Grouper
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.
Blue Hawaii
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.
@canada.gov.ca
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: Hugues de CastilloFaze
Twin Mattress
Photo: Alex CroninDJ Shub
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.
Photo: Art Morera
Hallfield
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.
Habibi
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: Colin MedleyGizmo
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
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.
Handsome Tiger
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.
Nimi'idiwin
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).
Federal Lights
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.
Brand New Girl
Ardere
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
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