weird canada

About

Our Mission Statement

Weird Canada exists to encourage, connect, and document creative expression across Canada.

Our values
  • We are a space for artistic, literary, and musical enthusiasm.
  • We aim to connect the disparate communities that feed the creative cosmos of Canada.
  • We capture the physical ephemera that contains and surrounds art, literature, and music.
  • We welcome the makers of art, literature, and music who take risks and experiment.
  • We welcome excited minds.
Our obligations

We will treat all living beings with dignity and respect. We will listen to each other, and try to understand each other. We will challenge ourselves to be kinder and smarter human beings.

We acknowledge that we are biased, and accept that our bias is not always visible. We strive to make this bias visible, and challenge our relationship with it. We do not tolerate racism, homophobia, misogyny, or any other body-based discrimination.

We exist to encourage, connect, and document creative expression across Canada.

Our movements should reflect our vision, and we will remain open to and excited about creativity and community.

PS – This site exists to promote obscure bands; however, if any artist would like to have their mp3s removed, just contact us and they will be taken down promptly.

we have a lot of fun playing with hyperbole.

Notre mission

Weird Canada a pour but d’encourager, de mettre en contact et de décrire les pratiques d’expression créatrice au Canada.

Nos valeurs
  • Nous offrons un espace consacré à l’enthousiasme pour les arts, la littérature et la musique.
  • Nous tentons de relier les communautés disparates qui forment la constellation créative canadienne.
  • Nous répertorions les objets éphémères qui véhiculent ou qui complémentent l’art, la littérature et la musique.
  • Nous encourageons les artistes, écrivain-e-s et musicien-ne-s prêt-e-s à prendre des risques et à expérimenter.
  • Nous apprécions les esprits vifs.
Nos obligations

Nous espérons traiter tous les êtres vivants avec dignité et respect. Nous nous engageons à nous écouter les uns les autres et à tenter de nous comprendre. Nous nous mettons au défi de devenir des êtres humains plus chaleureux et intelligents.

Nous reconnaissons notre partialité et nous acceptons qu’elle n’est pas toujours visible. Nous nous efforcerons de la rendre visible et de la contester. Nous ne tolérerons pas le racisme, l’homophobie, la misogynie ou toute autre forme de discrimination corporelle.

Nous avons pour but d’encourager, de mettre en contact et de décrire les pratiques d’expression créatrice au Canada.

Nos actions doivent refléter notre vision. Ainsi, nous resterons ouverts et enthousiastes en ce qui a trait à la créativité et à la communauté.

P. S. : Ce site vise à promouvoir le travail d’artistes méconnus. Cependant, si vous souhaitez que vos fichiers mp3 n’apparaissent plus sur le site, contactez-nous et ils seront rapidement retirés.

Nous nous amusons beaucoup avec l’hyperbole.

Our Lizard Government

Weird Canada employs an elite oligarchy to manage our beautiful contributors. Their enduring quest to unearth the tiniest of Canadian gems is shaped, managed, and molded by an aristocracy of (currently) five.

Aaron Levin

Aaron Levin enjoys math, rare records, code, hyperbole, enthusiasm, and ephemera. He holds a Masters degree in pure mathematics, acheived by extending the Perron-Frobenius theorem to Semigroups of Positive Operators on Order-Continuous Banach Lattices. Deal with it.

Marie is a maker and a truth seeker. Between the beats of her own drum, she finds a secret time to oil the cogs of Weird Canada.
Jesse Locke

On top of his daily activities at Weird Canada, Jesse writes about music and movies for Noisey, Offerings, Fast Forward Weekly and his pet project Texture Magazine. He occasionally releases cassettes through the label Planet of the Tapes, and has played drums for bands like Dirty Beaches, Feel Alright, Silver Dapple and too many more to list. He lives in Toronto with his wife and a pair of cats named Pizza and Crumbs.
David Steinberg

David Steinberg is the proud owner of a Vancouver Public Library Card. He spends his time brewing beer at the Toast Collective, teaching mathematics at the University of British Columbia, and biking to & from his favorite used books stores. He likes lists, the Oulipo, and putting the grapes in his mouth all at once.
Amy Macdonald

Amy is a longtime Weird Canada lurker turned active volunteer. She lives in Montreal, where she’s inches away from completing her M.A. and metres away from the best breakfast in town (Vieux Vélo!). She’s yelled, whispered, fluted, keyboarded, and guitared for various bands and friends in Montreal and Edmonton.

