The Definitive Guide to Forgotten Canadian Alternative
D-Man Author D-Man
Let’s pour out a cold tall glass of maple syrup for all the Canadian bands that at one point were poised to be superstars, but have since faded from our collective skies. Here’s a prett…
A Few Thoughts On...
Let’s pour out a cold tall glass of maple syrup for all the Canadian bands that at one point were poised to be superstars, but have since faded from our collective skies. Here’s a pretty thorough list of one-time hitmakers from this great country.

Tier 1:

They’re not actually “forgotten”. In fact most of these bands are still household names, but strictly in a nostalgic sense. They had solid careers and didn’t vanish so much as they grew irrelevant and/or broke up and went on indefinite hiatuses.

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The Sound: Nickelrock

The Big Songs: “Wasting My Time”, “Deny”

The Big Years: 2001-2002

Wha Happened?: A Chad Kroeger approved Nickelclone, they scored a few big radio hits when “active rock” was still a thing, namely “Wasting My Time and “Deny You”. They had another hit in “Taking my Life Away” in the mid-2000s, but then were relegated to strictly hard rock charts as that scene took a back seat to indie alt on rock radio. Lead singer Dallas Smith is a country singer now. Fellow Kroeger acolytes Theory of a Deadman are still going and surprisingly popular.

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Nelly Furtado

The Sound: Hippie Pop, then Mainstream Pop

The Big Songs: “I’m Like A Bird”, “Maneater”

The Big Years: 2001, 2006

Wha Happened?: There just wasn’t enough setting Furtado apart from all the other starlets vying for the spotlight, even with her complete reinvention. She tried to make yet another comeback with the song “Hoops” a few years back to no luck. She probably still has a lot of money.

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Prozzak

The Sound: Cartoon pop

The Big Songs: “Strange Disease”, “Sucks to Be You”

The Big Years: 1999-2000

Wha Happened?: Canada’s Gorillaz?? No, not quite as artisan. More like Canada’s Jem & The Holograms. They were all the rage for a year and a bit, then went away, then came back super serious and majorly depressed in 2006, then went away again. The two guys are still in the music industry, and recently did a series of reunion shows before disbanding “for good”.

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Bif Naked

The Sound: Sometimes rock, sometimes pop

The Big Songs: “Spaceman”, “I Love Myself Today”

The Big Years: Early 2000s

Wha Happened?: Jumped around from genre to genre, scored big in 2001, then sporadically appeared a few times in the 2000s. I think the last I heard of her was around 2011. Not sure if she still does music.

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Edwin

The Sound: Solo artist rock

The Big Songs: “Alive”, “Trippin'”

The Big Years: 1999-2000

Wha Happened?: Edwin left I Mother Earth and did a few slightly less angry albums, sometimes going as “Edwin & The Pressure” and also was a member of the band Crash Karma. He also got involved in the bar industry in Toronto for a while. He has since reunited with I Mother Earth on the reunion circuit.

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Die Mannequin

The Sound: Motorcycle pop

The Big Songs: “Do It or Die”, “Bad Medicine”

The Big Years: 2009-2010

Wha Happened?: They are still around, and have honed their sound to be a little more electronic but can still be played in tattoo and leather shops around town.

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Econoline Crush

The Sound: Industrial alternative

The Big Songs: “You Don’t Know What It’s Like”, “All That You Are”

The Big Years: 1997- 2001

Wha Happened?: After a slew of smaller radio singles, they broke through with their two big hits listed above. Then they went quiet around 2002. Lead singer Trevor Hurst released a solo album, the band re-appeared in 2008 with a new album, then quiet again.

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The Watchmen

The Sound: Alternative

The Big Songs: “Stereo”, “Absolutely Anytime”

The Big Years: Late 90s, Early 2000s

Wha Happened?: Became a legacy act. They’re still regularly played on rock format radio.

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Bedouin Soundclash

The Sound: Campfire reggae

The Big Songs: “When the Night Hears My Song”, “Walls Fall Down”

The Big Years: 2005, 2008

Wha Happened?: ??? It’s a mystery. They had regular airplay, a stable of singles, and then singer Jay Malinowski did some solo stuff and the band abruptly stopped after 2010. It’s a shame because they were the right fit for today’s scene and could have done some interesting work if they’d branched out their sound.

