Grouper
From Astoria, OR
Liz Harris is artist based on the North Oregon coast. She has recorded and performed since 2005 under the names Grouper, Nivhek, Raum, Helen and Mirrorring; and releases music and art editions on her imprint YELLOWELECTRIC, as well as Kranky records.
Photo: Bill McCulloughBill Callahan
From Austin, TX
My Days of 58 is the eighth Bill Callahan album, his first since 2022. The twelve tunes here open uncanny depths of expression as Bill continues to blaze one of the most original songwriting-and-performance trails out there. With My Days of 58, he applies the living, breathing energies of his live shows to the studio process, sharpening his slice-of-life portraiture to cut deeper than ever before.
The core musicians featured on My Days of 58 is the group that toured for 2022’s REALITY: guitarist Matt Kinsey, saxophonist Dustin Laurenzi and drummer Jim White, whose synergy was evident in 2024’s live Resuscitate!. This showed Bill, as he puts it, “that they could handle anything I threw at them,” adding: “Improv/unpredictability/the unknown is the thing that keeps me motivated to keep making music. It’s all about listening to yourself and others.
Habibi
From Brooklyn, NY
Co-founded by Detroit natives Rahill Jamalifard and Lenny Lynch, Habibi got its start in Brooklyn in 2011, earning early raves everywhere from Pitchfork and NME to All Things Considered and The New Yorker, who praised the band for infusing “the Colgate-white glisten of sixties-girl-group pop with an uncensored edge.” Dreamachine, Habibi’s mesmerizing new record releasing on Kill Rock Stars, marks a major sonic evolution for the band, rising beyond the critically acclaimed five-piece’s garage rock roots to arrive at a singular swirl of analog and digital elements that underpin their search for spiritual and physical transcendence. Produced by Tyler Love and longtime collaborator Jay Heiselmann and featuring MGMT multi-instrumentalist James Richardson, the collection draws on a mix of post-punk, experimental pop, and vintage disco, calling to mind Tom Verlaine, Diana Ross, Kate Bush, and Kim Deal, all filtered through the band’s shared love of Middle Eastern psych music. The songs here are their own distinct worlds, each an immersive quest in pursuit of something greater, and the band’s performances are relentless and hypnotic to match, driven by lush synthesizers, sinewy guitars, and a muscular rhythm section. The result is a record as fearless as it is enthralling, an alternatingly fierce and joyous work that ascends to new heights as it reckons with desire and escape, love and surrender, rebellion and reality.
Photo: Sebastian BuzzalinoChad VanGaalen
From Calgary, AB
Chad VanGaalen is one of Canada’s most celebrated musicians and visual artists. In addition to being a Juno and Polaris Prize nominated musician, Chad is also an illustrator and animator who has shown across Canada and in Europe. Chad lives in a rickety house in Calgary and doesn’t like to leave home more than he absolutely has to.
Photo: Kristina PedersenCola
From Montreal, QC
C.O.L.A. is sort of a self-titled album. It’s an acronym for Cost of Living Adjustment, a fitting conceptual framework for the band’s third record. Why? Because C.O.L.A. considers, among other things, socialism vs. hell. It considers: rolling the dice of life.
The eerie and sweet pangs that nostalgia can provoke. This is not new territory for band members Tim Darcy, Evan Cartwright, and Ben Stidworthy. It is, in Cartwright’s words “a deepening of what we’ve been doing.” C.O.L.A. is an intricate, beautiful, and sometimes strange record. It is the band’s most refined offering. A perfection of carefully honed aesthetic impulses.
Clarion
From Los Angeles, CA
Formed, almost accidentally, in a shared east LA lockout, the members of Clarion came together to write music together in late 2023. Anthony, Saya and Joseph had all had spent time in the local DIY scene of East Los Angeles and in 2024 decided to record the songs they had been writing in a quick three-day sprint. They implemented efforts like layering multiple amps in stereo, panned left to right with different tones, to create an illusion of two guitarists.
