Grizzlybur

New Metric album! Metric is a cornerstone of Canadian synth-pop-punk-indie-rock etc etc music. They have a pretty unique musical fingerprint, and they have changed styles throughout the years since first starting in 1998. Their most famous song, if you are unfamiliar, is Black Sheep, which was featured in the Scott Pilgrim movie.

This is a punk rock band that has been around since 2006, and has formed in the city that I currently call home, Hamilton!

Specifically, they were formed around the Dundas region of Hamilton. Lovely bit of area around there, reminds me a bit of roadtrips around the Appalachians of West Virginia, but far less vertically terrifying. Both Dundas and Ancaster have wonderful old stone architecture that simply is not built anymore. Kind of like a hallmark movie?

Anyways -- The Dirty Nil have been playing continuously since 2006 with largely the same band members. They are a band of three, currently featuring Luke Bentham, Kyle Fisher, and Anthony Vitanza. In 2006, it was originally a two-piece band formed in highschool by Luke and Kyle, under the same name they still use. Since then, the third member has changed a total of 4 times.

The band won the 2017 breakthrough group of the year, and have been steadily gaining more and more popularity. Their most popular album is the 2018 Master Volume album, but they have been seeing good success with subsequent albums, notably the 2021 Fuck Art album and their 2025 The Lash album. Many rock bands, I've observed, tend to have one album or single that breaks into popularity before the band sinks back into obscurity, but that does not seem to be the case for The Dirty Nil, who are consistently releasing punk rock music that has respectable popularity in a music landscape that has largely taken punk rock off the stage since it's peaks in the 1990s and 2000s.

Personally, of their songs, I really like Pain of Infinity the most. If you ever want nice music to listen to while exercising, joy riding around town, or doing work in the garage, you cannot go wrong with just pulling up a "best of" playlist for this band. The music is very tonally consistent and wont give whiplash on your ears, while also remaining pleasant enough for actively listening to it as well.

If you told me that Laura Anglade was a jazz vocalist from the peak of the 20th century jazz movement, I would have taken you at face value. Winner of the 2026 JUNO Vocal Jazz Album of the Year, Laura has a voice like none other. Whether jazz is your forte or not, I think every can stand to appreciate the smoothness and relaxing nature of the musical subculture that has laid the foundation for many of our modern genres.

Jazz has certainly fallen out of the lens of wider society since its heights of the 20th century, but if you are interested, this album would be a wonderful introduction into some of the best of the genre. If you are interesting in more iconic Canadian jazz musicians, Oscar Peterson is one of the iconics not only of Canada, but of the entire genre.

Laura Anglade was born in Montpelier, France, raised in Connecticut, but has lived in Montreal for nearly a decade since the age of 18. She now pursues her music career living in New York City, the cultural mecca of Jazz musicians.

I think we all known damn well why I am posting this song right now. The cultural differences between Canadians and Americans have always been present, but perhaps they are at their highest since the War of 1812 (the one that many Americans insist they won???). The song is about a person who is toxic, self manipulating, and egotistical to an extreme. Remind you about a certain someone or a certain group of people lately?

This post is all in good fun -- no serious offense is intended. Sometimes the neighbours downstairs just give us a bad headache and we need a good song to blast as revenge. Nothing deeper than that.

Treble Charge is a band that was formed in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario in 1992, and were active from 1992 - 2006, and came back together in 2012 and are still together to this day.

Cameron Whitcomb is the 2026 JUNO Breakthrough Artist or Group of the Year! His album, The Hard Way is also the 2026 Juno Country Album of the Year!

Modern country is not really particularly of interest to me, but I must admit that he put on one hell of a showing at the JUNOs with his live performance. I really got the impression that he wanted to go up on stage and be the loudest and most impressive artist of the night on stage, and I think he just about done it. He was very close to winning the fan choice, album of year, and single of the year! The album cover was also nominated for the Album Artwork of the year, but did not win.

I'm listening to the album while I'm writing this, and while it is still isn't my music of choice, I can appreciate the artistic merit. The music comes off as rather candid and honest in the topics that it speaks about -- as someone who has grown up rural and has seen loved ones struggle with substance abuse, that honest is seen and quite welcomed rather than being used as "window dressing" for faux-country music.

