completelyignored

Ignored 41: Superchunkish

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A Google search doesn’t give any firm proof that Superchunk’s publishing company is (actually) called All the Songs Sound the Same. Aside from mention in a number of articles and blog posts.

Check the liner notes on your fave ‘hunk album. It’s legit.

Given drummer Jon Wurster’s penchant for comedy/theatre, it’s possible this could have just been a goof on fans and haters alike, and a reclaiming of the most common attack of the band’s loud, fast first 10 years. It’s a fair statement either way (at least for their first four full-lengths) but considering that collective tune was awesome, should we care if all the songs sound the same? Probably not.

Loosely related, Superchunk frontman and Merge Records co-founder Mac McCaughan recently guested on Marc Maron’s WTF podcast. He gave a fairly dense account of the past quarter century of his band and the slow, steady incline of Merge itself. Considering the label was initially just a vehicle for getting Superchunk records out (and even they bailed for their first three studio albums), Merge is most definitely “a big deal” in 2014, the home base for top sellers like the Arcade Fire and Spoon as well as the rights holder for the (slightly insane) uptick in Neutral Milk Hotel’s fandom.

Superchunk is still putting out albums on occasion, the most recent being last year’s well-received I Hate Music. New Superchunk songs haven’t really sounded like “that other Superchunk song” since 1997 or so. That year’s Indoor Living full-length added a ton of keyboards to the mix, seemingly in a conscious effort to mature their sound… or something. It was totally fine but personally, I miss “that other Superchunk song” that they allegedly repurposed over and over and over.

… and over.

Ironically, 1994’s full-length Foolish seemed like a conscious effort to mature as well, especially the lead-off, pseudo-title track “Like a Fool” that played at quarter speed and featured McCaughan cooing rather than customarily yelping.

A huge departure at the time but then, the band totally fell off the wagon with 1995’s Here’s Where the Strings Come In, an awesome album that had a loose geography/air travel theme and a minor, minor hit (“Hyper Enough”) that almost sounded like the band trying to set a purposeful counterweight to Foolish‘s off-speed stuff.

ANYWAY, if Superchunk supposedly wrote the exact same song several dozen times between 1989 and 1995, what should be considered the most Superchunkish Superchunk song?

To answer this important question, I took a sample of every Superchunk song that appeared on their first five full-length albums (Superchunk, No Pocky for Kitty, On the Mouth, Foolish, Here’s Where the Strings Come In) plus their first two singles/rarity compilations (Tossing Seeds: Singles 89-91, Incidental Music 91-95).

I omitted a few tracks, since they weren’t Superchunk originals:
– Chills, The sing “Night of Chill Blue”
– Flys, The sing “Night Creatures”
– Magnetic Fields, The sing “100,000 Fireflies”
– Motörhead sing “I’ll Be Your Sister”
– Sebadoh sings “Brand New Love”
– Sebadoh sings “It’s So Hard to Fall in Love”
– Shangri-Las, The sing “Train from Kansas City”
– Verlaines, The sing “Lying in State”

In the case of early singles “Slack Motherfucker”, “Seed Toss”, “My Noise”, “Cast Iron” and “Mower”, they all appeared as singles prior to appearing on full-lengths so I omitted the album versions since… I dunno, single versions tend to be cooler. I also axed the acoustic version of “Throwing Things”. Anecdotally, it’s quiet. It shouldn’t win.

Lastly, for the compilation tracks, I denoted the year the song was first released rather than the year the compilation was released. This worked out great with the exception of the previously unreleased “Makeout Bench” which was recorded way back in 1990 but didn’t surface until Incidental music dropped in 1995. Great track BTW!

So this leaves a sample of 75 songs. Of these songs, each song will be analyzed in four categories with each category given a 1.0 score is the tune ranks “most average”:
– Year of release (by year)
– Song length (in seconds)
– Song title (in words)
– Speed (in a subjective scale of 1 being “slow”, 2 being “kinda slow”, 3 being “average”, 4 being “kinda fast” and 5 being “fast”)

Think of it as a 4.0 GPA average crossed with rotisserie baseball. In short, this is massively nerdy.

Based on these rankings, the more Superchunkish Superchunk song would have these characteristics:
– Released in 1993
– 215 seconds long
– Two word song title
– Speed = fast

The closest match is this song…

Here is the Top 20 ranking of “Most Superchunkish Superchunk Songs” by this rating system. Enjoy!

