Dynammy Award Nominees 2010

It's that time of the year again when people feel obligated to give presents to relatives they can barely remember, and websites feel obligated to give awards to artists they've never met. The main difference is that I thoroughly enjoy putting together the annual Dynammy Awards, while I can't stand the thought of elbowing my way through a crowded shopping mall at this time of year. Another difference is that I'm far more likely to receive a thank you note from my Aunt Edna than I am from Arcade Fire.

Yes, it was a good year for the Arcade Fire who achieved the kind of success most alternative artists can only dream of, with the Suburbs hitting #1 in the US, UK and Canada, so it's hard for me to label them as alternative any more.

Putting together this list made me realize what a great year this was for Canadian music with terrific releases from Broken Social Scene, Wolf Parade, Tegan & Sara, The New Pornographers, and The Besnard Lakes. Any one of these bands could be the next Canadian artist to break through to the next level. 

An expatriate Canadian who scored two more Dynammy Award nominations this year is Dan Snaith, better known as Caribou, who lives in London, England but was born in London, Ontario. He's contending for Song Of The Year and Best Sound Quality, an award he won in 2008 for Andorra.

He'll be competing against another former winner, LCD Soundsystem, who won two awards in the very first Dyanmmys for Best Song and Best Group, and in retrospect they probably should have won for Best Sound Quality as well.

Here's the complete list of nominees, as chosen by yours truly, and you can place your vote for the Listener's Choice Awards where you can tell me your favourites or tell me which artists I missed. I'll be announcing my choices and yours on Grammy weekend so you can compare and contrast. I'm pretty sure our choices will be better.

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Here's some mp3 clips of all the nominees in case you need help deciding: