the Big Shiny late-90s/early-00s CanCon poll

In 2008, Edwin announced that he, Mike Turner (Our Lady Peace) and Jeff Burrows (The Tea Party) planned to record an album together.[5] The band, named Crash Karma, is rounded out by former Zygote bassist and lead singer Amir Epstein. Crash Karma released its debut album, produced by Turner, in March 2010 and released it on E1 Music Canada.

i'm not ever going to listen to that, but it's sure a fact

omg @ serial joe

Fun fact: The kid from Serial Joe was also the kid in the music video for Our Lady Peace's Superman's Dead.
Also Fun Fact: Said video for Superman's Dead doesn't seem to be on YouTube, despite the fact that it's used as the thumbnail for the other version of the video.

Growing up in the 90s in my American town on the border, I remember an distressing number of these acts. OLP were just massive in my high school, one of the handful of bands that I didn't realize werent megastars in the states until I got to college, lol. Had completely forgotten it, but after clicking play on the j. Englishman's "More" I definitely remember hearing it on the radio.

I don't remember seeing any of these Big Shiny Tunes comps growing up though - were they not distributed in the states?

I think they were just sold in Canada. This page only lists Canadian chart performance: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Shiny_Tunes#Charts_and_certifications

Did you get MuchMusic (Canada's MTV equivalent)? I'm pretty sure that's how we were brainwashed into buying so many copies.

We didn't have MuchMusic but we got the Edge from Toronto, which is I think what drove much of the popularity of those acts in my town. Plus the bigger ones got played on our local US stations, I guess because it was pre-Clear Channel merger and there could still be things like regional radio hits.

There was a kind of subtle thing happening with these Big Shiny Tunes comps, sliding in a Wide Mouth Mason track between Chem Bros and Radiohead, artificially inflating the perceived worth of the Canadian product

Wide Mouth Mason played at my high school in grade 9, I think as a reward for some fundraising thing. What I mainly remember is that the announcements every morning were trying to hype us up to get out and raise money because WIDE MOUTH MASON ARE COMING!!

I remember literally nothing about them, save for them nicking the moniker from the famous jar of the same name

In the last two days I noticed two different people on the subway listening to Heaven Coming Down. I should put on some Tea Party when I get home from work today.

I vaguely recall Wide Mouth Mason but had never heard of Gandharvas prior to this poll.

I just remember mistaking both "Harder to Breathe" by Maroon 5 and "The Remedy" by Jason Mraz as Wide Mouth Mason songs when I first heard them on the radio.

never heard of Gandharvas prior to this poll.

Sort of a quirky art-rock band who got a few singles on alt radio/Much but I don't think ever crossed over to top 40 or became as big as some of these bands. (But apparently "First Day of Spring" got so much play on the Windsor station because of listener requests.) Their last album was 97 so probably early for this poll. "Coffee shop Jane's Addiction" is probably the best description I can give but even that doesn't do justice to the number of bases they tried to cover on A Soap Bubble and Inertia. Idk if it's worth it if you didn't hear them at the time, and I wouldn't make extravagant claims for it, but it could be a contender for the least acclaimed album I love.

i feel like the philosopher kings' "i am the man" could slot in here, maybe the later jet set satellite "best way to die" but good list to choose from. i'd never listen to any of this music except to evoke the feeling of sitting in the basement after school watching muchmusic. oh also maybe "groovy dead" by rusty? basically just want to list minor canadian rock hits. maybe "shine" was a bit too early. just listing songs now.

i think a lot of these the clip on youtube is clearly vhs'd off muchmusic sometime in the mid- to late-1990s, like this age of electric video.

also i want everyone to enjoy this video of i mother earth from snowjob 97

Ha, do you mean the Doughboys' "Shine"? I listened to Crush a lot in 93/94.

omg there is just SO much to cringe at in that Snowjob video. good/horrible find

I loved the Philosopher Kings when I was like 12/13

Lots of great hockey haircuts in that Snowjob vid, a+++

SFO14
3 years ago
OLP, I Mother Earth, Moist, Age of Electric, Big Wreck, The Tea Party...amongst some of my favorite bands of the 90's.

(taken from the youtube comments for olp's "one man army" video)

I always did like "One Man Army".

yes doughboys and it was voted in 2000 as the 26th "Top Canadian Single of All Time" by Chart Magazine...
what a list! there are two evaporators songs in the top 50.

rusty at snowjob 96 is pretty cool. most of the clips preserved online are of collective soul and crazy town, unfortunately.