Ignored 40: The Tom Petty assumption

Tom Petty just scored his first ever number one album on the Billboard charts.

Nobody listens to Tom Petty studio albums any more.

This is a cruel and (semi-)unusual thing to say about (A) an artist I like very much and (B) an artist who has sold more between 60 and 80 million albums (accordingly to a Google search of the “Tom Petty has sold” abstract). However, I have a hunch that this is more-or-less the truth.

Anecdotally, Tom Petty has two albums that standout in his back catalogue from a commercial perspective. This random website “has my back” on this claim: http://tsort.info/music/ajer5p.htm

The first is 1979’s Damn the Torpedoes. Popular music website Wikipedia says this album “built on the commercial success and critical acclaim of his two previous albums”. This is a fair comment. It featured the breakthrough single “Refugee” which itself featured a video of Petty wearing a denim jacket and rocking out (or trespassing) in a warehouse alongside the rest of the Heartbreakers. This stuff sold in pre-MTV America and one could suggest that Petty managed to perfectly straddle two distinct archetypes of the day: new wave dorkage such as the Cars and singer/songwriter dorkage such as Neil Young. I’m not saying he sounded like either/or but somehow, he managed to amalgamate rock and anti-rock in the late 1970s by being straight-forward. And yet, his music was completely commercial and he had interesting hair. These are only partial reasons why Damn the Torpedoes is important although at a scant nine tracks, it’s also very short.

1989’s Full Moon Fever is the second of two albums that “rise above” (in my mind) the rest of Petty’s discography. This is a Tom Petty solo album and Wikipedia makes another very astute observation: “The record shows Petty exploring his musical roots with nods to his influences”. I like how this comment is footnoted in Wikipedia; as if an editor is going to swoop in and refute it by suggesting that “Petty was actually resting on his laurels and potentially on cocaine when he wrote this piece of junk”. Anyway, the biggest hit on this album was “Free Fallin'” and that song featured a video with a memorable cast of characters including a snarling Robert Smith lookalike and assorted yuppie scum.

Fast forward to 1993 and MCA releases Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: Greatest Hits. Every music fan born between 1976 and 1982 seems to own this album (along with Portishead’s Dummy, Oasis’ (What’s the Story) Morning Glory and the Trainspotting OST, for what it’s worth). Greatest Hits has sold more than 10 million copies and to date, it is Petty’s top seller. Based on this hard fact, we can deduce that people love Tom Petty singles and (probably) love Tom Petty concerts but perhaps they’d prefer to focus on Tom Petty singles rather than Tom Petty studio albums.

There are other artists like this and you see LOTS of people owning their most prominent best-of albums. In this category, I’d place:
– The Eagles’ The Greatest Hits (1971-1975)
– Echo and the Bunnymen’s Songs to Learn and Sing
– Bob Marley’s Legend
– Morrissey’s Bona Drag
– New Order’s Substance
– Queen’s Classic Queen
– Steve Miller Band’s Greatest Hits (1974-1978)

Even if you never owned them and/or hated them, these are all albums and album covers you’d likely recognize if you’ve spent any time in record stores or enjoyed snooping around your friends’ CD collection while they were in the bathroom or outside smoking.

Anyway, it is my believe that Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ Greatest Hits cemented Petty as “a great singles artist” and while his subsequent full-lengths (either solo or with the Heartbreakers) have typically sold reasonably well, there tends not to be any sustained buzz or chatter about any of them beyond the year they were released.

So let’s talk about Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ Greatest Hits even more, OK?

I think Amazon user G. Chance captured the majesty of Greatest Hits perfectly in his comments about the cassette version of this album: “I have loved this CD for as long as I have owned it. It is missing some of his good songs, but overall it is a perfect set of his hits. This CD is a great way to introduce yourself to the magic that is Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.”

Well put, G. Chance! Although are you talking about cassettes or CDs? Please advise.

Greatest Hits runs 18 tracks and 65 minutes, which is kinda perfect. It’s long enough to make for a great listen while driving or working out. It’s also an unusually upbeat collection considering Petty has a ton of melancholy moments in his discography (and he “did” that style quite well). It also features the annoyingly-1990s trend of “exclusive bonus tracks!” which is has mercifully been rendered meaningless by the digital age. But still: “Mary Jane’s Last Dance” is still as awesome as it ever was and the Thunderclap Newman (who?!?) cover “Something in the Air” is totally fine.

