The Rickaneers are guitarist and vocalist Jesse and drummer Doug Brown and have been gaining attention for their unmistakable sound which blends garage, blues rock and grunge.

Based in Toronto, they formed in 2012 and released their first self-titled Ep in 2013. "Heartbreaker" was the first single and most requested song off that EP. The Rickaneers have gone on to release a second EP "Ghost Town" in 2014 as well as a live album "The Horseshoe Bootleg" in 2015. With comparisons to The Stooges, White Stripes and QOTSA it's clear The Rickaneers have gained a reputation for being one of Toronto's best up-and-coming indie rock acts.

The studio version of 'Heartbreaker' can be heard during 'The 6ix Rock' airing daily at 6pm EST.

Veil Unknown is an alternative metal group from the Toronto area, their explosive high energy sets a standard, gaining reputation as a "must see live act" that demands maximum crowd participation.

June 2015, Veil Unknown entered the Studio at Verge Music Labs with producer Devon Lougheed (Smashing Satellites) to record their debut album " Life Starts Right Now". The album was released on October 30 2015. Inspired by all genres of music, crafting songs together that tell a story. The album can be noted for its hard hitting riffs, up beat tempo and catchy melodies that keep the listener engaged and singing along. The lead single "Life Starts Now" challenges the listener to seek their dreams and follow through.

You can hear Veil Unknown daily on The 6ix airing daily at 6pm EST and Rock'd airing at 7pm EST.

Mississauga-native SYPH and Brampton's Tory Lanez make a strong case for the greater Toronto area in the new video for "Pull Up," a slick, swaggy track off SYPH's debut project Rookie of The Year.

Posted up in the middle of a dark street with the CN Tower glowing behind them, they flash their the nice cars, nice looking girls, and nice clothes. "'Pull Up' is meant to give a feel-good vibe for anyone thats out here trying to make big things happen for themselves." - thefader.com

Matt Zaddy is the kind of songwriter you feel you have known your whole life. His honest and personal lyrics recall the best and worst times, and how we move forward to be the people we are today. His debut release, the Perfect Moments EP showcases his personal journey of rediscovery through music.

When asked what we can expect on the album, Matt explained, “This record is 5 very different songs that tell a similar tale: where I’ve been, where I’m going, and the road along the way. I think it’s something we can all relate to.” The Perfect Moments EP is due out in November 2015 and features a blend of folk, rhythm and blues, and pop rock. The story telling nature of Matt’s writing really makes you feel like you were there for the journey.

Stay tuned for Matt performing across Ontario in support of this release, along with a series of original and cover videos to be released in the coming months.

Matt Zaddy is no stranger to hard work in the music industry. Having cut his teeth in the Canadian music scene in the mid 2000’s as the band leader for progressive metal act Starring Janet Leigh, also known as SJL (Ironclad Recordings/Metal Blade Records), he has toured Canada and the US extensively and in support of 3 EPS and 1 full length record. Following his work with Starring Janet Leigh, Matt took some time to really reflect on where he wished to go musically after working relentlessly with SJL for 10 years. “I took the time to really think about where I wanted to go musically, and all these songs just started flowing out of me. It turns out that my acoustic guitar and I were like old friends getting reacquainted, sharing the good times and the bad.” Best described as a mix of folk, rhythm & blues, and pop rock, Matt’s music recalls tales on the road, the trial of being an independent musician, and finding purpose in life. He began performing regularly in the GTA as a solo artist, performing originals and covers. “I wanted to get back out there and really experience where I wanted to go, and the only way to do that was to try anything and everything.”

Matt’s efforts paid off as a host of a series of open mic/jam nights in the GTA, which attract hundreds of people each week. Working closely with the local independent music community and the Arts Council in his home town of Mississauga, Matt built a reputation as an innovative songwriter and performer, and is regarded as one of the hardest working musicians in his home town.

To quote his lyrics, “The Road I’ve traveled on is long and hard and worth it, because I’m still here with you tonight.”

Over the next month Jamsterdam Radio will be featuring artists performing at this years London Ska Fest on December 5th. Our first feature are no stranger to Jamsterdam Radio.

