 | | Canadian singer/songwriter Sam Roberts released his first true debut in 2002, following a popular demo he had made in Montreal. |
 | | Built on the solid, classic rock foundation of three-part harmonies and dual guitar leads, Canada’s the Sheepdogs blend Southern boogie rock, groove-based psychedelia, and bluesy barroom swagger into a modern rock & roll revival. |
 | | Formed in 1983 in Kingston, Ontario, the Tragically Hip comprised childhood friends Gordon Downie (vocals), Bobby Baker (guitar), Paul Langlois (guitar), Gord Sinclair (bass), and Johnny Fay (drums). |
 | | In 1998, a group of four young Canadians from Antigonish, Nova Scotia, decided to form a serious rock band. |
 | | City and Colour was the solo acoustic project of Dallas Green, best known as the singer/guitarist for the Canadian post-hardcore band Alexisonfire. |
 | | One of Canada’s leading alternative rock bands of the 90s, the Matthew Good Band was based around the central figure of singer-songwriter Matthew Good (b. |
 | | It’s too facile to call the Black Keys counterparts of the White Stripes: they share several surface similarities -- their names are color-coded, they hail from the Midwest, they’re guitar-and-drum blues-rock duos -- but the Black Keys are their own distinct thing, a tougher, rougher rock band with a purist streak that never surfaces in the Stripes. |
 | | The Vancouver, Canada, group called the MGB, or the Matthew Good Band, formed in 1995 and quickly began stirring things up in the Canadian world of music. |
 | | Big Wreck are a late-'90s neo-prog hard rock outfit comprised of Ian Thornley (vocals, guitar), Brian Doherty (guitar), Dave Henning (bass), and Forrest Williams (drums). |
 | | The eclectic Toronto blues-rock outfit Big Sugar was primarily the project of singer/guitarist Gordie Johnson, who teamed with bassist Terry Wilkins and drummer Al Cross to record the group's 1992 self-titled debut LP. |
 | | Punk revival quartet Billy Talent used to be known as Pezz back in their Streetsville, Ontario, high school days. |
 | | Talk of Canadian rock bands may conjure up images of the Guess Who or Bachman-Turner Overdrive, but Toronto quartet I Mother Earth is a modern update combining a wide range of influences, including jazz fusion, funk, and progressive rock. |
 | | Sloan was one of the most successful Canadian bands of the '90s, which was both a blessing and a curse. |
 | | Metric are a band with an eclectic, adventurous outlook, whose music encompasses elements of synth pop, new wave, dance-rock, and electronica and whose hometown has vacillated between Toronto, Montreal, New York, Los Angeles, and London over the course of the group's existence. |
 | | Formed in St. John's, Newfoundland, in 2005 around the talents of Tim Baker (vocals, piano, guitar), Adam Hogan (guitar), Josh Ward (bass), Phil Maloney (drums), Kinley Dowling (violin), and Romesh Thavanathan (cello), explosive indie rock sextet Hey Rosetta! craft emotionally resonant rock anthems that echo Brit-pop outfits like Hope of the States and the Veils while channeling the orchestral rock of Arcade Fire and Broken Social Scene. |
 | | A combination of indie rock muscle and theatrical, unapologetic bombast turned Arcade Fire into indie royalty in the early 2000s. |
 | | Inspired by folk, rock, country, and bluegrass, the London-based Mumford & Sons feature singer/guitarist/drummer Marcus Mumford, vocalist and banjo/Dobro player Winston Marshall, vocalist/keyboardist Ben Lovett, and vocalist/bassist Ted Dwane. |
 | | Our Lady Peace was one of the most successful Canadian bands of the post-grunge era, issuing platinum-selling album after platinum-selling album while also enjoying modest acclaim in America. |
 | | The Western-tinged, hard-edged rock & roll of Headstones began in the late '80s in Ontario, Canada, and consists of vocalist Hugh Dillon, guitarist Trent Carr, bassist Tim White, and drummer Dale Harrison. |
 | | Named after their bandleader, Danko Jones are a Canadian hard rock trio whose bluesy style is rooted in the tradition of Thin Lizzy and AC/DC and whose popularity in Western Europe compensates for their lack of recognition in the neighboring United States. |
 | | While growing up in Vancouver, songwriter Dan Mangan immersed himself in his parents’ record collection, paying special attention to albums by Nick Drake and the Beatles. |
 | | An indie rock outfit based in Vancouver, Said the Whale was formed by Ben Worcester and Tyler Bancroft. |
 | | Begun as nc-17, this Canadian alternative pop/rock group changed its name after an American band with the same moniker threatened to sue. |
 | | With a name that fits a Nova Scotia-based band rather well, Wintersleep formed in 2001. Initially, they were part of the Nova Scotia label and artists' collective Dependent Music, which released their first two albums, 2003's Wintersleep and 2005's untitled full-length, as the band was just getting rolling. |
 | | A Vancouver band with a folk-pop take on alternative rock, 54-40 formed in 1981 as a trio consisting of bassist Brad Merritt, drummer Darryl Neudorf, and vocalist Neil Osbourne. |