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Neverending White Lights

The Sound: Sadcore alternative feat. big name guest singers

The Big Songs: “The Grace”

The Big Years: 2006

Wha Happened?: Main guy Daniel Victor kind of lost the plot on the most recent record in 2011, with a scant 2 guest singers on the whole record. Dude, the entire conceit of your project was to have a different well-known singer on each track.

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Treble Charger

The Sound: Canada’s Third Eye Blind

The Big Songs: “American Psycho”, “Red”, “Ever She Flows”

The Big Years: 1997-2000

Wha Happened?: ??? There was supposed to be a reunion but I guess Greig Nori doesn’t want to do it any more cuz he wants to judge more MuchMusic bands on TV.

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Simple Plan

The Sound: The poppiest of punk

The Big Songs: “I’m Just a Kid” “Untitled”

The Big Years: 2002-2005

Wha Happened?: They’re still around somewhere, doing stuff with Natasha Bedingfield. As expected, they now have fancy keyboards and beats in their music.

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Headstones

The Sound: Alterna-punk

The Big Songs: “Settle”, “Cubically Contained”

The Big Years: Late 90’s – 2002

Wha Happened?: Doing reunion shows here and there. Lead singer Hugh Dillon is also an actor as seen on Blue Flashlight or whatever the Canadian cop show was called.

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Tier 2:

These bands are really a product of their time. They had big hits, maybe even two or three from their big album. They may have even had follow-up hits from an album a few years later, but those were usually forgettable efforts only played on the radio as contractually obligated CANCON filler. Some of them are actually still active, but far from the public eye.

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illScarlett

The Sound: Alternative Ska

The Big Songs: “Heaters”, “One-A”, “Nothing Special”

The Big Years: 2006-2007

Wha Happened?: They did pretty ok! They spawned a whole ska scene in Toronto with many imitators, but then just sort of went away at the turn of the decade.

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Joydrop

The Sound: Bif Naked 2.0

The Big Songs: “Sometimes Wanna Die”, “Beautiful Like You”

The Big Years: Late 90’s, early 2000’s

Wha Happened?: Faded out once the garage rock revival cleared out the last alt-rock survivors.

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Crash Test Dummies

The Sound: Mmmasochist-core

The Big Songs: “Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm”

The Big Years: 1994

Wha Happened?: To be fair, people who knew about these guys have probably not forgotten them and their aggressively boring songs. If you were to convert boredom into an audible sound, it would be this guy’s voice. Fortunately they were relegated to one-hit wonder status and Barenaked Ladies took up the mantle of quirky alternative Canadian band.

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The Trews

The Sound: East Coast Rock

The Big Songs: “Not Ready to Go” “Tired of Waiting”

The Big Years: 2004

Wha Happened?: Touring and occasional releases

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Danko Jones

The Sound: Full-blooded rock

The Big Songs: “Bounce”, “The Sound of Love”

The Big Years: 2000-2002

Wha Happened?: Still touring, still bouncing.

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Hawksley Workman

The Sound: Bono-voiced troubadour

The Big Songs: “Striptease” “Jealous of Your Cigarette”

The Big Years: 2000

Wha Happened?: Was big in the early 2000s, then released a few more albums, then started playing in…

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Mounties

The Sound: Hawksley Workman + Hot Hot Heat + one of the Dahle brothers

The Big Songs: “Headphones”

The Big Years: 2014

Wha Happened?: Everyone went back to their other bands.

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Mobile

The Sound: 80s post punk revival

The Big Songs: “Out of My Head”

The Big Years: 2006

Wha Happened?: They got out of people’s heads. Singer Mat Joly has a solo project.

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Hostage Life

The Sound: “Totally legit punk”

The Big Songs: “This Song Was Written By A Committee”

The Big Years: 2008

Wha Happened?: Punk no more

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The Salads

The Sound: Hey dude, totally fun party time rock! Yeah!

The Big Songs: “Get Loose”

The Big Years: 2003

Wha Happened?: Will play a party if they get a slice of the pizza.

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The Lowest of the Low

The Sound: So 90s.

The Big Songs: “Salesman Cheats and Liars”

The Big Years: The 90s.

Wha Happened?: The 90s ended. Ron Hawkins did a side project called The Rusty Nails.

