Primer is The A.V. Club's ongoing series of beginners' guides to pop culture's most notable subjects: filmmakers, music styles, literary genres, and whatever else interests us—and hopefully you. This week: the rich bounty of Canadian indie-rock, as represented by the likes of Stars (new album out Sept. 25), Kevin Drew (new album out this week), The Weakerthans (new album out Sept. 25), and The Sadies (new album out Oct. 2).
Canadian indie-rock 101:
Stylistically, Canadian indie-rock covers a spectrum as broad as the country itself, encompassing everything from rootsy twang to futuristic electronica. But if there's one unifying factor to the Canadian way of making music, it's a tendency toward collectivism. Take Sloan, a Halifax-born power-pop quartet that briefly flirted with being the new Nirvana—even serving a stint on Nirvana's major-label home, DGC—before retrenching as a fist-pumping retro-rock outfit with a rabid local fan base. All four Sloan members write and sing on the band's records and regularly switch instruments during joyously communal concerts; during the height of their popularity in the early '00s, they also lent a hand to friends like Eric's Trip, The Super Friendz, and The Flashing Lights. Fans love Sloan because they feel like they know Sloan.
Sloan's "Money City Maniacs" video:
Or consider Vancouver's The New Pornographers, a triumphant cult act whose two primary songwriters—Carl Newman and Dan Bejar—secured their reputation as frontmen for Zumpano and Destroyer, respectively. Bejar is all about the artistry of David Bowie, while Newman is all about the craftsmanship of Burt Bacharach, but both come together every couple of years to fuse two distinct sensibilities into something sublimely raucous.
The New Pornographers' "Sing Me Spanish Techno" video:
Canada's indie-rock hub is located in Toronto, and centered on the sprawling co-op Broken Social Scene, whose offshoots and intersections include (but aren't limited to) Apostle Of Hustle, Valley Of The Giants, Jason Collett, and co-founder-turned-solo-artist Kevin Drew. The band broke through with the 2003 album You Forgot It In People, a sprawling collection of hooky pop and experimental drone that still seems like the product of a hive mind, not any one human individual. Drew and his BSS partner Brendan Canning discern what their army of friends can bring to a song, then add it to the mix—never overstuffing, and nearly always enriching.
Broken Social Scene's "Cause = Time" video:
And no survey of the fundamentals of the contemporary Canadian-music scene would be complete without a mention of Montreal's The Arcade Fire, who've become so popular internationally that their Canadian history has become a less-essential part of their bio. Still, though husband and wife co-leaders Win Butler and Régine Chassagne pretty much shape the band's sound themselves, The Arcade Fire's elaborate instrumentation and transcendent live shows fully fit the Canadian indie-rock spirit, proving that it takes a province to record a classic album.
The Arcade Fire's "Rebellion (Lies)" video:
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