A compilation album being released this month promises to unite 30 bands from the past 30 years of NWT music history.
The Sounds of Northcore is set to be released on January 23, said Tyler WhiteKeyes, who described painstakingly piecing together the collection.
The album, which will be available physically or digitally via Bandcamp, focuses on punk and hardcore bands from Yellowknife and the NWT over the period 1995-2025.
“I’ve always been heavily influenced by the bands that came before me,” said WhiteKeyes, whose own band Partycrasher is holding its own album release show this month.
Where once old bands’ music was available through the likes of MySpace, WhiteKeyes became concerned that by the 2020s, that music was “digitally disappearing” and being erased from history as a result.
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He vowed to “do some digging and put something together so the Yellowknife underground music scene will not be forgotten.” That ranged from rummaging through thrift store CD collections to emailing dozens of contacts asking for copies of old songs.
“Fortunately, there were a lot of tracks that we were able to recover,” he said.
The compilation’s physical release will take place during Partycrasher’s own album release show at Yellowknife’s Elks Lodge on Friday, January 23.
That show will feature Partycrasher, Edmonton band A New Rhetoric and Yellowknife punk act YKFI. Tickets are $30 in advance or $35 at the door.
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WhiteKeyes was the organizer of Steadily Deadly Fest, a Yellowknife punk, metal and alternative music festival held last May.
He said there won’t be a follow-up this May but he hopes to return to the format – or something similar.
“There is probably a dream every day about doing a Steadily Deadly Fest round two,” WhiteKeyes told Cabin Radio.
“We are exploring future options for other ways to bring in bands from out of town. I’m not saying we’ll never go back to it, but we’re just going to explore some new options.
“I would consider Steadily Deadly Fest a pilot project, a bit of an experiment to see what someone can do. We are working on something for the fall of 2026. We’re hoping to bring in another big band, so stay tuned.”
