo festival, they’ve handpicked a list of 30 songs from 1986 to 2016 that will serve as sonic representatives of the city.

Though the pair’s personal knowledge of local music is likely unmatched, Burima and Ansari also reached out to various sources on the scene for additional picks. Campus radio DJs, record collectors, members of beloved bands, and even displaced Calgarians got to weigh in. Finally, the list has arrived.

There’s a healthy mix here of modern-day faves (Chad VanGaalen, Women, Fist City, Rae Spoon), their indie-rock predecessors (Hot Little Rocket, Chixdiggit, Kara Keith, Reverie Sound Revue), even earlier picks from the CCPS wheelhouse (The Primrods, The Quitters, Beyond Possession, Color Me Psycho), and a few crowd-pleasers (Tom Phillips, Jann Arden). They arrived at some songs about Albertan landmarks (Huevos Rancheros’ “Crowchild Trail”, James Keelaghan’s “Hillcrest Mine”, Dragon Fli Empire’s earworm ode to the bus “Mount Pleasant”), and a nice nod to metal group Kobra and the Lotus, who have toured with KISS and Def Leppard along with releasing an album on Gene Simmons’ record label.

Any list like this is an ultimate argument starter, so let’s get it going here: The Dudes’ dreadful “Dropkick Queen of the Weekend” should have been replaced by something by Ohama.

Read the Calgary Songs Project’s own arguments for their choices here, and listen to all 30 songs in the playlist below:

If you’re in Calgary, check out Kenna Burima’s arrangement of these songs on the bells of the Calgary Tower carillon, recordings streaming from the Galleria Trees installation on Stephen Avenue, and a concert on Friday, January 15 at the #1 Royal Canadian Legion with performances of these songs by the Forbidden Dimensions, Von Zippers, Tom Phillips, the Shiverettes, Napalmpom, and more.