October 31, 2006
Canadian Bloggers ♥ Toronto Music
i (heart) music has just released their list of the 33 hottest bands in Canada for 2006, as selected by a more than forty Canadian music bloggers (including yours truly, current Torontoist contributor Carrie Musgrave, Said the Gramophone, former Torontoist contributor Frank Yang from Chromewaves, and lots of others). We don't mean to gloat, but it looks like we're still the best city for music in the country.
A whole bunch of Toronto-based bands made the list - a total of 15 out of the 33, in fact - including Final Fantasy placing at the top spot (with Vancouver's Destroyer coming in second and Montreal's Sunset Rubdown rounding out the top three). As could be expected, we've got some competition from Montreal and Vancouver - not just in the top three but throughout the list. Luckily there's no Montrealist or Vancouverist to threaten to knock us off our pedestal.
Here are the top Torontonian* bands, according to the list:
- Final Fantasy
- Broken Social Scene
- Tokyo Police Club
- Born Ruffians
- Metric/Emily Haines
- Jon-Rae and the River
- The Hidden Cameras
- The Diableros
- Junior Boys
- MSTRKRFT
- The Golden Dogs
- k-os
- Spiral Beach
- Henri Fabergé and The Adorables
- Laura Barrett
* We use this term loosely; we lay claim to any band who is made up of a good number of Torontonians, or is from anywhere in this huge mess we call the GTA. You can't get away from Toronto!


6 of my 10 picks made the list. It was interesting to see the results and no shock at all that everyone and their dog would choose Final Fantasy (although, he didn't make my list at all).
What were your ten, Carrie?
What were your 10, David?
No Ninja High School?
No Bicycles, either!
The Bicycles (much to my dismay) only received one vote. Ninja High School got two votes, but were so far down on both lists that it didn't make a difference.
I heart The Bicycles. I just want to hug them whenever I see them.
I lost a ton of steam after the top five. And I just realized I totally lied, and had BSS on top. These aren't my "favourite" bands, just the ones that I think are hottest. My favourite Canadian act of the past year is definitely FF.
1. Broken Social Scene
2. Metric
2. Final Fantasy
4. The Hidden Cameras
5. Wolf Parade
6. The Stills
7. Arcade Fire
8. Sloan
9. New Pornographers
9. Sunset Rubdown
Here's mine. The criteria was pretty open, so given that I'm always at shows, I mostly based my list on that.
1) King Khan - blew everyone out of the water at NXNE
2) Deadly Snakes - even though they're done now
3) Metric - where *wasn't* Metric this year??
4) Billy Talent - say what you will, but they're going places...fast.
5) Malajube - French goodness that I don't understand but still love
6) Cadence Weapon - not even a big hip hop fan, but I loved him, and he was everywhere this year
7) Tokyo Police Club
8) Les Breastfeeders - another French band...this choice was a bit out there, but they were impressive live and gained many fans here recently
9) Emily Haines (solo)- Separated this choice from Metric because it's like comparing apples and oranges
10) MSTRKRFT - again, everywhere this year
I was really surprised by some inclusions, but overall I think this is a pretty decent list... Canadian music really has come a long way in the last few years.