Mint Records

Mint Records has been Vancouver's hottest, freshest breath of indie air since 1991 — and our Essentials playlist pulls together the best of the label's acts, old and new. Get underway with stable stars (and co-headliners on 2006's Exclaim! Mint Road Show! tour) the New Pornographers, power-popping through the title track from their 2000 debut album, Mass Romantic, and Winninpeg mod-popsters Novillero ("The Hypothesist"). And there's a brace of tunes from Neko Case: "Deep Red Bells" and "If You Knew." You'll find Buttless Chaps, Groovy Ghoulies and more . . . in Next Steps.

Your Mint Records experience starts to intensify here, with the hybrid alt country sound of the Buttless Chaps (covering Echo & the Bunnymen's "The Killing Moon" with layers of glowering distortion), the now-defunct Groovy Ghoulies (reminding us that California punk can be terrific fun with "When the Kids Go Go Go Crazy"), and Calgary's surf-punk-rockabilly groundbreakers, Huevos Rancheros (ripping though "What a Way to Run a Railroad" at breakneck speed). Lou Barlow rubs shoulders with Maow, in Deep Cuts.

Dinosaur Jr. and Sebadoh founder Lou Barlow was one of Mint's early coups, and with 1994's Another Collection of Home Recordings he delivered a batch of tracks glowing with lo-fi goodness, including the short-but-stunning "Puffin'." Young and Sexy opened their Mint account with 2002's Stand Up for Your Mother (we've added the lovely-dark title track here), while cuddlecore-istas Maow (featuring Neko Case on drums) kick in with "How Does That Grab You."

In 2007, Mint Records pulled in a chunk of government funding to help "enrich the Canadian musical experience in the long term" — and you can tell from these superb Essentials that the legendary indie label's enrichment factor is well worth the investment. Operating out of Vancouver for the best part of two decades, Mint has given us everything from the seminal cuddlecore of Cub ("Go Fish") to the ever-vital "puck rock" of the Hanson Brothers, named after the hockey players from the movie Slap Shot. By exploring the imprint's back-catalogue here, you're plugging directly into the heart of Canadian indie.