Speaking of the digital age, can we use COMPUTERS to determine which of the 18 songs on Greatest Hits is legit “most popular”? Only one way to find out: see which track has the longest Wikipedia entry (obviously!)

Footnote: Wo (sic) has sold more albums: Tom Petty or Eminem? from Yahoo! Answers. Worth a read.

Ignored 39: A Canadian in Salford

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See this poster of the Smiths?

I had it on my wall as a teenager and a university student, at the height of my discovery-and-admiration phase with this band. I’m pretty sure that the Smiths are one of those outfits you’re supposed to grow out of but somehow, I never did and I never want to. I still enjoy them quite a bit and listen to them quite a bit, now well into my third decade of fandom.

I’m not sure Morrissey’s lyrics and Marr’s chirpy guitar licks “speak to me” (whatever that means)the way they did when I was 18. However, as the years past, my appreciation for the subtext of the Smiths’ music has grown. In their words and sounds, I now hear more humour, more bombast, more classicism and more appreciation for the way things were (and the way things aren’t).

Their debut full-length is more than 30 years old but the Smiths kinda nailed that timeliness that many bands aim for and very few achieve.

On a solo jaunt through the UK in late Spring of this year, I found myself in Manchester and through a small amount of Google research, I learned not only could you visit the Salford Lads’ Club itself, there was a room (shrine?) housed within dedicated to the Smiths and Morrissey.

That sounded just great. So I went.

A bit of geography. Exiting the Metrolink tram at the Exchange Quays stop for the 15 minute walk to the club, you’re close to two other Manchester landmarks that should be of interest to anyone else with Anglo-ish leanings. One is Old Trafford, home to the Manchester United football club. The other is the massive (and semi-new) Media City development which contains a mix of retail, theatres, museums, residential properties and most notably, a good chunk of the BBC’s present day operations (including the sound stage where Coronation Street is filmed). Both are worth exploring in their own right. But I digress…

The Salford Lads’ Club is tucked away in a fairly dense residential area that was, at one time, proper council flats and now, appears to moreso be a sleepy working class neighbourhood. After a few false turns, I finally came upon the Club which I should mention is also notable for its appearance in the tremendous bike-based video for the Smiths’ “Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One Before”.

The Lads’ Club is still very much a lads’ club, although there weren’t any lads mincing about upon my arrival. The opening foyer was full of present-day schedules for youth programs, rosters and various other artifacts from Manchester’s sporting past (with a large focus on soccer/football/futball and boxing). It’s a slightly bizarre juxtaposition considering you’d never really associate sports and the Smiths (with the exception of the decent Morrissey tune “Boxers”) so while the parallel is pretty incidental and purely based on some album artwork, a poster and a music video, visiting the club does give off an aura of Manchester past and present that is quite impactful on a few levels. At least for somebody who grew up in suburban Toronto.

Here are a few snapshots from my visit with a few descriptions for context and commentary.

The very understated name plate on the door frame. Kinda perfect.

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Note THAT SAME POSTER in the top left, alongside tons of press clippings, fan photos and some really old gym equipment. Again, nice contrast that kinda works somehow. I do wonder who could bench press more–Morrissey or Marr? Important question, there.

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Tons of Post-it notes from fans across the globe. And I mean, literally across the globe: Brazil, Peru, Mexico, China, Australia, Thailand, Russia, etc. All represented. I declined writing my own note. Seemed a bit too “grade school” but I’m happy other visitors took advantage. They were fun to read.

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Some transit geek replicated the Manchester tram and streetcar map with all the Smiths albums. A magnificently nerdy and wonderful effort. A better look at the map here. Loosely related, I enjoyed blogTO’s recent TTC/bar breakdown in the same vein. Good job.

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A cool and slightly creepy mosaic that used to reside downtown on the outside of the campy art/fashion haven Afflecks in downtown Manchester (worth visiting with low expectations BTW). It has now found a second home in the Smiths room (obviously) and the piece contains likenesses of various Manchester notables. Morrissey was front-and-centre and I was able to pick out Noel and Liam Gallagher (Oasis), Bez (the Happy Mondays), Bernard Sumner (Joy Division/New Order) and Ian Curtis (Joy Division). I checked in later on who everybody else was: Factory Records bawse Tony Wilson, writer/theorist Frederich Engels and footballer Denis Law. Blame the Morrissey message board if this isn’t accurate.

