OurBasement Playlist: Landmarks

By Regina Sienra

Whether you live in a big city or small town Canada, there’s always a feeling of pride, belonging or representation when a building, a street, a station or any other landmark you pass by on your daily basis makes it to a song that has the potential of reaching thousands of ears. In some cases, it’s like seeing a story cross paths with yours.

For outsiders, hearing about such landmarks is an unique way to learn about any given city through local artists or visiting musicians that were inspired enough to incorporate it into their art.

Take a trip across Canada through the places – popular or unknown, large or tiny, natural or manmade – that make each city or town unique.

Visit the ever-changing landscape of False Creek in Vancouver, beautiful Wascana Lake in Regina, a busy intersection in Winnipeg, bubbling Boulevard Saint-Laurent in Montreal or an iconic venue in Halifax. You never know what you can learn from your neighbours. Or the place you live in.

Thanks to everyone who submitted ideas for this playlist: Darbarspecial, Loozrboy, Shonica, Switters, CDNz1, GarfieldUK, Zammachus, Tiffy, Morgana, Old Abe and Scott. If your song isn’t here, be sure it’ll be used at a future OurBasement playlist.

Did you spot all the landmarks? Is there any other song that belongs on this list? Let us know in the comments.

Polaris Shortlist Announced

The countdown clock is finally winding down. We’re just hours away from the announcement of this year’s Polaris Music Prize Shortlist. The 40 albums below will soon cut down to ten.

• Art Bergmann, The Apostate
• Justin Bieber, Purpose
• Black Mountain, IV
• Jean-Michel Blais, Il
• Basia Bulat, Good Advice
• Daniel Caesar, Pilgrim’s Paradise
• Tanika Charles, Soul RunD
• City and Colour, If I Should Go Before You
• Cœur de pirate, Roses
• Dead Obies, Gesamtkunstwerk
• Destroyer, Poison Season
• Dilly Dally, Sore
• Drake, Views
• Essaie pas, Demain est une autre nuit
• Fred Fortin, Ultramarr
• Foxtrott, A Taller Us
• Grimes, Art Angels
• Half Moon Run, Sun Leads Me On
• Veda Hille, Love Waves
• Jazz Cartier, Hotel Paranoia
• Carly Rae Jepsen, E•MO•TION
• Junior Boys, Big Black Coat
• Kaytranada, 99.9%
• Jessy Lanza, Oh No
• Majid Jordan, Majid Jordan
• Michelle McAdorey, Into Her Future
• Nap Eyes, Thought Rock Fish Scale
• Safia Nolin, Limoilou
• Operators, Blue Wave
• Peaches, Rub
• PUP, The Dream Is Over
• Daniel Romano, Mosey
• Andy Shauf, The Party
• The Strumbellas, Hope
• Suuns, Hold/Still
• U.S. Girls, Half Free
• Un Blonde, Good Will Come to You
• The Weeknd, Beauty Behind the Madness
• White Lung, Paradise
• Donovan Woods, Hard Settle, Ain’t Troubled

The livestream now over at what do you think of this list?

---

Polaris 2016 Facts

• This is perhaps the most “mainstream” long list ever produced by Polaris, featuring the likes of Justin Beiber, Carly Rae Jepsen, Drake and The Weeknd
• Just one album on this year’s long list is a self-titled release; that of Majid Jordan
• This year’s nominees aren’t big on punctuation. Just five albums feature anything beyond the alphanumeric in their titles. Donovan Woods was the most diverse in his punctuating, using both a comma and an apostrophe in Hard Settle, Ain’t Troubled. Bullet points and apostrophes appear most often with two each (Carly Rae Jepsen’s E•MO•TION, Donovan Woods’ nomination and Daniel Caesar’s Pilgrim’s Paradise)
• Dead Obies take the prize for this year’s tongue twister. Hoping they make the Shortlist just so we can hear the announcer and all the radio hosts stumble over Gesamtkunstwerk
• You’re not too badly off this year if you didn’t pay attention in French class. Essaie pas and Coeur de Pirate are the only glaringly obvious francophone artists on the list (correct me if there are more,) and Coeur is significantly bilingual on Roses
• This post is the most tagged ever (81!) in OurBasement’s short history

Relisten to DarBarSpecial’s Polaris Long List Playlist!

‘The New Canada’ – Apple Music’s Beats 1 Takeover

Canada’s taking over the world, or at least its music. July 2 marked the beginning of our month-long residency on Apple Music’s Beats 1.  For 5 consecutive Saturdays, Canadian personalities will take over this hour-long, part music, part infotainment show.

George Stroumboulopoulos kicked off the series exposing such homegrown talent as Darcys, Fucked Up & Sam Roberts Band to the over 100 countries that tune in live weekly.

“People have spent decades trying to discuss who Canadians are, so it’s impossible to accomplish such a big task in one hour” George Stroumboulopoulos told the Financial Post in an article about the takeover last month.

Strombo goes on in the article to say that the most difficult part of curating a show like this is the ability to showcase what’s relevant and ‘cool’ in the vast Canadian music landscape, from ‘coast-to-coast-to-coast’.

Beats 1, Apple Music’s 24/7 live-hosted music station, has seen previous success with the ‘Take Over’ series, with Canada being the third country to participate behind Australia’s Triple J for AusMonth and starRo in Tokyo, Japan.

Zane Lowe, chief resident DJ at Beats 1, said in the same FP article they “came to Canada from the point of view of us benefiting. It really wasn’t a case of ‘how can we help?’ – it was more like, ‘How can you help us get this music across a global audience and make us, Beats 1, sound even more exciting.”

Upcoming Takeover Shows

July 9  – Josie Dye (Toronto’s Edge 102.1, Cosmo TV) showcasing Dine Alone Records
July 16 – Coeur de Pirate representing Dare To Care Records
July 23 – Kevin Drew (Broken Social Scene, Founder Arts & Crafts Records), for Arts & Crafts
July 30 – Emily Haines (Metric) For Last Gang Records

Canadian Indie on Tour – July 2016 Edition

Ourbasement.ca is here to help you navigate your Canadian Indie Summer Concert Schedule.

This is more than just a festival roundup folks! Montreal to Yellowknife, Pemberton to Saint John – there are hundreds of shows happening across Canada all summer long. So we’ve compiled a spread of some of the bigger indie acts for you, all in this handy dandy blog post.

If an unmentioned artist is passing through your town, give them a shout out in the comments and we’ll try to add them to our spread.

*Excuse the mess, we’re still unpacking*
Please excuse the current formatting.  We are working quickly on ways to make Canadian Indie on Tour more interactive and easier to use.
(Picture: Taken by Tiffy at The Horseshoe.  Feet belong to members of Amos The Transparent)