Canadian Music Week (CMW) bills itself as 1000 bands in over 60 venues across the city — that’s a lot to navigate for even the savviest Toronto concertgoer. The festival often gets overlooked in light of big summer music events like NXNE and the Toronto Urban Roots Festival, but its merit lies in the sheer number of bands it showcases every year. While headliners of the festival like Ellie Goulding, The 1975, and M.I.A offer great shows, being able to go into almost any venue in the city any night of the week and possibly discover someone new before they make it in the industry is thrilling in itself. If you’re willing to wade through the countless CMW venues, you can find some of the best up-and-coming talent in every genre imaginable.

The Varsity culled the many offerings of last week’s CMW to come up with our favourite acts to watch this year.

Maylee Todd
Pop
If you like: Dragonette, Kimbra
Listen to: Baby’s Got It

Torontonian Maylee Todd has been around the city’s music scene for years now, first as part of bands like Henri Fabegré and The Adorables and The Bicycles, and presently as a solo artist since 2010. To label her music as “pop” is somewhat of a misnomer, as her work spans from indie rock to soul to bossa nova. She held down the first slot at Horseshoe Tavern Thursday night and was a raucous ball of energy from start to finish, engaging the audience in a “sexy soul train” and enlisting the help of back-up dancers for her crowd-pleasers “I Can’t Stand It” and “Baby’s Got It.” Todd is notable both for her music and her performances, which are always high-energy joy trips. If you like her sound through headphones, take the time to note the next time she’ll be playing in her hometown — her shows are not to be missed.

CON VOS
Indie-pop/hip-hop
If you like: Passion Pit, Capital Cities
Listen to: Central Park

CON VOS opened a show at the Drake Underground on Wednesday, and they weren’t what most of the crowd was there to see — but that doesn’t mean that they weren’t one of the best shows of the night. New Zealand pop music duo Broods were headlining the show, but newly formed CON VOS held their own, hyping up the crowd with songs from their debut EP Cocoon Bloom. The band is one part Irish folk and one part Brooklyn-based with musician Sorcha Richardson and duo Fortunate Ones. While independently the artists have produced great music, their collaboration results in a totally new sound, one that combines Richardson’s sweet vocals with quick raps and smooth, 80’s-style production. The result is different in the best possible way — fresh, interesting, and extremely listenable.

The Airplane Boys
Hip-hop
If you like: Frank Ocean, Kendrick Lamar
Listen to: Young Kings

Mannie Seranilla and Jason Drakes (Beck Motley and Bon Voyage onstage, respectively) are a hip-hop duo hailing from Scarborough. They were part of Thursday’s HUSTLEGRL showcase at Tattoo and had by far some of the most dedicated fans in the crowd. Their brand of hip-hop spans pop, electro, and jazz, and their mixtapes Where’ve You Been, Alignment, and Brave New World have been generating them a lot of well-deserved buzz. If you want a reason to take them seriously, they’ve recently toured with Snoop Dogg and played the stages of festivals like Coachella and Osheaga. As far as Toronto-grown rappers go, they’re some of the best, and, from the looks of things, have a big future ahead of them.

Yellerkin
Indie rock
If you like: Vampire Weekend, Crystal Castles, Ra Ra Riot
Listen to: Solar Laws

Yellerkin is the work of friends and Brooklynites Adrian Galvin and Luca Buccellati. They played the Dakota Tavern on Tuesday night to a crowd that had either heard the buzz about the band, or who had no idea what to expect — but everyone left wanting more. Yellerkin’s music plays with the trademark sounds of many other indie rock bands — falsetto vocals and strumming guitars — but their music is also undeniably uplifting and immediately appealing. Their debut self-titled EP makes for the perfect springtime soundtrack, and it’s no easy task to listen to it just once.