Monday 09 August 2010



Polaris ‘10 Shortlist: Dan Mangan Nice, Nice, Very Nice

Will the Nice, Nice guy finish first in the Polaris race?

Just who is this guy Dan Mangan?  Two days shy of the one-year anniversary of the release of Nice, Nice, Very Nice, I still have a hard time wrapping my head around the newly crowned “Indie King” and the success he’s had with a little record that made big waves.  I’ve been trying to put Mangan, the record, and his Polaris nomination into some kind of frame of reference for this post all week.  I decided to borrow a line from my very own QBiM Q&A and ask three questions to answer the one above:  1. Where is he from?  2. How did he get here?  3. Where is he going next?

1. He’s from Vancouver, which goes a ways to explain why, for me, he seemed to appear fully formed out of nowhere.  That’s because for me, Vancouver pretty much is nowhere–at least nowhere I’ve ever been to. I’ve been to Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Quebec City, and Halifax, but never anywhere west of Sault Ste. Marie, so when he sings about downtown Vancouver in “Tina’s Glorious Comeback” I can’t visualize what he’s referring to.  I watched the Winter Olympics, I’ve looked at maps of the city, but there is something elemental that I know is missing for me.  It’s certainly doesn’t stop me from connecting to the music or enjoying it, but I have a real lack of knowledge about the music scene there, so when someone like Mangan comes along, they drop in on me out of the clear blue sky.  I imagine the same is true of people in Vancouver who feel that the Toronto scene is foreign to them.  Still, we’re all Canadians, and familiar with the countries various local scenes or not, we’re bound together by a sense of community that surpasses physical distances.  He’s something new and exciting that reminds us of something familiar and comfortable.  That’s a potent combination.

2.  How Mangan got to the Polaris shortlist is no secret, either.  He toured like a fiend, with just his voice and guitar, across the country, the continent and aboard, saying yes to every gig he was offered, building up fans one at a time.  The experiences he’s had on the road definitely informed his songwriting on Nice, Nice, Very Nice, especially opening track “Road Regrets”.  The end result is that Mangan was able to release an album that got a lot of people talking and taking note. I declared it one of the best records of 2009 last December, but for some unknown reason, I put the record away for a bit shortly thereafter. When considering the whole year’s worth of music for Polaris ’10, Mangan didn’t make the cut on either of my two ballots, though he was certainly in consideration for both.  Now that I’ve come back to the record in order to write this series, I can hear why Mangan is among these 10 artists. As a whole album, Nice, Nice, Very Nice holds up as a consistent suite from start to end.  It’s one of the most charming records I’ve heard in years, brimming with sincerity and warmth.  His songwriting is understated, and under-appreciated, I think.  Even tracks buried deep on the record like “Basket” are invested with emotional integrity and life.  There’s no filler on this record.  Killers, there are a few.  “Road Regrets”, “Sold”, “Tina’s Glorious Comeback” and “Fair Verona” have all managed to seep into my subconscious.  I love the way the album sort of loops in on itself when you’re listening to it on back-to-back repeats, like a never-ending story.

3.  Where is Dan Mangan going next?  To the Polaris winner’s circle is my guess, but not this year.  I picture him becoming another Polaris sweetheart like Owen Pallett and Dan Snaith, often nominated and eventually taking the prize.  Mangan’s also going back into regular rotation at my house after that little break.  Like I said, there wasn’t anything that made me move away from Mangan, it was just one of those things, you know?  We’re like a couple of friends who sort of drift apart for no real reason, and then reconnect again, like no time had past.

This guy Dan Mangan and me?  We’re cool now.

Nice, Nice, Very Nice was released on August 11, 2009 by File Under: Music.

MP3: Dan Mangan “Robots”
Myspace: Dan Mangan
Facebook: Dan Mangan
Twitter: Dan Mangan





by J. Di Gioia | 3 Comments »

This entry was posted on Monday, August 9th, 2010 at 8:30 am and is filed under MP3. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

3 Responses to “Polaris ‘10 Shortlist: Dan Mangan Nice, Nice, Very Nice”

Darcy McGee August 9th, 2010 at 11:15 am

> I picture him becoming another Polaris sweetheart like
> Owen Pallett, often nominated and eventually taking the prize.

Ummm..Owen won the inaugural prize, didn’t he? That would be “nominated first time and winning.”

Which is exactly what’s going to happen to Mangan this year. There’s not a weak track among the bunch (check Fair Verona for the album’s most beautiful) and I have all confidence that Dan will go one to be one of the best singer/songwriters Canada’s ever produced, on a part with Gordon Lightfoot and Bruce Cockburn.

You can mark my words on that.

Before the long list came out there seemed to be a lot of buzz for Besnard Lakes. A great album to be sure, but it’s sound all sort of blends together and there’s nothing to distinguish one track from the other. Dan’s album demonstrates uniqueness from beginning to end.

If you didn’t know it either, Dan is the nicest guy in the Canadian music industry bar none. It’s a can’t lose proposition.

vancouverite August 9th, 2010 at 12:41 pm

“I imagine the same is true of people in Vancouver who feel that the Toronto scene is foreign to them.”
Umm, actually not at all. But thanks for showing your Toronto stripes.

J. Di Gioia August 15th, 2010 at 11:15 am

“thanks for showing your Toronto stripes.”

Oh please. Before you go and make some generalized derogatory comment, do your fucking research. Not everyone in Ontario is directly connected to Toronto or the GTA. A couple of clicks would have told you I don’t live there, and would have saved you from making an ass of yourself in an attempt to make an ass of me.