Arts & Crafts

Toronto's inspirational, independent Arts & Crafts label, established in 2002, stands proud as a triumph of talent, community spirit, and creative egalitarianism. Initially centred on the amorphous, like-minded group of cutting-edge musos that calls itself Broken Social Scene — "7/4 (Shoreline)," "Anthems for a Seventeen-Year-Old Girl" — the label has expanded, in a measured way, to feature global indie superstar Feist ("1234") and the magnificent Stars ("Your Ex-Lover Is Dead"). Find the first A&C signing with no ties to Broken Social Scene in Next Steps.

Many of the bands signed to Arts & Crafts are connected — some way or other — to Broken Social Scene, as cohorts and collaborators: the outfit is more of a collective than a group and has tangentially spawned/absorbed elements of Apostle of Hustle (the brainchild of B.S.S. lead guitarist Andrew Whiteman) and Jason Collett, a longtime member and solo artist. In fact, the Most Serene Republic was the first band without Broken Social Scene connections to join A&C. Go south of the border, then into the southern hemisphere, with A&C's Deep Cuts.

No question about it, Arts & Crafts is a first-stop destination to gauge the beating pulse of Canada's ever-vital indie scene. But the label is not exclusively the preserve of Canadian groups — check out the Texas-based American Analog Set, which made its A&C debut in 2005 with Set Free, featuring the gentle, vibraphonic delights of "Born On the Cusp," and Australia's New Buffalo ("I've Got You and You've Got Me"), a vehicle for Melbourne's Sally Seltmann (cowriter of Feist's "1234").

If your spirit is free, you love experimental rock, believe in the strength of small communities, and are naturally inclined to stick it to the man, then Arts & Crafts is your kind of imprint — created by a couple of fugitive major-label employees in partnership with Broken Social Scene's Kevin Drew, A&C was designed to foster creative freedom and collaboration, while offering its artists a fair 50/50 split of the profits: a much better ratio than anything offered by rock's corporate leviathans. We've assembled some of the label's finest cuts to date by reeling in career highlights from the Dears (featuring Murray "The Black Morrissey" Lightburn), Feist (yes, she's unstoppable), and recent signings the Stills, brought on board for 2008's Oceans Will Rise. Incredible.