If you had to listen to only one or two songs from the album, id have to recommend Quitter and Medusa.

Tate McRae's Sports Car is the winner of the JUNO's 2026 Single of the Year!

It is also worth mentioning in this post, for the sake of not repeating, Tate McRae is also the 2026 JUNO Artist of the Year!

This song is the most popular song of the So Close to What album, which also won the Best Album of the Year! For more information about Tate McRae, read my last post from her winning the best album.

Tate McRae's So Close To What is the winner of the 2026 JUNOs Album of the Year and Pop Album of the Year!

Tate McRae is a very young artist, born in 2003 and no stranger to the JUNOs, winning an award every year since 2024 and having been nominated since 2021. She was born in Calgary, Alberta, and her first appearance to the world was as a contestant on the 2016 season So You Think You Can Dance at the age of 13. Ever since then, she has been dancing, singing, and writing much of her own songs and music videos.

Hey guys! I am going to do a little recap series of scheduled posts to follow up on the March 29th Junos! I got to see the Junos IRL this year and it was an amazing time. I will be scheduling some posts to go up regularly for the next month or so with the JUNO tag down below, and possible a JUNO flair as well. These posts will showcase all the winners and what they were nominated for, and I might include some of the nominees in some posts as well.

For anyone who doesn't know, the JUNOS is a annual event in Canada in which Canadian music, musicians, and music adjacent people are all nominated and voted on -- essentially determining who are the best or most notable artists of the year. It is a wonderful celebration of Canadian music -- one of our greatest cultural exports. With a tradition starting in 1970, the JUNOS have grown each year into a event which celebrates Canadian excellence.

The first artist is bbno$, the winner of the TD Juno Fan Choice!

bbno$, from Vancouver, British Columbia, is a rapper who really gained popularity in 2019, and has only been growing since. This is actually his second year in a row winning the Fan Choice Award, first winning it in 2025. He first started making music in the mid 2010s while recovering from a back injury that ended his career as a professional swimmer. By 2016 he quickly gained notoriety in surprising places -- garnering an unexpectedly large audience in China of all places! bbno$ is also well known for his collaborations with other rap artists, likely adding to his widespread popularity.

I've included his most popular song from his 2025 album, bbno$ for this post. It is also his most listened to song overall. Rap music is not my forte or my genre of choice, so please do correct me if I am not mentioning anything super important about this artist!

Toronto was a short lived group that was formed in 1979 and lasted only until 1984. Unsurprisingly, the band was created in Toronto, the city. Their most well known song is the one linked here, "Your Daddy Don't Know", which breached the top 5 charts of Canada and the top 100 in the US.

Reading about this music in writing about this post led me to a new sub genre of rock, "Arena Rock" otherwise commonly referred to as corporate rock. The name is often intended as an insult/critique to the genre because it is seen as being a completely sterilized verson of rock music that was adopted/created by corporations to be suitable for a mass audience -- think tv or radio advertising, or, to be played in a stadium. The idea was that the song would be so completely inoffensive, that no one could be upset by it. An interesting phrase so be sure! I can think of quite a few bands and music genres that are under siege from corporate interests who want to sterilize any impact of the music by making as inoffensive to anyone as possible -- all for profit, naturally.

So if you got anyone in your life that was around in Canada during the early 80s, they probably got real sick of hearing this song on the radio.

Angine de Poitrine est ma nouvelle fascination. Le groupe compte deux membres, Khn de Poitrine (guitare, basse, instruments microtonaux et... aussi les «voix» des chansons) et Klek de Poitrine (batterie). Il y a des spéculations sur leur identité, mais ils préfèrent rester anonymes. Ils se décrivent comme « voyageurs de l'espace-temps » et nés des divinitiés rock de la Terre.

Depuis 2023, le groupe a explosé à l'échelle mondiale. 1,2 million d'auditeurs chaque mois ! Ils viennent de Saguenay, Quebec et le duo joue ensemble depuis 2013. Tout le reste est inconnu. Et c'est tant mieux! Ils souhaitent rester anonymes.

Désolé de ne pas avoir publié récemment! Mon nouveau travail à Hamilton était très fatigant. Piefed permet de programmer des posts -- je vais experimenter avec ça pour Vendredi Français!