Music: Top 5 Best Canadian Bands

Peter Zezel

Registered User
Sep 12, 2003
983
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I think Broken Social Scene should definitely be on the list. They have put together a very solid catalogue.

I'm not a huge fan of them, but the Rheostatics had some solid releases.
 

les Habs

Registered User
Sep 21, 2005
22,236
3,964
Wisconsin
Let's see here:

Neil Young
Arcade Fire
Wolf Parade
The Band
The Guess Who/BTO (combining them as someone else did though not sure it should be the case, but I'm cheating anyway)
Chad Vangaalen

Feel like I'm forgetting someone. Would love to add Broken Social Scene, but sadly haven't listen to them enough.
 

Holden Caulfield

Eternal Skeptic
Feb 15, 2006
22,795
5,386
Winnipeg
continuation of last post...

Although not fully Canadian, Misery Signals has featured members from Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Edmonton, Alberta and Regina, Saskatchewan. A massive underground influence on modern melodic metalcore the band has been cited as an influence to hundreds of bands throughout the 2000's with their chugging riffs, melodic soundscapes and odd time signatures.


Winnipeg, Manitoba's Figure four started in 1996 but have been a staple of Canada's hardcore punk genre not only through this band but through many others, including a recent resurgence of Comeback Kid. They were part of a very vibrant hardcore genre that was heavily focused throughout the Canadian prairies.


Protest the Hero (who I didn't know where Canadian), AlexisonFire, and Comeback Kid are great choices. I'm big fans of them.

Matthew Good Band, Billy Talent, Moist, even Three Days Grace (here and there) would rank near the top as well for me Canadian bands. Bands like Sum41 and Treble Charger were like "gateway" bands that got me into rock and eventually punk and more metal stuff when I was kid so they hold a place in my heart still.
 

koyvoo

Registered User
Nov 8, 2014
17,240
16,973
Interesting for me I’d rate the guys in Rush as tops in terms of musicianship. Those three are all masters, masters of their craft but Rush, for the most part never resonated with me like some others.
 

Daximus

Wow, what a terrific audience.
Sponsor
Oct 11, 2014
38,854
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Five Hills
Protest the Hero (who I didn't know where Canadian), AlexisonFire, and Comeback Kid are great choices. I'm big fans of them.

Matthew Good Band, Billy Talent, Moist, even Three Days Grace (here and there) would rank near the top as well for me Canadian bands. Bands like Sum41 and Treble Charger were like "gateway" bands that got me into rock and eventually punk and more metal stuff when I was kid so they hold a place in my heart still.

I played a few shows in Saskatchewan with Protest and Comeback Kid. Really awesome guys. Never got to play with Alexisonfire but saw them plenty of times. All of them put on some deadly shows.
 

zombie kopitar

custom title
Jul 3, 2009
6,050
926
Best Coast
Protest the Hero (who I didn't know where Canadian), AlexisonFire, and Comeback Kid are great choices. I'm big fans of them.

Matthew Good Band, Billy Talent, Moist, even Three Days Grace (here and there) would rank near the top as well for me Canadian bands. Bands like Sum41 and Treble Charger were like "gateway" bands that got me into rock and eventually punk and more metal stuff when I was kid so they hold a place in my heart still.
Sum 41 a GOAT pop punk band. All Killer No Filler is a straight up iconic album of that era/genre
.....probably a top 10 pop punk album of all time if you're into ranking **** like that
 

ACC1224

Super Elite, Passing ALL Tests since 2002
Aug 19, 2002
72,892
37,840
Lots of good bands listed, grew up with many of them.

Never understood how The Guess Who has been overlooked for Rock Hall Induction.

Lately we've enjoyed some smaller venue bands like The Trews and Big Sugar.
 

Xelebes

Registered User
Jun 10, 2007
9,013
595
Edmonton, Alberta
Man we suck at music.

Our tastes are not well represented in American or British media, so of course our music sucks. We don't have iconic devil's music (blues, rock & roll) because we don't have that puritan history. We don't have the Civil War to litigate a hundred years after, nor do we have the Thatcher era to get really militant about. We didn't have the huge rationing of the 40s and 50s and come out of it with lavish celebration in the 60's. We had the October Crisis but that didn't result in songs about the problems, because that chased the English artists out of the Montreal studios and forced them to find whatever recording studios they could find in Toronto or if they were willing to go the distance to Vancouver. We didn't have the large studios to record big metal bands. We had tiny studios that were perfect for punk bands. Meanwhile in Montreal, they recorded a lot of the disco hits. Probably a lot of bands that don't rank so well because, well, they're disco.
 
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Metroid

Слава Україні!!
Sep 6, 2006
5,102
5,352
Hellmouth
My top 5 in no order
Annihilator
Belvedere
Propagandhi
Our Lady Peace
Limblifter.
Only recently have I for some reason started not to hate the Hip when I hear their songs.
 
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MXD

Original #4
Oct 27, 2005
50,654
16,367
Sloan
The Tea Party
Skinny Puppy
Woods Of Ypres (...and, perusing the thread, I'm the first one to name-drop them)
I Mother Earth
HM : Kataklysm, Alicia-era The Agonist, Les Colocs
 
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S E P H

Cloud IX
Mar 5, 2010
30,688
16,224
Toruń, PL
Lol, people hating Rush because they're popular. Canada filled with hipsters or what?

