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By Kika Jonsson

I was lucky enough to spend a few days in beautiful Calgary, Alberta (in Canada) recently, and I thought, "Hey, since I'm in a new place, why not check out the local music scene?" So, in the midst of really cold weather (I can't be precise they give the temperatures in weird Celsius degrees), I trudged around downtown Calgary and scoped the independent record shops.

Before I continue, let me say that when people make fun of the Canadian accent, they aren't exaggerating. They really say "aye?" and "fer sure" before and after everything. I don't know what it's all about.

Anyway, some of the music I previewed seemed like your basic folk-rock stuff, from the girl-with-a-guitar standards to the depressed four-piece boy band. To my surprise, I discovered a burgeoning local punk scene, too. Some of Canadian punk's best labels are based out of this wannabe wild west town that holds a stampede every year. Who would have thought? Some of these labels include Hourglass Records, Triple Threat Records and Mr. T Records (no relation to the band of a similar name). The labels carry ska, punk and hardcore type bands.

So there is better music to come out of Canada than Brian Adams and Celine Dion. Talking with the locals, it seems that most hardcore and punk is based out of Toronto and Vancouver. If you are interested in supporting our big neighbors up north, then check out 23ways2sayNothing (skatecore from Calgary), Acrid (straightedge hardcore from Ontario) and Smak (true punk from Edmonton). A big name in the Canadian punk scene is the 20-year band SNFU, now on California's own Epitaph records.

I hope this opens your wee eyes to the wonderful world of music coming out of the same place that gave us Dudley Do-Right and Tom Greene.

Kika can't wait to get back to the old US of A to spend real American dollars.