NEW VIDEO : Broken Social Scene - "Meet Me In The Basement"

Toronto-based Broken Social Scene has released a video highlighting the myriad of global issues and conundrums that are wrapped up in a meeting such as the G20 in Toronto, including objectification of men and women, right to protest and assembly, poverty, weapons proliferation, responsible governance and the culture of oil. With so many questions unanswered and packed up in just under 4 minutes, it's an apt portrayal of the overwhelming barrage of things our generation faces, and the reason why so many disparate groups were present in civil protests in Toronto during the weekend of the G20.

Polaris Music Prize 2010 Long List!

Congratulations to all the long list nominees, including many earbuds & ticket stubs favourites! Please note, my picks all got in, so I'm quite pleased.

At this point, the jury will now take this list and vote again to come up with the Short List, which will be announced July 6 from the Sky Yard of the Drake Hotel in Toronto live on Sirius 86 and CBC Radio 3.

If you don't know what the Polaris Music Prize is, take a read through the official rules here. But really, why would you be reading this blog if you didn't?

Let's give you a second to browse through the selections below. Then a tiny bit of commentating.

Apollo Ghosts - Mount Benson
Bahamas - Pink Strat
The Besnard Lakes - The Besnard Lakes Are The Roaring Night
Blue Rodeo - The Things We Left Behind
Brasstronaut - Mt. Chimaera
Broken Social Scene - Forgiveness Rock Record
Basia Bulat - Heart Of My Own
By Divine Right - Mutant Message
Caribou - Swim
Jason Collett - Rat A Tat Tat
Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles (II)
Amelia Curran - Hunter, Hunter
Fred Fortin - Plastrer La Lune
Frog Eyes - Paul’s Tomb: A Triumph
Hannah Georgas - This Is Good
Ghostkeeper - Ghostkeeper
Holy Fuck - Latin
Karkwa - Les Chemins De Verre
LeE HARVeY OsMOND - A Quiet Evil
Greg MacPherson - Mr. Invitation
Dan Mangan - Nice, Nice, Very Nice
Misteur Valaire - Golden Bombay
The New Pornographers - Together
Owen Pallett - Heartland
Plants And Animals - La La Land
Radio Radio - Belmundo Regal
Justin Rutledge - The Early Widows
The Sadies - Darker Circles
Shad - TSOL
Elizabeth Shepherd - Heavy Falls The Night
The Slew - 100%
Meaghan Smith - The Cricket’s Orchestra
South Rakkas Crew - The Stimulus Package
Tegan And Sara - Sainthood
The Wooden Sky - If I Don’t Come Home You’ll Know I’m Gone
Hawksley Workman - Meat
You Say Party! We Say Die! - XXXX
Young Galaxy - Invisible Republic
Yukon Blonde - Yukon Blonde
Zeus - Say Us

Some preliminary comments based on recurring concerns raised regarding the Polaris picks:
Gender split: There are 14 female artists/bands which contain female members out of 40. This number goes down to about 10 if you only count female fronted bands.
Language split: 4 francophone artists out of 40.
Regional split: 10 BC/Albertan artists out of 40.
Album um... experience (?) split: 8 out of 40 are debut full-length albums.

What do you think about the long list?

Polaris Music Prize 2010 - announcements and guesses!

Here are the details on this year's Polaris Music Prize:

The Long List of 40 titles will be announced June 17th. The Short List of 10 nominees will be announced on July 6th.

Both lists will be revealed live at events to be held at the Drake Hotel in Toronto.

The winner will be revealed Monday, September 20th at the Polaris gala and exclusively broadcast live to North America on SIRIUS Satellite Radio Channel 86 and to the world on CBC Radio 3.

The event will be at at CTV’s Concert Hall studios at Toronto’s Masonic Temple and will feature live performances by this year’s short list nominees. It will be broadcast on MuchMusic, Saturday, Sept. 25th at 9 p.m. and midnight ET.

The Long List and Short List are determined by an independent jury of over 200 music journalists, broadcasters and music bloggers from across Canada. Eleven people are selected from the larger jury pool to serve on the Grand Jury. The grand jury will convene the night of the 20th during the gala to select the 2010 Polaris Music Prize winner.

