Hearts on Fire: Six Years that Changed Canadian Music 2000-2005

by Michael Barclay Narrated by Michael Barclay

Overview

Hearts on Fire is about the creative explosion in Canadian music of the early 2000s, which captured the world's attention in entirely new ways. The Canadian wave didn't just sweep over one genre or one city, it stretched from coast to coast, affecting large bands and solo performers, rock bands and DJs, and it connected to international scenes by capitalizing on new technology and old-school DIY methods.



Arcade Fire, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Feist, Tegan and Sara, Alexisonfire: those were just the tip of the iceberg. This is also the story of hippie chicks, turntablists, poetic punks, absurdist pranksters, queer orchestras, obtuse wordsmiths, electronic psychedelic jazz, power-pop supergroups, sexually bold electro queens, cowboys who used to play speed metal, garage rock evangelists, classically trained solo violinists, and the hip-hop scene that preceded Drake. This is Canada like it had never sounded before. This is the Canada that soundtracked the dawn of a new century.



Featuring more than 100 exclusive interviews and two decades of research, Hearts on Fire is the music book every Canadian music fan will want on their shelf.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Hearts on Fire is a love letter to a seminal time in our country’s collective music history sometimes forgotten. At nearly 600 pages, ample space is devoted to revealing the rich sonic landscapes these artists created and painting a vivid picture of their divergent paths to success.” — Toronto Star

“This book is catnip for me. There is no Arkells if not for so many of the artists chronicled here. I was a teenager when I started going to clubs to see all of these acts, and it informed so much of the way I think about being in a band. This era of Canadian music is revered in my mind, so it is amazing to have the curtain pulled back to reveal the goals, temperaments, and egos of my heroes. A must-read for anyone who wants to celebrate the golden age of Canadian indie rock music.” — Max Kerman, Arkells

“A thorough and intriguing history made no less appealing by its length. For pop music historians and fans, particularly of Canadian bands from 2000 to 2005, whether they know it or not.” — Library Journal

“Sets out the when, why, how and magnitude of the change, with reams of granular details and an eye for practicalities.” — Maclean’s

“Hearts on Fire is an ambitious project from an accomplished journalist, a wellspring of anecdotes and testimony wrought from more than 100 exclusive interviews and two decades of research … While Hearts on Fire spends a portion of its vast length looking at industry trends, the majority is made up of seventeen thematic chapters, each of which displays the research and scope of a master’s thesis, but with better storytelling … This is a bible: an extensive catalogue of who worked in which bar, who slept on whose shabby couch, or which chance encounter ultimately resulted in a generational classic … a time capsule of optimism and creativity, and a reminder of what’s possible.” — Literary Review of Canada

Library Journal

02/04/2022

To make it in Canada, so conventional wisdom went, you had to make it somewhere else first—especially if you were Canadian. Barclay (The Never-Ending Present: The Story of Gord Downie and the Tragically Hip) chronicles how, in the early 2000s, a wave of bands from Montreal, Toronto, and other cities across Canada put paid to that notion, though their fans in the United States, Europe, and elsewhere might not have initially realized that they were Canadian. His recounting of this remarkable explosion of creativity makes for a weighty tome indeed, his profiles of 40-plus artists taking up more than 600 pages. Bands such as Tegan and Sara, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Broken Social Scene, and Arcade Fire benefited from both the pre-monetized infancy of digital music sharing and what turned out to be the last gasp of commercial physical music distribution; the book concludes on a somewhat uncertain note, as escalating costs (rent not least among them) and declining album sales made pursuing a music career an increasingly uncertain enterprise even before COVID took out the live concert industry at the knees. What emerges from Barclay's narrative is five years of capturing lightning in a bottle that yielded some of the most remarkable music of the early 21st century. VERDICT A thorough and intriguing history made no less appealing by its length. For pop music historians and fans, particularly of Canadian bands from 2000 to 2005, whether they know it or not.—Genevieve Williams

Product Details

BN ID:	2940175389679
Publisher:	Tantor Audio
Publication date:	06/28/2022
Edition description:	Unabridged

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