From the purple city of Jared Majeski:

Edmonton feels alone up north. Our geography, our isolation and our resources help shape us; there is an enduring adventurousness in the things created here. The pockets where society and expression percolate do so out of passion, fun and above all: survival.

So what is this place that’s a bit too far north for many touring bands to come to? Edmonton is a small town. Edmonton is part work camp, a subtly aware and modern haven burgeoning; a youthful city eager to grow. The imminent changes (good or bad) from an ever-fracturing future help incubate energy and inspiration.

Before the arrival of explorers and immigration, the Edmonton area was home to tribes of Cree, Dene, Nakota Sioux, Saulteaux, Blackfoot and Metis people. In the early 1900s Alberta’s economy, and inevitably its future, changed from respecting the land to resource extraction and influence-peddling from all corners of the globe. Our role as a confused world player in the oil game has thickened people’s skin, for good and bad.

Along with the intended structures and tangible places that facilitate creative endeavour, inspiration penetrates through the intangible: seasons, geography and rural sensibilities. Our summers are fleeting and busy; our winters long and eerily comfortable, and more than you know were raised in small towns off secondary highways. Our public art and our distinctive architecture sheen metallic and utilitarian.

Thanks in part to the irreplaceable CJSR, and our remaining arts weekly, people soon find out there’s an impressive genre-span in Edmonton. Delightfully opposite to the deep suburban “contributors”, bands in town get ‘er done at home, while the performance and pageantry bears out within intimate dwellings and in the Great Whyte Schlubbery.

Because Edmonton is geographically sheltered from many (most) major centres, there’s an incubatorial element to this city. Artists and bands try anything they want, and if and when it catches on beyond Lloydminster, those that make their name beyond Alberta tend to relocate to larger places. There is money and opportunity for many; and dim prospects for the same. What manifests itself is creativity that’s honest, supportive and grounded: working class. The winds of change are beginning to blow all around the province, and people here take what they know and what they love and just do their thing.



Tee-Tahs – A Cups



Betrayers – Do You Smoke?



Jom Comyn – Cool Room



Rhythm of Cruelty – Nothing’s Left



Renny Wilson – Clean



Zebra Pusle – Seventh Wav

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