Devin Townsend is the second best Canadian band/artist after Rush with Barenaked Ladies rounding out the top 3.
 

Spring in Fialta

A malign star kept him
Apr 1, 2007
25,057
14,217
Montreal, QC
... Well, he's obviously not a band.
I was wondering what to do with Mononc' Serge, actually.



Nah... Germany, Sweden, Finland, and that's just the VERY obvious ones.

I know, but I'm sure he's had consistent backing bands. :tmi:

But seriously, without Quebec, Canada's art record would be incredibly porous outside of maaaaaybe literature. Music-wise and especially film-wise - I don't think much of Quebec music, but there's been some pretty good singer-songwriters - Quebec has created the bulk of the acclaimed art in Canada.

Also on top of your countries - especially Germany, as I'm not too familiar with Sweden or Finland - you can add Russia (likely tops historically), France, Japan, China/Hong Kong, Brazil, Argentina...

Only issue is, there may be some ridiculous art in smaller countries (for example, sub-saharian african ones) that we'll never discover because the countries just aren't relevant culturally world-wide or historically. There could have been a Congolese version of Leo Tolstoy but we'll never know it because Congo never had (or will ever have) the cultural, political and historical clout of Russia.
 
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End on a Hinote

Registered Abuser
Aug 22, 2011
3,974
2,069
Northern British Columbia
In terms of all forms of entertainment, all time? Of the big countries, we're arguably one of the weakest, IMO. A bunch of European and Asian countries completely dwarf us.

Nah... Germany, Sweden, Finland, and that's just the VERY obvious ones.


But as far as mainstream popular (Top 40) musicians and actors, often if they are not American or British they are Canadian. After us it seems to be Australian and probably Swedish or German.

This is just from what I've noticed.

Personally, I dont think we give our country enough credit.
 
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Spring in Fialta

A malign star kept him
Apr 1, 2007
25,057
14,217
Montreal, QC
But as far as mainstream popular musicians and actors, often if they are not American or British they are Canadian. After us it seems to be Australian and probably Swedish or German.

This is just from what I've noticed.

I guess this is where the distinction between entertainment and art becomes important. I tend to think about these questions in solely art terms. In that sense, I tend to struggle at the idea of actors as artists. They're certainly entertainment, they can definitely add their own spice to a work of art, but in their essence, they need an original work with which to work with. They have to be fed by another artist (and often, wholly controlled). It becomes hard to think of them as artists in that sense, at least for me. They don't create anything on their own. I'm sure some will disagree, however.
 

Shareefruck

Registered User
Apr 2, 2005
28,859
3,556
Vancouver, BC
But as far as mainstream popular (Top 40) musicians and actors, often if they are not American or British they are Canadian. After us it seems to be Australian and probably Swedish or German.

This is just from what I've noticed.

Personally, I dont think we give our country enough credit.
Well, first, I don't think popularity has anything to do with how impressive the talent/work actually is. In my opinion, we're lacking things that are actually timelessly brilliant compared to other countries, many of which, in terms of quality, are actually a lot more competitive with the US (at least critically) than we might notice from within our bubble. Countries all over Europe, Asia, and Africa (maybe even South America, though I'm not familiar) have traditionally had various thriving sub-cultures and movements that tons of great stuff regularly comes from. Canada tends to just have blips on the radar to go with a pretty lukewarm indie music scene (and that's probably one of our strongest mediums). Seems like the only area they have a reputation of standing out in is in Comedy.

Germany/Africa/Russia/Austria/France have made far greater contributions to music, France/Russia/Japan/Germany/Italy/China/Korea/Sweden/Finland/India have made far greater contributions to films, tons of countries have made far greater contributions in literature, France/Japan in animation, Japan in videogames, and on and on and on. A few good things have started to come out of Canada, but it really doesn't compare.

Second, even if we did put a lot of weight into popularity (which I wouldn't), are you just referring to the Top 40 in North America? Does that sentiment actually hold up internationally? (it might, I'm just unfamiliar with those numbers) As Canadians, we're exposed far more to our own stuff than others, and that needs to be taken into account. You can't just base it on celebrities you see on TV.

If anything, as Canadians we probably give ourselves a bit too much credit, IMO, because if there's something Canadian that's even remotely respectable, it's brought to our attention right away, gets hyped up, and raised on a pedestal out of nationalistic pride, to some degree.
 
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Xelebes

Registered User
Jun 10, 2007
9,013
595
Edmonton, Alberta
Canada has only produced one song to hit the US Billboard No. 1 song. That was "Call Me Maybe". Canadian English music has been ascendant in the 21st century, ever since proper recording studios were established in Toronto. Vancouver has an okay group of music studios as early as 1970 (Chilliwack was one of the first bands to record in Little Mountain Studio) but the first real album that signaled Toronto had turned the corner¹ was Blue Rodeo's 1993 album, "Five Days In July".



¹ And by corner, I mean saying that it had a working studio that was as good as Hollywood, New York, Nashville, Paris, Berlin, Stockholm, Tokyo and London.
 

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