Subtitle: Just how many ex-Canadian band members host CBC radio series, anyhow?

Seeking equal time for Canadians (and possibly expanding some American tastes)!

Newfoundland & Labrador: Great Big Sea - just an awesome live band that truly reflect the Island heritage while getting mainstream airplay.

Nova Scotia: Sloan, a critical & alt-rock darling. At the top of "The Record"'s list of the 50 greatest Canadian albums.

New Brunswick: Very slim pickings as solo artists dominate. Have to go with Eric's Trip.

PEI: Haywire, a fun album rock band from the 80's

Quebec: April Wine, the 70's band that just keeps on going. They evolved from pop to rock to hard rock. (Edit: While April Wine settled in Montreal, they formed in Nova Scotia, so may not qualify. So if that's the case, I'll change over to Arcade Fire.)

Ontario: I'll bet most American's would say Toronto's Rush, but most Canadians would go for Kingston's The Tragically Hip. A cross between The Doors and the best party band ever.

Manitoba: Got to hand it to The Guess Who. The groundbreakers of CanRock.

Saskatchewan: Nearly went with Wide Mouth Mason, but in the end I convinced myself to go with Streetheart. (Edit: When putting the list together I completely ignored The Northern Pikes. They deserve top status if for no other reason than the great song "She Ain't Pretty (She Just Looks that Way)". My bad. They good.)

Alberta: Nickelback. Yeah, they sell millions and have hits. Like that's a bad thing. First & foremost they are great songwriters.

British Columbia: My first choice would be Heart. But given how quickly they gave up their landed immigrant status to return to Seattle, I'd just as eagerly pick Chilliwack.

Any other opinions?



Last edited by rockgolf on Fri Apr 11, 2008 6:12 am; edited 5 times in total

On a not totally unrelated note, I consider April Wine to be the best band name of all time.

Ontario should be Rush and if you have remove Rush from the list because they are the greatest band in the universe, then I would replace them with Barenaked Ladies.

EDIT: I have to agree with you tenfold about Great Big Sea. I liked The Hard and The Easy but I wish they would hurry up and release a "normal" album soon!

Great post. New Pornographers for BC! We get Heart.

The Arrogant Worms rule ON. They did, after all, write "The Toronto Song"! Hmmm...Wikipedia indicates that The Toronto Song is actually Three Dead Trolls In A Baggie and is commonly attributed incorrectly to the Arrogant Worms.

Nonetheless, they brought us Carrot Juice Is Murder and I Am Not American.

As I've never been north of the border, am I allowed to pitch Moxy Fruvous and Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet into the ring?

Why not Bachman-Turner Overdrive for Manitoba (not that I have anything against The Guess Who)?

Craig S. Cottingham wrote:

As I've never been north of the border, am I allowed to pitch Moxy Fruvous and Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet into the ring?

You can, but both are from Ontario, and unlikely to draw flies again the powerhouse Ontario bands: The Hip, Rush & BNL. And while I'm very fond of all 3 bands, The Hip in Canada are simply rock gods. I mean Zeppelin level. It's just extraordinary how popular they are here and how completely unknown they are in the rest of the world except border US cities like Buffalo, Detroit & Seattle.

Jian Ghomeshi of Moxy Fruvous is now a radio host on the CBC. He hosts "Q", an intelligent talk show on entertainment, which you can read about here and can listen live to weekdays on the internet at about 2 pm or 10 pm in your local times. (CBC adjusts for each zone, and you can pick up live from anywhere in the country.) Or subscribe free as an iTunes podcast.

econgator wrote:

Why not Bachman-Turner Overdrive for Manitoba (not that I have anything against The Guess Who)?

Because Guess Who covers the more creative part of Randy Bachman's career. I'd take "These Eyes" & "American Woman" over "Taking Care of Business" and "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet", and the Guess Who's catalog runs a lot deeper. Randy, too, hosts a CBC radio series - Vinyl Tap - with great inside stories on music. Currently he's running a multipart series on specific makes of electric guitars. So one week you'll get two hours of music from Fender Stratocasters, next week two hours on Gibsons.

Also these days, when Guess Who play live, Randy usually throws in both the BTO classics.

"No Sugar Tonight/Mother Nature" is way better than anything BTO ever put out.

RingoOSU wrote:

"No Sugar Tonight/Mother Nature" is way better than anything BTO ever put out.

