Mark Davis is a Canadian singer-songwriter from Edmonton, Alberta. [1] He is most noted for his 2011 album Eliminate the Toxins, which was a longlisted nominee for the 2012 Polaris Music Prize. [2]
Originally associated with the alternative country band Old Reliable, [3] he released two concurrent solo albums, Mistakes I Meant to Make and Don't You Think We Should Be Closer?, in 2007. [4] Eliminate the Toxins followed in 2011; [1] in the same year, Davis and Lorrie Matheson collaborated on a cover of Deja Voodoo's "Too Cool to Live, Too Smart to Die" for the first Have Not Been the Same charity compilation. [5]
Since the release of Eliminate the Toxins, Davis has collaborated with Sean Picard in the synthpop duo Concealer, who released their debut album feted:fetid in 2015. [6]
Sarah Lois Harmer is a Canadian singer, songwriter and environmental activist.
Greg MacPherson is a Canadian singer-songwriter based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. MacPherson performs both solo and with a backing band.
James “Jim” Paul Sean Bryson is a Canadian singer-songwriter. Briefly a founding member of the band Punchbuggy, he moved to a musical life under his own name with the release of his debut album, The Occasionals, in 2000.
Great Lake Swimmers is a Canadian folk rock band from Wainfleet, Ontario, and currently based in Toronto.
Roland "Rollie" Pemberton, better known by his stage name Cadence Weapon, is a Canadian-American rapper based in Toronto, Ontario. Born and raised in Edmonton, Alberta, Pemberton released his first album, Breaking Kayfabe, in 2005 with positive reviews. He subsequently signed with the American record label ANTI-, releasing the albums Afterparty Babies in 2008 and Hope in Dirt City in 2012. In 2009, Cadence Weapon was named Edmonton's Poet Laureate. His first book Magnetic Days was published by Metatron in 2014. Cadence Weapon released a self-titled album in 2018.
The Polaris Music Prize is a music award annually given to the best full-length Canadian album based on artistic merit, regardless of genre, sales, or record label. The award was established in 2006 with a $20,000 cash prize; the prize was increased to $30,000 for the 2011 award. In May 2015, the Polaris Music Prize was increased to $50,000, an additional $20,000, sponsored by Slaight Music. Additionally, second place prizes for the nine other acts on the Short List increased from $2,000 to $3,000. Polaris officials also announced The Slaight Family Polaris Heritage Prize, an award that "will annually honour five albums from the five decades before Polaris launched in 2006." Details about the selection process for this prize are still to be revealed.
Shadrach Kabango, better known as Shad or Shad K, is a Canadian rapper and broadcaster. He has released 7 full-length albums and 3 EP's since his debut in 2005. He won a Juno Award for Rap Recording of the Year in 2011 and 5 of his albums have been shortlisted for the Polaris Music Prize, the most short-list nominations of any artist since the prize's creation in 2006. In 2013, CBC Music named Shad the second-greatest Canadian rapper of all time. Shad hosted Q on CBC Radio One from 2015 to 2016 and hosts the International Emmy and Peabody Award-winning documentary series Hip-Hop Evolution on HBO Canada and Netflix.
Daniel Tavis Romano is a Canadian musician, poet and visual artist based out of his hometown of Welland, Ontario. He is primarily known as a solo artist, though he is also a member of Attack in Black and has collaborated with Julie Doiron and Frederick Squire. He has also produced and performed with City and Colour, the recording project of Dallas Green.
Destroyer is a Canadian indie rock band from Vancouver, formed in 1995. The band is fronted by founding member Dan Bejar, with a collective of regular band members and collaborators joining him in the studio and during live performances. Alongside Bejar, Destroyer currently includes longtime producers John Collins (bass) and David Carswell (guitar), Nicolas Bragg, Ted Bois (keyboards), JP Carter (trumpet) and Joshua Wells (drums).
Imaginary Cities was a Canadian indie pop duo based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The project consisted of multi-instrumentalist Rusty Matyas, formerly of the Waking Eyes and a sometime collaborator of the Weakerthans, and vocalist Marti Sarbit.
BadBadNotGood is a Canadian instrumental band and production team from Toronto, Canada. The group was founded in 2010 by bassist Chester Hansen, keyboardist Matthew Tavares, and drummer Alexander Sowinski. In 2016, they were joined by frequent collaborator Leland Whitty. Among other projects, the group has released five solo studio albums, with the latest, Talk Memory, released in October 2021. They have had critical and crossover success, finding audiences in the hip hop, jazz, and alternative music communities.
The 2012 edition of the Canadian Polaris Music Prize was presented on September 24, 2012 at Toronto's Masonic Temple.
'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend! is the fourth studio album by Canadian post-rock band Godspeed You! Black Emperor, released by Constellation Records. It was their first album since 2002's Yanqui U.X.O.. After reforming in 2010, the group went on tour and silently released the album at a concert in Boston on October 1, 2012, with official release dates on October 15 in Europe and the following day in other countries. The album received positive reviews and has been heralded as a comeback for the collective, winning the 2013 Polaris Music Prize.
This is a summary of the year 2013 in the Canadian music industry.
PUP is a Canadian punk rock band formed in Toronto, Ontario in 2010, originally under the name Topanga. PUP's debut album PUP was released on October 8, 2013, on Royal Mountain Records. In December 2013, PUP signed with SideOneDummy Records and re-released their debut album in the United States on April 8, 2014. The group was in the studio in late 2015 recording their second album The Dream Is Over which was released on May 27, 2016, through SideOneDummy. The band's third album, titled Morbid Stuff, was released on April 5, 2019. This Place Sucks Ass, a six-track EP, was released on October 27, 2020. Their fourth album, The Unraveling of PUPTheBand, was released on April 1, 2022.
Man Machine Poem is the 13th and final studio album by Canadian rock band the Tragically Hip, and the last album to be released before the death of lead singer Gord Downie, as well as their last to be composed of new material. It was released on June 17, 2016 on Universal Music Canada. Produced by Kevin Drew and Dave Hamelin, the album is named after a track which appeared on the band's previous album Now for Plan A.
Tanika Charles is a Canadian soul and rhythm and blues singer, who released her full-length debut album Soul Run in 2016.
Haviah Mighty is a Canadian rapper from Brampton, Ontario. She rose to prominence in 2016 as a member of the hip hop group the Sorority, before releasing several EPs on her own, most notably Flower City, in 2017. Her first album, 13th Floor, was released in 2019 and won the Polaris Music Prize. After her debut, XXL named her one of the "15 Toronto rappers you should know" and CBC Music called her one of the "New Faces of Canadian Hip Hop".
13th Floor is the debut album from Canadian hip hop artist Haviah Mighty. The album was released on May 10, 2019, and was the winner of the 2019 Polaris Music Prize.
Joseph Shabason is a Canadian multi-instrumentalist and composer. He is best known for playing is the saxophone. As a band member and session musician, Shabason has contributed to bands such as DIANA, Destroyer and The War on Drugs. Under his own name, Shabason has released experimental ambient jazz albums as a solo project as well as numerous albums with collaborators.