Nomeansno

Nomeansno (sometimes stylized as NoMeansNo or spelled No Means No) is a Canadian punk rock band originally from Victoria, British Columbia and now located in Vancouver.

The band has never had, nor have they seemed to pursue, strong mainstream success, but they do have a devoted underground following in North America and Europe. They tour fairly often on both continents and maintain a dedicated fan base.

History

The band was formed in 1979 by brothers Rob Wright (bass guitar, vocals, and occasionally guitar) and John Wright (drums, keyboards and vocals). Their name derives from an anti-date rape slogan. For their first four years the duo's music would seem to be influenced as much by jazz and progressive rock as punk rock. The musical press described their earliest recordings as "Devo on a jazz trip, Motörhead after art school, or Wire on psychotic steroids." Nomeansno have been credited with being an influence on, and perhaps even the genesis of, math rock.

The brothers Wright began playing and recording as a two-piece in their parents' basement in 1978. They became the rhythm section for the local covers band Castle, but were inspired to play punk rock after seeing D.O.A. perform at the University of Victoria in early 1979. These recordings, heard on their first two self-released 7"s, consisted of full rock band arrangements and had a new wave, warped-pop sound, different from subsequent recordings. When, in the early 1980s, the duo began gigging simply with bass, drums and vocals, the present form of their distinct sound slowly took shape. The songs they played in this period are documented on the Mama LP (re-released in 2004 on their own Wrong Records).

Western Canadian Music Awards

The Western Canadian Music Awards (WCMAs) are an annual awards event for music in the western portion of Canada. The awards are provided by the Western Canada Music Alliance, which consists of six member music industry organizations from British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Yukon, and The Northwest Territories. The Western Canadian Music Awards presentation gala takes place on the final evening of the Breakout West music conference & festival, which takes place in a different Western Canadian city each year.

The 2015 WCMAs (and Breakout West) will be taking place in Victoria in September.

History

The Western Canadian Music Awards originated in its current form in 2003. Prior to that the Prairie Music Alliance (formed in May 1999) hosted award events at the "Prairie Music Week", while BC and Yukon held their own music awards known as the "West Coast Music Awards". The earliest incarnation of the Awards was the "All Indie Weekend" festivals held in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba from 1995 through 1999.

Music of Canada

The music of Canada has reflected the diverse influences that have shaped the country.Aboriginals, the Irish, British, and the French have all made unique contributions to the musical heritage of Canada. The music has subsequently been heavily influenced by American culture because of its proximity and migration between the two countries. Since French explorer Samuel de Champlain arrived in 1605 and established the first permanent Canadian settlements at Port Royal and Quebec City in 1608, the country has produced its own composers, musicians and ensembles.

Canada's music industry is the sixth largest in the world producing many internationally renowned artists. Canada has developed a music infrastructure, that includes church halls, chamber halls, conservatories, academies, performing arts centres, record companies, radio stations, television music video channels. Canada's music broadcasting is regulated by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). The Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences administers Canada's music industry awards, the Juno Awards, which commenced in 1970.

Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin

The Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin (WCSB) is a vast sedimentary basin underlying 1,400,000 square kilometres (540,000 sq mi) of Western Canada including southwestern Manitoba, southern Saskatchewan, Alberta, northeastern British Columbia and the southwest corner of the Northwest Territories. It consists of a massive wedge of sedimentary rock extending from the Rocky Mountains in the west to the Canadian Shield in the east. This wedge is about 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) thick under the Rocky Mountains, but thins to zero at its eastern margins. The WCSB contains one of the world's largest reserves of petroleum and natural gas and supplies much of the North American market, producing more than 16,000,000,000 cubic feet (450,000,000 m³) per day of gas in 2000. It also has huge reserves of coal. Of the provinces and territories within the WCSB, Alberta has most of the oil and gas reserves and almost all of the oil sands.

Conventional oil

The WCSB is considered a mature area for exploration of petroleum and recent development has tended toward natural gas and oil sands rather than conventional oil. In the WCSB, conventional oil is of two different types: light crude oil and heavy crude oil, each with different costs, prices, and development strategies. Conventional light oil is a mature industry with most of the recoverable oil reserves already produced and production declining by three to four percent per year. Conventional heavy oil is also past its production peak with a future of long-term decline. Alberta, which contains most of the reserves, expects its light-medium crude oil production to decline by 42% from 2006 to 2016, while it expects heavy crude production to decrease by 35% over the same period. However, it also expects bitumen and synthetic crude oil from oil sands will considerably more than offset the decline in conventional crude oil and account for 87% of Alberta oil production by 2016.