Translation

All praise Vincent Rondeau, Nicolas Coutlée, and Alexandre Vaillancourt. That is until they: a) translate this page and b) send us a bio.

Contributors

They are the bread and butter of our organization. Without their labour we would be null.

Gabriel Jasmin lives in Montreal. He is a visual artist, freelance graphic designer, musician in different forms and formations, and general culture enthusiast. Addictions include (but not limited to): bagels, records and tapes, facebook, mom’s home-made soup, Twin Peaks, procrastination and strong black coffee.

James can be found working in and around the offices of CHMA 106.9FM in Sackville, NB, where he is completing a BA in Philosophy. Besides radio, his interest in independent music has taken the form of a house venue, a research project on touring and social networks, and the occasional DJ set. Otherwise James spends his time contemplating a more egalitarian future and worrying about recession-era employment opportunities.

Collaborateur à Bande à part, Benoit a découvert ses sentiments sur la route 132, à quelque part entre Trois-Pistoles et Gaspé. Il est plus sensible à l’effort et à l’intention depuis, et nourrit le dessein de découvrir le beau dans le brut et le nouveau. / Benoit found out about his feelings while he was driving on route 132, somewhere between Trois-Pistoles and Gaspé. Since, he’s been more sensible to effort and intent, and feeds the purpose of discovering the beauty in the raw and the new.
Johnnie Regalado

Johnnie Regalado is Program Director at CFUV 101.9 FM in Victoria, BC where he and other crusaders champion the Waaay West Coast music scene. He produces a studio performance video series out of the radio station’s tiny basement closet and hosts a weekly program of hot & fresh tunes to get you cooking: Music to Make Dinner By. When he’s not trying to revolutionize the music world he’s checking hockey stats or re-watching The Wire.
James Lindsay

Born and raised in the east end of Toronto, James Lindsay is a record collector, bookseller, Offerings contributor, and poet. When he’s not doing any of that, he is also the co-owner of the vinyl and cassette label Pleasence Records.
dave
  • David Ferris
  • Contributor // Black Lodge Recruiter
  • (Edmonton, AB)
  • w: Stabmonton
  • e: ferrisdav [at] yahoo [dot] com

Dave is an Edmontonian via The Barren North. He slings sticks and twiddles knobs in a few bands, such as Taiwan and Congregations. He owns nine bicycles, watches Twin Peaks far too much, and is also a highly accomplished wizard. He sporadically updates a bunch of Albetra-centric crap on Stabmonton.
Christopher_Laramee

Christopher Laramee has written about Saskatoon and area music for quite some time in local rags and for local community station CFCR. He also plays music in Wasted Cathedral, Shooting Guns, The Foggy Notions and Golden Smoke. He claims to be unemployable, eats broken gin bottles and typewriter ribbons for sustenance, and thinks Flipper’s Public Flipper Limited album is one of the greatest works of art of the 20th century. Really.
GL_WC_BIO_PICO

Graeme is a co-owner/operator of Psychic Handshake Recordings and plays guitar in The Pink Noise. He holds a graduate degree in Film Studies and Information Science.

Zachary lives in Philadelphia, he plays in a rock and roll band called Lantern. Previous musical ventures were Omon Ra and Omon Ra II. He was born in Halifax Nova Scotia, Canada and raised in a place called Musquodoboit Harbour. He briefly lived in Montreal. He likes interesting people, good food, and nature. He holds a degree in composition and has written papers on Japanese Noise and Black Metal.