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A thank you postcard sent by Morrissey circa Boxing Day 1985, thanking photographer Stephen Wright (not Steven Wright) for the Smiths’ photo shoot at the club.

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After my tour, I was shown a selection of Smiths and Club keepsakes, all quite reasonably priced given the premium put on nostalgia these days. I went with the Salford Lads’ chocolate bar and the (not pictured) coffee mug which I now obnoxiously display on my office desk like the aging hipster I consider myself to be. It’s an attempt to stay relevant, I guess.

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Vanity shot of me outside the club. I wish I moved my backpack out of the frame.

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Thanks to Leslie and the staff at the Salford Lads’ Club for arranging my visit. Most appreciated.

Ignored 38: Same songs, new price

UK shoegaze outfit Slowdive play Toronto this fall. They last played our city 20 years ago and tickets this time around have increased in price by 168 per cent ($11 in 1994, $29.50 in 2014).

That’s perfectly fine and expected. Because in pure economic terms, nostalgia comes at a high price.

Whether your vice is music, sports memorabilia, out-of-print literature or visiting Europe (or whatever “the old country” means to you), people will pay a significant premium to purchase something NOW that makes them feel a tinge of something from THEN.

Still, some ~~jerks~~ music fans like to get all uppity when a band like Slowdive reunites and their ticket prices skyrocket. The thing is, when you think of it in terms of simple supply and demand, why wouldn’t these prices spike?!? In 1994, the audience for Slowdive was mop-haired guys and girls who didn’t talk much plus assorted wannabe Anglophiles. In 2014, the audience is two additional decades worth of that type of music fan…. plus the entire original audience itself (except for those who died or moved to Courtice in the years since).

Demand goes up. Supply stays, more or less, the same. Do the math!

For more information and to learn more theories, go here. It’s a great place.

Getting back to Slowdive, a lot of notable bands have reunited in the last decade. However, even when compared to many of their contemporaries, returning after a 20 year absence is pretty rare. It begs the question: does staying away longer help pad your bottom line in terms of ticket prices?

(pause)

To help answer this question, I took a cross section of 18 of these notable bands who have returned to Toronto in the last decade after some sort of hiatus. I compared ticket prices for the “farewell” and “hello again” gigs and in an attempt to keep this apples-to-apples, I only included headline shows. This latter piece gets kinda dicey when we speak in terms of demand (i.e. the Constantines’ headline “reunion” show in Toronto this fall will technically be the third time they’ve played in the city since reuniting) but more on that later…

Also, none of the prices reflect services charges, venue fees or anything of that nature. Because people tend to hate taking about services charges, venue fees or anything of that nature.

Here is a list of the 18 bands in question, sorted by the year they returned to Toronto and also showing their last Toronto show before they disappeared for a while:

Now, the first graph below shows who had the longest gap between Toronto headline shows. The second graph shows who had the largest spike in ticket prices, expressed in terms of price percentage increase.

If there was a decent correlation between length of absence and increase in ticket price, these graphs should look somewhat similar shape-wise.

They don’t. At all.

Therefore, based on this (admittedly small) sample size, there is no real correlation between how long you’ve been away and how much you can jack up your prices.

Since the length of the hiatus, in and of itself, isn’t significant in boosting ticket prices across the board, here are a few less scientific factors that are:

– Taste: I mean, this is 90 per cent of the equation with any art, right? A few of these bands (especially My Bloody Valentine, the Pixies and Neutral Milk Hotel) became almost mythical during the 2000s due to the proliferations of blogs and YouTube and MP3s. Thus, when they started popping up on the touring circuit again, their fan bases has swollen to kind of insane proportions. Well, maybe not INSANE since MBV was originally booked to play the Ricoh Coliseum in 2008 (which would’ve been “whack”) before being downsized to the Kool Haus. But still. NOTE: the Ricoh Coliseum website is still erroneously listing the concert. They so crazy!

– Venue: When Jesse Keeler posted this note on a Death From Above 1979 forum back in 2006 in order to napalm his band, it meant that the duo’s last headline show in Toronto was a series of insanely loud gigs at the cozy Horseshoe Tavern the summer prior. Based on their popularity at the time, it easily could’ve been a room 5x as big. But in the end, it was happenstance. Either way, $15 for a DFA1979 gig in 2005 was a “bargoon“.

