In the 80's listening tot he rasdio was a thing, maybe even a big thing. In Canada the airwaves are ruled by something called ConCon. CanCon is a set of rules regarding what each format radio station is allowed to play and also has requirements fro Canadian content ot be played approx. 30% of the time. The reasoning was two fold, not to have Cnaadian cultural identify overwhelmed by contnent from the US, and to build the Canadian music industry. A lot of it doesn't hold up with time, I am going to highlight some of those lost and mostly forgotten Canadian bands/songs of the 80's that do hold up.

Statring with some female led one hit wonders,

Luba - Everytime I See Your Picture. I still like this song as overstrought as it is. Paints a celar picture and is song beautifully.


Katrina & The Waves - Walking On Sunshine. You may be familiar with this one. One of the greatest happy songs around.


Rough Trade - High School Confidential. One of the odder bands to make it in Canada. Reacquanting myself witht his band has been really pleasureable.


Rough Trade - All Touch. I included the live video 'cause I just love the 80's fashion sense.


Parachute Club - Rise Up. Another great, upbeat song.


Martha & The Muffins - Echo Beach. How could I have forgatten about this song. I love the sax fills.

Next up a coupel new wave-ish bands. Spoon and Chalk Circle.

Spoon - Romantic Traffic. I loved this song from day one. Ripping of Tears For Fears but doing it well.


Spoon - Tell No Lies.


Spoon - Nova Heart. This was ahit for them but one that neevr clicked for me.


Spoon - Arias & Symphonies.


Chalk Circle - April Fool. I forgot all about this song.


Chalk Circle - Me, Myself & I. Another song I had forgatten all about.


As a bonus, here's some artist insight to Romantic Traffic

Finishing out the run of new wave-ish bands.....

Stange Advance - We Run. Sounds a lot like latter day Cars.


Strange Advance - Worlds Away.


Images In Vogue - Lust For Love.


Men Without Hats - Safety Dance. I hope you all know this one, it's fucking great.


Gowan - Stange Animal. Unlike a lot of Canadian bands I think Gowan was known outside the country, sio maybe not lost or forgotten.


Gowan - Criminal Mind. Gowan is currently in the band Styx.


The Box - Closer Together. A cool little band from Montreal. Going heavy on these guys, they bring back a lot of memories of some pretty good days and times.


The Box - L'Affaire Dumoutier (Say To Me). A cool spoken word song.


The Box -Ordinary People


The Box - Walk Away


The Box - Must I Always Remember


The Box - My Dreams of You


Next up is going to be a few Vancouver based bands, The Payola$ (feat, future producer Bob Rock), The Odds, 54-40, Grapes of Wrath and Matthew Good Band

No Aldo Nova? This thread is a fail.

So growing up in Canada in the 80s was like growing up Christian in the 90s, pop culturally.

He may make an appearance when I do the rockers, Helix, Slik Toxik and Sven Gali. I am trying to stay away from the known artists such as Aldo Nova, Loverboy, Bryan Adams.

Walking On Sunshine is one of the finest mixes ever produced

One thig CanCon does is make for a reactionary music scene. You've seen it in some of the videos posted already and is an ongoing theme. It is far easier for a Canadian band to gain traction being Canada's version of XYZ. The original Canadian bands just get buried by the very same institution meant to help them.

Up next is a couple Vancouver bands, The Payola$ and 54-40.
The Payola$ - Eyes of a Stranger. It was nice revisiting these songs. Bob Rock of later day production fame was the guitarist and one of the two main songwriters.


Payola$ - I'll Find Another


Payola$ - Where Is This Love. Pretty cool song.


Payola$ - Never Said I Loved You. Featuring Carol Pope from Rough Trade. I highlighted a couple of their songs up thread.


54-40 - Ocean Pearl. Really surprised at the depth of this band. They can put together a pretty solid greatest hits compilation. A Canadian gem of a band that you've probably never heard outside of Canada.


54-40 - I Go Blind


54-40 - Baby Ran


54-40 - Miss You


54-40 - Nice To Luv You


54-40 - One Gun


54-40 - She-La


54-40 - One Day In Your Life

Continuing with more west coast bands. Up first is a band that has one great drunk song.

Spirit of the West - Home For a Rest. A great drinking song. Sadly, one of the main members of this band died so they are no more.


Grapes of Wrath - All The Things I Wasn't. Other than having a great name the band does nothing for me, but they got lots of radio play at the time.


Grapes of Wrath - You May Be Right


Grapes of Wrath - What Was Going Through My Head


Odds -Someone Who's Cool. Under the name Dawn Patrol they were Vancouver's greatest bar band ever. They had a repertoire of over 500 songs and somehow got the words correct more often or not. Lucky for us all they also wrote originals under the name Odds. Truth be told, the Odds are actually from the early 90's but too good to miss. Same holds true for the east coast band Sloan. Go check them out.


Odds - Eat My Brain. This band immediately drop into a groove like no other.


Odds - It Falls Apart.


Odds - Heterosexual Man. Any video featuring The Kids From The Hall is all right by me.


Odds - Truth Untold.


Odds - Under The Stars.

Interesting. Is this policy still in effect, or was it phased out at a certain point? I feel like I remember it existing in the early to mid 00s, around the same time that Canadian bands absolutely dominated the indie scene, so I wonder how or when it changed from johnny-come-lately to promoting innovation.

CanCon is still in effect. Those Canadian bands that dominated the indie scene for a bit were all signed to Canadian record deals. That whole indie scene was just Canadian bands trying to be REM, at least that’s my understanding of it.

I think there’s something culturally that hinders Canadian bands from making it in the US. Lyrically it just never seems to click. The Tragically Hip had a four album run that should have made them near PJ size. Instead, I’d see them play the Showbox In Seattle to about 500 Canadians and another 200 Americans.

Some of that cultural differences, I think leads Canada to be really good producers. Outsized performance for our size; David Foster, Bruce Fairburn, Bob Rock, Daniel Lanois.