They tried every idea that came to mind, allowing the songs to become fully realized instead of rushed. The result is an immersive and youthful mix of shoegaze, post-punk, and Japanese rock. These recordings became their debut EP, simply titled Clarion. The song “Hello Juliet” from that EP quickly gained traction on TikTok when a fan-made video started to go viral.
Photo: Art MoreraHomeboy Sandman
From Queens, NY
Homeboy Sandman is an independent alternative hip-hop artist from Queens, New York, celebrated for his intricate wordplay, unique stream-of-consciousness cadence, and sharp social commentary.
Blue Hawaii
From Montreal, QC
A duo skilled at turning heartache and separation into danceable electronic alt-pop, Blue Hawaii is Raphaelle Standell and Alexander Kirby Cowan. Riding off the stellar reception of their anthem “I Felt Love” and its rave remix, Blue Hawaii released "Diamond Shovel” and a series of singles of Helix records in 2025 and 2026. Their sound waivers between an underground, emotional introspection and club ready hyperpop. They are based in Montreal and Berlin and combine those influences as a blend of European dance music with R&B/pop vocals to create a distinctly carefree sound, especially energetic and fun live, resonating with queer communities everywhere.
Photo: Sebastian BuzzalinoReuben and the Dark
From Calgary, AB
For more than a decade, Reuben and the Dark has become one of Canada’s most distinctive voices in modern folk and indie rock, building a catalogue of songs that blur the line between intimate confession and communal anthem. Led by Calgary songwriter Reuben Bullock, the project has earned an international following through its emotionally expansive songwriting, cinematic sound, and live performances that transform audiences into choirs.
Raised in the foothills of southern Alberta, Bullock grew up surrounded by wide-open landscapes, long winters, and a family whose love, struggles and resilience would become lifelong sources of inspiration. Before Reuben and the Dark emerged, he spent years writing songs while fronting local bands and working construction jobs, slowly developing the lyrical honesty and emotional depth that would come to define his work.
Photo: Alex CroninDJ Shub
From Six Nations of the Grand River, ON
For over a decade, Shub (formerly known as DJ Shub) has been at the forefront of a movement that reshaped the landscape of Indigenous electronic music. A trailblazer who coined the powwow-step genre and a former member of the JUNO-winning A Tribe Called Red, Shub has spent years blending the ancient rhythms of powwow music with the pulse of modern beats, scratching, and bass-heavy production. With a new name and vision, Shub has stepped beyond the DJ booth, emerging as a composer, storyteller, and artist dedicated to expanding the read of Indigenous music on a global scale.
Handsome Tiger
From Vancouver, BC
Handsome Tiger, an Anishinaabe Métis and North African music producer/DJ hailing from Turtle Island and currently based in Vancouver, BC, blends traditional sounds from his heritage with other Indigenous and contemporary electronic bass music. A familiar face in the West Coast music community, Handsome Tiger has performed at numerous shows and amassed a collection of releases. With a passion for bass music, he actively supports and contributes to Vancouver's underground scene and has gained popularity in the North American festival circuit, appearing at events such as Bass Coast, Shambhala, Envision, Lightning in a Bottle, Mutek, Texas Eclipse, and more. His DJ sets fuse various flavors of sound system culture and global club sounds, igniting dance floors wherever he performs.
Roman Clarke
From Winnipeg, MB
Roman Clarke has self-produced and released 3 full length albums, 2 EP’s, and a handful of singles over the course of his highly explorative career as a musician, while writing, performing, and engineering most of them himself. Each album has built stylistically into the next, but remains rooted in hard hitting, piano driven funk.
Roman specializes in poignant, but funny lyrics on topics from love to money to the music business, paired with devastating grooves and soaring stacks of vocal harmonies. His high energy, unapologetically expressive music has earned him a die-hard cult following in his hometown of Winnipeg and across Canada. The live show is eye catching and exciting - he fronts an often large outfit from behind a drum set at the front of the stage.