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Holly McNarland

The Sound: mature angst

The Big Songs: “Numb”, “Do You Get High?”

The Big Years: 1998-2002

Wha Happened?: People stopped being sad.

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The Odds

The Sound: More sardonic version of Lowest of the Low

The Big Songs: “Eat My Brain”, “Someone Who’s Cool”

The Big Years: Mid-late 90’s

Wha Happened?: The 90’s like, totally ended dude.

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Hollerado

The Sound: Jangly, whimsical pop-rock about life written by hipsters for non-hipsters.

The Big Songs: “Juliette”

The Big Years: 2010

Wha Happened?: Zellers went out of business so there were no commercials left for Hollerado to score, so they broke up.

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Pilate/Pilot Speed

The Sound: Indie alternative

The Big Songs: “Into Your Hideout”

The Big Years: 2004, 2006

Wha Happened?: They had to change their name from Pilate to Pilot Speed, the albums got progressively more and more boring and lead singer Todd Clark decided to switch things up by writing the song in the Good Life Fitness commercials.

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Gob

The Sound: Pop-punk

The Big Songs: “I Hear You Calling”, “For the Moment”, “Ming Tran”

The Big Years: 1999-2003

Wha Happened?: Simple Plan took over the pop-punk scene. There was a more aggressive record in 2008 but it’s been quiet on the Gob-front ever since.

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Stabilo

The Sound: Pop Rock

The Big Songs: “Everybody”, “Flawed Design”

The Big Years: 2004, 2006

Wha Happened?: Nothing, really. They had their hits…and that was it.

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By Divine Right

The Sound: Pre-hipster hip rock

The Big Songs: “Come For a Ride”

The Big Years: 1999

Wha Happened?: After Brendan Canning and Feist left to form Broken Social Scene, By Divine Right slowly went away. They did a full album cover of Depeche Mode’s 1981 album Speak & Spell. They had a song a few years back called “Past the Stars”.

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Joel Plaskett Emergency

The Sound: CBC-core

The Big Songs: All of Them.

The Big Years: All of Them.

Wha Happened?: Joel Plaskett is a name that every Canadian has heard. He has played everywhere and has been around since Confederation. He is known by all and yet……what is he known for? I know he plays Canada Day concerts every year but I don’t know any of his songs or what he looks like. I just know that I am supposed to know who he is.

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Limblifter

The Sound: Big Shiny Tunes alternative

The Big Songs: “Tinfoil” “Ariel Vs. Lotus” “Screwed it Up”

The Big Years: The 90’s

Wha Happened?: I’m still not entirely sure of the Dahle family tree, but I know that the band splintered and there were like 100 side projects, one of which is listed next.

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The Age of Electric

The Sound: Limblifter 2.0 Original Limblifter

The Big Songs: “Remote Control”, “I Don’t Mind”

The Big Years: 1997

Wha Happened?: Whoa guys, I just found out that Age of Electric was the original and that Limblifter was in fact the side project!!! Mind blown. Whoa.

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Wide Mouth Mason

The Sound: Prairie Rock

The Big Songs: “My Old Self”

The Big Years: Late 90’s

Wha Happened?: “My Old Self” was all by itself in terms of hits (they didn’t have too much further radio success).

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Champion

The Sound: Dark electro-rock

The Big Songs: “No Heaven”

The Big Years: 2006

Wha Happened?: It’s a complete mystery. The guitar conductor dropped another album in 2009 and then hints about another one, but he never really resurfaced.

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Wintersleep

The Sound: Post punk actually, but then folk rock for the radio in order to make $$$

The Big Songs: “Weighty Ghost”

The Big Years: 2008

Wha Happened?: There was a side project called Contrived, but not much since 2008. Apparently there is a new album coming out soon.

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Hey Rosetta!

The Sound: Some kind of alternative

The Big Songs: “Welcome”

The Big Years: 2011

Wha Happened?: The biggest Canadian band you’ve never heard of. A massive following keeps them afloat and apparently they are still releasing music.

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Feist

The Sound: iPod commercial-core

The Big Songs: “1234”

The Big Years: 2007

Wha Happened?: Technically she’s still a household name in indie households (apartments in Kensington or The Annex) but iPod commercials (and iPods) are a thing of the past and her drab 2012 album didn’t retain any followers gained from the 2007 hit single.

