Alberta

In Canada, most of the bands that I know, come from Quebec, British Columbia or Ontario. These lists will be quite large, so I'm saving them for later and take on Alberta as the first Canadian province in this blog. I only knew one band from this province before work on this blog, but I found a lot more. As with the rest of Canada, Alberta also has quite good indie pop/rock bands, some electronic stuff, some folk stuff and of course those few oddities here and there. Most of the bands and artists on this list are from Alberta's two biggest cities, Calgary and Edmonton. Many of the most successful bands have moved to different parts of Canada or to US since they've gained popularity, but I'm listing bands here that have been founded in Alberta. This proofed to be an interesting list of music and a great playlist: Alberta, CA



Woodpigeon
More of a solo artist than a band, this was the only artist on this list I was familiar with beforehand. His singing voice is soft and delicate and the songs have amazing melancholic melodies. I saw him live a bit more than a month ago and he surprised me with his humour and amazing presence on stage.

Zerbin
Zerbin's indie-pop sounds are quite conventional, but they sure know how to make catchy songs that make you dance and sing along. The fairly simple pop melodies have surprising hooks and switches to make it more interesting. There's slight stadium megalomania in Zerbin's sound, but I cannot but to like it.

The Fast Romantics
The Fast Romantics have a very Canadian sound. I don't know exactly what that means, but they certainly have much in common with other indie bands from Canada, such as Hot Hot Heat and Wolf Parade. The electric guitars take the main stage in this music.

The Provincial Archive
This band uses innovative sounds in both percussion and melodic instruments. The melodies are really original and beautiful. They have been around for quite some time, but made sadly little music. I hope I get to hear more of them in the future.

Jr. Gone Wild
This band is really 90's. their sounds have similarities to R.E.M., The Posies and Gin Blossoms. Some of the electric guitars may sound a bit corny nowadays, but the great melodies and amazing singing totally make up for the flaws. Their album even has a hockey goalie, as a Canadian band's album should.

Hot Panda
This band sounds remarkably like Destroyer. I had to make sure that they don't have the same singer, since had I just heard this song on the radio, I would've thought it was Destroyer playing. The songs are the same quality as Destroyer's earlier albums, so there's nothing wrong with those. There are interesting sounds from variety of instruments in this music.

Beija Flor
This indie pop/rock band is walking in the footsteps of Radiohead. There are weird and melancholic melody alterations and high vocals. The instrumentation is more like that of the early Radiohead, but the songs sound a bit more like the later stuff. At times the quiet sadness explodes to full angst with overdrive guitars.

Reverie Sound Revue
This dream-pop band has amazing sounds combining 90's shoegaze aesthetics, The Cardigans-style singing and 80's pop beats.The bass and drums are very simple, but at the same time the backbone of this hypnotic band.

Azeda Booth
This band sounds really modern. Most of the indie artists today combine electronic instruments, instruments with echoey effects and unarticulated altered vocals. Azeda Booth produces beautiful sound landscapes with array of interesting sounds.

The Summerlad
The Summerlad draws most of its influences from post-rock, but their music doesn't stay only in that hypnotic instrumental stuff. They have catchy parts in their electric guitar driven songs. Some vocal parts and melodies actually sound like The posies in their golden years.

Braids
This electro artist uses synth sounds and computerised noises to make interesting sound landscapes. The soft voiced female singer has a great range. Some of the background sounds are similar to those of Postal Service's. Proper stereo, or headphones are essential to et everything out of the great studio tricks.

Ours to Destroy
This band sounds amazing with the trembling baritone vocals and folk-like acoustic guitars. The production is at the same time a bit lo-fi and at the same time there's a weird sense of production that has been really tuned to perfection.

Captain Tractor
Celtic Rock is a genre i have only recently started to appreciate, mainly due to discovering the Levellers. Captain Tractor has similar sound with fast acoustic guitars and violins. The vocal harmonies work perfectly and the slight punk influences give their own spice to concoction.

Bill Bourne
Bill Bourne is a grand old country-folk artist writing beautiful murder-ballad-style songs for which his rough baritone works perfectly. The songs have dark beauty and intimate presence. He also has some gypsy music influences here and there.

Corb Lund & The Hurtin' Albertans
Great country music with humorous lyrics and a true jamming attitude live. These kinds of witty lyrics make country music what it's supposed to be. I only just found out about this artist after I first published this list, but thanks to Phil it's now added to the list like it deserves to be.

Wool on Wolves
This folk/indie artist started their career really strong with their Hate is Poor EP. Sadly their more recent recordings have gone for a bit too main stream sound, which does not make this band much good. The early stuff is full of great emotions and intimate presence.

The City Streets
If you like quiet and atmospheric folk, this is a band for you. The singing voice is similar to that of Richard Ashcroft's, whereas the music resembles more Bon Iver's debut album. Great hypnotic melodies with minimalist acoustic sounds.

Mac DeMarco
Mac DeMarco sounds really 2010's, because of his weird psychedelic sounds and songs that don't have clear choruses distinguishable from the verses. This music is interesting though because of the sounds and originality that comes from weird guitar sounds and weird melodic choices.

The Dudes
The Dudes could probably be called college rock, since their overdriven guitars and well-produced pop-rock songs have explosive qualities. Sometimes it sounds a bit too produced, but then again, at parts this band reaches just right sounds to make you jump up and down.

Faunts
now, this artist sounds truly original. They mix electronic ambient sounds to rough guitar riffs and echoey singing. It also has some influences from clubbing music, even though most of the sounds are made by more traditional band instruments.

Huevos Rancheros
This band has a quite interesting concept. they play rough garage rock. The songs are instrumental where the main stage is given to raunchy riffs and electric guitars. The solo guitars are quite amazing. At some point's I would hope for rough vocals, but most of the stuff works instrumentally as well.

Five Star Affair
I don't know how to describe this band's sound properly. They have some funky horns, some ska sounds, some reggae beats, but on top of all of that there's a strong female singer with a voice similar to Amy Winehouse's. There's some true attitude here.

Jim Brenan
Jim Brenan plays interesting and funky jazz with modern sounds. He is true to classic jazz style, but still the sounds and melodies have more modern features than your average jazz combo. The wind instruments are top notch, as are all other instruments for that matter.