@canada.gov.ca
From Montreal, QC
Born and raised in Fredericton, John Batt is the brain behind the popular instagram account @canada.gov.ca, curating stories from the obscure and often bizarre side of Canadian history and culture. The tales and memes ride that sweet line between education and entertainment, recounting yarns from the queer musical resistance in '70s Toronto bars or celebrating the inspirational FERO dumpsters, to skewering greedy Galen Weston. He's taken his one-man show—a cross between a Ted Talk and a couple drinks with a good buddy—on the road all over Canada, from St. John’s to Dawson City, and counts Canadian music heavyweights like Springhill's Anne Murray and Greg Keelor of Blue Rodeo among his loyal followers. It's not a podcast, it's not stand-up comedy. It's @canada.gov.ca.
Photo: Eric KozakiewiczFaze
From Montreal, QC
Faze originated as a menagerie of a not-quite-supergroup, created to address the gaps in the Montreal music scene. Comprised of members from diverse musical backgrounds—crust, hardcore, punk, and psych—their sound embodies the chaotic energy of a relentless snowstorm, with a brass trombone soaring overhead.
Combining driving hardcore punk with tinges of psych elements they craft a sound that is melded, born not borrowed. Not only do they capture the essence of the city, but the members also actively contribute to its vibrant culture from multiple perspectives. With two albums released and tours across various countries, Faze represents the spirit of Montreal, alongside the city’s hardcore punk scene.
Ami Cheon
From Winnipeg, MB
Ami Cheon is a Korean/Japanese Canadian singer, songwriter, and producer from Regina, now based in Winnipeg. She started making music on a donated church piano, teaching herself through YouTube before studying performance and composition at Selkirk College of Music in Nelson, BC. Somewhere along the way, she started turning all of that into a sound of her own: stacked vocals, minimal grooves, big feelings, and melodies that stay in your head.
Her music pulls from artists like Yebba, Joesef, and Doja Cat, but Ami’s sound is always her own. Intimate, sonically satisfying, and emotionally honest without trying too hard. Online, she’s built a world around her music that feels just as intentional as the music itself.
Show Pony
From Winnipeg, MB
Dressed to thrill in snake skin boots and a shimmer of sequins, Show Pony’s raw fusion of gutsy punk energy and arena-shaking rock 'n' roll pulls listeners into their electrifying glam-soaked universe. Their sound is a high-octane mix of soaring melodies, blistering riffs, and infectious pop choruses that stick in your head long after the show ends.
Cloud Rat
From Mount Pleasant, MI
Cloud Rat is a grindpunk band from Michigan, USA, formed in 2009. Throughout the years they have cultivated a vast discography of intense, eclectic material dwelling within all realms of extreme music and radical thought.
They have toured international diy and club/festival circuits extensively while working with numerous independent labels such as Artoffact, Halo of Flies, and IFB Records. Perhaps a way to best sum up Cloud Rat’s ethos would be via their oft-repeated mantra “Commit to the Void”, urging the listener to dig deeper and embrace the chaos - finding peace in hell and comfort in the unknown.
Photo: Hugues de CastilloNadja
From Berlin, Germany
Nadja is a duo of Aidan Baker and Leah Buckareff, active since 2005, and making music which has been variously described as ambient doom, dreamsludge, or metalgaze, a signature sound which combines the atmospheric textures of shoegaze, ambient, and electronic music with the heaviness and volume of metal, noise, and industrial music. Using electric guitars and a drum machine, Nadja creates layered, dense, atmospheric music which juxtaposes melody and noise and demands the listener's attention as much as it embraces them within an immersive sonic environment. Nadja has released numerous albums on various underground labels—Alien8 Recordings, Daymare Records, Southern Lord, Hydrahead Records, Midira Records, Important Records, and their own imprint, Broken Spine Productions.
