Hottest Bands in Canada 2009

This year marks the 5th edition for i(heart)music’s “Hottest Bands in Canada” poll. Happily, I was asked to chime in again. It’s a pretty straightforward process…dozens of the country’s top music writers, journalists and bloggers are invited to submit a ranked top 10 list of the hottest Canadian acts (bands or solo artists) in 2009, with both “hottest” and “Canadian” up to the individual writers’ discretion.

If you’ve been following my Polaris posts, you’ll recognize some of the names on this list. But the good thing about the Hottest Bands poll is that you can take chances on a few up and coming acts. I highly recommend you check out the full list…as in the past few years, it is a solid list of Canadian indie-rock (with a touch of hip hop, francophonie and Leonard Cohen). I also want to stress that just because Reverie Sound Revue didn’t make the official poll, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t check their new album out. It is gorgeous.

Kudos to i(heart)music for his diligent work on this poll and on his almost daily reviews of great Canadian music.

10. Metric
After Live it Out, I thought Metric was just going to keep making albums that reminded me of how great they could have been. Fantasies gets me back to what I loved about their earlier tunes and gives me hope that they’ve still got a lot more solid songs left in them. The band has attitude, grit, and an album full of catchy hooks.

9. Andrew Vincent
I know Dan Mangan just won the Verge award for best artist, and that he should probably get the nod for hottest singer songwriter in Canada right now (and Nice Nice Very Nice is solid). But Andrew Vincent’s Rotten Pear is a witty and wry collection of sonic stories and musical memories that shouldn’t be overlooked. It’s understated and self-depricating. Sure, it doesn’t scream out “Hottest In Canada”, but that’s the point. How very Canadian.

8. Think About Life
Think About Life, Clues, and Parlovr are duelling it out for the title of Montreal indie act that’s on the cusp of breaking big. They all had great albums this year, but the one I keep going back to is Think About Life’s Family. You can’t have this album on and not smile/move your hips. If you can, then you are officially and old crusty bastard.

7. La Patère Rose
Coeur de Pirate was leading my list of top franco acts all year, and then, out of nowhere, La Patère Rose snuck up and unseated her. This album is a wild blend of genres and styles, but overall it’s wonderfully happy, dancey and fun.

6. Braids
As far as I know, this band is from Calgary but going to school here in Montreal. They mix indie and noise and experimental stuff in an impressively accessible way. One of their songs showed up in my inbox earlier this year, thanks to a friend, and my email program was literally happier for the next 4 months.

5. Belle Orchestre
As Seen Through Windows is a monumental instrumental journey. This band understands exactly how powerful dynamics are in making layered, thoughtful music.

4. Ohbijou
While we’re talking about beauty, I’d be remiss not to include Oh Bijou’s second full length album Beacons. Ohbijou has the market cornered on melancholy, orchestral epic, ballads. They do what they do well and they just keep getting better.

3. Reverie Sound Revue
The sheer fact that RSR released an album means that I had to include it on my list. The fact that it is full of wonderful sounds and songs is icing on the cake. I was bowled over by the band’s EP in 2003. The long long long awaited follow up reminds me exactly why. It’s delicate and catchy and gorgeously put together. Although they aren’t really a “band” (no tours, not even any “real” shows), they are still the hottest.

2. Timber Timbre
I’m so excited for winter because this album is going to be my soundtrack for the cold frozen months when the days are mostly dark and spooky. This unsettling, crooning self-titled album is easily one of my favourite discoveries of the year.

1. Bruce Peninsula.
I’ve made no secret of my unnatural love for this band this year. A Mountain is a Mouth is a religious experience. I’m a convert.

There Can Be Only One

At 10pm last night, I was at my desk with sweat rolling off my brow (and arms and hands). It could have been because it was plus 30 here and muggy. I thought the thunder and lightning earlier in the evening would break the humidity, but they were too brief to provide real relief. Even the storm seemed scared away by the heat.

On the other hand, the perspiration could also have been because I had two hours left to submit my final Polaris prize ballot. At Midnight last night (Jun. 25), Polaris headquarters began compiling the votes one more time. The only difference this time is that the ballots could only include artists from the long list. The 10 artists that get the most votes are officially on the short list, which will be announced on July 7th.

After my fifth place pick from the first ballot didn't make it (Years - S/T), I re-evaluated who should get the last spot. Rather than just slide in my number 6 choice, I re-listened to all 40 discs as much as I could in the last 3 weeks.

And I'm glad I did. Some albums I had dismissed grew on me, others reminded me why I hadn't included them on my first ballot.

La Patère Rose was probably the biggest gainer, moving up several spots on my list with a genre-bending collection of tunes that might just rival Think About Life's Family for the album of the summer.

I also got re-acquainted with Tim Hecker's gorgeous soundscape, An Imaginary Country. It's an album unlike any other on the long list, a wash of synthesized feedback that's incredibly serene, once you let it soak in. But underneath the noise, the melodies in songs like "Borderlands" or "Currents of Electrostasy" are as pretty as anything you'd find on more traditional albums (i.e. ones with lyrics, voices, choruses etc.)