"one man army" kicks ass!!!! the drums! (i'll say this about every olp song)

well i guess since jeremy taggart left the band a few years ago, not anymore lol

I never noticed how awesome the bassline is.

i would like however to rep for a record outside the timeframe of this poll: in 2012 our lady peace, having produced two uneven stadium-directed albums with bob rock and one really abysmal album by themselves (burn burn, a remarkably empty rock record), did a "return to our roots" record, though it was more of a "return to the experimental impulse that drove spiritual machines." it's a really dark and cloudy but very catchy record called curve; if you like prime olp at all you'll find something to like there imo

this got me to look up an old this is the thread where we talk about muchmusic thread
it's interesting. lecoq mentions partying with rainbow then complains about muchmusic being too "socially conscious"

it features a very post from a much music insider, too long to quote

rainbow sun franks: a cunt. easy.

bradford how: just a total joke and a symptom of a dying station. exhibits the typical overcompensating, annoying personality of small town folk who move to the big fucking city.

hannah sung: the girl will fuck anything that moves yet masks it all with her boring persona. i know way too many girls like her.

sarah taylor: saw her eating lunch in yorkville about 2 weeks ago. seems kinda listless.

also i'm voting limblifter based on "tinfoil"

Another band/song from this era that I remember getting quite a bit of airplay that surprisingly didn't show up on a Big Shiny Tunes compilation was The Watchmen with Stereo.

That's an interesting list. Always annoys me that "I'm an Adult Now" is the TPOH song people remember since it's so monotonous and says nothing to me. Much prefer "She's So Young" or "Beautiful White".

TIL Big Wreck have more monthly listeners on Spotify than Sloan.

TS: Guitar Player vs Pitchfork

Wow at that IME Snowjob video

Edwin perfectly encapsulating a now-extinct version of “hunk”

Like they look like Lisa Simpson’s favourite band

Hey, early shoegazey Len is pretty good. I love this video too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1EUfNFL8vk

wasn't there some story about them swiping a copy of Pro Tools from some famous producer?

Lol @ that Snowjob video, what a find!

our lady peace intimate & interactive 2000
great chance to get up close and personal with the band and hear their best songs in a stripped down environment
"the guys are looking forward to it," announces rick "the temp" rick campanelli.

Did Jean Leloup get any airtime in anglo Canada?

I don't remember much French-language music on English radio at all, sadly. MuchMusic tried to make Mitsou's "Bye Bye Mon Cowboy" happen in 1988.

OLP were absolutely inescapable the summer of 1997, so it's hard to pick anything else

incidentally i'm about to drive up north for my cousin's funeral, with whom i spent a LOT of time listening to this stuff in that era; about the only upside of this whole situation is that i'll be within range of ottawa rock radio; chez 106 is more or less permanently stuck in the summer of 1997, which i suspect i will greatly appreciate

That's too bad. Mitsou is best forgotten but I'll easily take Leloup's 90s albums over just about any CanCon. And I say this as someone who absolutely hated almost all music sung in French at the time (I still don't know why).

xp, obv.

I think OLP were ruined for me the day that I was at my painting job and we listened to an OLP mix about ten times. I never need to hear "Innocent" again.

As a side note, I'm amazed that 99.9 The Buzz is still around. For a US-based radio station, they played a surprising amount of Canadian alt rock.

I dimly recall being at this

https://www.setlist.fm/festival/2000/summersault-2000-halifax-43d6ebd7.html

the Pumpkins were shockingly awful

Catherine Wheel, eh? Interesting.

a note for brad re: the Catherine Wheel's set

The only sign of life came when Our Lady Peace guitarist Mike Turner joined the band on stage for a tune. They bid farewell to Halifax stating “We will never, ever see you again.” Good riddance!

so there was a brief OLP/Catherine Wheel crossover

For a US-based radio station, they played a surprising amount of Canadian alt rock.

I felt like kids in Buffalo, NY, might have been even more passionate about Canadian bands than Canadians were. It seemed to have aome kind of cachet. People would eagerly want to talk to me about Matthew Good, Tea Party, or the Hip when they found out I was Canadian. (I lived there 05-08, during my PhD!) OLP played our uni's Fallfest one of those years

loool, this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHu3ZKXZrf4

god, Edwin was such a prat