The Overcast’s Borealis Music Prize is a quadruple-juried award, meaning that 4 separate juries form and judge its pre-longlist, longlist, and shortlist, and the final jury picks a winner from the shortlist. Surviving four juries means the winning album will have survived and pleased 4 separate juries, and dozens of individual jurors.
Each year, the winner receives $1,000 from The Overcast (presented at our annual Awards Gala & Holiday Party) + a trophy for their mantlepiece + January’s cover story. $1,000 makes it the highest purse for a local music award, and the press, we hope, translates into album sales and helps boost bios for local bands applying for grants, festivals, labels, and publicists.
The award’s name is a contraction of Aurora Borealis: a fitting term for an album that shines brightly enough to stand out among 150+ local albums every year, and for an award whose aim is to shine a light on local music.
RULES FOR ALBUM ELIGIBILITY
While we enjoy the discussion every year on who shouldn’t have been omitted/included, please read these rules of eligibility to ensure your wrath is accurate. To be eligible for the 2016 Borealis Music Prize, an album must:
1.) Be at least 6 songs or 30 minutes long.
2.) Have been released between Oct. 31st, 2015, and November 1st, 2016.
Want to Be Sure Your, or Your Favourite Local Album is in the Running?
If your album is on Bandcamp or Soundcloud, and if The Overcast has covered your eligible album, or if it came out this October, chances are it’s on our radar. But if you want to be sure it’s in the running, comment below, or, fire our editor an email and he’ll make sure the first jury talks about it: [email protected]. The longlist will appear in November’s issue of The Overcast, and online here on Nov. 1st.
Below is a pile of albums we’ve covered/noticed in the last year:
Adrian House – Love a Man
AE Bridger – Museum
AM/FM Dreams – In the Soft Corner
Armahain – Being Human
Bad Milk – Self-titled EP
Beauwater – Lovers, Kings, and Fools
Boat Haus – Coulda Swore
Cabbages and Kings – Vale
CAHHR – Rock Music Record
Chris Meyers & Kate Lahey (Blankets) – The Room That Held You Is Still There
Dame Nature – Dame Nature
Dave Picco – Start Again
Derm Kean and an Incredible Woman - Incredible
Doug Dorward – Waves
Duane Andrews – Conception Bay
Dope Piece – Dopeace
Earl & Coffin – Live at the Citadel House
Family Video – Places to Sleep
Fairgale – Own the Light
Fretboard Journey — Self-titled
Goreforge – Mythos
Green and Gold – And Then the New Crow Came
Happy Beats – Happy Beats
The Hashbrowns – Family Day
Hard Ticket – Tuff Cookie
Hip Waders – Meduza
Ilia Nicoll – I in Team
It Could be Frankie – Your Friends Don’t Buy it All
Isle of Ease – Roads
Jake Nicoll – Two Things / Half of Nothing
Janet Cull – Real Tough Love
Jeff Foran – Gallantry in Moderne Courtship
Justin Strong – Peace and Understanding
Kara Windsor Hehir – Fat Girl Flyin’ Down Long’s Hill
Kujo – Got Nothin
Lady Brett Ashley – Fault Lines
Laura Jean Fraser – Good Grief
Laura Madonna Murray – Solo So High
Lightning Mike – Struck by Lightning
London Above – Lazar
Mick Davis – Coats and Badges
Michael Hannaford’s – You’re Ugly and Your Mother Dresses You Funny
Mike Coffen – Time Walk
Mimi Stockland – Meat Floss
Mopey – Total Education
No Culture – River Post Motion
The Novaks – Eager Power Gentle Fury
The Once – We Win Some We Lose
Pet Legs – Radiation Fog
Pete Martin – Project X
Plainface – Crystal Spines
Pilot to Bombardier – Wild Bells
Plaid Boys – Plaid Boys
Repartee – All Lit Up
Rough Surf – Please Clap
Rum Ragged – Self-titled
Ryan Taylor – Nine Songs from Summer Sixteen
Sea Dogs – Dory of Souls
Shop Class – Industrial Art
Sonny Tripp – Work
Weird GF – Pineapple Crush
Wolf Kush – 1986
Young Manics – Challenger
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