iPod Playlist - The Week Of The Junos Edition

The Juno Awards (not to be confused with the American movie filmed in Canada starring a Canadian as the lead title character, Juno) are on later this week on Sunday on CTV live from Calgary this year (starting at 8pm EST, calculate from there and then gripe about how everything revolves around EST and then shove it).

For those of you not living in Canada, or even for those of you that do, the Juno's is our big music awards, the Canadian equivalent of the Grammy's.

If you release an album that qualifies as "Canadian", you will probably be nominated for a Juno Award.

It's just that easy!

If your music actually hit it big in the states (see Nelly Furtado, Celine Dion, Michael Buble, Feist, Arcade Fire, Avril Lavigne, Rufus Wainwright, Nickleback, Sum 41 etc.), you are GUARANTEED to win.

If you show up, you're going to SWEEP.

That being said, I actually enjoy the Juno telecast WAY more than the Grammy's, especially since they reinvented the event a few years back when they started to present them as a concert like setting in a different Canadian city every year. Plus, their choices of hosts have actually usually worked out better than one would think. Nelly Furtado, Alanis Morisette, and Shania Twain were all surprisingly fantastic in their years. Pamela Anderson was not as bad as you would have thought (though got booed for denouncing the seal hunt but that just made me love her more). Brent Butt was dryly funny as always (he's a Canadian comedian with a hit Canadian sitcom. The only hit Canadian sitcom).

This year, the host for the Junos is Russell Peters! RUSSELL PETERS!!!

I know. This probably doesn't mean anything to many of you, especially the white folks, but the rest of us ethnics LOVE Russell Peters. Hmm... in fact, I think I'll post more on him later this week. You're going to love Russell Peters, if only because it shows how diverse you are!

Anyways, back to music. So like the Grammy's, there are WAY too many nominees to even wrap your brain around, but here are two bands (both nominated for Best New Band) that I've been liking for a while:

Faber Drive - "When I'm With You":



Then there is Dragonette, kinda like Scissor Sisters goes lesbian (I don't know if they are, I'm just saying, it feels that way):
Dragonette - "I Get Around":



Here are a few others that I've liked throughout the year that probably never made it across the border.

Aaron Lines - "Somebody's Son" (Best Country Recording) (Plus he's real purty, yes, I'm shameless):



Justin Nozuka - "Mr. Therapy Man" (Best New Artist):



Jully Black - "Seven Day Fool" (Best R&B/Soul Recording, Single of the Year) (she's also a great guest host on the very white Chum FM morning show):