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Just so we are all ITL (erm, In The Loop), this category revolves around VideoFACT, the Canadian fund which provides grants to new and upcoming Canadian recording artists to assist them in the production of their music videos. The following 5 bands have spent that money well and are therefore the nominees for the VideoFACT Best Independent Video.

Bedouin Soundclash - Walls Fall Down

This stylish trio from Kingston, ON know how to shoot a video. Their multi-pane video for When The Night Feels My Song, put them on the musical map, and their road-trip video for Gyasi Went Home (which was shot in Guyana), showed that they were socially aware. Well, now the boys just want to have fun; thus Walls Fall Down - a one shot video where walls come in and out of the frame, to create various different rooms and scenarios. It’s all so smooth and seamless that all that stands out is the infectious reggae-influenced song itself. Walls may be falling down, but we’re all too busy singing along.

Cancer Bats - Hail Destroyer

While watching the video for Cancer Bats’ Hail Destroyer, you’d never know that the members of this hardcore punk band were apprehensive and somewhat frightened of the unpredictable real-life wolves that were circling them (one of the camera men got his lip gashed open!), but the guys do their best to simply rock out, like they are known to do. Through all the thrashing, shouting and punching the floor, the wolves should be scared of them! Hail Destroyer? Hail Cancer Bats!

Neverending White Lights - Always

If Neverending White Lights’ past videos are any indication, frontman Daniel Victor has a flair for theatrics. His video for Always makes no exception. The video opens up on a car wreck, where two strangers (or are they?) have collided into one another. What follows is an examination of life, before and after a traumatic experience. These flashbacks and flashforwards are touching, effective, and in the end, sweet. It’s a 3-Act mini-play crammed into a 4 minute video where the curtain drops much too soon.

The Russian Futurists - Paul Simon

C’mon, we’ve all done it: put on our headphones, started strutting down the street to our favourite struttable song, and envisioned a music video in our heads. This is the concept behind The Russian Futurists’ video for Paul Simon (which has also shown up on some Samsung Phone ads). There are the dancing passerbys and the strangers who are singing the very song that you are listening to. If only real life were actually this much fun.

Wintersleep - Weighty Ghost

Wintersleep, the tour-happy Juno-winning indie rock band from Nova Scotia, has been hard at work since 2001, but in this past year, the band has been pushed to the forefront of the Canadian music scene. With the video for the single, Weighty Ghost, (with its quiet houses in the nighttime and hooded children running about) Wintersleep has achieved the oddest oxymoron sense of community and isolation. It’s a beautifully eerie feeling from a beautifully shot music video from a band that has more than paid its dues.

Next award category recap: MuchVIBE Best Rap Video!