The Polaris Music Prize awards $20,000 to the artist who creates the Canadian Album of the Year. It is judged solely on artistic merit, without consideration of genre or record sales. Past winners have been Final Fantasy [now known as Owen Pallett] for He Poos Clouds (2006), Patrick Watson for Close To Paradise (2007), Caribou for Andorra (2008) and Fucked Up for The Chemistry of Common Life last year.

The eligibility period for the 2010 Polaris Music Prize runs from June 1, 2009 to May 31, 2010.

And now, here are my picks for this year's long and short lists. After my last year's picks ended up being quite accurate considering the newness of my in-depth music exploration, I thought I'd throw my hat in the ring to make predictions again after a year's worth of increased understanding of the Canadian music scene!
[Ed. Disagree? Want to change my mind? You can always email me and make your case. brendahlee [at] gmail.com]

Likely short-listers:

Jason Collett - Rat A Tat Tat
Collett's latest showcases the story telling quality in his songs, the tight compositions, the near-flawless pop anthems he crafts about love and love lost ("Love Is A Chain," "Love Is A Dirty Word") and his sexy drawl of a voice. Although with a unabashed 70's influence, the album never feels like a derivative of times past but a morphing of the best of those elements to capture a contemporary audience.

Zeus' debut album brings to full light what those of us who had their EP and had seen their live shows have known for months, that these guys are phenomenal. There's not a single weak track on the album, and the talent is evenly distributed between the 4 members, with 3 songwriters and vocalists with distinct styles. The album flows from one track to another, from feel-good sing-alongs to fuzzed out guitar rock, with a unity which you rarely encounter in a debut album. Their cohesion and energy as a live band, as well as their skill in harnessing that bubbling, youthful creativity also swing the vote in their favour.

For all the close ties that the two bands have to one another, with members of Zeus being the backing band of Collett, I loved both of their albums for distinct reasons. However, I realistically don't think BOTH of them will be short-listed, simply because of that connection named above. And I can't imagine either of them winning, because their sounds are too nostalgic for an award that tends to reward innovation.

You Say Party! We Say Die! - XXXX
My favourite album from 2009 that's not already been nominated for a Polaris. I gave it a glowing review upon first listen and it's only grown on me over time. Their sound is polished, the raw animal that they are on stage purrs through the album and occasionally lets out a snarl. Producer Howard Redekopp deserves a lot of credit for being able to capture the energy of the album. And what is that energy? It's not only physical, but emotional and spiritual, as evidenced by a band who had undergone "Dark Days" and redeemed them for something greater. Which makes the recent death of drummer Devon Clifford all the more devastating. All in all, a mature, confident album that snuck up on me and turned me into a rabid fan.

Broken Social Scene - Forgiveness Rock Record.
I've listened through it countless times since receiving it just under a week ago in my email inbox; it has literally been on repeat, on the stereo in the shower, in my iPod during my commutes, and on iTunes when working on my laptop. Some of the songs are immediately intimate, and some are immediately catchy. Knowing the complexity of BSS' compositions, I can only expect them to unfold further over time. Members new (Lisa Lobsinger) and old (Emily Haines) shone on their respective songs "All to All" and "Sentimental X's." Call it the debut of BSS v.2, the pared down, leaner and meaner Toronto indie machine. Only time will tell if it'll reach the revered status of You Forgot It in People, but I would tentatively say yes. Some people believe that the extreme expectations from being the band that released one of the greatest albums in Canadian indie will hurt the perception of the latest album, but I haven't yet seen that backlash. Probably because the album is incredible.


Likely long-listers:

Rose Cousins - The Send Off
Cousins' latest is haunting yet soothing. An album that grabs you by the heartstrings. Rose Cousins' voice is like a pristine lake. Second half of album falters somewhat in energy and intensity...

Amy Millan - Masters of the Burial
Smoky, dark, lustful... the mood is right. The voice is heavenly. Being part of Stars helps, but there are many artists doing similar things.

Aidan Knight - Versicolour
There's the suggestion of greatness in Knight's debut LP, which is about the length of an EP. Hints of Broken Social Scene can be heard in opening and stand-out track "The Sun," which has the O'Darling on subtle group harmonies in the background. However, Not all tracks are equally strong, and it doesn't take too many weak songs to sink an 8 track album (pretty much just 7 as "Sorrows" is more of an intro).


