I had more trouble with this one as there's a handful of albums on here that I don't like, but I can still respect that they're considered important or influential by other people.

Once again, discuss and debate.


The Arcade Fire – Funeral
Broken Social Scene – You Forgot It In People
Caribou – Andorra
Jason Collett – Motor Motel Love Songs
Constantines – Shine A Light
The Dears – Gang Of Losers
Death From Above 1979 – You’re A Woman, I’m A Machine
Gordon Downie – Coke Machine Glow
Eric’s Trip – Love Tara
Final Fantasy – Has A Good Home
Jim Guthrie – Now, More Than Ever
Hayden – Elk-Lake Serenade
Hot Hot Heat – Make Up The Breakdown
The Lowest Of The Low – Shakespeare My Butt
Metric – Old World Underground, Where Are You Now?
The Organ – Grab That Gun
Plants And Animals – Parc Avenue
The Rheostatics – Whale Music
The Sadies – Favourite Colours
Thrush Hermit – Clayton Park
Tokyo Police Club – Elephant Shell
Chad VanGaalen – Infiniheart
Patrick Watson – Close To Paradise
The Weakerthans – Left & Leaving
Wolf Parade – Apologies To The Queen Mary

why isn't metric in your pop thread?

i think there should be a deadly snakes record maybe. maybe a destroyer record as well.

Obviously I could quibble with most of this list, but honestly, why the hell is Tokyo Police Club on here?

I've always considered Metric much more toward the rock end of the spectrum than the pop end. They have more in common with BSS and DFA1979 than Cub or The Diskettes.


I did think about the Snakes and Destroyer but I don't listen to them so I'd need somebody else to suggest albums.

I started out roughly with a list of just popular albums. I figured their being #1 on CBC and opening for Weezer earned them a fair level of fame.

An album's popularity does not necessarily make it "essential".

yeah, but its good...

Okay, I'll bite. What the fuck is the difference between Canadian Indie Rock and Canadian Indie Pop? In fact, why is Canadian anything a genre at all?

If Britrock can be considered a genre, I don't see why Canadian can't. The whole idea of genre is really just a label for the sake of label, right? I don't really think classifying something as 'Canadian indie rock' is any more ridiculous than classifying something as 'smooth jazz' or 'emo'.

As for the difference between rock and pop? Maybe check Wikipedia. I'm not sure I really want to try and get into that.

i'd recommend either love undone or ode to joy by the deadly snakes. porcella is good too. i haven't heard their 2nd album though.

I don't know which of these threads this belongs in, but I like all of Raising the Fawn's stuff. If I had to recommend one, it would probably be The Maginot Line.

Canadian Indie Rock.

My least favourite genre.

streethawk: a seduction is probably destroyers best album that hints at anything 'rock'

what about wintersleep?

Here's what I would call Essential Canadian Indie, at least in the sense that these 25 albums give a concise, fairly expansive history of the, um, genre. Probably forgetting a pile of stuff that will come to me later.


A Foot In Cold Water A Foot In Cold Water (1972)
Bruce Cockburn Nightvision (1973)
Harmonium Harmonium (1974)
April Wine Stand Back (1975)
No Means No Anger Betrayal Hatred Fear ep (1979)
Teenage Head Teenage Head (1979)
DOA Something Better Change (1980)
Subhumans Incorrect Thoughts (1980)
Forgotten Rebels In Love With The System (1980)
Pink Steel A Taste of Pink Steel (1981)
Slow Against the Glass ep (1985)
Mecca Normal Smarten Up! (1985)
Jr. Gone Wild Less Art More Pop (1986)
Various It Came From Canada Vol. 2 (1986)
Dayglo Abortions Feed Us A Foetus (1986)
Jellyfishbabies Jellyfishbabies (1986)
Jerry Jerry & the Sons of Rhythm Orchestra Battle Hymn of the Apartment (1987)
Mary Margaret O'Hara Miss America (1988)
Cowboy Junkies The Trinity Session (1988)
Sons of Freedom Sons of Freedom (1990)
Art Bergmann Sexual Roulette (1990)
Copyright Circle C (1991)
The Rheostatics Melville (1991)
Jerk With A Bomb Pyrokinesis (2002)
The Weakerthans Reconstruction Site (2003)

no.

Translation: you've only heard the Weakerthans and don't like 'em.

nice try but no.

with a few exceptions, this is a big list of meh and a very loose approximation of "indie".

"Meh" is in the eye of the beholder. As far as "loose approximation of indie" goes - you're just flat out wrong, as usual. Stick to the shit you know best, like porn and torture flicks.

wheres the billy talent love

What's a Foot in Cold Water?

I think this is another one of those areas where "what exactly is indie rock in the first place?" comes into play. I'd consider many of the discs on your list to be more punk than indie rock, hence the exclusion of any DOA or Dayglo Abortions from my list.

wrong again, douchebag.

The Forgotten Rebels are not meh.

Can't comment on the relative merits of waltzie's list, he has a point.