New Canucks Entry Song: Japandroids The House That Heaven Built

Back in January the Vancouver Canucks decided that with a new season they should introduce a new song for when their players hit the ice at Rogers Arena. While many loved U2’s “Where the Streets Have No Name”, almost just as many loathed it as the entry song. So, the Canucks tried a few options on for size during their first few home games before settling on “The House That Heaven Built” by the Vancouver-based alt-rock duo, Japandroids.

According to the Canucks, there were over 2,850 submissions for the new entry song, which they called Project NU2. They whittled down their choices and provided fans with six options. “A Warrior’s Call” by Volbeat, “Welcome to the Jungle” by Guns N’ Roses, “Burn It To The Ground” by Nickelback, “We Are” by Static in the Stars, “Stockholm” by DJ MEG, and the winning track “The House That Heaven Built” by Japandroids.

Early in the game, ” Welcome to the Jungle was running away with the contest, with Burn It To The Ground placing second,” says Derek Jory on the Canucks website. But then something big happened to propel “The House That Heaven Built” to the top of the stack:

The pair of Brian King and David Prowse was acclaimed by a number of music publications in 2012 – Pitchfork, SPIN, Rolling Stone and more — and has been nominated for a Juno and for the Polaris Music Prize for its album Celebration Rock.
SPIN, which named Japandroids “band of the year” in 2012, apparently gave the King and Prowse the edge when it asked for fans to rally behind the song and to go vote en masse. [Vancouver Sun]

That boost from SPIN was a doozy. Around 18,000 fan votes were tallied and the Canucks skated onto the ice Tuesday, February 26, 2013 with the help of Brian King and David Prowse’s tune.

Feedback so far has mostly been celebrating the fact that “Japandroids beat Nickelback!” but even for those who don’t make it to games and who might not even hear the opening track as it is accompanied by sirens and spotlights, it’s still small a victory for local talent.

From here, U2 will still be heard and even Nickelback will continue to be added to the mix. Japandroids simply join the rotation and nightly mix of crowd-pumping beats “all in the hopes of discovering the ultimate song to get the Canucks going at the ultimate moment.”