CBC Radio 3 (Curator)

Hailing from the geographical centre of the nation comes Winnipeg's Demetra Penner with I Am Written off of Lone Migration.

With the help of Andrew Braun from Rococode, Matt Peters of Royal Canoe and Paul Bergman, Demetra takes her experiences as a globe wandering troubadour and distills them with inspiration from her native Manitoba.

I am Written is a haunting and weighty track that somehow manages to encompass a vastness of emotion beyond her sweet and delicate voice.

Like many talented Canadian musicians, Ben Wilkins made the trek from his home and native land, in this case Ontario, to find inspiration in Montreal. Now the piano pop crooner plinks his way onto Radio 3 with Through to You.

Formally trained in music at McGill and with a sound that could probably be folded in with a certain keyboard-playing Ben from south of the 49th parallel, Ben Wilkins dons the role of piano man with ease.

Filled with tales of travel, trumpets and swelling strings, Through to You shows how Ben Wilkins finds 88 ways get through to listeners.

On December 24th, CBC Radio 3 will start broadcasting the 8 hour musical behemoth that is The R3-103 - Radio 3's countdown of the Top 103 songs of 2011.

But you don't have to wait to find out what those songs are.

Here are the Top 10 Songs of the Best Canadian indie music of 2011: Now go rock out!

• 1 - Arcade Fire - "Suburban War"
• 2 - Dan Mangan - "Rows of Houses"
• 3 - Austra - "Lose It"
• 4 - Chad VanGaalen - "Sara"
• 5 - Hey Rosetta! - "Yer Spring"
• 6 - Young Galaxy - "Peripheral Visionaries"
• 7 - Coeur de pirate - "Adieu"
• 8 - The Rural Alberta Advantage - "Stamp"
• 9 - Destroyer - "Poor in Love"
• 10 - Ohbijou - "Niagara"

I don't know about you, but I am so done with 2011. I've read the "best of" lists, I've seen the movies and listened to all the songs...now it's to time to look foward. And you know - 2012 is going to be the best year EVER.

So to get you ready for all the excitement, here at Radio 3 we've come up with a list of acts to look out for in 2012.  

Not only does Madonna have new music coming, but also Nicki Minaj, The Shins and John K. Samson.

So look into the future and think big. Who do you think is going to break out in the New Year?

Marine Dreams is the new project for former Attack in Black member Ian Kehoe and his new self-titled debut has been on constant repeat for me in my car. It's gritty-pretty on one hand, like a number of other releases on You've Changed Records, but Kehoe also has a really amazing knack for catchy pop and rock song dynamics; his choruses are clever and stay with you and his voice is deceptively dynamic and strong. "Season in Hell" perfectly exemplifies some of the great stuff you'll hear on Marine Dreams, though nothing else on the album quite reminds me of Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet like this song

Channeling their inner Bootsy Collins beats and Bee Gees vocals, Brasstronaut will challenge your preconceptions of their sound with their new EP. Sparse, jazzy and funky, Opportunity feels like it's going to break into a dance song at any moment. The fact that it doesn't, doesn't make it any less groovy.

Raymond Carver was a hard drinking American writer who, in his lucid moments, was capable of startling and beautiful insights into the human condition. In other words, if he had been born in the 90's, he probably would have started a band.

'If Raymond Carver Was Born In The 90's' takes Carver's point of view in just such a scenario, but it isn't hard to see that lyricist Michael Dawson is really examining the ups and downs of being in an indie band and watching your peers grow up and settle down around you. Heady stuff that, in true Library Voices style, is lightened by a bunch of bubbling synths and irresistible hooks. 

Dirty Beaches, AKA Montreal's Alex Zhang Hungtai, calls himself a crooner wild at heart. He makes music that sounds like the desert-baked, fever dream of a Las Vegas Elvis impersonator.

With "Lone Runner" it doesn't get much cooler than this. It's the kind of track that would fit in perfectly as part of a compilation of the creepiest scenes from Twin Peaks. Or as the soundtrack to a post-nuclear clam bake.

Turn it on and turn off the lights.

We finally know what Emm Gryner and Garfield have in common: They don't like Mondays. And neither do many of you, because Emm's song "Ciao Monday" is the Most Thumbed Up song on cbcradio3.com this week. We promise we will never talk about Garfield again.

Bands, like couples, break up all the time. But like Thurston and Kim, not all break-ups make the news…or more importantly leave people heartbroken.

But the demise of Toronto’s C’Mon had just that effect. “What? You’re leaving us…purveyors of all things rock and roll; torch bearers of a fine tradition of hitting the road and playing for the kids…”

More than anything, news that C’Mon was breaking up meant that Ian Blurton would be without a band. And for those who have come to appreciate the bearded indie rock pioneer – this was not good news. Not good at all.

But surprising, well – as it turns out – not so much when it’s all laid out.

In what is becoming a new tradition, Ian and his two bandmates: Katy Lynn Campbell and Dean Dallas Bentley – set out to write a resignation letter of sorts. Like the famed Toronto Whole Foods employee who laid out in detail all the reasons for his departure in an epic resignation letter to the entire company or the latest folk hero who a few days ago quit his hotel job by sending in a marching band and already has over 850,000 views on youtube.

You can listen to the band talk about their break up here on CBC Radio 3 but first check out some of their awesomeness below.