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FeFe Dobson

The Sound: Avril 2.0

The Big Songs: “Bye Bye Boyfriend”, “Take Me Away”

The Big Years: 2003

Wha Happened?: Didn’t really build a big enough fanbase in the rock world, faded out for a while before re-emerging as more of a popstar. Now is available for any events MuchMusic needs talent for. “Oh shoot do we have anyone for New Year’s Eve?” “Just call FeFe and Shawn Desman!”

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Tier 3:

These artists are perhaps the best representatives of what this list is all about. They were legitimately big solely in one year, hyped by media outlets as the “next big thing”. They had one big album, and usually just one big song- but it was a song that everyone knew. They were ready to take on the world…and then they didn’t. They’re still remembered, but not by many. Until you play that one big song of theirs, and then everyone’s like “OH THOSE GUYS”.

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Custom

The Sound: Sketchy uncle rock

The Big Songs: “Hey Mister”, “Beat Me”

The Big Years: 2002

Wha Happened?: I think most people just expected him to be a one-off joke and then he had some weird angry political song and then disappeared forever.

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Shocore

The Sound: Trashy metal disco

The Big Songs: “Bonecracker”

The Big Years: 2001

Wha Happened: They had a song called “Bonecracker”. Did you really think anything else would happen for them? (ps bonecracker is such a jam tho)

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Out of Your Mouth

The Sound: Canadian nu-metal

The Big Songs: “Music”

The Big Years: 2004

Wha Happened?: They got all the mileage they could out of their Madonna cover and then politely went away. I know they had a feud with Social Code too?

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Social Code

The Sound: For angsty Canadian teens

The Big Songs: “Beautiful”, “Bomb Hands”

The Big Years: 2005

Wha Happened?: They arrived too late to the emo scene. My Chemical Romance ultimately took their spot.

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The Black Halos

The Sound: Punkorama punk

The Big Songs: “Some Things Never Fall”

The Big Years: 2001

Wha Happened?: Too many punks in the pit, they got lost in the shuffle.

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Boy

The Sound: B-List Sam Roberts

The Big Songs: “Same Old Song”, “Up in this Town”

The Big Years: 2004-2005

Wha Happened?: Real Sam Roberts was enough for the Canadian populace.

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Jakalope

The Sound: Trent Reznor-curated pop group/Canada’s answer to Evanescence

The Big Songs: “Pretty Life”, “Feel It”

The Big Years: 2004

Wha Happened?: Original singer was replaced, interest in the project waned.

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The Waking Eyes

The Sound: The garagiest of garage rock

The Big Songs: “Watch Your Money”

The Big Years: 2004

Wha Happened?: They arrived at the tail-end of garage rock and couldn’t capitalize on it quickly enough. Had a minor hit in “All Empires Fall” in 2008, but then gone.

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Evans Blue

The Sound: Too late nu-metal

The Big Songs: “Cold (But I’m Still Here)”

The Big Years: 2006

Wha Happened?: Honestly, it was surprising that they gained any traction at all. They arrived a year after nu metal was dead and buried and yet still scored a pretty big radio hit. There was another album in 2007, then the singer left the group and side projects like Parabelle ensued.

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Attack in Black

The Sound: Some kind of folk alternative i think

The Big Songs: “Young Leaves”

The Big Years: 2007

Wha Happened?: The singer’s voice really hindered any sort of future the band might have. Nothing big since 2007.

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Not By Choice

The Sound: Back-up Sum 41

The Big Songs: “Standing All Alone”, “Now That You Are Leaving”

The Big Years: 2002

Wha Happened?: Eventually replaced by another Sum 41 clone.

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Operation MD

The Sound: Sum 41 side-project

The Big Songs: “Sayonara”

The Big Years: 2008

Wha Happened?: So this was a guy from Sum 41, so I guess he went back to them, but then I think he left again. In any case, this band basically only had the one song.

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Zuckerbaby

The Sound: 90’s alternative

The Big Songs: “Andromeda”, “Overexposure”

The Big Years: Late 90’s

Wha Happened?: Bye bye 90’s. But they opened for Wide Mouth Mason recently!

