She & Him’s Volume 2 makes a slight departure from 2008’s Volume 1. Actress Zooey Deschanel and singer-songwriter M. Ward’s second album is full of Beach Boys-inspired harmonies and twangy California guitar, maintaining the duo’s penchant for a retro sound.

Montreal-based Plants and Animals’ newest release La La Land is a fun, upbeat record that showcases why the band has been gaining recognition in the indie music scene for a few years now. Their first full-length album, Parc Avenue, was nominated for two JUNO awards in 2009 and was short-listed for the Polaris Music Prize in 2008.

In 1980, when Dr. Hy Goldman first brought Boston’s Klezmer Conservatory Band to Montreal, not many people believed that the near-forgotten musical tradition of Klezmer could be revived. Roughly defined as the music of Eastern European Jewry, Klezmer had all but disappeared after the Second World War.

Björk and Sigur Rós may have put Iceland on the musical map. But Seabear – the seven-person collective that just released their sophomore album and made their North American debut at South by Southwest – have proved themselves to be the most promising new Icelandic indie export.

After their EP In Streetlight Communion was nominated for a Canadian Folk Music Award in 2007, it’s no wonder that The Fugitives’ first full-length album Eccentrically We Love pushes the boundaries once again with their storytelling and instrumental fusing talents.

Members of the music community are positing Montreal as the next Seattle or Greenwich Village. While Toronto is well known for its festivals lined with big-name artists, such as the Virgin Music Festival, which hosted both Gnarles Barkley and The Strokes this year, the sounds that are challenging and changing the face of North America’s oversaturated music industry are being produced in our own backyard.

Even though he died 36 years ago yesterday, his music is among the most timeless and influential ever produced. Jimi Hendrix arguably changed the electric guitar sound more than any other guitarist in history. He was the guitar player who brought deft use of overdrive, feedback and the wah pedal to the masses and following in the footsteps of Eric Clapton’s days with Cream and John Mayayll’s Bluesbreakers, was among the first to swear by the Marshall Stack (amplifier) to give him one of the loudest, most blistering guitar sounds to accompany his legendary playing technique.