Interesting song. Both Randy Bachman & Burton Cummings took the same chord progression heard at the start of each part of the melody, then went to separate rooms and composed completely different songs. Bachman wrote Sugar, Cummings wrote Nature. Only after finishing both songs did they realize the two would fit together as a medley.

Yes, yes, Great Big Sea and BNL!

(And Moxy Fruvous, but they have to take a backseat to BNL).

And a post reminded me that I need to check out The Arrogant Worms.

I've been wanting to get into the Tragically Hip after liking so many Canadian bands (Rush, BNL, Great Big Sea, TPOH, Diane Tell). I've only ever heard Lonely End of the Rink and In View and I think In View is an amazing song.

Based on the above, where do you think I should start getting into them?

What about Spirit of the West? (BC) and Blue Rodeo? (Ontario I think, although having gone to Queen's, I'd find it hard to pass on the Hip)..Our Lady Peace would also need to get consideration in any list of mine, although again, they're from Ontario...

Sidestep the Guess Who/BTO controversy by picking the Weakerthans. They hate Winnipeg!

donarumo wrote:

I've been wanting to get into the Tragically Hip after liking so many Canadian bands (Rush, BNL, Great Big Sea, TPOH, Diane Tell). I've only ever heard Lonely End of the Rink and In View and I think In View is an amazing song.

Based on the above, where do you think I should start getting into them?

Best bet is to get their 2-CD "best of" package "Yer Favourites" which Amazon offers for under $20. My personal favourite Hip tracks: "Ahead By A Century", "Poets", "Locked in the Trunk of a Car", "Fifty Mission Cap", "New Orleans Is Sinking", "Happy Hour", "Fifty Mission Cap' & "Bobcaygeon"

Any love here for The Northern Pikes? (SK)

Sloan, Eric's Trip, GBS, and the Hip are all about right.
I will admit, however, that Ontario is an embarrassment of riches, since it also gave us Rush, the Rheostatics, and The Band. And Our Lady Peace, the Headstones, I Mother Earth, BNL, Moxy, the Cowboy Junkies, Blue Rodeo, the Lowest of the Low, and the Tea Party.

We could also break up the Guess Who/BTO stalemate by nominating one of Neil Young's very early bands, because holy crap Neil Young.

For BC, I'd say 54-40 or New Pornographers over Chilliwack.

For Quebec, Arcade Fire or the Sam Roberts Band, with a fond nod toward Men Without Hats.

And Nickelback is an abomination, and MUST NOT WIN. Hey, Loverboy hailed from Alberta -- let's pick them instead.

And yes, Northern Pikes for the win in SK.

Of course, any pick for Quebec would have to deal with the province's thriving francophone scene...

AmericanErrorist wrote:

Of course, any pick for Quebec would have to deal with the province's thriving francophone scene...

CELINE DION!

(gdr)

Yeah, I could absolutely go with the Pikes for Sask, & Arcade Fire for Quebec. It looks like April Wine's roots actually trace back to Nova Scotia, anyhow.

There are probably several Francophone bands more deserving than even Arcade Fire, but they are just about unknown outside the province. I dunno. Cano? Pagliaro?

Arcade Fire has to be there.


_________________
Q: Who is your hero? A: What is Ken Jennings!

It's funny how much of a product of the Canadian content laws I am. I've heard of virtually all of the bands in the Canadian list and virtually none of the bands in the US states list. One band that I really don't know much about is Rush, and I'm from Ontario. So definitely The Hip or Barenaked Ladies. I'll go with the Hip because I'm a Queen's girl and my friend lives in the house where The Hip used to practise.

polarea wrote:

It's funny how much of a product of the Canadian content laws I am. I've heard of virtually all of the bands in the Canadian list and virtually none of the bands in the US states list. One band that I really don't know much about is Rush, and I'm from Ontario. So definitely The Hip or Barenaked Ladies. I'll go with the Hip because I'm a Queen's girl and my friend lives in the house where The Hip used to practise.

Yeah, I think all of us who go/went to Queen's pretty much have to pick The Hip. We all have some sort of story to do with them . I saw Gord Downie in the grocery store a couple of times and my brother was in the barbershop with one of their dads once and was sort of part of a 'what's new with the boys' conversation he was having with the barber.