Western Canada has always and continues to produce amazing musicians. We've created a playlist of well known bands & up and comers, we're so proud to share our local jams with you.
Check out the Spotify Playlist here.
Featured Bands
Scenic Route to Alaska
The easygoing Edmonton-based trio, effortlessly weaves catchy vocals and memorable melodies through rich arrangements – instantly engaging but begging to be heard again and again. It’s a coveted combination within the crowded sphere of indie rock – and one that’s rarely the product of anything but time, talent, and heaps of hard work. Of course, Scenic Route to Alaska are no strangers to any of those.
Dear Rouge
While bands often spend their early days discovering their musical directions and vying for visibility, the story of Vancouver’s Dear Rouge is something unique and almost unheard of in Canada. The band is led by husband and wife duo Drew and Danielle McTaggart. Between the two of them, they carry years of touring and recording with multiple bands and different musical ventures. Their follow up EP Kids Wanna Know helped hone their alternative dance-rock sound and also led to the duo winning the Peak Performance Project in 2012, the largest artist development project in Canada. The record’s lead single “I Heard I Had” is a driving synth-rock jam, which shocked the entire Canadian music industry by steadily climbing the alternative and rock charts to the Top 5 – with no label or album backing it; a rare feat especially for a band that had no previous charting history.
Lucette
At once both beautiful and haunting, the chilling power of Lucette's gentle voice is unwavering and undeniable. Although young, it is obvious to all those who listen to her that Lucette is an old and doggedly romantic soul. Full of emotion, her performances take audiences back to the days when artists such as Neil Young, Emmylou Harris, and Loretta Lynn dominated the airwaves.
Dan Mangan
Dan Mangan is a two-time JUNO award winning & two-time Polaris Music Prize listed musician and songwriter. He lives in Vancouver, British Columbia with his wife and son. With Jesse Zubot, he scored Hector And The Search For Happiness, a feature film starring Simon Pegg. Dan has also infrequently been a contributing writer for some publications such as Huffington Post Canada, Montecristo Magazine and The Guardian (Arts section). Mangan has toured extensively in North America, Europe and Australia and has released four studio LPs as well as a handful of other EPs.
North of Here
There is both history and new life in North of Here’s folk sound. Shaped by their grandparents’ worn-out Gordon Lightfoot and Leonard Cohen records, they also cite contemporaries such as The Barr Brothers and The Milk Carton Kids as influences on their songwriting. Hidden behind the sunny disposition of acoustic guitar, banjo, and mandolin, are lyrics with weight and self-reflective depth.
Tropic Harbour
These bedroom pops are unabashedly dreamy. Mashed earworms and mint infused hooks blend with swooning guitar knits. The result: a levitating tincture!, a distillation of a pop pantheon that runs the course from Youth Lagoon and Wild Nothing all the way to Cocteau Twins and The Smiths. “Golden Rays,” Tropic Harbour’s debut single, aligns the stars and inspires the body work, projects the other on the ins of your eyelids. It’s a jam you can step to without the numbness. And its a down payment on our hopes that this project will flourish like a rampant wild flower. The tropics are alive and growing—in the mind!
The Zolas
It’s fun to be in an era of music where people are ready to appreciate messed-up combinations of influences, and we had a good time pushing that.” Even just in the rhythm section you can hear these mispaired influences crop up in unexpected places. Drums that revolve from Queens of the Stone Age to Dr. Dre, bass textures evoking The Pixies or Kraftwerk. Instrumentally the album features flashes of grungy hard-panned guitars, Prince-like synth flourishes, eurodance vocal samples, watery electric pianos and arpeggiators, all of which feel shockingly comfortable in their new homes.
Purity Ring
The chilly electro-pop duo Purity Ring began when the two were in Canadian indie rock act Gobble Gobble (which later became Born Gold). While the band was on tour, Roddick and James grew increasingly inspired by the sounds of contemporary R&B and wanted to make music reflecting that.
The Sheepdogs
Hailing from Saskatoon, three-time JUNO awarding winning artists THE SHEEPDOGS’ burst onto the international scene after beating out thousands of artists in 2011 to appear on the cover of Rolling Stone Magazine. Since then, The Sheepdogs have amassed six JUNO nominations, toured worldwide and earned Platinum certification for their 2010 LP Learn and Burn.
... and many more!
Check out the Spotify Playlist here.
Did we miss any good ones? We're sure we did and would love to discover more. Tweet us @flannelfoxes.