Written by Agah Bahari
Last Friday around 8pm, I walked to Kool Haus to experience The Indie Awards for the first time, and this Friday about 2am, I’m writing the review for it, listening to Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, which I’ve had done before. I’ve been reading about The Indie Awards for couple of days before the ceremony. Described as “Grammy Awards for Independent Music”, it seemed to be accepted as such by the starting crowd of about 1,000 or more who, without a doubt, were there to party all night to the best emerging independent artists and their tunes.
The ceremony was organized and hosted by SiriusXM, represented by a gentleman in a sport coat, without a tie, with presidential hairline, who I must say was a thoughtful addition to emphasize the modest yet still trendy nature of the city of Toronto, projected into the awards. Having said that, the lack of direct eye contact between the host and the crowd, due to the insufficiently, lower placement of the teleprompter I must add, was a bit of disappointment.
The Awards was divided into different standard segments, switching between :
– Performances
– Nominations
– Re-calling the previous winners
– Very fun and very drunk people, dancing and bumping into each other
A video of the nominees in each category were being presented by other indie artists, which I thought was pretty cool. The winner’s name, printed on a vinyl, was then coming out of the vinyl cover and called by the presenter, followed by a black Epiphone electric guitar as the trophy. And then, more live performances, re-calling the previous winners, and of course very fun and very drunk people, dancing and bumping into each other.
Among the substantial number of performances, I’m goin’ to pick 2 :
– My pick: Cold Specks (from London, England, also the winner of Female Artist of the Year award)
– Audience pick (Judging by the full-house of 3,000 dancing, cheering people): Metric (from Toronto, also the winner of Best-Selling Independent Release of the Year)
I’m goin’ to add all of this year’s winners at the end of this review, but before that, I’d like to take advantage of this opportunity and remind all you crazy music lovers, to download as much as you like, but when you come across that one artist who blow you’re mind but you’ve never heard of before, there’s a good chance that the artist is a group of independent dudes, battling against all odds in this fast glorious culture of ours to share with you what they feel and able to express through the greatest universal language of all, music …
So basically support your favorite independent artists, by buying their stuff and goin’ to their shows. Trust me, there’s no better way to express what a big fan you are than expressing it with good, old, money.
And now, as promised:
2013 SIRIUSXM INDIE AWARDS WINNERS
ALBUM OF THE YEAR
Japandroids – Celebration Rock (Polyvinyl Recording Co.)
SINGLE OF THE YEAR
Carly Rae Jepsen – Call Me Maybe (604 Records)
GROUP OR DUO OF THE YEAR
Metric (Metric Music International Inc.)
ARTIST OF THE YEAR
Carly Rae Jepsen (604 Records)
FEMALE ARTIST OF THE YEAR
Cold Specks (Arts & Crafts)
MALE ARTIST OF THE YEAR
Matt Mays (Sonic Records)
LIVE ARTIST/GROUP OR DUO OF THE YEAR
deadmau5 (Ultra Music)
SONGWRITER OF THE YEAR
Josh Ramsay (604 Records)
VIDEO OF THE YEAR
Marianas Trench – Fallout (604 Records)
MUST FOLLOW ARTIST OF THE YEAR
Said The Whale (Hidden Pony Records)
COLLABORATION OF THE YEAR
Artists Against Bullying -True Colors (Wax)
MOST PLAYED INDEPENDENT ARTIST OR GROUP OF THE YEAR
Carly Rae Jepsen (604 Records)
BEST-SELLING INDEPENDENT RELEASE OF THE YEAR
Metric -Synthetica (Metric Music International Inc.)
ALTERNATIVE ARTIST OR GROUP OF THE YEAR
Yukon Blonde (Dine Alone Records)
BLUES ARTIST OR GROUP OF THE YEAR
The Harpoonist and the Axe Murderer (Independent)
CHILDRENíS ARTIST/GROUP OR DUO OF THE YEAR
Jennifer Gasoi (Sparkling Productions)
COUNTRY ARTIST OR GROUP OF THE YEAR
Dallas Smith (604 Records)
DANCE ARTIST OR GROUP OF THE YEAR
Massari (CP Records)
ELECTRONIC ARTIST OR GROUP OF THE YEAR
Grimes (4AD/Arbutus Records)
FOLK/ROOTS ARTIST OR GROUP OF THE YEAR
The Wooden Sky (Black Box Recordings Inc)
FRANCOPHONE ARTIST OR GROUP OF THE YEAR
Lisa LeBlanc (Bonsound)
JAZZ ARTIST OR GROUP OF THE YEAR
Emilie-Claire Barlow (Empress Music Group Inc.)
METAL ARTIST OR GROUP OF THE YEAR
Devin Townsend Project (eOne Music Canada)
POP ARTIST OR GROUP OF THE YEAR
Marianas Trench (604 Records)
PUNK/HARDCORE ARTIST OR GROUP OF THE YEAR
METZ (Sub Pop Records)
RAP/HIP-HOP ARTIST OR GROUP OF THE YEAR
Cadence Weapon (Upper Class Recordings)
ROCK ARTIST OR GROUP OF THE YEAR
Big Wreck (SRO Anthem)
SOUL/R&B ARTIST OR GROUP OF THE YEAR
The Weeknd (XO&co.)
WORLD ARTIST OR GROUP OF THE YEAR
The Souljazz Orchestra (Solidarity)
INTERNATIONAL GROUP OR DUO OF THE YEAR
The Black Keys (Nonesuch)
INTERNATIONAL ARTIST OF THE YEAR
Taylor Swift (Big Machine Records)
INTERNATIONAL ALBUM OF THE YEAR
Mumford & Sons Babel (Glassnote)
INTERNATIONAL SINGLE OF THE YEAR
fun. – We Are Young (Fueled By Ramen)
INTERNATIONAL BREAKTHROUGH ARTIST OR GROUP OF THE YEAR
The Lumineers (Dine Alone Records)
INTERNATIONAL VIDEO OF THE YEAR
Macklemore & Ryan Lewis – Thrift Shop (Macklemore)
SIRIUSXM EMERGING ARTIST OF THE YEAR (English)
Poor Young Things
SIRIUSXM EMERGING ARTIST OF THE YEAR (French)
Canailles