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Serial Joe

The Sound: Mistake-core

The Big Songs: “Mistake”

The Big Years: 1999

Wha Happened?: Canada’s Silverchair, the young prodigies had a few more minor hits after “Mistake” but the rock star life was not for them. The lead singer, whom everyone seemed to know at one point in their life, is now working as a technician for Bell.

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Major Maker

The Sound: Candy commercial music

The Big Songs: “Rollercoaster”

The Big Years Month: August 2007

Wha Happened?: TV stopped airing the commercial.

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Junkhouse

The Sound: Pearl Jam knock-off

The Big Songs: “Shine”, “Out of My Head”

The Big Years: 1999

Wha Happened?: It was just a matter of time until they shined. And then it was just a matter of more time until they faded away.

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Kazzer

The Sound: Car commercial-core

The Big Songs: “Pedal to the Metal”

The Big Years: 2003

Wha Happened?: He went away for a while, then came back as….

Redlight King

The Sound: More mature car commercial-core

The Big Songs: “Old Man”

The Big Years: 2011

Wha Happened?: Twice a one-hit wonder!! That’s kind of neat. He’s the Canadian Cee Lo Green.

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KO

The Sound: Canadian Everlast

The Big Songs: “Capable”

The Big Years: 2010

Wha Happened?: Well hopefully he ended up OK.

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the pack AD

The Sound: power rock duo

The Big Songs: “Sirens”

The Big Years: 2012

Wha Happened?: Rock radio stopped paying attention to them for some reason. Still around though.

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Wild Strawberries

The Sound: Canada’s Cranberries

The Big Songs: “Crying Shame”, “Bet You Think I’m Lonely”

The Big Years: mid-90’s

Wha Happened?: They really were a product of their time, singer-songwriter alternative that could only exist in the 1990s. They’ve released a few albums since then but they’ve been very sporadic.

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stereos

The Sound: electro-emo

The Big Songs: “Summer Girl”

The Big Years: 2009

Wha Happened?: Ok so there was Stereos, Hedley, Marianas Trench, Faber Drive, Down With Webster…obviously someone had to lose in the sell-out war, and it was these guys.

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The Marble Index

The Sound: Garage rock

The Big Songs: “I Believe”, “Not So Bright”

The Big Years: 2004

Wha Happened?: Buried under the glut of all the other garage bands flooding the market at the time.

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Elias

The Sound: generic-way-past-due-date alternative rock

The Big Songs: “All We Want”

The Big Years: 2009

Wha Happened?: What happened was they didn’t show up to an interview I was doing with them so I don’t care what they did after 2009.

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Tier 4:

These artists didn’t really make it. They were about to! They were on the cusp of success, and it eluded them just by a little bit. They may have charted on regional charts, but for various reasons they missed out on the bigger scene and are now just footnotes in Canadian music history.

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Spiral Beach

The Sound: OoOoO very unique, artsy special music

The Big Songs: “Made of Stone”

The Big Years: 2008

Wha Happened?: They tried to be a new Broken Social Scene but they were JUST TOO quirky and intelligent for us the listeners and so they refused to grace us with more music, oh NO!

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Emm Gryner

The Sound: Wistful late 90s alternative

The Big Songs: “Summerlong”

The Big Years: 1998

Wha Happened?: Her label was not the most supportive and she had problems with album releases. She did a song with astronaut Chris Hadfield in 2014 though.

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Andy Stochansky

The Sound: Canadian Everclear

The Big Songs: “Wonderful”, “Stutter”

The Big Years: 2002

Wha Happened?: After years of working in Ani DiFranco’s shadow he finally released a successful solo album…but then failed to write a successful follow-up.

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Doctor

The Sound: 10% harder than The Watchmen

The Big Songs: “What Makes You Think He’s Lucky?”

The Big Years: 2004

Wha Happened?: Singer Daniel Greaves went back to Watchmen reunions, and also featured on a Neverending White Lights track.

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Copyright

The Sound: Theatrical alternative

The Big Songs: “Rock Machine”, “Transfiguration”

The Big Years: 1998-2001

Wha Happened?: I’m sure one of the CBC channels still plays them from time to time.

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Jersey

The Sound: punk. just punk.

The Big Songs: “Generation Genocide”

The Big Years: 2003

Wha Happened?: Punks got eyeliner and keyboards.

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Mudmen

The Sound: bagpipe-core/lad-core

The Big Songs: “Saturday”

The Big Years: 2002

Wha Happened?: Still played at Celtic bars every Saturday night.

