When, Where, and Why!

This Friday night at The Ship is the big announcement: come and see who has survived all three rounds of really, really tough jurying. We will be crowning the winner of the 2014 Borealis Music Prize at The Ship at 11:15 pm sharp.

After the drumrolls, confetti bangs, and cheque presentation, the winner will play a quick set, and then Mark Bragg will perform for the rest of the night — a perfect party soundtrack, live in the flesh. So come and dance your pants off to Mark, and see which album close to 40 jurors chose as the best of the year.

There’ll also be free copies of Big Townie Tunes Vol.1 on hand: a 20-track album featuring 1 song by each shortlisted band. There might even be a second trophy doled out, come see why.

Every day this week, we’ll say something on each of the 5 shortlisted bands, and, hear a random fact on a Mark Bragg song.

Where’d the Band Name Come from, Green and Gold?

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It’s been a golden year for Green and Gold: since releasing their debut, The Body Knows, the band has emerged as one of the best and beloved local bands in years, and recently racked up several MusicNL award nominations. In fact, in our August “Best of St. John’s” issue, the people of the province voted them many things: Best Local Band, Best Song of the Year (for “Night Rainbows”), Most Deserving of a Serious Record Deal, Best Local Rock Band … and Best Album of the Year. So it’ll be no surprise if they win Friday night. They were even the band CBC’s Grant Lawrence picked to represent the city’s music scene for this past summer’s CBC Beetle Road Trip. Green and Gold write with great care, and follow every rule in the recording bible handbook, to craft properly built songs that win listeners over more and more with each consecutive listen, making their album impossible to tire of.

But why are they called Green and Gold? Mystery solved. It comes from the legendary Herman Hesse novel, Siddhartha, about the protagonist’s spiritual journey of self-discovery.

“There’s a scene in Siddhartha that depicts a team of servants carrying their master’s courtesan Kamala through the gates of the city. Siddhartha, the novel’s protagonist, saw her and was immediately transfixed: she was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. She became the object of his affections, and his desire set him on the hedonistic journey to accumulate material wealth that eventually became his downfall. The robe she was wearing when he first saw her was made of green and gold silk.”

Mark Bragg on His Song, “The Cutter”

Every day this week, leading up to the show, Mark Bragg will share a random fact on one of his songs. Today’s is “The Cutter.”

“I don’t know how obvious the Springsteen influence is on this, but I wrote it right in the middle of rehearsing the annual Springsteen tribute show.”