The Overcast’s Borealis Music Prize is the province’s richest 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 winner receives $1,000 from The Overcast (presented at our annual Awards Gala & Holiday Party) + a trophy for their mantlepiece + January’s cover story.
It is a triple-juried award, meaning that 1 jury creates the longlist, another, different jury selects a shortlist from the longlist, and a third, final jury picks a winner from the shortlist. Surviving 3 juries means the winning album will have survived and pleased 3 separate juries, and dozens of individual jurors.
The award’s name is a contraction of Aurora Borealis: a fitting term for an album that shines brightly enough to stand out among 100+ 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.(Hence the omission of albums like The Once’s new one!)
2.) Have been released between Oct. 31st, 2015, and November 1st, 2016.
This Year We’re Letting a “People’s Pick” onto the Longlist! VOTE BELOW!
More than 100 albums come out of Newfoundland every year. It’s no easy task paring that down to a longlist of 20, so this year we’re knocking the longlist up to 25, and asking for the public to vote on their favourite — the album with the most public votes will automatically be one of the 25 albums on the 2016 longlist, in the running for the award.
Below is the top 50 local albums of 2016 that the first jury came up with, all of which are eligible picks for this “People’s Pick” award ….
Adrian House – Love a Man
AE Bridger – Museum
AM/FM Dreams – In the Soft Corner
Armahain – Being Human
Beauwater – Lovers, Kings, and Fools
Boat Haus – Coulda Swore
Branch Ricky — Volume 1
Cabbages and Kings – Vale
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
Family Video – Places to Sleep
Fairgale – Own the Light
Fretboard Journey — Self-titled
Goreforge – Mythos
Green and Gold – And Then the New Crow Came
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
Kujo – Got Nothin
Lady Brett Ashley – Fault Lines
Laura Jean Fraser – Good Grief
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
Mopey – Total Education
No Culture – River Post Motion
The Novaks – Eager Power Gentle Fury
Pet Legs – Radiation Fog
Pilot to Bombardier – Wild Bells
Plaid Boys – Plaid Boys
Repartee – All Lit Up
Rum Ragged – Self-titled
Ryan Taylor – Nine Songs from Summer Sixteen
Shop Class – Industrial Art
Sonny Tripp – Work
Weird GF – Pineapple Crush
Wolf Kush – 1986
Young Manics – Challenger
Cast Your Vote by Friday the 28th!
What albums do you want to vote for? That’s right, you can have up to THREE PICKS
(Note: DO NOT VOTE TWICE. if you vote twice from the same device, both votes will be deleted!)
The longlist will appear in November’s issue of The Overcast, and online here on Nov. 1st.
Lets Go Rum RAGGED