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The Saint Alvia Cartel

The Sound: laid-back, man

The Big Songs: “Don’t Wanna Wait Forever”

The Big Years: 2008

Wha Happened?: one song then bye

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Panic & The Rebel Emergency

The Sound: laid-back, man

The Big Songs: “Wander Far Away”

The Big Years: 2008

Wha Happened?: one song then bye

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The Miniatures

The Sound: Garage/post-punk

The Big Songs: “Dragonfly”, “Dead Flowers”

The Big Years: 2004, 2006

Wha Happened?: they just didn’t follow-up, man.

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Headstrong

The Sound: Not the TRAPT song, but close enough

The Big Songs: “Adriana”

The Big Years: 2002

Wha Happened?: They fought over their band name with another band and then they were no more.

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Ron Hawkins & The Rusty Nails

The Sound: Punk version of Lowest of the Low

The Big Songs: “Bite Down Hard”

The Big Years: 2000

Wha Happened?: I dunno! They had the one song.

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King Cobb Steelie

The Sound: electronica

The Big Songs: “Home”, “Below the Stars”

The Big Years: 2000

Wha Happened?: They released an instrumental album in 2004 and then went away. I’m pretty sure lead singer Kevan Byrne is a big shot in the media industry now.

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Tin Foil Phoenix

The Sound: NOT Nickelback

The Big Songs: “Neapolitan”, “Ms. Genova”

The Big Years: 2004

Wha Happened?: A big fuss was made over the fact that they were signed to 604 records but DID NOT sound like Nickelback. It was basically their elevator pitch. But then they just didn’t make any more music so…ok?

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Jet Set Satellite

The Sound: grrr angry hard rock

The Big Songs: “Best Way to Die”, “Baby Cool Your Jets”

The Big Years: 2001

Wha Happened?: Label issues, band issues, failure to capitalize on success of debut record, diminishing returns, probably broke up.

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Projet Orange

The Sound: french alternative

The Big Songs: “Tell All Your Friends”

The Big Years: 2004

Wha Happened?: Oui oui, zey deed not last past un album.

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The Dears

The Sound: swoony indie rock

The Big Songs: “Lost in the Plot”

The Big Years: 2003

Wha Happened?: They were supposed to be the next big thing, everyone was going nuts for them!! Then they released like ten forgettable albums in a row. Not even kidding. But they are still together, making music for CBC Channel 8.

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Boys Night Out

The Sound: punk, emo

The Big Songs: “Waking”

The Big Years: 2005

Wha Happened?: They hung around the local livejournal punk scene for a while, not sure if they are still mending broken hearts today.

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Sandbox

The Sound: Late 90s alternative.

The Big Songs: “Curious”

The Big Years: 1998

Wha Happened?: People were no longer curious about them. Is this the band with the glasses guy from Trailer Park Boys in it?

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See Spot Run

The Sound: Hear Spot rip off Spacehog

The Big Songs: “Weightless”

The Big Years: 2000? 2001?

Wha Happened?: People realized the song was an unabashed rip-off of Spacehog’s “In the Meantime”.

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Crowned King

The Sound: ska-emo

The Big Songs: “Don’t Wanna Go”

The Big Years: 2003

Wha Happened?: Pretty sure they waited three years just to make a music video for “Don’t Wanna Go”…not a good move.

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The Junction

The Sound: whimsical jangly Toronto

The Big Songs: “My Love Was There”

The Big Years: 2008-2010

Wha Happened?: Eventually, like all the other Tokyo Police Club clones, they fell off the map. The drummer now plays in a hip-hop cover band called Wing Night.

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Beast

The Sound: confident alt-pop

The Big Songs: “Mr. Hurricane”

The Big Years: 2008

Wha Happened?: Didn’t catch on.

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Dinosaur Bones

The Sound: Yet another jangly tokyo police club clone

The Big Songs: “NYE”

The Big Years: 2011

Wha Happened?: Well one of the jangly whimsical indie rock bands had to be completely forgotten, it just happened to be these guys… and Plants & Animals…and Still Life Still.

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hHead

The Sound: amateur hour alternative

The Big Songs: “Collide”

The Big Years: 1992-1994

Wha Happened?: Member Brendan Canning later joined By Divine Right, then got super artsy and started Canada’s premier sound collective, Broken Social Scene.

