Nominations for the Juno Awards—the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences’ equivalent to the Grammys—were announced today, and the big winner was the Vancouver band of heshers Nickelback, who are up for five prizes including Single Of The Year and Album Of The Year; personal favorites like Black Mountain and Sloan, as well as that deliciously inescapable Kardinal Offishall/Akon track from last summer, got nods as well. I’m sure Gene Simmons is studying this list very closely right now, trying to figure out what works in the Great White North. (Perhaps he should try and find a Guns N’ Roses tribute band up there, since CARAS had the balls to nominate Chinese Democracy for International Album Of The Year.) Partial list of nominees after the jump.
The announcement of the nominees for the 2008 Juno Awards–“Canada’s Music Awards”–makes us wonder: Why do the Junos slay the Grammys this year? Well, it’s because we don’t actually have to live-blog the broadcast, where the canned dialogue will probably be less awkward but feature just as many quasi-celebrities tsk-tsk’ing us over illegal downloading. And it’s also because they’ve brought together neo-krautrockers Holy Fuck and Tom “Life Is A Highway” Cochrane for the first (and likely last) time. (And the fact that Cochrane and Neil Young are apparently “adult alternative” now.) And it’s also also because the nominees for “Best International Album” seem chosen specifically for their SoundScan numbers. (The Josh Groban Christmas album??) And it’s also also also because the nominees include a band called God Made Me Funky and a rapper named Belly. And it’s definitely also also also also because it’s an awards ceremony where Leslie Feist is for once not up against indie rock bands and crossover dubstep producers, but Celine Dion. And Michael Bublé. And Avril. Which seems more, we dunno, fitting. (Speaking of Avril: we guess that out-of-court settlement with the Rubinoos means there’s nothing hinky with Lukasz Gottwald being nominated for “Songwriter Of The Year” for Avril’s “Girlfriend.”) Too many categories to list in full, but we’ve included some of our favorite match-ups after the jump.