 | | Canadian roots rocker Matt Mays has become one of the nation's most popular new artists since hitting the road with his backing band, El Torpedo. |
 | | Playing smart and amiable folk-rock with an alternative edge, biting wit, and a jazzy sense of sophistication, Mother Mother hails from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and true to their name they started out as a family affair. |
 | | When Foo Fighters released a debut album written and recorded entirely by leader Dave Grohl -- at that point known only as the powerhouse drummer for Nirvana -- in the summer of 1995, few would have guessed that the group would wind up as the one band to survive the '90s alt-rock explosion unscathed. |
 | | Indie rock trio Foster the People make atmospheric, psychedelic, and dance-oriented pop. Formed in Los Angeles in 2009, the band features keyboardist/guitarist/vocalist Mark Foster, bassist Cubbie Fink, and drummer Mark Pontius. |
 | | Jeff Martin grew up in Windsor, Ontario, just across the Detroit River from the home of proto-punk and the Motown sound; he was also influenced by his blues-loving father. |
 | | Joel Plaskett is a Canadian singer, songwriter and musician whose music fuses the energetic melodies and hooks of power pop with the muscular strength of hard rock; as he once quipped, his music "combines the best of Big Star and Led Zeppelin. |
 | | The Vancouver-based alternative band Econoline Crush -- vocalist Trevor Hurst, guitarists Robbie Morfitt and Ziggy, drummer Nico Quintal, and bassist Don Binns -- have made quite a name for themselves in Canada. |
 | | Pearl Jam rose from the ashes of Mother Love Bone to become the most popular American rock & roll band of the '90s. |
 | | The story of Canadian singer/songwriter Hawksley Workman is equally compelling whether you take it as fact or fantasy. |
 | | Formerly known as the Jakes, Young the Giant began making eclectic indie rock in Irvine, CA, where bandmates Sameer Gadhia (vocals), Jacob Tilley (guitar), Eric Cannata (guitar), Payam Doostzadeh (bass), and Francois Comtois (drummer) all met each other during high school. |
 | | The White Stripes formed on Bastille Day in 1997, aiming to create simple, vigorous rock & roll with little more than Meg White's percussion and Jack White's guitar-and-vocal attack. |
 | | Hailing from South London, Florence Mary Leontine Welch writes songs that occupy the same confessional territory as gossip-loving, genre-bending contemporaries like Amy Winehouse, Kate Nash, Adele, and Lily Allen and the moody, classic art rock of Kate Bush, blending pop, soul, and baroque arrangements into a sound that earned the young artist considerable buzz in 2007. |
 | | Initially embraced as "the Southern Strokes" for their resurrection and reinvention of Dixie-styled rock & roll, Kings of Leon steadily morphed themselves into an experimental rock outfit during the 2000s. |
 | | Few rock groups of the '80s broke down as many musical barriers and were as original as the Red Hot Chili Peppers. |
 | | Although chart success in England was an unlikely first step to fame for a band from Bowling Green, Kentucky, mainstream rock band Cage the Elephant achieved just that. |
 | | Montreal-based indie rock trio Plants and Animals formed in 2004 around the talents of Warren Spicer (guitar, vocals), Matthew Woodley (drums, percussion, vocals), and Nicolas Basque (guitar, bass, vocals). |
 | | Toronto's quirky, high-energy indie rock outfit Tokyo Police Club features vocalist/bassist Dave Monks, keyboardist/vocalist Graham Wright, guitarist/percussionist Josh Hook, and drummer/percussionist Greg Alsop. |
 | | Formed from the ashes of stoner rock icons Kyuss, Queens of the Stone Age reunited the group's singer/guitarist Josh Homme, drummer Alfredo Hernandez, and bassist Nick Oliveri along with new guitarist/keyboardist Dave Catching. |
 | | After winning the nationwide 2010 battle-of-the-bands competition Musiktilraunir in their native Iceland, six-piece chamber pop group Of Monsters and Men were hailed as "the new Arcade Fire" in Rolling Stone magazine. |
 | | Vocalist Danny Greaves, guitarist Joey Serlin, bassist Peter Loewen and drummer Sammy Kohn organized the Watchmen in 1988, releasing their debut album, Maclaren Furnace Room, in 1992. |
 | | Oasis shot from obscurity to stardom in 1994, becoming one of Britain's most popular and critically acclaimed bands of the decade in the process. |
 | | As one of the most popular groups to emerge in the post-grunge alternative rock aftermath, Weezer received equal amounts of criticism and praise for their hook-heavy guitar pop. |
 | | Of all the major alternative rock bands of the early '90s, Smashing Pumpkins were the group least influenced by traditional underground rock. |
 | | Canada's most popular roots rock band, Blue Rodeo, became a veritable institution in their home country, although they never quite moved beyond cult status in the U. |
 | | Jet found international popularity during the early 2000s, a period in which the band's mix of Exile on Main St. |