Dan Mangan - Nice, Nice, Very Nice
I woke up in the middle of the night with a fit of shakes for forgetting the bearded bard of Vancouver. A comment from Kirk also helped. His latest is strong, propelled by the cohesiveness of his band, the earthy growl of his voice and his immense touring and consequent popularity across Canada. However, I can't overlook the relative weakness of his album compared to his live show, which has not harnessed the explosive strength that I mentioned above adequately. But, he has a great chance of making it onto even the short list.


Hannah Georgas - This Is Good
There's a lot of positive buzz surrounding Georgas prior to the release of her debut, with prominent ad placements and heavy touring. Her album is surprising in its variety, easily accessible and relatable, but perhaps too much so to be seriously considered by the jurors.

We Are the City - In A Quiet World
This (very) young prog/rock/pop group's debut (a lot of debut albums on my list...) is very cohesive, flows naturally, shows lyrical depth beyond their years and intelligent composition. Their live show demonstrates the chemistry of the band and how in sync they are with one another's musical tendencies. However, I doubt WATC is well known beyond BC, lessening the chance of them garnering enough votes to get on the long-list, which is a shame.

The Balconies - S/T
Imagine U2's sound in their early days, with the bright sparkling guitar riffs but more polished and skilled. Funny thing is, this trio has the reverse handicap of not being known very well outside central Canada. I doubt that's as devastating as not being known within central Canada, but I suppose we'll see.


Bahamas - Pink Strat
His solo debut apart from supporting artists such as Feist and Jason Collett shows that it's possible to serenade and seduce an audience with solely his guitar prowess. His live shows demonstrate that he's got amazing stagemanship to boot. Is that enough to get him on the long-list?


Thrush Hermit box set
... hey, Leonard Cohen did it ;)


Likely short- and long-listers that I can't vouch for:
These are all albums that either have received great critical reception although I may not have had the opportunity to purchase/review it, or are hotly anticipated releases from previously Polaris nominated artists.

Basia Bulat - Heart of My Own
Caribou - Swim
Owen Pallett - Heartland
New Pornographers - Together
Woodpigeon - Die Stadt Muzikanten
Holy Fuck - Latin (May 11)
Wintersleep - New Inheritors (May 18)
Shad - TSOL (May 25)

Who are YOUR picks for Polaris, short- or long- list? Who did I miss?

OPINION : Music and Politics

I recently received an email from someone who was looking for my opinion regarding the questions below:

Do you think music today is more or less political than it was in the past?
How do you think musicians approach politics?
What musicians in the Canadian [indie] scene are the most political?
Do you find yourself addressing political issues in your blog?
Do you find that politics and music tend to go in hand in hand, or can there be music without politics?
Modern-day music is very youth-centric; do you find that this generation seems to be more nihilistic?

She asked a lot of questions, so she'll get a long answer! What do you think about the relationship between music and politics? How would you answer the questions above?

Here's what I replied:

I think it depends on what you define as political. In terms of opinions regarding who's in government, many musicians express their displeasure with current governments. For example, many artists, both BC-based and not, spoke up against the recent drastic cuts to arts funding by the BC Liberals. Many artists are vocally against the federal Conservative government because of Stephen Harper and several of his ministers' views on everything from their stances on same-sex marriages, to military presence abroad, to the seal hunt. It's not limited to Canadian politics either; Arcade Fire were open supporters of Obama during his presidential run, playing shows for his volunteers during the elections. So many artists were outspoken during the various American issues, such as California's Prop 8, the health care reform debate, and so on. Vancouver's Geoff Berner recorded a song, released free on his website, that was his Olympic anthem, which protested having the games due to mainly the homeless population and poverty in the downtown east side.

However, if you define political beyond the traditional sense of government, you'll find that almost every musician has a pet cause or platform that they're passionate about. For example, Tegan and Sara are big proponents for gender and queer issues, Broken Social Scene are fundraising for street youth, and Metric for prevention of trafficking of women. Arcade Fire were among the first to broach the devastation of the Haitian earthquakes, and Jason Collett is married to a social worker. It goes on and on and on, from the environment to poverty to preservation of arts and culture in a specific city. With such an emotional impact, many of these themes necessarily come across in their art.

As for how they approach and support their respective causes/platforms, many play shows with a certain percentage going toward specific charities/causes. For example, War Child Canada, a charity which specifically aims to protect children in war zones, has done a fantastic job in collaborating with artists in their Busking For Change series in major Canadian cities. The Vancouver edition happened back in January I believe, and artists such as Said the Whale, Elias, We Are the City and many more busked downtown to fundraise for War Child. Artists such as Jeremy Fisher have openly spoken about War Child and had volunteers soliciting donations at shows. Many artists also play fundraisers for local venues, organizations and causes, and many would note the importance of preserving a local culture.

