
For the last few years at around this time, I Heart Music reaches out to the bloggers and actual music journalists and asks them to submit the list of the ten hottest bands in Canada. What does hottest mean? Well, really I have no idea and judging by our traffic and loyal fan base, what we think might not be in line with the other people he asks. But I thought I'd pump out my list for you to read anyway, as I'm guessing that most of my nominees will continue to need a parka rather [...]

web site :: myspace It's easy to imagine the dark, brooding sounds of bands like Interpol and The National being fostered in the the burrows of New York city. The energy that pulses through the city transfers easily into the undercurrents of the songs. The misery, solitude and doubt that hides in the dark corners of NYC are contrasted by the heightened highs of the city that never sleeps, and replicated in song by the seismic, rapid fire percussion and ragged, intensity both bands produce. But when you [...]

The next time I set sail from a rocky, cloud-covered coast, it will be to the music of Ketch Harbour Wolves . This Toronto band creates music that is dark, yet it's not short on hope, as evidenced by the stark beauty of the instrumentation, much like The Acorn or The National. According to their Myspace page, "[the band] hail from across Ontario while fostering a deep connection to Nova Scotia where in 2003 the band's predecessor, The Flying Buttresses, was forged in the small coastal [...]

A special NxNE preview edition! Young & Sexy / The Arc ( Mint ) I've given up that Young & Sexy will ever be the band I hoped they'd become since their 2002 debut Stand Up To Your Mother , which is to say a bonafide Canadian answer to Belle & Sebastian. But rather than hone the great twee-pop promise that record showed, they [...]