Toronto Rocks

It's our biggest city, but does it rock the hardest? Judge for yourselves with our Toronto Rocks Essentials, headed up by Willowdale natives Rush, with the epic "Tom Sawyer" from Moving Pictures, and the late Jeff Healey, who transforms George Harrison's ballad "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" into a rollin', bluesy thundercloud. A fistful of heavy backup is packed by Triumph ("Follow Your Heart") while Metric packs a post-punk wallop with "Monster Hospital." Folk-rock and dance-punk feature in our rockin' Toronto Next Steps.

Toronto doesn't just rock — it rocks in all manner of ways, from the pulsing dance-punk of the disbanded Death from Above 1979 ("Romantic Rights"), one of whose former members is now pummelling clubland with MSTRKRFT ("She's Good for Business"), to the freaky roots-rock of the Sadies, deep in gothic Western lands with "The First Inquisition, Pt. 4." Brass Munk throws in a chunk of laid-back rap with "Take It Easy." Toronto shows its razor-edge, in Deep Cuts.

When Toronto decides to slap you upsides the head with rock, you know it's going to smart for weeks afterwards. Among the city's harder-edged tracks we've included the sense-frazzling "Bobby Orr" from Rheostatics side-project the Dinner Is Ruined Band, the Fifth Column's experimental post-punk classic "All Women Are Bitches: Repeat!" from third and final album 36C (1994), and the fuzz-ripped mid-'90s campus radio barnstormer "Misogyny" by Rusty.

With a longstanding freak and goth subculture, a healthy rap scene (Maestro's "Let Your Backbone Slide" became the best-selling Canadian hip-hop single of all time), legendary indie venues (the Horseshoe Tavern, Sneaky Dee's), and strong links to classic rock (Rush, we salute you), Toronto has upheld its reputation for producing great music both in the mainstream and under the radar. From the city's scuzzier margins, where you'll find the likes of the Birthday Massacre and Cancer Bats, to its bastions of baroque pop (whence indie-rock supergroup Broken Social Scene arose), you'll find a wealth of world-class tunes, every one stamped with that Torontonian mark of quality.