Artists also speak out for/against things during interviews and shows. The media love controversy, and many of their opinions are often magnified when spoken to media sources. Many also keep personal blogs and websites to express their opinions about current issues. For example, a member of hardcore band Fucked Up recently wrote a thoughtful piece on the commercialization of popular music festival South by South West (SxSW) [ed. note: I still think the piece is legit even with the April Fools prank]. You'll find that when a band is successful, especially if their success is partially based off of insight in their music, people will seek out their opinion on issues.

Music has always been a form of protest and questioning. That's a core part of its power, and why bands such as Rage Against the Machine speak to people way beyond their prime years. The power of art is to move... whether to action or to contemplation. In that sense, I think music, being a form of communication with immense emotional power, is political. Even if it's not overtly so. For example, successful Quebec bands such as Malajube choose to sing in French rather than English although it would probably help them expand their audience. So music the art form, combined with music's culture (the identities music lovers adopt, the general ideological tendencies, being counter culture to some sort of norm) as well as musicians' personal choices all have political implications.

I occasionally write opinion pieces outside of reviews, but not often. I was critical of the funding cuts to arts and culture by the provincial government last year and blogged about it, but mainly that kind of stuff I save for Twitter or Facebook. I contribute also to a crowd-sourced Canadian music blog named North by East West (NxEW.ca) and there are definitely opinionated people on there. A discussion can spring up about everything from equal representation of music from all parts of Canada (one of the reason for the blog's genesis) to whether you have to be hot to rock. CBC Radio 3's Lisa Christiansen does an incredible blog series called Extended Play which explores a lot of issues surrounding music which include politics.

I don't see as much youth-centrism in independent music as I do in mainstream music. Usually, bands have to really build up a base over time in order to have a solid presence in the indie scene. The most successful examples, such as Sam Roberts, Feist, Metric, Joel Plaskett, Broken Social Scene, Arcade Fire... generally are in their 30-40s. Most of them had played in bands since their early 20s (if not earlier), in many different bands, and moved numerous times before they had a solid fan base/got greater exposure like from an iPod commercial. That's not to say that there's not a lot of young indie bands that are successful, but an overnight teen sensation is unlikely to happen in the indie scene because there's not a dominant force pushing a specific band to be "hot" and get radio play and advertisement deals the way that happens in mainstream music.

I don't think it's the youth-centrism which contributes to our culture's nihilism. I think our pervasive doubt of authority, which is related to the postmodern rejection of a dominant world view, is something that we've been taught for a long time. How often have we been told to question every source in school by doing more research and doubt everything? So no, I don't think this current music culture is any more nihilistic. Our central authorities have been teaching us nihilism in the form of scientific skepticism for a while... isn't that ironic?

BC Arts & Culture Cuts Visualized

I have a strong love-hate relationship with political discussions, but some matters are too important for me to sit quietly on the sidelines. One of those issues is the recent BC budget with dramatic cuts to Arts and Culture, which will affect the operating budgets of the Vancouver Folk Music Festival, to name just one example.

My personal love and opinion aside (which admittedly, is impossible), the arts in BC has a positive return on investment. Those employed in the arts sector also receive lower wages when measured against comparable positions in other sectors. Thus, Arts and Culture has more bang for the buck. This has been shown in even provincial governmental studies.

Why the current government would disregard its own research is beyond me, but their counter-intuitive, short-sighted monetary decisions will leave long-lasting damages on the BC arts scene, as well as on the budgets to come. Some of the results include cancellation of programs, lay-offs (as our economy is just beginning to recover from a recession), and the relocation and brain drain of artistic talent elsewhere as living in BC becomes unsustainable for their craft. The effects will spill over into our tourism and hospitality sector, once the boost from the Olympics subsides.

Now onto why I created this post: I wanted to share the excellent visualizations that Jeremy Thorp has created, which demonstrate the drastic cuts made to Arts and Culture. What really struck me was how steep the cuts are comparative to other sectors, knowing its benefit to the BC economy. He has also written a thoughtful piece to go along with his statistical gems; I highly recommend you take a read through it.