By day, Jessica works as a human sponge for consumer rage. However, when she finishes up at the call center, she also writes for Coke Machine Glow, posts occasional bad musics on MySpace, and plays drums with all who will have her. She lives in Vancouver (viaMontreal, via Toronto, via Edmonton) and likes sleeping late, wheat beer, and east-facing windows.
  • Jared Majeski
  • Contributor // Workin’ man
  • (Edmonton, AB)
  • w: Krang
  • e: jared.majeski [at] gmail [dot] com

Born in Fort Saskatchewan, AB, Jared went to Catholic school, grew up listening to Dwight Yoakam and traded pucks for Dubble Bubble at Junior ‘A’ hockey games. A lost child from the 60s trying to find his way an even more confusing future, to Jared, non-mainstream music – of all sounds, tones and modes – is the only true beacon. An actual Edmontonian for some time now, he plays drums in heavy dad-blues group Krang and twangs and croons for good-time rock trio Bonspiel. Dislikes include the series comma. His favourite baseball player is Kelly Gruber.
Bryce

Bryce grew up (mostly) on Vancouver Island. He lives on the Mainland now, where he writes short stories and once in a while gets out to see people play music. His dream is to one day run a sanctuary for post-menopausal laying hens.

Mike Deane is a novice record collector, intermediate writer and advanced music enthusiast. Hailing from rural Ontario and now in Edmonton via Montreal, he plays in bands when he wants, reads when he can and listens always. He has a show on CJSR radio in Edmonton, writes for local arts rags and struggles at playing a variety of instruments.

On Saturday mornings, Pam and her sig. other Mikey host a radio show called Bill Murray at UWO’s station CHRW. She also writes for the online/print magazine London Fuse, and has seen Serial Mom 17 times.
Greg
  • Gregory Pike
  • Contributor // Ne’re-do-well
  • (Montreal, QC)
  • w: @GGRPike
  • e: gregory [dot] pike [at] vice [dot] com

Gregory can usually be found brandishing a Colt 45 at one of Montreal’s many west-end crust squat shows and gatherings. When he’s not busy returning said empty forty-ounces to his local dépanneur so that he’ll have enough change to subsist on ramen noodles, he writes for VICE Canada.

Taylor Burgess is the editor of Stylus Magazine, drums in the ironically-named band Softcore, and has a plethora of notebooks full of crazy shit he hardly shows anyone because few people like the ramblings of a self-involved stoner. Due to unfortunate magikal happenings, Mr. Bourgeois is stuck in Winnipeg, but contrary to popular Kanadian opinion, he finds it gets more interesting, surreal, and wacci the longer he stays there.
Kevin Stebner

Kevin Stebner is the source of stoke behind musical projects like Stalwart Sons, Cold Water and his chiptune single player mode, GreyScreen. As if that’s not enough, he is also the founder of Bart Records & Revolution Winter, a cassette and vinyl label with a steady stream of life melting jams.
Kevin Hainey
  • Kevin Hainey
  • Contributor // Hainey!
  • (Toronto, ON)
  • w: Inyrdisk
  • e: kevin [dot] hainey [at] gmail [dot] com

Hi, I’m Kevin Hainey. Writer, filmmaker, musician, visual artist… Currently living in Toronto, where I run the Inyrdisk private press label, write fine literature, and generally hope for the best. Proud former member of Disguises, The Pink Noise, and Cave Dudes.
Max Cotter
  • Max Cotter
  • Contributor // Lester Bangs 2.0
  • (Toronto, ON)
  • w: new .WAV
  • e: max [dot] cotter [at] ryerson [dot] ca