As time was running out though, three albums were fighting it out in my itunes. Rae Spoon's Superioryouareinferior
a tough and gritty set of songs that puts an alternative spin on growing up in the prairies, D-Sisive's moody hip hop smackdown Let The Children Die (if you didn't get enough ruminations on death from Chad Van Gaalen, this is the album for you), and Belle Orchestre's As Seen Through Windows.

When the clock struck, Belle Orchestre got the final nod. The album stomps in like an elephant with the lumbering "Stripes" (which is followed by the aptly named "Elephants"), and the range of moods it creates over the following fifty some minutes is remarkable. At times triumphant, at times haunting, Belle Orchestre even manages to pull off both at once (listen to creepy strings and happy horns intermingle at 4:18 of Elephants). Regardless of what mood they're playing with, they live up to their name.

So there you have it. My first Polaris adventure comes to a close. Now I can stop worrying about ranking and just get back to enjoying the music.

Coda: The storms continued throughout the night. It seemed fitting considering the sad news earlier in the evening that Michael Jackson, the king of pop and sheer weirdness, had passed. As one of my fellow midnight poutiners joked: "This is God crying for MJ".

Hottest Bands in Canada 2008

Oh hello blog. You thought I forgot about you, didn't you? Sure, I may have been devoting my attention elsewhere, but you still hold a special place in my heart. And I promise to pay more attention to you in the next little while.

Helping me break the silence was another round of the Hottest Bands in Canada poll. For those who didn't follow my post last year, iheart music - an insightful and perceptive Canadian music blog - releases a yearly list of the "Hottest Bands in Canada". It's actually a meta-list, since iheart solicits lists from dozens of bloggers coast-to-coast. Everyone sends in their top ten hottest bands (with the definition of "hot" and "canadian" up to the individual blogger) and iheart compiles the result into a 33-band round-up.

Like the bloggers it polls, the list is a tad biased towards English indie rock (especially from Eastern Canada), but it's a pretty decent snapshot of what's happening in Canadian music this year. We could debate who made the cut (or who didn't), but ultimately the list is more useful when used as a way to discover a few talented domestic acts that may have escaped our ears this year.

The full list is here and well worth a read (as is the list of bands who got votes but didn't make the top 33).

And finally, here's my top ten, with honourable mentions.

Honourable Mentions (i.e. bands that were hot but I didn't pay enough attention to: Radio Radio, tUNE yARDS, Two Hours Traffic, Black Hat Brigade, and Holy Fuck)

10. Céline Dion
Between Carl Wilson's book (Let's Talk About Love: A Journey to the End of Taste) and the big Quebec City anniversary bash, it's hard to keep Céline off this list. Although it goes against any kind of indie aesthetic the "Hottest Bands in Canada" list may be trying to cultivate, starting off with Céline is probably ok now that Wilson has explained our culture's troubled relationship with her. And hey, maybe mainstream is the new indie.

9. Mother Mother
I had heard snippets from this West-coast crew's debut album, but it wasn't until seeing them live at this year's Pop Montreal festival (promoting their follow-up) that I felt they deserved a spot on this prestigious list. Great energy, great harmonies and a batch of songs that stick in your head like gum.

8. Women
Women's debut album took me a while to get into. In fact, I thought I hated it for the bulk of 2008. I'm glad I stuck with it though. There's some insane guitar work in their tunes and the lo-fi production on it actually makes Women sound different than a lot of current Canadian indie-rock.

7. Shad
Rapping about being broke and otherwise inadequate is awesome. Other people have tried it (Andy Samberg, Jon Lajoie I'm looking at you) but Shad nails it.

6. Tokyo Police Club
As far as critical acclaim goes, TPC weren't hot this year. Their album was tepidly received at best, frigidly at worst. Despite being pumped about their previous EP, journalists and bloggers turned on TPC faster than Sarah Palin can say the word "maverick". People wanted TPC to be the next great saviours of rock. But what got lost in the midst of all the talk about how they weren't is the fact that Elephant Shell is a damn good, tight rock album.

5. Karkwa
Karkwa - who walked away with 3 GAMIQ awards this year - are usually referred to as the French Radiohead. I think that's just what Anglos say to convince other Anglos that it's ok to listen to francophone music. Take two or three listens to their beautiful Le Volume du Vent and you'll realize that they don't need to be compared to anything to convince you they are worth the time.

4. Born Ruffians
The opening notes and words of this album make me immensely happy. I start marching around the house, singing the national anthem of a country that only exists in my imagination. I thought this band was a one-trick pony; I owe them a beer for my mistake.

3. Land of Talk
This vote may reflect a bit of recency effect, since Some Are Lakes was just released. Still, I can't stop singing the title track. The other songs on the CD aren't as sing-a-ble, but producer Bon Iver has helped LOT craft an honest, straight-up exercise in no-bullshit rock.

2. Chad Van Gaalen
Chad Van Gaalen is a weird dude. I doubt his latest album will change that perception, since Soft Airplane is obsessed with death and other depressing and odd topics. Still, the album is one of his most complex to date; a lonely trip into Chad's head and basement studio.

1. Plants and Animals
Fuck Caribou. Not really. I mean, you shouldn't do that to animals and Andorra is actually a decent disc. I just don't think it deserved the Polaris. Parc Avenue, on the other hand, did. I can barely count the number of times I listened to this album this year.