'90s Indie Rock Canada

Spearheaded by the breakthrough triumphs of Barenaked Ladies, our homegrown indie scene was sharp and vital in the '90s — before settling into the stunning late-decade power-pop of "Money City Maniacs," Sloan had been touted as the new Nirvana, with their native Halifax cast as Canada's Seattle, and Eric's Trip ("Behind the Garage") even ended up on Seattle-based label Sub Pop. Thrush Hermit ("The Day We Hit the Coast") detached themselves from the pigeonholes of place by touring incessantly. Our '90s Indie Nation marshals its forces in Next Steps.

Do you like your '90s indie rock dirty, edgy, and heavy? Then cue up a bit of "Misogyny" from Rusty, who bid the decade farewell with perfect timing by splitting up in 2000. Calgary's Huevos Rancheros delivered their calling card in the shape of debut album Endsville! (1993), featuring "Ace O' Spaces," which still bristles with heavily salted surf-punk adrenaline, while Rheostatics lit up the early '90s with the beautifully odd Whale Music, featuring "Dope Fiends and Boozehounds." Fancy a bit of cuddlecore? Head for Deep Cuts.

Rheostatics side-project, the Dinner Is Ruined Band, featuring drummer Dave Clark, delivered some of the '90s' most experimental cuts — we especially like the stuttering, bass-fuzzed noise of "Valentine" from 1997's Elevator Music. Lower-case jangle-punk outfit cub made an impression in '95 with cuddlecore anthem "New York City" (later covered by They Might Be Giants) and K.C. Accidental debuted in '98 with Captured Anthems for an Empty Bathtub, featuring the superb "Nancy and the Girdle Boy."

Ever wish you could gather Canada's trailblazing indie rockers of the '90s into one handy location, so that all their finest work is no more than a click away? Well, your wish is our command. These A-Z Essentials — that'll be Asexuals to Zumpano — forms an unbeatable catalogue of homegrown, razor-sharp, leftfield rock featuring Halifax scene-stars Sloan and the short-lived Jale, alt-country twang-masters the Sadies, Montreal's incendiary Tricky Woo (bizarrely named after an over-indulged Pekinese dog from James Herriot's autobiographical tales of an English country vet), and Toronto's firebrand post-punk innovators Fifth Column.