Adam's Mind is the most exciting new ska band to hit the Toronto music scene in recent years. Combining their love of classic ska with a relentless drive to bring ska roaring back into the 21st century, Adam's Mind will rock you with vibes from two tone to punk and back.

Since the band’s inception in 2012, Adam’s Mind has shared the stage with acts including: Reel Big Fish, Less Than Jake, Big D And The Kids Table, Mustard Plug, The Planet Smashers, The Creepshow, The Resignators, Chris Murray, The Salads and many more.

Adam’s Mind recorded a demo with Ska producer Mitch Girio (King Apperatus) in 2013. The two singles “Broken Heart Pending” and “Bad Guy” can be heard on many college and internet radio stations including Jamsterdam Radio. Adam’s Mind is excited to be recording their 13 track all-original debut album, Eat Money, which will be released in 2015.

A passionate alternative rock band from Toronto, Canada. Parasona works to share their creativity with the world with powerful guitar, big drums and unique vocals that will provoke you to feel again.

Parasona's debut single "FALL DOWN" produced by Arnold Lanni (Our Lady Peace, Simple Plan, Finger Eleven) is now available. Accepted to The Artist Entrepreneur program, Canadian music/ management label Coalition Music helped progress the band immensely. That's where they performed in front of renown producer Arnold Lanni. Arnold took a keen liking to Adam's unique voice and the pair started working right away on their debut single "Fall Down". Parasona recently traveled down to California where the single was recorded. Working together with Arnold Lanni, Parasona’s song writing and overall vision has evolved. A great song has to resonate and connect with a listener and make the listener feel ‘something’. That is what Parasona strives for in their instrumentals and especially in the unique vocals.

'Fall Down' can be heard during The New Music Show daily at 8am/8pm and on 'The 6ix' at 6pm daily.

Toronto rapper King Kredible has bursted out on to the Toronto rap scene. The recording artist, director and photographer has recently dropped his video for 'Real Talk'. Currently with 66.5K followers on twitter his following is growing quickly.

'Real Talk' is soon to be nominated for the Jamsterdam Track of the Month so be sure to come back and place your vote. 'Real Talk' currently sits at #5 on the Jamsterdam Top 10 and can be heard nightly during Rap By Night airing from 9pm EST.

Alternative rock powerhouse and Toronto native VENN (a.k.a. Nneka Atto) is an artist of many faces. Her eclectic music style, brought to life by her captivating contralto vocals fuses rock with elements from pop, experimental, folk, and electronica to create a distinct, unforgettable sound.

"We all experience many storms in life, sailing through blissful highs then crashing into devastating lows. These storms can be terrifying, some may even cause you to lose hope and give up, entirely. 'Aquaheart' is about those people who stand by you and help you "weather the storm". These are the people who give you strength; urge you to keep going; and provide you with safe shelter. A much-needed anchor."

AHI is an undeniable talent whose timeless Indie Soul sound has carried him over 20,000 miles, armed with nothing but an acoustic guitar and a voice described as “gravel on silk”. Along the way, AHI has recorded with leading acoustic sessions Ont’ Sofa (London), Hauskonzerte (Munich), Cardinal Sessions (Koln), Southern Souls (Toronto), SOFAR Sounds (Nashville), Rockstone Sessions (Netherlands) and more.

Here in Canada, AHI’s Indie Soul EP made CBC Radio One’s Top 10 Toronto Records of 2014, alongside stellar releases from Cold Specks and The Wilderness of Manitoba, and continues to see local and nationwide airplay. AHI managed to reach many more when his rendition of ‘No Woman No Cry’ appeared among celebrity covers on the official BobMarley.com website and social media networks, earning him thousands of new fans, hundreds of thousands of views, and a personalized note of congratulations from Mrs. Rita Marley herself, all in less than 24 hours – an unparalleled experience for an artist who cites Bob Marley as his greatest musical inspiration. So far, 2015 has seen AHI perform in Nashville, Saskatchewan, the Netherlands and the UK; and his talent has been recognized and awarded by the Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI) as One To Watch, F.A.C.T.O.R., SOCAN Foundation, and the Canada Council for the Arts. Upon his return to Toronto, AHI will begin a 3-month mentorship program with award-winning songwriter Royal Wood, courtesy of CIMA, SiriusXM Canada and OMDC.