Photo: Alexa BlackOra Cogan
From Nanaimo, BC
Ora Cogan’s music is alchemical: part instinct, part ritual, and always conjured from the edges where life feels sharpest. With Hard Hearted Woman, she mixes haunted folk, psych rock, and a shadowy strain of country, building a realm where catharsis feels lush, mysterious and vital.
Shaken by the tenor of modern life, Cogan pulled in a circle of kindred musicians and made a record shaped by someone who has looked into the abyss and decided, again and again, to choose curiosity. Hard Hearted Woman grew out of a blur of cold-water plunges, long river swims, late-night ruminations with friends on art and politics, and long drives through the rural Lillooet landscape to visit her godmother.
Photo: Colin MedleyGizmo
From Charlottetown, PE
Gizmo are Charlottetown rockers inspired by the guitar-damaged pop of 1990s American slacker bands and their contemporaries on Canada's East Coast. A 120 Minutes band for the Gen Z set, they breathe new life into their vintage influences with a distinctive songwriting style and a frenetic live show.
All Your Worships, Gizmo's debut full-length, comes roaring out of the gate, picking up right where 2023's livewire Buddy System EP left off without skipping a beat. The new material finds the band mining similar sources but reaching new heights, imbuing their carefully considered, structurally ambitious power-pop songwriting with more unexpected twists and turns.
Produced by Alex Edkins (METZ, Weird Nightmare) and Loel Campbell (Wintersleep), All Your Worships arrives October 2, 2026, on Victory Pool Records.
Photo: Sam FidlinJanky Bungag
From Vancouver, BC
Janky Bungag is a Filipino-Canadian flatpicker from Vancouver making alt-country for everyday people — bluegrass-fast, outlaw-warm, and charged with punk energy. A Royal Mountain Records signee who's shared stages with Yukon Blonde and the Mary Wallopers, he turns the rent, the romance and the last-call math of city life into a genuine good time. New album Hangin Out & Hangin On out November 6, 2026.
Photo: Aaron IvesKeri Latimer
From Winnipeg, MB
Keri Latimer and Joanna Miller are half of Winnipeg's Leaf Rapids, the 2025 WCMA Roots Artist of the Year. As a duo they strip the band's "cinematic Canadiana" back to its core: Keri's voice, acoustic guitar and subversive writing, with Joanna's percussion, harmonies, and expert whistling.
Keri is a JUNO-winning songwriter whose voice Uncut founder Allan Jones placed "between Nanci Griffith and Emmylou Harris." Together they write songs about vultures, satellites, and the odd barbershop stabbing, but ultimately about finding light in the dark. They're currently working on Leaf Rapids' next album, I Must Be Dreaming.
Photo: @evvvie.msundayclub
From Winnipeg, MB
Filtering in with shimmering static, Winnipeg outfit sundayclub’s self-titled debut demands you tune in. Described as “dreamy, gut-punch pop,” SUNDAYCLUB explores the strange limbo of early adulthood: that feeling of being caught between who you were and who you’re becoming.
Like sunlight softly glimmering through a window, ink slowly bleeding across a page, or a grainy film photograph blurring hard edges, the album’s layered, textured soundscapes evoke a romantic feeling of nostalgia and ephemeralness. Formed in the stillness of rural Canada, Courtney Carmichael and Nikki St. Pierre started sundayclub as a way of processing and capturing the complexities of coming into one’s own. The result is a deeply personal collection that guides listeners through a tour of growing up, growing apart, and growing into your skin.
Sam Singer & The Beautiful Movers
From Winnipeg, MB
With a distinctive croon backed by a razor-sharp band, Sam Singer delivers his own brand of folk music, bridging the distance between expansive highways and smoky lounges veiled in the plumes of distant smoke and clouds. Performing in Winnipeg and across Canada since his youth, Singer has earned praise from major music publications.
