South By Southwest just wrapped up in Austin, Texas, on Sunday, and now it’s time for the music world to focus its attention on Toronto for Canadian Music Week, starting today. Although it may not be as big as SXSW, the Canadian festival definitely holds its own, having some 1,000 Canadian and international acts coming to the city for the week.
With so many artists it can be a bit overwhelming, but we’re all about making your life easier so we’ve compiled the top 5 buzz bands of CMW.
Based out of Hamburg, Germany, the duo that is made up of Valeska Steiner and Sonja Glass have already caused quite the stir in their native lands of Germany and Switzerland, and you are about to hear them all over the radio on this side of the pond.
Their album Mutual Friends was released in North America in February to great acclaim. With smartly written, breezy pop songs, it’s hard not to like these two. Their first single, “Little Numbers,” has just under eight million views on YouTube, which is understandable considering how catchy it is. Just try not to listen to it more than once, we dare you.
Montreal natives Suuns' new album, Images Du Futur, was released two weeks ago and, with little hints of Caribou mixed in with some Radiohead, it will definitely make for quite the crowdpleaser at their show this week. This will be your only chance to catch them in Toronto before they head off on a 42-date tour with stops in Canada, the United States and Europe.
(Note: people with photosensitivity should not watch the video.)
This Scottish electropop band (pronounced "churches") is one of the buzzier bands for CMW, and with good reason. Having only formed in 2011, they have already built quite the reputation. Chvrches placed fifth on the BBC’s “Sound of 2013,” was the opening band for the 2012 Passion Pit tour and most recently received high praises from their performances at SXSW. Oh right, did we mention they’ve done all this without even having an EP out?
You read correctly, Charlotte Church is playing CMW — but not the Charlotte Church you listened to every year around the Christmas tree growing up. She’s been doing some growing up as well, and it may just blow your mind.
In 2012 Church released “One,” the first of what will eventually be a five-EP set with a very different sound than we’ve ever heard from her. It may remind you of other indie rock bands out there, but it doesn’t matter because none of them have Church's vocal pipes.
The Aussie band is back at it, having just released their 15th studio album, Push the Sky Away, and there is quite the excitement surrounding it. Coming off of one of the most buzzed about shows at SXSW, they are here to play a sold-out show at Massey Hall, followed by another 23 sold-out shows (at time of writing) in the U.S., U.K., Denmark, Netherlands and Belgium. Not bad, considering they’ve been at it for more than 30 years.
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