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ROCKthusiast’s Canadian Songs That ROCKED 2018

That was quite the past 12 months, wasn’t it? I gotta admit, there were days I didn’t think any of us would make the finish line line at year’s end, what with Captain Bananas down south tweeting on the toilet every day, his unintelligible diarrhea bound to trigger someone to the point of World War III. This isn’t a reality show we want to compete in, Donald.

The guy running the show up here hasn’t done much in the way of resisting; Gord Downie’s “buddy” Justin Trudeau seems to be losing his lustre with liberal-leaning Canadians – Ontario elected Doug freaking Ford as premier in a nightmare I’m still hoping to wake up from. Things are so bad now politically, a Scotiabank Arena full of neo-Nazis voted Faith Goldy for Toronto mayor. Yeesh. The closest we got to a protest anthem was Arkells’ “People’s Champ”, directly squarely at the orangey turd to help the band break into the States before Trump considers installing beautiful steel slats along the 49th Parallel. Or Dwayne Johnson maybe, the band never said for sure.

Even that funky banger was supplanted by Canadian rock/alternative topper “Relentless”, which I figured I had to include on my list of domestically-cultivated songs. And there were some great ones to take our collective minds off all the problems going on and…well, just rock out. Nothing wrong with that, right? There were comebacks courtesy of veterans ranging from one coast (Sloan) to the other (54-40). There were also surprises by artists I barely knew before this year, namely cleopatrick as well as Whale and the Wolf. The only criteria I really held to was that everything had to be released in 2018, so singles from albums that came out last year were excluded. So tracks on Black Pistol Fire’s Deadbeat Graffiti or The Beaches’ Late Show weren’t eligible in my books, but the latter girl group did drop the catchy as all get-out “Fascination” 😉

Look for more #GetAnEarful playlists from me in 2019!

Gilles LeBlanc

Gilles LeBlanc literally fell into “alternative rock” wayyy back at Lollapalooza 1992, where he got caught in his first mosh pit watching some band named Pearl Jam. Since then, he’s spent the better part of his life looking for music to match the liberating rush he felt that day, with a particular chest-beating emphasis on stuff coming out of his native Canada. It took him awhile, but Gilles now writes feverishly about all things that rock (and or roll) through his ROCKthusiast alter ego.

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2 thoughts on “ROCKthusiast’s Canadian Songs That ROCKED 2018

  • Doesn’t work for Google Play!

    Reply
    • Hi Becky, try “I Don’t Know” to Play With. Glad you want to listen!

      Reply

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