– Non-Headline Gigs: The Constantines played their first 2014 reunion show in nearby Guelph, rocked at Broken Social Scene’s Field Trip festival shortly thereafter and will be opening for the Arcade Fire at the Molson Amphitheatre around Labour Day. Their first “proper” Toronto headline show isn’t until October but given their “around-ness” prior, did THAT affect ticket price for their Danforth Music Hall gig? Who cares… it’s just good to have ’em back!

– Opening Acts: I’ve always had a soft spot for the macho riffing and self-aware posturing of Urge Overkill. However, their 1995 “bye bye” gig at The Phoenix also featured the Toronto debut (I think) of the equally-awesome Guided by Voices and the pre-Sweet Homewrecker hijinks of Thrush Hermit. A stacked triple bill and considering GBV were getting a ton of buzz at that time, I bet much of the audience were paying to see Robert Pollard and friends stumble around. Unfortunately, Bob got beat up.

– Willingness to Tour… Ever: Most people just assumed that Jeff Mangum would never tour Neutral Milk Hotel so the fact that their ticket prices dominate the second graph is a bit of an outlier. Even by 1998 standards, $7 for any show is massively low. Also worth noting: fact Mangum did a pair of solo acoustic sets in Toronto in 2011, which may have eased demand a touch.

A few other comments:

– Everybody kinda rags on the Pixies for their never-ending reunion tour and the fact that it took them a decade to release anything new (and that was only after they gave Kim Deal the boot). However, considering how unlikely that reunion was (see “the fax story”) you think they could’ve charged more than $35 for their first Toronto show back in 2004. In many ways, they ushered in the initial wave of reunions fuelled by 1990s nostalgia (and cash… lots of it). If they had decided to suck it in 2008 instead of the hinterlands of 2004, I betcha tickets would’ve easily run $60 or more. Even at the brutal Arrow Hall, which mercifully is no longer with us as a concert venue.

– The Jesus and Mary Chain were a good band. Not amazing but solid enough. But seriously, $60+ for their 2012 show? Unlikely My Bloody Valentine, Neutral Milk Hotel or Daft Punk, the Jesus and Mary Chain had played Toronto plenty in the past so it’s not like their originally fan base didn’t have ample opportunity to see ’em in the first time around. Heck, they brought along Curve, Spiritualized and (uh) Pure to play the (friggin’) SkyDome in 1992, which is was kind of a WTF at the time and is now a massive WTF in hindsight. That concert was $12.45 BTW. Good deal!!

– Speculative: if Morrissey decides to drop the seal hunt thing and play in Canada again, would tickets START at more than $100 a piece? I think so.

– My picks for the next wave of bands that we MIGHT see playing shows again within the next five years: Oasis, the Deadly Snakes (this show notwithstanding), Galaxie 500, Gene (would we care?!?), the Kinks (would they care?!?), Eric’s Trip (again), Siouxsie and the Banshees (again), Catherine Wheel (are they even broken up?!?), Local Rabbits, Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci, Supergrass, the White Stripes

Ignored 37: Gaming the Polaris short list

#Ignored37 Grooveshark playlist

It’s rare that I write anything topical on this blog but I kinda sorta love how the annual (raging) Polaris Prize long list/short list debates have become “a thing” for Canadian music dorks.

The 2014 rage is underway.

Subconsciously, I think Polaris debates remind me of hours spent listening to podcasts and Prime Time Sports episodes about the merits or lack thereof of Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game. Namely, how there is serious outrage about omissions year-after-year… and yet NOBODY gives a (darn) about the game, the rosters, the broadcast, the skills competition (really) or anything surrounding the spectacle. For whatever reason, I LOVE watching the intros but everything else can go IMHO/IHOP.

However, there is a distinction to be made: people actually DO care about the Polaris Prize (I think) and rightfully so. It has its critics but at its core, it’s basically a prompt for us to look at Canadian music in aggregate each year and ultimately, that’s never going to be a bad thing.

The 2014 short list drops July 15 and should give us a bite-sized pulse on “what’s up” in Canadian music from a half-“bird’s eye”/half-“worm’s eye” perspective. In some ways, the short list is the most objective component of this whole exercise, serving as a more concise drill-down of the Canadian music that critics, media and some actual listeners enjoy. Again, it’s not perfect but each year, the short list delivers as a decent snapshot and a far more legit gauge than the Junos and/or other industry force feeds.

There always does seem to be a degree of gaming in how the short list comes together. Yeah, it often skews indie but there does tend to be a degree of inclusion along gender, race, geography and language lines. That’s good although if we start getting into “inclusion for the sake of inclusion” debates, it can get messy fast in a “uh, are you sure we should be talking about this?!?” sense.