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Hayden

The Sound: Angry grungy folk man

The Big Songs: “In September”

The Big Years: 1995

Wha Happened?: I think he became a less angry folk singer or something.

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Glueleg

The Sound: cheesy rap rock

The Big Songs: “Pistons”

The Big Years: 1998

Wha Happened?: they were too cheesy to survive and melted in a puddle of melted cheese.

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Kittie

The Sound: GiRl KoRn

The Big Songs: “Brackish”

The Big Years: 2001

Wha Happened?: They were all the rage with the goth girls at the mall, but then those girls grew up.

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Rusty

The Sound: Canada’s Pearl Jam

The Big Songs: “Misogyny”, “Wake Me”

The Big Years: 90’s

Wha Happened?: Not much after the 90s ended

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Scratching Post

The Sound: Canadian Veruca Salt

The Big Songs: “Bloodflame”

The Big Years: 1999

Wha Happened?: There can only be one Veruca Salt. Sidenote: They played Mike Bullard’s short-lived late night show. So much Canadian in one sentence!

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Thousand Foot Krutch

The Sound: First, nu metal, then…???

The Big Songs: “Phenomenon”, “Rawkfist”

The Big Years: 2004

Wha Happened?: Honestly, I’m not sure. They were a Christian nu metal band that somehow managed to not only survive the decade, but played the decidedly hipster Wayhome Festival in 2015. Kudos?

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Ashley MacIsaac

The Sound: Experimental fiddle-based alternative

The Big Songs: “Sleepy Maggie”

The Big Years: 1997

Wha Happened?: Personal issues arose for the man behind the project and he could no longer continue. Unclear if he still fiddles.

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Project Wyze

The Sound: Juggalos of the north

The Big Songs: “Room to Breathe”

The Big Years: 2001

Wha Happened?: Unfortunately the demand for Insane Clown Posse style groups isn’t as strong here in Canada so this menacing, spooky rap group didn’t last very long. A side project called Dead Celebrity Status didn’t do well either. Shoulda slapped on the face paint and moved south.

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Robin Black and the Intergalactic Rockstars

The Sound: Bar room glam rock

The Big Songs: “So Sick of You”

The Big Years: 2002

Wha Happened?: Too late for the 80’s, too early for the 80’s revival, Robin Black and pals wanted to be famous really really bad but it just didn’t work out. He’s an MMA commentator now though, so good for him.

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State of Shock

The Sound: Theory of a Deadman 2.0

The Big Songs: “Best I Ever Had”, “Money Honey”

The Big Years: 2007

Wha Happened?: A copy of a copy of a copy of a copy…I think Canadians were satisfied with one Theory of a Deadman.

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JJ and the Pillars

The Sound: Mumford and Sons go punk

The Big Songs: “The Wolves”

The Big Years: 2014

Wha Happened?: JJ kept doing cover songs on Instagram instead of working on new music.

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Tier 5:

These bands are almost entirely forgotten by the public at large. Whether or not that is a good thing is up to your personal taste.

Andrew F

The Sound: Privilege-core

The Big Song: “The End”

The Big Year: 2008

Wha Happened?: Andrew Franks managed to game the system and had his rich parents bankroll his reckless whining on iTunes, causing him to enter the top 10 songs chart. Then real people actually heard the music and abandoned him quickly. Now plays in a less-sad band called The Ashley Hundred.

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Blush

The Sound: Straight up nu-metal

The Big Songs: “Word From the Wise”

The Big Years: 2003

Wha Happened?: Wow finding these guys on the internet is really hard. I have no idea what their deal was, only that they apparently existed at one point. I might be the only person who has a copy of their song “Word From The Wise”.

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Scott B Sympathy

The Sound: Smart-rock

The Big Song: “Drinking With The Poet”

The Big Year: 1993

Wha Happened?: Overshadowed by the Rheostatics. Played with other traditional rock outfits in the Toronto scene for a while. Current whereabouts unknown.

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Hail The Villain

The Sound: Neckbeard rock

The Big Song: “Take Back the Fear”

The Big Year: 2010

Wha Happened?: Divine intervention prevented any more damage from being done to the public’s ears; the comic book gimmick didn’t take.

