Canada House Thursday: Music Ontario Presents ...

First up will be MusicOntario whose showcase kicks of at 12:00pm on Thursday.

12:00pm Alvvays

For fans of: Pains of Being Pure At Heart, Yuck, Camera Obscura, Cinnamon Toast Records
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Made up of former PEI and Cape Bretoners who now call Toronto home, Alvvays promise a show full of “peppy bangers, sombre laments, quirky bits, lots of jangling and skronky guitars.” Alvvays just signed with Polyvinyl for their Chad Vangaalen produced debut album, and spent the early part of the year touring with Yuck in the US.

The band emerged in what they term “a bursting music scene in Charlottetown [PEI]”, and were influenced heavenly by the sensibilities of nearby Halifax’s early 90s Pop Explosion scene. However, School, and “other life stuff” drew the band to Toronto: “Toronto has always been a very diverse hub for music and that’s not expected to change any time soon.”

12:45pm Doomsquad

For fans of: Prince Rama, Dead Can Dance, The XX
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Siblings Alla, Jaca and Trev Blumas come in peace. Their often hypnotic and trance-like sound was created through an organic process during which the band jammed certain elements for hours, contextualising the feeling of the song rather than precise parts. Once honed they knitted the parts together, creating the mesmerising textures and rhythms that populate the record.

Although city dwellers, the band have a fascination with nature. Their album Kalaboogie was named after the woods near the town of Calaboogie and its boreal forests: “Our music is 100% based around the Canadian landscape and the lore and mystique the surrounds it. There is something to be learned from different landscapes. ..Something we noticed was that forests seem to offer fear and refuge at the same time. Which is what making this record felt like, or what any passionate collaborative project might feel like to anyone. When we started focusing on these similarities, songs really started to evolve.”

1:30pm HSY

For fans of: Metz, The Jesus Lizard, Odonis Odonis
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According to HSY’s Jude, the band hail from “mankind’s dark centres”. Founder members of the Buzz Records scene, from the first wail of feedback on their latest single for ‘Cyber Bully’ (Buzz/ Too Pure), HSY come at you with a sonic onslaught: rumbling low-slung bass, sludgy distorted riffs, pummelling drums and blood curdling screams fill the air. They maybe be more used to playing at 1.30 in the morning than at 1.30 in the afternoon, but this is a band capable of making floors shake, as they proved at a memorable show at last years NXNE festival: “the place was rammed. I remember feeling the floor shaking as we we’re playing because of all the people moshing around.’

Jean grew up in a small town outside of Toronto: “I’m sure that’s where all the angst our music has comes from.” He seems less angst ridden about the state of the music scene in the city these days however: “The Toronto music scene right now is really strong with loud heavy bands, it’s a really nice change from the soft electronic music that has been dominating the airwaves in the last few years. I feel like Toronto has a scene full of more aggressive bands right now that are raring to go and push peoples eardrums to their limits.”

2:15pm Hannah Georgas

For fans of: Kathleen Edwards, Feist, Metric
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It has been a long journey since we first featured Hannah Georgas on Oh! Canada 2 back in 2009. She picked up nominations for Best New Artist and Songwriter of the Year at the 2011 Junos (Canada’s Brit equivalent) and won the Emerging Artist award at XM’s Verge music awards before travelling the world as part of Kathleen Edward’s band. She put all the years of experience in to her self-titled second album, produced by Holy Fuck’s Graham Walsh. The album was duly long listed for the Polaris Music Prize and Alternative Album of the Year at the 2013 Junos, where she was once again nominated as Songwriter of the Year. Hannah returns to the UK again this week having already toured the UK and Europe opening for City and Colour.

3:00pm Grand Analog

For fans of: Shad, K-os
Connect: Website | Bandcamp | Soundcloud | Facebook | Twitter

Born in Guyana, and raised in Winnipeg, Odario Williams of Grand Analog now calls Toronto home. Under the influence of his father, a reggae DJ from the 80s Odario and his brother, DJ Ofield have grown up with a love of “Music, Bass and trouble”. New record Modern Thunder finds Grand Analog calling upon their wider musical family, with guest appearances from friends from old stomping grounds with Andrina Turenne of Winnipeg’s Chic Gamine, as well as those from their new home Toronto: Maylee Todd and Len Bowen and The Wilderness of Manitoba’s Amanda Balsys, as well as some of the biggest names in Canada’s hip-hop scene including Shad and Saukrates. Williams is clearly conscious of his musical history on Modern Thunder - “Ironically, the music itself is based on all things classic. Basically, the album has a modern take on classic grooves. It’s a Hip-Hop record, but our own interpretation.” Watch out for Canadian Hip-Hop Icon Maestro Fresh Wes in the video for ‘The Great Rhyme Dropper’ below.

Williams is also quick to pay tribute to his Toronto home: “Our music scene is a gorgeous mix of sorts these days. The most unassuming characters listen to the most unassuming artists. It’s a great time for music in Toronto. Even now, in the digital age, music can be mysterious and exciting again…I’m fortunate to have these people create and live around me.”

3:45pm PS I Love You

For fans of: Dinosaur Jr, The Cure, Japandroids
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Originally from Kingston, Ontario, a “weird city that’s full of a lot of important weird stuff”, PS I Love you come to the Great Escape poised to unleash their third album, the first to be recorded in a proper recording studio. Frontman Paul Saulnier told us that while the subject matter, “death, love, responsibilities, pressure, anxiety, paranoia, dreams, and shit that i think is funny” may remain similar, the record sounds “deeper and heavier than anything we’ve done before”.

Speaking of Ontario’s music scene, Saulnier reflects: “Kingston has a constantly changing music scene, which makes it a very exciting place. I was heavily involved in the ktown scene a number of years ago and I feel okay being removed from it because I know it’s being well taken care of. Toronto is exciting because of all the great punk bands. I still kind of feel like an observer in a cool way. In Kingston people looked to me for where the party was and in Toronto I can go to any party and leave early and go to bed… (figuratively and literally) I feel old and free. “