Best of MTL 2015: Music

Patrick Watson Montrealers continue to salute former Montrealers who made their name here, and we’ll continue to not disqualify the likes of Grimes and Mac DeMarco until they’re given keys to their respective cities. Arcade Fire’s presence is no surprise, but there are quite a few new names in the mix: We welcome Ms. Holmes […]

PW - band_photo_1_v3
Patrick Watson

Montrealers continue to salute former Montrealers who made their name here, and we’ll continue to not disqualify the likes of Grimes and Mac DeMarco until they’re given keys to their respective cities. Arcade Fire’s presence is no surprise, but there are quite a few new names in the mix: We welcome Ms. Holmes to the new Best Solo Act category, USA Out of Vietnam (feat. Cult MTL columnist Johnson Cummins) to Heaviest Act, the Posterz to Best Hip Hop Act, ¡FLIST! to Freakiest Act and Sin and Swoon to Best Country/Folk Act, all of them deserving of their places in the Top 5. And congrats to Devon Welsh, whose project Majical Cloudz made the Best Band list while the man himself snuck into the Singer-Songwriter category. (FYI, Patrick Watson is a dude, but he’s also a band!)

Best Band
1 Arcade Fire
2 Half Moon Run
3 The Barr Brothers
4 Majical Cloudz
5 Godspeed You! Black Emperor
6 TOPS
7 Monarchs of Disarray
8 The Damn Truth
9 Motel Raphaël
10 Double Date With Death

Best Solo Act
1 Patrick Watson
2 Leonard Cohen
3 Wiz Kilo
4 Grimes
5 Ms. Holmes
6 Bloodshot Bill
7 Will Butler
8 Sean Nicholas Savage
9 Bud Rice
10 Pete Warning

Freakiest Local Act
1 Mac DeMarco
2 Jean Leloup
3 Bad Uncle
4 Duchess Says
5 ¡FLIST!
6 Glam Gam
7 Cheap Wig
8 Sean Nicholas Savage
9 The BCASA
10 Commander Clark

Most Pretentious Act
1 Arcade Fire
2 Lakes of Canada
3 Braids
4 Godspeed You! Black Emperor
5 Pierre Lapointe
6 Coeur de Pirate
7 TOPS
8 Jonas
9 Karneef
10 Monarchs of Disarray

Heaviest Act
1 Endast
2 Godspeed You! Black Emperor
3 USA Out of Vietnam
4 Mad Parish
5 Death Proof
6 Dark Century
7 Cryptopsy
8 Monarchs of Disarray
9 Steve Jr.
10 Clay and Friends

Best Hip Hop Act
1 Nomadic Massive
2 Dead Obies
3 Cadence Weapon
4 The Posterz
5 Loud Lary Ajust
6 Clay & Friends
7 Hua Li
8 Kalmunity
9 Radio Radio
10 Annakin Slayd

Best Club DJ
1 Vilify
2 Tamika
3 Like the Wolf
4 DJ Dio
5 Construct
6 Heidy P
7 Tiga
8 Guilty
9 Yo-C
10 Diskommander

Best Electronic Act
1 Seoul
2 Grimes
3 Kaytranada
4 She-Devils
5 Chromeo
6 Diamond Bones
7 Iron Galaxy
8 Robert Robert
9 Saxsyndrum
10 Orbital Mechanics

Best Country/Folk Act
1 The Barr Brothers
2 Katie Moore
3 Po Lazarus
4 Sin and Swoon
5 Ol Savannah
6 Li’l Andy
7 Moonshine Garage
8 Old Time Honey
9 Notre Dame de Grass
10 Lakes of Canada

Best Jazz Act
1 Kalmunity
2 Static Gold
3 Emma Frank
4 Angela Galuppo
5 Beth McKenna
6 Nomad
7 Colin Stetson
8 Jazzamboka
9 Davida Syne
10 Erik Hove

Best Singer-Songwriter
1 Patrick Watson
2 Leonard Cohen
3 Coeur de Pirate
4 Mike Feuerstack
5 Devon Welsh
6 Ms. Holmes
7 Sarah Segal Lazar
8 Bud Rice
9 Shane Murphy
10 Pete Warning

Best Busker
1 Spoonman
2 Boat guy
3 Bolero
4 Street Meat
5 Clay and Friends
6 Old Time Honey
7 Greg Halpin (bearded guy at Guy metro)
8 Caravonica
9 Emily Skahan
10 Philippe Mius d’Entremont

Best Music Label
1 Constellation
2 Indica
3 Arbutus
4 Stomp
5 Dare to Care
6 Secret City
7 Bonsound
8 Grosse Boîte
9 Art Not Love
10 Saturn Returns

 

See the rest of the Best of MTL here:

PEOPLE & PLACES
MEDIA
NIGHTLIFE
FILM & ARTS
GOODS & SERVICES
FOOD & DRINK