No matter where his journey takes him, AHI’s undeniable gift continues to turn heads and capture hearts.

With a Steven Martin-esque brand of humour, and the cadence and delivery reminiscent of an early Lupe Fiasco, 22 year old rapper Myer Clarity is hard to forget and easy to remember. Fully nourished off his steady diet of 90's hip-hop and indie punk rock bands, the Montreal native turned Toronto transplant, released his 4th self produced official album B.Y.O.B. in July 2015.

  As an only child constantly shifting back and forth between divorced parents, Clarity is certainly no stranger to contrast. He’s been known to don chains, baggy pants and at one point even a green Mohawk all while belting out his signature double time delivery over self produced gut rumbling instrumentation. This contrast being even more evident from his, “charming, goofy and seemingly effortless” stage presence, as stated by the Montreal Mirror, paired with his ability to, “pull off intense flows while packing ridiculous punch-lines,” as suggested by online blog Elementaly. 

  Ten years under his belt perfecting his craft has led Myer Clarity to seeing out the release of countless EP’s, albums and mixtapes, as well as records with various underground heroes such as Mac Lethal, Moka Only, and D.O of Art of Fresh. His stage presence, relentlessly polished from well over 300 performances, has led him to share the stage with a wide array of artists such as Yelawolf, Hoodie Allen, T Millz, Sean Price, Kid Koala, Snak the Ripper, D12, Cage, Philly Moves, and Relic to name a few. His 2012 video "Meet Me @ The Park" currently boasts +27K views and rising, not to mention, he's performed at renowned festivals such as Osheaga and POP Montreal.

  Despite interest from various indie labels, and industry veterans alike, Clarity has remained true to his independent roots and chose to continue to grow his fan base organically from the ground up. If anything, it is quite clear that the future is bright for the burgeoning talent that is Myer Clarity.

The Pick Brothers Band have been generating buzz in their hometown of Toronto since their early shows in Kensington Market, and since the independent release of their debut album, Pink Lemonade, in the fall of 2013, they’ve been touring steadily throughout Canada. Their familiar yet strange blend of high energy rocking with introspective creativity has garnered them opening spots for the likes of The Sam Roberts Band, The Arkells, Houndmouth and The Bright Light Social Hour, plus a song placement (Hey Sugar!) on an internationally syndicated episode of MTV’s Degrassi.

The Pick Brothers Band are currently finishing up their second album, which they will release and tour extensively in the fall of 2015.

Wolf J McFarlane, born Jesse McFarlane is a Canadian multi-disciplinary music artist extraordinaire. Successfully graduating from one of Canada’s most talked about youth-led, urban arts organizations, The Remix Project, McFarlane is widely known for his clever, outside the box, and contemporary artistic expressions.
He can be easily placed amongst the list of elite new school artists who have taken over the music world by skillfully engaging their target audience via every available medium at their disposal. With his venture into a solo music career in 2008, Wolf quickly climbed the music charts to become a household name and a Toronto staple in the alternative hip hop and R&b music scene.

Toronto-based rapper Flex The Antihero may be best known as being one half of T Dot twosome The Antiheroes (Modern Day Riot, This Is FreeDUMB). But this year, Flex is pushing his boundaries and going it alone with his debut solo LP SALEM, a 12 track passion project that marks an evolution for the rising artist.

Growing up in suburban Ajax, Ontario—where music was the link to a world beyond the mundane—Flex is an aficionado of almost all musical genres. With influences ranging from Nine Inch Nails, to Rage Against the Machine, to Kanye, his philosophy is to indulge in diverse offerings, never closing the door on potential sources of inspiration. With such eclectic taste and little adversity to risk, there's no telling which direction Flex will go in next.

Its been an exciting summer to be a Blue Jays fan in Toronto. Check out the video montage of every single Blue Jays home run in 2015 through August 26th to the tune of God's Gonna Cut You Down by Johnny Cash.

Dream Jefferson is an electro-hip-hop duo hailing from Toronto, ON. Consisting of vocalist Owel Five and vocalist-producer Corboe, Dream Jefferson has released 3 critically acclaimed EPs. Their first full length album 32X pulsates with their unique blend of lo-fi electronic dance beats and battle rap swagger; songs of love, lust and loss made to pack a dance floor. The album features regular collaborators Ian Strasbourg and Tovah Fine but also enlists the help of Paul Saulnier of PS I Love You and up-and-coming Toronto-based vocalist Kira May. 32X is available for download on Bandcamp.

Toronto rockers We Outspoken fresh off of their South American tour drop their latest release “Anything for you".

According to the band: "This song is very special to us as we recorded it at Estudio Superfuzz in Rio de Janeiro. Gabriel Zander & Gabriel Arbex of the band Zander mixed and produced “Anything for you”. We spent over 12 hours in the studio and recorded this song in one day. We had so much fun working together!"

"We want to thank Gabriel Arbex & Gabriel Zander for their friendship, time and big hearts! We love these guys and can’t thank them enough for giving us this amazing experience of recording on the other side of the world! You see we aren’t the biggest band in the world, but we have worked with some of the hardest working people in the music industry, some of which you may never hear of. Our point is that we have met a ton of people on our travels but nothing compares to the trust and loyalty that our friends have given us while playing in their country. We never feel far from home. You make us feel so important. That is what “Anything for you” is about: companionship, adventure, and the power of team work. We rely constantly on the local support and promoters to make the shows on our tours absolutely amazing. We cannot tour or play without any of you. For any band and promoter that has helped us on our travels and continues to work with us we thank you."

“Anything for you” will appear on their new record titled, 'All The Right Pieces', that was recently recorded at Metal Works Studios with producers Joel Kazmi and Blair Robb. The track can be heard during The New Music Show, airing daily at 8am and 8pm EST.

The ongoing feud continues between Philly rapper Meek Mill and Toronto rapper Drake. The feud began when Meek called out Drake for not writing his own lyrics, these initial shots fired were a response to Drake not retweeting Meeks new album on Twitter. Other possible reasons are surfacing for why Meek would attack the Toronto rap God including a personal plug to build up hype for the release of his new album and a build up of bitterness because Drake used to date his now fiance Nicki Minaj. For the full backstory check out "Meek Mill Plugs New Album Disses Drake".

A day after Meeks allegations, Drake responded with "Charged Up". A track which Meek responded to with "baby lotion soft"

Meek remained silent for days following the track and retaliated with a 15 second clip of him screaming into a mic.

Drake responded back again dropping yet another Meek diss track titled "Back To Back" with a photo of Joe Carter's 1993 World Series winning home-run versus the Philadelphia Phillies (Meeks hometown) to cap off back to back baseball championships. Drake throws a mean punch at Meek in this one:

You love her, then you gotta give the world to her
Is that a world tour or your girl's tour?
I know that you gotta be a thug for her
This ain't what she meant when she told you to open up more
Yeah, trigger fingers turn to twitter fingers
You gettin' bodied by a singin' nigga

Meek Mills just so happened to be in Toronto the night Drake dropped "Back to Back". Meek was in Toronto on Nicki Minaj's world tour and came out on stage 90 minutes late to a slew of boos. Meek was apparently late due to custom issues at the border.

"Back to Back" brings forth the aggression and hits some soft spots on the Philadelphia rapper which may have Meek running back to Philly with his tail between his legs.;

Toronto, Ontario Canada natives DaniXO are currently in the Jamsterdam top 10 with their track titled "Circles". The singer/songwriter Danielle Doucette says the inspiration is drawn from the 70's and 80's with the vocal of the 90's creating candy for your ears.

Check out their transcending video for single "Faster".

Currently moving on up the Jamsterdam charts is Belle Ayre, an indie rock band from Toronto, Canada. Formed in 2012, the band consists of Kathryn Lucas (lead vocals/guitar/keys), Will Marr (guitar/vocals), Fred Merritt-Gambrill (bass/vocals) and Morgan Doctor (drums/vocals).

