The Eighth Nerve

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For the introduction of a new kind of music must be shunned as imperiling the whole state; since styles of music are never disturbed without affecting the most important political institutions.

- Plato

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O Canada!

Sure, it's easy to dismiss a beer-drunk moose hunter with a mullet and a hockey jersey, ay, but let's remember that an increasing percentage of what indiephiles are buying these days comes with a maple leaf on it. Chalk it up to NAFTA, universal healthcare, proximity to magnetic north or a purging response to the Calgary Stampede, our northern neighbors are exporting top notch artists for both major and mid-market consumption. Many of these would-be curlers seem to easily balance the all too often mutually exclusive phenomena of artistic integrity and states-side success to boot. Maybe a rejiggered US Supreme court isn't the only reason to seek refuge up north. Here's a list devoted to All Things Canadian, musically speaking that is. First the stuff you came here for...

If It's Cool It Must Be Canadian:
Arcade Fire
New Pornographers / A.C. Newman
Rufus Wainwright
Great Lake Swimmers
Broken Social Scene
Kid Koala
Kathleen Edwards
k-os
Weakerthans
Stars
Constantines
Chantal Kreviazuk
Hot Hot Heat

Easy Targets:
Rush
kd lang
Alanis Morisette
Bryan Adams
The Tragically Hip
Barenaked Ladies
Paul Schaeffer
Shania Twain
Sarah McLachlan
Corey Hart

Canadian Men of Song:
Neil Young
The Band / Robbie Robertson
Leonard Cohen
Randy Newman
Daniel Lanois
Bruce Cockburn
David Foster
Bruce Cockburn
Gordon Lightfoot
Tom Cochrane
Colin James

A Female Perspective:
Diana Krall
Jann Arden
Jane Siberry
Natalie MacMaster
Maria Muldaur
Sarah Harmer
Loreena McKennitt
Holly Cole Trio

Pioneers:
Joni Mitchell
Bachman Turner Overdrive
Buffy Saint-Marie
Steppenwolf
Blue Rodeo
The Guess Who
Anne Murray

THEY'RE Canadian Canadians:
Cowboy Junkies
Avril Levigne
Men Without Hats
Nelly Furtado
Blood, Sweat and Tears
Oscar Peterson
Crash Test Dummies
Len
Sum 41

Thank God I'm not Canadian Canadians:
Crowbar
Nickleback
Loverboy
Glass Tiger
Triumph
Raffi

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