One of the most important bands to emerge from the mid-‘70s New York punk scene, Television was founded on the double-guitar attack of leader Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd. But where most guitarists of the time specialized in extended jam snooze-fests, Verlaine and Lloyd pioneered an angular, yet tuneful, style largely stripped of blues references and heavily indebted to the garage rock of the ‘60s. Television was the first band to play regularly at CBGBs, and its success encouraged the club to book other unknown acts like Patti Smith, The Ramones, Blondie and Talking Heads.

Fake newsman Stephen Colbert’s favorite band The Apples in Stereo are back after a hiatus of nearly five years with all creative guns blazing. Led by songwriter Rob Schneider (co-founder of the Elephant 6 collective that included ‘90s low-fi stars Neutral Milk Hotel), The Apples specialize in a sunny power pop that owes as much to Sonic Youth as it does The Beach Boys. Their new album, New Magnetic Wonder, is their most intricate and ambitious yet.

One of the city’s most groundbreaking new bands, Dragons Of Zynth combine punk, dub, funk, soul and heavy metal in a way so fresh it’s been given its own name: Afrotek. Critics have described the group’s live shows as “insane” and “bonkers,” though the band itself prefers to call them “audio-physio-psychic” experiences. Said performances have attracted a number of well-placed fans, including fellow sonic explorers TV On The Radio, who helped produce the Dragons’ debut album Coronation Thieves.

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Idan Raichel is an Israeli keyboardist and composer whose love of Gypsy music and tango was profoundly impacted by his exposure to Israel’s Ethiopian population. With The Idan Raichel Project, he not only merges the Ethiopian and European music traditions, he brings in influences from all over the Mediterranean and North Africa. Featuring Ethiopian, Yemenite Jew and Arab musicians, the group is an established success in Israel. The Idan Raichel Project’s albums only started seeing American release last year, but have already made a big impression on the world music circuit.

African-born, New York City-based DJ Kadafi spins the most engaging and challenging sounds from West Africa. The house DJ at the Bronx’s Zoodoo Nightclub, he was named the best Africa DJ in NYC by Delaroca productions. His first album is scheduled for release this summer.

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Headlining our annual celebration of Canadian music is Halifax, Nova Scotia’s own Sloan. Four guys obsessed with the Beatles and ‘70s glam rock, Sloan hit big in their native Canada during the early ‘90s with concise and melodic power pop. But it wasn’t until 1996’s One Chord To Another that they “broke” in America. Last year’s critically-acclaimed Never Hear The End Of It plays like the second side of The Beatles’ Abbey Road: 30 songs—some less than a minute long—that blend into each other to form a kind of epic rock ‘n roll suite.

Canada Day wouldn’t be Canada Day without at least one connection to Broken Social Scene, the Toronto-based indie-rock collective. This year, the connection comes from Apostle Of Hustle. Inspired by a two-month-long trip to Cuba, BSS lead guitarist Andrew Whiteman founded Apostle as a means of exploring his new found love for Spanish music, particularly the Cuban guitar, or tres. The band’s sophomore album, National Anthem Of Nowhere, marries electric guitar experimentation to flamenco strumming and Afro-Cuban beats. In March of this year, Spin magazine said that “Whiteman recombines mambo, Americana, and mesmerizing BSS-style rock with infectiously rambling results.”

Though they ended up losing to The Dixie Chicks, The Duhks’ recent Grammy® nomination for “Best Country Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal” was a sweet victory for the five-piece from Winnipeg. Neo-folkies with a decidedly contemporary bent, the young members of The Duhks combine gospel, folk, samba, Celtic, zydeco and country string band sounds into a kind of joyful Western hemispheric bop.

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