So I’ll tread lightly and present my prediction for who I think WILL (not necessarily SHOULD) end up on the 2014 short list and why.

Arcade Fire – Reflektor
Reactions were pretty split on this beast of an album and many seemed to find the lead-ins and promotion kinda gimmicky (although it did tap into America’s strange new obsession with oversized paper mache heads). That said, if there is a Canadian stadium rock band who can overcome this kind of critical and commercial shruggage, it’s the Arcade Fire. This might be the last time they can play that card (people are fickle) but for now, I think they have enough residual cache that they’ll reach the “Round of 10”.

Austra – Olympia
This album actually came out in June 2013 so it’s one of the “oldest” efforts on the long list. Flipside: it’s also had one of the longest marination periods in listeners’ ears. That’s (maybe) a good thing. Buzz built for Katie Stelmanis’ outfit as 2013 churned and I dunno: there always seems to be an appetite for this kind of fuzzy, electronic, synth-y type of music. It seems poised.

Mac DeMarco – Salad Days
Mac DeMarco has more than 91K+ Likes on Facebook!!! It’s weird to think of weirdo like Mac as a superstar but at this point, he pretty much is. Countless world tours, a Top 30 album on the Billboard charts (seriously), upper echelon festival seeding, etc He’s not quite in the Arcade Fire/Drake echelon of “hey, he’s TOO POPULAR to be here” but he’s certainly dipping his toe in that pool. His album 2 was my early pick for 2013 and yet he didn’t even get shortlisted. I think he’s due, especially since Salad Days is completely great and my favourite album on the list. So there.

Shad – Flying Colours
Shad’s last two albums have made the short list so why not this one too?!? He’s clearly got their attention and given the 2014 long list is decidedly short on anything resembling hip-hop (Drake is the only other “sorta”), Shad might be the beneficiary.

Timber Timbre – Hot Dreams
Hot Dreams is the fifth Timber Timbre full-length but they’re clearly on the uptick in terms of popularity, having headlined Massey Hall and toured extensively across the globe in recent years. A totally strategic pic as they just SEEM like a band that’d make the short list again (last time: 2011 for Creep On Creepin’ On). And if somebody held a gun to my head and asked me to pick a grand prize winner (a totally plausible scenario BTW), I may very well go with them to take home “the big prize“.

Chad VanGaalen – Shrink Dust
CVG has made the Polaris short list twice before (in 2007 for Skelliconnection and in 2009 for Soft Airplane) and has (kinda) quietly put together a really impressive past decade, both critically and relatively-speaking, commercially. The fact he’s from Calgary could be both a help and hindrance but given voter willingness to vote ‘im up in the past, there’s no reason to think he won’t be a contender again this time around.

Owen Pallett – In Conflict
Is it just me or did this album come and go fairly quietly? Sure, Pallett now headlines large rooms like the Danforth Music Hall but anecdotally, his Academy Award nomination and continued Arcade Fire collabs continue to overshadow his solo output in part. As a former winner (2006’s He Poos Clouds under his Final Fantasy monicker) and former short lister (2010’s Heartland), maybe his name is too tapped in Polaris land but I somehow think he may have a certain “grandfathered”-ish thing going on with voters.

Philippe B – Ornithologie, la nuit
Full disclosure: I know nothing about this artist or this album. However, there hasn’t been a decidedly Francophone outfit on the short list since Galaxie made it on 2011. I’m going to assume voters will be aware of this and voters might react to this.

Pink Mountaintops – Get Back
“Heavy music” has typically been very underrepresented in past short lists. Fucked Up, Galaxie and (I guess) Japandroids are outliers but in terms of hard rock/stoner rock, Black Mountain is really the only outfit to turn the trick (in 2008 for In the Future). People like(d) Black Mountain and miss Black Mountain so it’s quite feasible that Stephen McBean and his Pink Mountaintops collective might sneak on to the short list. Plus the “Vancouver band pulling in some Montreal folks” concept could help the cause in terms of regionalism.

Rae Spoon – My Prairie Home
Rae Spoon has some good songs and is very likable as an artist and as a person. They (as requested) also have the benefit of having played a TON of shows across Canada in recent years and having an angle in terms of gender and geography. Again, not saying voters will be swayed by factors that aren’t purely about the music. But if they are…