Born in Halifax, Max has spent the bulk of his years occupying the record stores, venues, and studios of Toronto. He hosts and produces two radio programs – one focusing exclusively on the vinyl medium, the other revolving around new Canadian music. He enjoys writing, recording, producing, and listening to music.
  • Mark Teo
  • Contributor // True Skram
  • (Calgary, AB)
  • w: FFWD Weekly
  • e: themarkteo [at] gmail [dot] com

Mark Teo is likely running away from something, having spent the decade moving between Toronto, Montreal and Halifax. Currently a fake Albertan, he’s the music and film editor at Calgary’s Fast Forward Weekly, and the biggest emerging voice in hobo-lit since Jim Tully (note: that’s a complete lie). Other interests include accidental veganism, kite flying, bike riding and recording never-see-the-light-of-day Garageband songs.

Alison Lang is a new Torontonian and a proud Taurean. She previously spent the past five years in Halifax soaking up beautiful music and Propeller beer, in that order, and has written about the Halifax scene for The Coast weekly, Exclaim!, Tom Tom Magazine, Openfile Halifax and a few others. She also spent three years in the Plasmatics-inspired cheese-rock outfit Cobra Camaro. She is currently a jobless hack.

Brandon spent his formative years in Dundas, ON jamming in basements and around campfires, dreaming of a Spacemen 3 reunion tour and wearing out a VHS copy of MBV videos. He then moved to Toronto to study film and philosophy which naturally led him to a brief career of teaching english in Tokyo. After travelling extensively in Asia, studying music and confronting innumerable dangers to score obscure records, Brandon returned to Toronto where he runs Polyphasic Studios, a recording studio focused on electronic and experimental music, and its sister label Polyphasic Recordings. He also weaves disco magic as part of Invisible City Sound System and dubs-out under the alias Grand AM.

Tobias Rochman is of the opinion that New music & new ideas need to build a new audience by new methods. He is willing to help out with this aim whenever possible, through whatever means necessary. And with this in mind he hosts the weekly radio program SLANG KING on Viva Radio, writes occasionally for VICE and is one of the founders and co-organizers of The Obey Convention Music + Arts Festival in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Now, Weird Canada provides him with the opportunity to share his love of the vibrant, unique and always expanding Canadian underground with the world.

Chris recently relocated to Toronto after claiming to have “gripped every Mighty Pope LP in Edmonton”. Occasionally, he is fueled by some inherent librarian desire to collect, document and preserve musical artifacts that may otherwise go ignored, but mostly he just wants to swim. He still loves Edmonton a whole bunch. He is currently looking for name suggestions for a blog wherein he and his friend review the AFI top 100 films while working at a video store.

Paul K Lawton plays in a couple bands (Myelin Sheaths / Moby Dicks / Square Waves), has a record label that puts out records (Mammoth Cave Recording Co.), teaches courses in Digital Culture and Media Studies at The University of Lethbridge, and is trying to complete his PhD. He has a lot of records and was once McSweeny’s subscriber of the month.

Alumni

All dogs go to heaven

Jenni is a music student that doesn’t let academics get in the way of her education. In her spare time she enjoys digging through the folk/trance musics of her heritage and playing in a variety of musical weirdness with Old Ugly. Past projects include Illfit Outfit and DB Buxton Revue. Other interests: gardening, gender, bikes, eats, and spamming the Weird Canada facebook page.

Jarrett Evan Samson lives in Vancouver, plays in some bands (Role Mach, Shipyards, Star Tropics, Korean Gut), and has a habit of releasing records and throwing shows under the Geographing banner. Other things he enjoys are watercolour paintings of houses, Doc Savage pocket novels and the writings of Bernard Heuvelmans. In 2010, he was punched twice for refusing to give fratboys high-fives.

Joni Sadler has spent the last several years working at record shops, labels, and various arts magazines in her adoptive hometown of Ottawa. She is currently the music director at CHUO 89.1 FM and is also in the process of fighting her way through a Master’s degree in communications. In her down time, she can usually be found making noise on drums, guitar, or bass, although she’s not particularly good at any of them.

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