City and Colour

No one can accuse Dallas Green of launching a side project that's a pale imitation of his main gig. He's best known for handling rhythm-guitar duties in Alexisonfire, a band that delivers growling/frothing emo on recordings such as 2006's Crisis. In contrast, City and Colour is an acoustic outfit whose pair of 2008 releases — a full-length called Bring Me Your Love and an EP dubbed The MySpace Transmissions — turn the volume and the histrionics way down. For instance, "Against the Grain," from Transmissions, begins with the quiet wheeze of a harmonica and the sound of a guitar being caressed instead of strummed, and Green sings lines such as "You must follow your heart" in a soothing voice that wouldn't even be heard over Alexisonfire's between-song amplifier hum. Clearly, Green, whose combo opens for Tegan and Sara, understands that if he's not going to make music that differs from his other group's stuff, he might as well not bother.