Indie Rock Canada

Today’s Canadian indie scene is a shifting soundscape of genres and subgenres — an exciting moment in our musical history. The Arcade Fire's international success has created an unprecedented demand for new music from the major centers of Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, Winnipeg, and beyond. Here are those centers’ finest talents.

The diversity of Canada's indie hit parade is reflected in the alt-country sounds of Cuff the Duke and the Sadies, the manic electro-performance art of Les Georges Leningrad, and the cool intellectualism of Winnipeg’s Weakerthans. With our Next Steps, we give you a vast musical buffet to satisfy all cravings.

Some people reckon that it must be the isolation of the cold winters above the 49th parallel that conspire to keep our musicians holed up inside home studios, producing some of the most imaginative music anywhere. This lo-fi approach to recording has become an art form unto itself, as exemplified by P:ano, Lesbians On Ecstacy, and Tangiers.

This is an extraordinarily exciting time for Canadian indie music. The New Pornographers, Dears, Hot Hot Heat, Arcade Fire, and Broken Social Scene are at the forefront of the scene. Even more impressive, they’re gaining critical notice worldwide. We've assembled an impressive overview of this music by highlighting key artists, pointing out emerging names (The Most Serene Republic, Elliot Brood, Pony Up!), and even including those who’ve merely made initial inroads (Mecca Normal, Cub, Tricky Woo, Super Friendz).