By PAUL CANTIN
Senior Reporter, JAM! Showbiz

TORONTO -- Our Lady Peace, Nickelback, and Leonard Cohen are top nominees for this year's Juno Awards, organizers announced Monday. OLP led the list of nominees with five: best album, best group, best single, best album design and best video. Contacted in Vancouver, where the group was busy mixing its fifth, as-yet-untitled album, drummer Jeremy Taggart said the nominations caught the band off-guard.

"I had no idea (the nominations were to be announced)," Taggart said Monday, adding that the group's focus has been on completing the new album, to the exclusion of all other distractions.

"Our manager called to let us know. We were like -- 'Awesome! Let's make this next song.'"

Taggart said the group is so focused on the new album -- their first without founding guitarist Mike Turner -- that they won't likely be able to perform at the Juno ceremony, but members of the band hope to be able to attend as spectators.

The nominations for the group's "Spiritual Machines," which was based on the writings of futurist Ray Kurzweil, give a boost to an album that was viewed by some as Our Lady Peace's most intellectually challenging work.

"The thing about that record is, it is a straight-up rock album, but it is kind of sad that it turned off a couple of people, because of this intellectual thing, where people felt you had to read the book to get the album," Taggart explained.

"It's basically a simple album ... it's not 'Quadrophenia.' Our main concern was to make a great record, and I think that came through."

Meanwhile, venerable singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen is up for best artist, best songwriter, best pop album, and best video.

Nickelback -- which has enjoyed a breakthrough year in the U.S. with their album "Silver Side Up" and will perform on the Juno Awards broadcast -- earned nominations for best album, best group, best single, and best rock album. Engineer Randy Staub is also nominated for his work on the album.

Sum 41 (best album, best group, and best rock album), Diana Krall (best album, best artist, best jazz vocal album), and Hawksley Workman (best video, best alternative album, and best new solo artist) earned three nominations apiece.

Artists landing two nominations apiece include La Bottine Souriante (best selling Francophone album, best roots and traditional album, best group); Wave (best single, best new group); Amanda Marshall (best single, best artist); Sloan (best single, best rock album); Rufus Wainwright (best songwriter, best alternative album); Jelleestone (best new solo artist, best rap recording); Gabrielle Destroismaisons (best new solo artist, best selling Francophone album); and Sugar Jones (best new group, best R&B/Soul Recording).

Barenaked Ladies, who are hosting this year's ceremonies in St. John's, Newfoundland, said the trick to emceeing the show will be mixing a scripted live telecast with their own gift for improvisation.

BNL is in the midst of a self-imposed one-year break from the cycle of recording and touring, but they've scarcely been out of the spotlight.

"We're kind of the Celine Dion of 2002. How can we miss you if you won't go away?," Page told JAM! Music.

"We're going to take the summer off, at least. We want to get working on a new record, but there's no rush."

Added Ed Robertson: "We only really took three gigs during this six-month period. They just happen to be the Super Bowl, the Olympics, and hosting the Junos. They are high-profile things, but we are laying low. We're not sleeping on a tour bus, so that makes us happy."

This year marks a switch for the Junos, which are jumping from CBC to CTV. Monday's press conference was held at the historic Masonic Temple, now home to the latter network's "Open Mike With Mike Bullard."

But Bullard himself got the new relationship with the Junos off to a rocky start, when he suggested to the crowd he was glad the nominated hip-hop acts were seated in the front row, so his car radio wouldn't be stolen. When the joke got an icy reception, Bullard jabbed at the audience of reporters and musicians for not laughing.

Meanwhile, Juno vet Snow, who is nominated for best video and for his collaboration with Ghetto Concept, said he's noticed a few changes in the awards show over the years.

"It is all the same, just the people's faces change. But it is a lot more urban. That is starting to show. It's not like they didn't want to (nominate urban acts in the past), but more of us are coming together and doing it right," he said.

Fresh off a Japanese tour, Sloan's Jay Ferguson said he was pleased the group's album, "Pretty Together," was nominated in the rock category.

"We're usually in the alternative album/alternative band category. (This year) we're rock album and best single. It is very nice we got nominated. I'm very pleasantly surprised. I thought maybe our album came out too late, but I guess it is fine," he said.

"Pretty Together" marked a shift for Sloan; instead of working in a professional recording studio, they used new technology to digitally record the music using an Apple computer. Ferguson said it's a method the group will likely stick with.

"You can do stuff at home. It sounds great. It is just totally liberating, and it is less expensive," he said.

Rufus Wainwright took his double-nomination for his album "Poses" in stride. After all, he was first nominated for a Juno when he was 13, for his work on the soundtrack to "Tommy Tricker And The Stamp Collector."

"So this is old hat," he joked, adding that he attended the ceremony that first year, but when my name came up, nobody clapped." (He didn't win.)

Hamilton, Ont.-bred producer Daniel Lanois, who will be inducted into the Juno Hall Of Fame this year, is also up for best producer, for his work with U2.

As is often the case with the Junos, some of the categories create strange bedfellows. The strangest is this year's list of finalists for best pop album: The austere sounds of Emm Gryner's "Girl Versions" and Cohen's "Ten New Songs" are up against David Usher's lush "Morning Orbit," the dark, rootsy ambience of Cowboy Junkies' "Open", and the fizzy pop of animated act Prozzak's "Saturday People."

Wainwright's album is likewise curiously nominated in the "best alternative" category.

"Best alternative is a little funny. I was nominated for that on my first record. You know, whatever. Winners can't be chosers," Wainwright shrugged.

"The industry is such today I don't think anybody knows what to call anything. Nothing makes sense."

The awards are being handed out April 14 in St. John's, Newfoundland. Along with BNL, performers confirmed for the show are Nickelback, Sum 41, Alanis Morissette, Nelly Furtado, Amanda Marshall, Diana Krall, and Great Big Sea.


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