As previously shared, I’m a proud member of this year’s Polaris Music Prize jury. While you can find out all you need to know about the prize at the link, suffice to say its aim is to award distinction (and $20,000) to the Canadian artist that releases the best album of the year, judged solely on artistic merit. In fact, check out the Long and Short Lists of years past for basically the ultimate Canadian playlist of the last five years. Seriously folks, I was turned on to at least one of my favourite bands via a Polaris long list. Last year’s winner (which surprised many, but sat well with me) was F***cked Up (pictured)’s The Chemistry Of Common Life.

Anyhow, this year was another great one for Canadian music, and while I’ve got a few slots chosen, I’m having a hell of a time filling the final two spots on my ballot of 5. Any help is appreciated. Which Canadian album, regardless of genre, label affiliation, etc., is your favourite from the past 12 months? Let’s get the discussion going here, folks.

Greetings to the CM community!

My name is Craig and I have taken over assistant editorial duties here at Canadian Musician. I am pretty pumped to be working here and look forward to providing you all with exciting content, news, products, events, and everything else related to the great Canadian musical landscape.

Continue reading “New Assistant Editor At CM”

Montreal’s Special Ops, who helped us out with Indie Insider for the May/June 2010 issue of CM, have been forced to cancel their North American tour due to bassist Waldo Thornhill’s ongoing battle with cancer. We wish Waldo the best of luck as he fights to pull through in hopes that Special Ops will be rocking once again in the near future. www.opsmission.com.

I really hope this sees a full national release in the next short while. Just sayin’…

CTV has just sent out an announcement about the increased album sales and digital downloads experienced by JUNO Award performers during the subsequent weeks of sales. As it happens, some artists had sales figures boosted by 444%. Here’s a list of the rises in sales from performers days after their broadcast performances:

Continue reading “The JUNO Effect”