PeteHatesMusic Goes to The Indies: A Preview of the Canadian Music Week Awards Show
It’s Canadian Music Week in Toronto which means there’s six days of music-related events, booze-filled events, and expos “dedicated to the expression and growth of the country’s music, media and entertainment industries” (via indies.ca). One of those events is the SiriusXM Indies (or the 13th Annual Independent Music Awards as it’s known to more formal folks) at the Kool Haus on Friday night, and PeteHatesMusic is going to be there, and this time, it’s all legal.
The 13th annual awards have been around for 13 years now (DUH!!). They celebrate the best in both Canadian and international independent music. You know, independent music, the music that people outside of major urban centers never ever get to hear on radio. The evening is an awards show with selected nominee performances throughout. The award winners are decided by public and music industry voting results. Past winners at the Indies include: The Trews, Arcade Fire, Nine Inch Nails, Taylor Swift, Mumford & Sons, Adele, The Black Keys, Metric, Fucked Up, Great Lake Swimmers, The xx, Shad, and the Canadian Brass. Wait, I’ve heard of those people!
There is an absolute boat-load of award categories this year ranging from the obvious (album of the year, group of the year) to the less obvious (Children’s Artist/Group or Duo of the Year, Collaboration of the Year, Most Ironic Corporate-Sponsored Independent Music Award). 37 award categories in total celebrating every genre of music you can think of (death polka rock!). If they try to present all of them on Friday night, we’ll get another album from TOOL before the show will ever end. Performers at the 2013 Indies are: Cadence Weapon, 360, Canailles, The Wooden Sky, Cold Specks, Yukon Blonde, Diamond Rings, Matt Mays, and Indie darlings Metric are set to headline the show.
Carly Rae Jepsen is up for a ton of awards. She’ll probably win a bunch of them too, since you couldn’t even have a shower without hearing Call Me Maybe. Best category of the night is “Must Follow Artist of the Year”. I’m not sure if they mean on Twitter or in a cult-like fashion – I’m hoping for the latter. I always like my awards shows to tell me exactly what to do, so if Carly Rae wins that award, so I guess I kind of have to follow her, right? Actually, I don’t need another restraining order, so I might have to pass.
The band fun. is also nominated for a bunch of international awards this year. I know these Grammy-winners have to be independent because they are selling their songs to commercials like they need the money bad. How many awards will they win? Other notable nominees this year include: Stars (who did a great interview with us), Grimes, Japandroids, Tame Impala, deadmau5, Sarah Slean, The Weeknd, Purity Ring, Big Wreck, Our Lady Peace, and the dude who used to sing in Default is nominated for Country Artist or Group of the Year.
The 2013 Indies will be broadcast live on SiriusXM satellite radio. So if you’re rich, or live in the middle of nowhere – enjoy the show! For those who miss it, check back here in the following days for your complete PeteHatesMusic Indies coverage. In the meantime, check out Metric’s Youth Without Youth, nominated for both single and video of the year.
Metric –Youth Without Youth
