Happy Canada Day: Classic Canadian Alternative compendium

I've been enjoying going back in time and reminding myself of the great Canadian bands that changed the course of independent and alternative music back from the late 80s to early 90s. Why not enjoy some Classic Canadian Alternative while celebrating Canada's birthday on Canada Day?

Click through to music from the following great bands:

Grapes of Wrath

Universal Honey

National Velvet

Wild Strawberries

Pure

Doughboys

The Killjoys

Rusty

Sandbox

Rhymes with Orange

Rough Trade

Lava Hay

hHead

Collider

Classic Canadian Alternative: Doughboys

John Kaster's been in a lot of bands including The Asexuals, Doughboys, All Systems Go!, and he's released a solo album. It's all been pretty consistently awesome. Doughboys formed in Montreal in 1987 and became one of my favourite bands, delivering a power pop / punk / metal hybrid that just hit me the right way at the right time.

I somehow have it stuck in my head that guitarist Jonathan Cummins and Brendan Canning are brothers but I can't find any evidence of this on line. Let me know if you can confirm or deny this piece of info.

The Doughboy's 1993 album Crush is absolutely incredible. A classic from start to finish. And these guys were incredible to see live. I caught them at Lee's Palace, UofT, and in Vancouver.

"Shine"

"Melt"

"Disposable"

"Fix Me"

"Tearin' Away"

"Everything"

"Fall"

"End of the Hall"

"Summer Song"

"Shake it, Annie" from Bionic, Jonathan Cummins' band with Ian Blurton

Five-by-Five: Classic Canadian Tunes

Today, the radio proclaimed it was playing Supertramp. Well, in fact it was the Spoons. A fine, fine Canadian band. So I have been inspired to write a Five-by-Five post on awesome Canadiana. Here we go:

"Flesh Under Skin" by National Velvet

"Underwhelmed" by Sloan

"Answer" by hHead

"Nova Heart" by Spoons, and

"Shine" by Doughboys