Exclaim!

Punk is turning 50 this year, at least in some parts of the world — including Toronto. In 1976, the Ramones came to Toronto to play for two nights at the New Yorker Theatre (now known as the CAA Theatre, located at 651 Yonge Street). Those concerts are often cited as ground-zero events for the Toronto punk scene, inspiring bands like the Diodes, the Viletones, the B-Girls, the Curse (pictured above) and more to form shortly after.

Before helping to close out the final night of the St‑Roch XP at one of the outdoor stages along Quebec City's Rue St‑Joseph, Shunk played a short set for a select crowd in the impossibly tiny basement of festival organizer BLUEFEU's offices on Saturday (August 29). Packing about 30 people — plus one child — into a single, sweaty room allowed the Montreal quartet to push their confrontational shoegaze and weirdo energy into a setting that couldn't have been more intimate.

They'll play a lone Canadian show in Toronto this November Photo courtesy of Live Nation BY Karlie RogersPublished Aug 31, 2026 It is still 2019 apparently, because half•alive — the indie pop outfit, now duo, consisting of Josh Taylor and J. Tyler Johnson — released a new EP, Billions, last Friday (August 28), and now they've announced a North American tour taking place this fall. The small stint on the road will begin at the end of October in Atlanta, GA.

While Quebec City's long‑running St‑Roch XP festival is best known for spotlighting emerging Quebec artists, its late‑August takeover of streets, clubs, coffee shops and other offbeat spaces has also become a showcase for East Coast musicians, whether they're coming from Acadia or New York.

In its ninth year, St‑Roch XP turned Quebec City's Lower Town into a walkable performance space, with live sets running throughout the neighbourhood's streets, cafés, venues and even a grocery store. After playing two sets on Thursday (August 27) and lining up another for Friday night (August 28), Halifax emo quartet Customer Service helped open the second evening of the three‑day festival from one of its most beautiful spots: the front steps of the 100‑year‑old L'Église Saint‑Roch.

Say Anything's Max Bemis cancelled a tour after messages of his alleged interactions with a teenager were made public. Now, it looks like his forthcoming collaborative album with Wavves might be cancelled too. Cherry Soda, jointly credited to Wavves and Say Anything, was due to come out on September 18 via I Surrender Records.

Having just signed to Artist House for the release of their new single "Nowhere to Hide," Persian-Canadian alt-rockers Aemia have announced a couple of fall pop-up shows in Vancouver and Toronto. On October 4, the band will take the stage for a hometown gig at the Pearl in Vancouver with support from FKA Rayne and In Pieces. After travelling to the opposite coast, Aemia will play Lee's Palace in Toronto a few days later (October 8) with special guests In Pieces and Freeze the Fall.

A gulf as wide as the Tennessee River is long now separates Isaiah Rashad the recording artist from Isaiah Rashad the stage performer. In his recordings — which date back to 2014's brilliant (and still knocking) Cilvia Demo breakthrough and have soared, stuttered and matured to 2026's slow-burning IT'S BEEN AWFUL — the Chattanooga MC has mastered a casual cool. Downbeat and bluesy, the introspective rapper's syllables tumble like he and Jack Daniel's got a history.

Noah Kahan is incredibly and inexplicably huge right now, with the year's latest viral hit, Stella Lefty's "Boston," lifting from Kahan's "Stick Season." But comedian Nathan Fielder is here to put Kahan in his place and remind him that, no matter how popular he is, he's still not as big as the BC Lions. Kahan played Vancouver's BC place on Friday (August 28), and he shared a video message from Fielder on the screen.

BY Alex HudsonPublished Aug 31, 2026 7 Criticizing a remix album for being inconsistent feels a bit like criticizing the beach for being too sandy. Of course it's annoying when sand gets in your underwear, but honestly what did you expect? Such is the case for NEVER ENOUGH: VERSIONS, and Turnstile aren't even trying to hide it.