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Miller Stain Limit

The Sound: Late 90’s rock

The Big Songs: “Cellophane”

The Big Years: 1999

Wha Happened?: The year 2000.

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The Full Nine

The Sound: Garage rock

The Big Songs: “Not Over”

The Big Years: 2002

Wha Happened?: They stayed in the garage because of legal issues with Disney and it was, in fact, over.

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Templar

The Sound: Snowboarding montage music

The Big Songs: “The Need”

The Big Years: 2000

Wha Happened?: Finding their material on the internet was hard enough, as they are incredibly obscure. I have no idea what happened to them but I can only assume they didn’t make it through the great rap-rock extinction event of 2004.

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High Holy Days

The Sound: Canadian Creed

The Big Songs: “All My Real Friends”

The Big Years: 2004

Wha Happened?: I suppose most Canadians weren’t too thrilled with a Canadian version of Creed.

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Breach of Trust

The Sound: Northern Saskatchewan hard rock

The Big Songs: “Bad Trip”

The Big Years: 2004

Wha Happened?: They disappeared back into the mysterious snow storm they came from.

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Creature

The Sound: trashy alt-pop

The Big Songs: N/A

The Big Years: N/A

Wha Happened?: People confused them with Beast, who were already obscure enough.

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Hexes and Ohs

The Sound: Canadian Matt & Kim

The Big Songs: “H-h-highschool”

The Big Years: N/A

Wha Happened?: ?

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Driver

The Sound: Her-laughing-at-him-core

The Big Songs: “She Laughed At Me”

The Big Years: 2005

Wha Happened?: She laughed at them.

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Crush Luther

The Sound: White boy reggae

The Big Songs: “City Girl”

The Big Years: 2005

Wha Happened?: They just didn’t break out like they were supposed to. Producer Darrin Pfeiffer (of Goldfinger fame) was supposed to make them stars but due to some circumstances it just didn’t happen.

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Flashlight Brown

The Sound: generic pop punk

The Big Songs: “Patricia”

The Big Years: 2003

Wha Happened?: I’ll tell you what happened. They were pimped mercilessly on the radio by a DJ friend of theirs for months and failed to catch on because people just. didn’t. like. them. Fortunately we never had to hear them after that.

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C’mon

The Sound: Trews 2.0

The Big Songs: “Desperate Hearts”

The Big Years: 2005

Wha Happened?: Despite being featured on the soundtrack of the hit Hollywood movie The Covenant, I don’t think they lasted very long.

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Crystal Pistol

The Sound: Dirty, sleazy rock n’ roll (their words, not mine)

The Big Songs: “Rockstar”

The Big Years: 2005

Wha Happened?: Probably still on the hair metal bar circuit.

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Static in Stereo

The Sound: Side project rock

The Big Songs: “Before My Time”

The Big Years: 2001

Wha Happened?: They couldn’t replicate Limblifter’s success.

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Rides Again

The Sound: Angry post-nu-metal rock

The Big Song: “Infected”

The Big Year: 2008

Wha Happened?: Hard rock was already commercially dead at the point these guys came around, and choosing a name that sounds like “Rise Against” didn’t help them stand out.

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Memory Bank

The Sound: Soaring post-punk revival

The Big Songs: “Bleed Like a Hero”

The Big Years: —

Wha Happened?: I heard their song once on the radio and then never heard about them again ever.

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Staggered Crossing

The Sound: Rock rock

The Big Songs: “Further Again”

The Big Years: 2001

Wha Happened?: Well according to last.fm they are huge superstars and are touring with Pearl Jam and are really great and are gonna be big any minute now so, good luck with that I guess?

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Thrush Hermit

The Sound: Pre-Trews Trews

The Big Songs: The Day We Hit the Coast

The Big Years: 1999

Wha Happened?: They were part of the same East Coast music scene that Sloan were, but couldn’t replicate that band’s long-term success.

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Change of Heart

The Sound: Early alternative

The Big Songs: —

The Big Years: Early 90s

Wha Happened?: Despite being on the forefront of the Canadian alternative rock movement, Change of Heart didn’t write any songs that launched them into the same stratosphere as their peers or later alternative acts.

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The Barstool Prophets

The Sound: —

The Big Songs: —

The Big Years: —

Wha Happened?: please no more bands