“Twisting languid folk-rock and bluesy alt-country into a distinct braid of sound all his own, Winnipeg’s Sam Singer makes music that floats free of time," wrote Exclaim! With five Canadian tours and nationwide festival appearances including Winterruption YEG, Real Love Summer Fest, and Trout Forest Music Fest under his belt, Singer is cementing his place as a staple among Canadian independent folk artists.
Archagathus
From Winnipeg, MB
Archagathus is an underground punk band from Winnipeg.
Death Cassette
From Winnipeg, MB
Death Cassette is a vocally driven, grunge influenced punk band from Winnipeg, Manitoba. Blending melodic but aggressive guitars with a rhythm section that retains the urgency of hardcore punk.
Their live show is in your face and high energy, with front person Amanda Sousa ensuring you are a part of the performance. Their debut release "Grim" and sophomore EP "Get Rid of It" earned national college radio attention in 2023 with "Reflector" earning a top spot on the Earshot Loud Charts. In late 2026 they are slated to release a full length album "Cheaper to Die" loaded with songs that can be shouted along to between moody sound breaks to scratch the grunge itch.
Federal Lights
From Winnipeg, MB
Federal Lights is an acclaimed Canadian indie rock band from Winnipeg led by singer-songwriter Jean-Guy Roy. Since emerging in 2011, the band has earned national recognition with chart-topping singles on CBC Radio 3, a Western Canadian Music Award, and performances at SXSW, NXNE, and Germany’s renowned Reeperbahn Festival. Their soaring melodies, heartfelt songwriting, and powerful live shows have captivated audiences across Canada and Europe. With the release of their latest album, Celebration of Failure, Federal Lights continues to deliver emotionally rich, cinematic rock that resonates long after the final note.
Photo: Darrole PalmerJug
From Winnipeg, MB
JUG is a five piece rock n' roll punk hardcore band from Winnipeg, Manitoba. MAXIMUM ROCKNROLL describes them as mid-tempo bummer punk, but maybe add a little zany, a little waste-y to that. Josh from Neon Taste says "the drudgery of their Flipper-esq approach is baked solid as hardtack with great guitar lines and nihilism lined humour. MY BODYS DOOMED MY BRAIN IS SMOOTH." Were inclined to agree. New album "Head" is out now on Calgary's Neon Taste Records.
Luana Moth
From Winnipeg, MB
Sibling duo Tony and Giovanna Mazza bring to life the story of an enigmatic woman who quietly disappeared from a Lake Winnipeg beach town. The project is dedicated to unearthing her lore, canonizing her life, and divining the intentions that compelled her paranormal experiments.
Giovanna and Tony sculpt a diverse palette of searing-hot synth leads, intricate electronic production, theatrical vocal gymnastics, frantic guitar work, and bombastic drum patterns, ultimately pulling the sounds together to form a viscerally arresting sonic landscape that is equal parts electroclash and progressive rock. The project operates under the very namesake of its figure of interest: LUANA MOTH
Photo: Sean BeyakAli Wan Kenobi
From Winnipeg, MB
Ali Wan Kenobi is a producer, composer, and filmmaker originally from Istanbul, currently based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Rooted in hip-hop, Ali's work often blends jazz and world music. His hypnotic, sample-based sounds combine powerful swing rhythms with experimental textures. As a pioneer of the global lofi beat scene, Ali has shaped his sound and cultivated his audience primarily through a strategy of regular releases and high-profile partnerships.
CO
From Winnipeg, MB
Ripping blast-prog from members of several underground Winnipeg acts that taps an East Coast technical vein, mechanically driven in speed, with floral riffs blooming between the gears.” - Brad Skibinsky, Eye And Ear Control Records
Hallfield
From Winnipeg, MB
Hallfield is an ever-shifting musical recording and performing group based out of Winnipeg, MB. Since establishing in 2022, Hallfield has written, recorded and released 4 EPs with varying themes and sounds centred around catchy guitar riffs and vocal hooks. While categorized as alternative music, Hallfield brings a fresh and unique sound with members whose roots are planted in the western canadian punk rock and hardcore scene. Hallfield is planning to release their debut full length album in summer 2027.
Photo: Michelle Westman
Nimi'idiwin
From Winnipeg, MB
Nimi'idiwin: We Dance Together, an Indigenous DJ collective building safe spaces for Indigenous electronic music in Treaty 1.
Featuring Cadence (Waywayseecappo), The Kaptain (Long Plain), Justin Bear (Peguis & Red River Metis), and Sly204 (Skownan).
Wasauksing Sniper
From Winnipeg, MB
Wasauksing Sniper is a moniker of artist B.P. (Bret Parenteau) and a special homage to Francis Pegahmagabow, the most highly decorated Indigenous soldier in Canadian military history and the most effective sniper of the First World War. Since the projects inception there has been a prolific output on Canadian tape labels, but the most recent Night Action in Passchendaele was released on West Virginia’s Flag Day Recordings. Layers of ambient and harsh textures echo the flow of battle and the incessant rumble of artillery.
Second Floor Patients
From Winnipeg, MB
Since 2022, Second Floor Patients has barely been keeping it together as a 3-piece punk-rock Winnipeg project. The band turns their scatter brain thoughts into fast and (hopefully) catchy songs with just the right amount of aggression and witty lyricism. The band rides an incredibly thin line between punk-rock and alt-rock influences, with a little bit of emo and j-rock mixed in there that creates a sound that is just on the verge of falling apart into a chaotic mess of emotions.
Kitz Willman
From Winnipeg, MB
Kitz Willman is a rapper/producer based in Winnipeg. His sound and performance style has been described as “doomsday art-house activist babushka rap.“ His sonic output mixes potent poetics with detailed storytelling and a variety of song structures. Willman’s lyrics and performances draw forth the central themes in their music, such as war, nationalism, settler colonialism, road trips, academia and Ukrainian-Canadianness. This is sample-based prairie rap in the tradition of the Kobzar.
Looksmaxxing
Looksmaxxing is a band that can be aggressive in terms of sound as well as melodic at the same time. Baritone guitar, synths and drums fill out the sound to create an atmosphere that is intense yet groovey. This band moggs harder than any other and is gonna mogg your socks off!
「Placeholder」
From Winnipeg, MB
Spawning from Winnipeg, Manitoba, 「placeholder」sends out noise from the place beyond, shifting weights from a hazy shoegaze dream, only to drop a heavy field of guitars onto your ears. Within their chaos lies a serene melancholy weaved from bitter sweet verses of frailty and tenderness, all culminating into a frequency of emotion.
Soda Mouse
From Winnipeg, MB
Soda Mouse is a three piece rock group from Winnipeg, Manitoba. Heavily inspired by 90’s alternative rock, with catchy melody, electric riffs and head-banging breakdowns. Soda Mouse never fails to get their crowd moving to their energetic angst.
Ardere
From Winnipeg, MB
What started off as the solo project of Diego Melchor soon beamed into becoming one of the fastest growing groups in the Winnipeg underground. Friends since the fifth grade Diego Melchor and Phoenix Biggs-Engel formed the band in early 2025 to compete in TJ's gift's Battle of the Bands, their first gig ever, in which they won. After bassists coming and going throughout the then short lifespan Christian Russell joined as well as saxophonist and guitarist Julian Evan. The quartet has been become inseparable due to their musical bond sharing their music together which has often been compared to Joy Division, Geese, and Black Country, New Road
Brand New Girl
From Winnipeg, MB
Brand New Girl is a brand new Winnipeg band inspired by legends such as Weezer, Black Country New Road, and Harry Nilsson, making baroque pop tunes with a whimsical flair.
Reactor Four
From Winnipeg, MB
With a mix of metalcore and traditional heavy metal, Reactor Four is a four piece metal project from right here in Winnipeg.