(Click on image to enlarge)

When the 114 expenditures are arranged to display gain (in blue) or loss (in red), the picture becomes even more clear (here, bars represent percentage loss or gain). With a loss of more than 80%, Arts & Culture suffers the second worst cuts – with the worst being another Arts & Culture-related line item!

Compared to other business areas with similar budgets, this decline is particularly drastic. For example, Asia Pacific Trade & Investment falls only 26% (from 16.179M to 11.593M) and Small Business, Research & Competitiveness falls only 21% (from 21.966M to 17.263M). ...

Once again, Thorp has more accessible and understandable graphs on his entry "BC Budget Visualizations – DIY Transparency & Local Government." Take a look, and realize just how disproportionately high the cuts are to Arts and Culture, a business sector that is thriving, profitable and contributes greatly to the general welfare of BC citizens.

If you feel as strongly about these cuts as I do (heck, even if you don't), please do read up more on the provincial budget and other pieces related to the Arts and Culture cuts. I didn't cite all my sources, but there are many. And make sure you're heard:

Gordon Campbell
premier@gov.bc.ca
(250) 387-1715

Kevin Kreuger
TCA.Minister@gov.bc.ca
(250) 953-4246

Spirituality/Faith, Indie Cred & Musical Influence

Last night, myself, a couple of fellow CBC Radio 3 listeners and host Grant Lawrence were chatting about various aspects of broadcasting life. The topic then came upon the segment Grant did Thursday, featuring songs from You Say Party! We Say Die!'s latest album XXXX, as well as interviews with various members of the band. Grant mentioned how YSPWSD were on a long hiatus, and during that time, lead singer Becky Ninkovic had found God (cringe nose here, uncomfortable chuckles all around table). He went on to say that during the interview, Becky was saying things like, "God is love," "God is divine," and various things that made both her band mate and Grant extremely uncomfortable and awkward and oh-no-make-her-stop.

In Canada, the kind of spirituality that's hip and appropriate for public chit-chat involve yoga and taking long walks thinking about your life. Or the derisive smirk and nod when someone from the American political far-right says something extremely stupid and stamps it with God™. CBC, especially Radio 3, has an unspoken (or maybe spoken) mandate as a public-private institution to be neutral to matters of religion and faith, and since there are no neutral stances in matters of spirituality, adopts a secular viewpoint. We touched up on all these points during our conversation, and while I pointed out that the (generally left-wing) indie arts community and Christian faith, in this case, are not mutually exclusive, we agreed that it is uncommon to hear an open endorsement of God in Canadian independent music.

Grant opined that YSPWSD stand to possibly lose a good chunk of their "indie cred," and there are several possible reasons for this. He reasoned that their demographic does not want to hear about God. That may be partially true, but we must consider that the percentage of our youth/young adults who are agnostic are quite high. I think that by identifying with an organized religion (as in, not the yoga-practicing, self-actualizing kind of "I am my own god" God), there are some easy heuristics/labels that people attach to an artist:
1. conservative (i.e. not edgy, not original, no new ideas, not inclusive-- big Canadian no-no)
2. brainwashed (i.e. not free-thinking, tricked/stupid, not speaking from own p.o.v., "will try to convert them")
3. ... just not cool. Rock stars are supposed to be happily, wildly and excessively pagan until they're old and worry about what happens after they die.
And thus, their music will be bland. and inoffensive. and about how Jesus wants to hug everyone. and generally not worth listening to anymore.

However, as I listen to some of my favourite artists, I hear their perception of the beauty of God, I tremble from the questions of anger and tears and longing, and I feel the inspiration of something greater than their own volition. Frankly, I couldn't listen to music if I didn't sense these things. In fact, one of the reasons I started listening to independent music was because of the lack of genuine doubt, joy and professions of faith that mainstream music on the whole (including contemporary Christian rock) offers. Joel Plaskett's Non-Believer, Two Hour Traffic's Sing A Little Hymn, anything by K'naan... to just scratch the surface, can challenge my own faith and at once enliven it more than many sermons I've sat through.

This is not a call for artists to identify themselves (WHICH GOD ARE YOU SINGING FOR?!) but rather a open query: why are we so uncomfortable discussing about the Divine as a common source of inspiration that's so central to so many artists' lives? Can we still be moved by a song whose source of inspiration make us awkward/conflicted/angry/apathetic? Will we label an artist as not worth listening to any further because of whom they profess to love?

(...there goes my indie cred, right?)