Their self-titled EP was released in the spring of 2013. The band promoted their EP by playing shows around Toronto and making television appearances on Rogers Daytime TV and The Being Frank Show (Omni). They are currently writing songs for their follow up EP.

Tune in for the Jamsterdam Radio top 10 daily at 10am and midnight to catch Belle Ayre creeping up the charts.

Hey readers!

  I haven't been to Kensington Market a while, and used to have a blast going digging for vintage when I was
younger, so my sister and I decided to drop in yesterday to check it out.  I couldn't believe the lack of good quality customer service in a lot of those shops!  No "Hi", no smiles, nothing.  Just cold, snobby employees in almost every store we went into.

  We were starving and wanted pizza, so the first pizza place we saw was on College Street, called Planet Pizza.  The first guy greeted us with a smile, but that was probably because it was his first day on the job (dude, if you're reading this: please don't lose that great attitude), but then when I asked where the bathroom is, he pointed it out, then the older guy who was sitting in a chair by the cash register chimed in and said "It's out of order", while giving me this dirty look.  Then I asked where the nearest bathroom was, I had to ask him 3 times before he suggested the 711 somewhere nearby (when he could have suggested maybe Second Cup across the street). Rude.  The pizza had old-looking pepperoni, the slices were a decent size though (like a quarter of a pizza sliced into 3), and the dipping sauces were not refrigerated, so that must have been what got me sick later in the day.  I don't even recall being asked if I wanted a drink, nor was I pointed in the direction of where the drinks were.  If it weren't for the new guy being so nice, I'd rate the customer service and overall experience a negative 3 out of 10.  Horrible.

This car was awesome.

  I've walked into shops where staff members would be doing stuff on their smart phones, rather than being attentive to customers walking in.  I've been to this one huge shop called Exile (that happens to have the best selection of vintage that I've probably ever seen in that part of the city) where one of the older, blonde women who worked at the back of the store was on her cell phone complaining about how she's stuck at work, while gossiping- call me crazy, but something about that screams unprofessional.  The staff at the cash register were nice though.

  Other cashiers in smaller shops would just stare at you like a corn child and not say a word, so I would step in, feel uncomfortable, then walk over to the next shop.  It's bad enough the shops are tiny and a nightmare to claustrophobes like me, but if I actually got a warm welcome, maybe I would have toughed it out to scour the racks and shelves of vintage gems.

  This one shop called Courage My Love, that has a reputation of housing unique beads (a jewelry maker's dream), as well as vintage threads, had a few girls working there: two of which were just sitting behind the counter talking to each other, not even paying attention to the customers.

  I have no complaints about the cheese shop, the Army Surplus, the shop with all the Indian rugs/belly dance
costumes/decorations, the former Hotbox Cafe (now it's a coffee place), or Roach-O-Rama (where the new Hotbox Cafe is located behind).  I'd say we skipped maybe 5 stores in Kensington.  The art work you see while walking around on the streets is awesome, as usual.

  After all that, we headed to Queen Street and had better experiences there.

  So, people who work in Kensington: why so stuck up and miserable?  Is this just Kensington, or is this a city-people-working-in-retail thing?  I get it:  it's not glamorous working in a small, stuffy space that smells musty.  Some stores (the non-vintage shops) smelled like 10 dogs urinated on a carpet.  Regardless, it's not like you're any better than the people who go there to buy old, used (yet, awesome and cool) crap, but are also the reasons why you have a job in the first place!   If you don't like to deal with people, don't get a job that requires you to deal with people!!  If you've got enough balls to act like you're too good for the place you work in, then quit if that's the case.  Customers don't need to feel your shitty energy while trying to enjoy a day of shopping.

  I remember a while back there was news of Kensington Market being shut down and replaced with a WalMart... shouldn't there be more happy people working there, or are all these staff members just a bunch of trust-fund babies who took on a retail job to make it look like they're actually useful to society?  If that's the case, these snobs should do us all a favor and maybe give up their jobs to people who will actually make the customers feel welcome.

  Either way, I am glad Kensington Market is still up and active, but proper customer service, and general friendliness needs to me taught, apparently.

@JerZGrlinCanada