Monday February 11, 2002 @ 05:30 PM
By: ChartAttack.com Staff

It was a veritable who's who of the Canadian music scene this morning at CTV's Mike Bullard headquarters, the Masonic Temple, as the 2002 Juno Awards nominees were introduced at a schmaltzy press conference fit for Canadian television. Prior to the announcements, Chart staffers could be seen hobnobbing with celebs such as Jay Ferguson and Gordie Johnson while Ed Robertson of the Barenaked Ladies discussed security at the Super Bowl and hand-delivered hors d'oeuvres to star-struck press folks.

Robertson and the rest of the BNL posse were on hand in support of the ever un-funny and completely offensive Mike Bullard (note to Bullard: suggesting that Canada’s top hip-hop stars are a bunch of car stereo thieves while they’re sitting right in front of you is not funny), to announce the Top eight categories as well as to show off some of their charm and wit, which will surely be on display when they host the actual event April 14 in St. John's, Newfoundland.

While most of the nominees should come as no surprise to anyone who either listens to mainstream Canadian music or has paid attention to the Junos over the years, there were a few eyebrow-raisers. Most notably, post-punk indie darlings The Constantines received a nomination for Best Alternative Album (along with The Rheostatics, The Joel Plaskett Emergency, Hawksley Workman and Rufus Wainwright). Amusingly, in the Best New Group category, the very old and now-defunct band Smoother somehow managed to get the nomination. All of the other bands nominated for the category — Default, Joydrop, Sugar Jones and Wave — are backed by major labels, giving credence to the idea that the Junos are still largely a forum for the best-in-major-label artists.

Leading the way in total nominations are Our Lady Peace with five nominations including Best Album (Spiritual Machines), Best Single, Best Group, Best Design and Best Video. As for Nickelback, the biggest Canadian band in the world (for the time being), they have been nominated for four: Best Album, Best Group, Best Single and Best Rock Album. Leonard Cohen matches Nickelback’s four with nominations for Best Video, Best Artist, Best Songwriter and Best Pop Album.

In an interesting twist, Edge and Much Music faves the Matthew Good Band have been all but shut out of the festivities, picking up a paltry two nominations. One nomination pits them against their arch nemeses Nickelback and Our Lady Peace for the Best Group award — ironic in that MGB are not really much of a "group" at all anymore. MGB’s other nomination is in the Best Album Design category, which has relatively little to do with the band themselves. If we're all lucky the mudslinging that these bands have been party to recently will be refueled through the direct competition. The Raine/Matt/Chad three-way cat-fight we're all hoping for could happen April 14. But we'd have to pry Mr. Good away from his hammock in Hawaii in order to do so.

On the rather big plus side, somehow the organizers of the event have managed to do something that previous ones have been unable to do for some time: have most of the biggest names in Canadian music scheduled to perform at the award show. While each year one or two big-name artists grace the stage, 2002 will see Alanis Morissette, Nelly Furtado, Diana Krall, Amanda Marshall, Nickelback, Sum 41 and Great Big Sea all perform on the Rock. While the line-up is impressive, it is a little strange that some of Canada's biggest and best hip-hop/R’n’B artists will be all but invisible this year.

To see the complete listing of nominees check the Junos website.

—Steve Servos


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