Polaris Prize short list + SLOAN

July 7th, 2008 at 12.25pm (Awards, Concert reviews, News)

Sorry about my continued absences. I am currently knee-deep in the 2008 Calgary Stampede, where I work as a guest services supervisor; it leaves little time for such frivolities as music blogging. But here I am on a bit of downtime ready to give you exciting things to read again. I know how excited you are, trust me.

The Polaris Music Prize shortlist was announced today! The final ten vying for the prize are:

Black Mountain, In the Future
Basia Bulat, Oh, My Darling
Caribou, Andorra
Holy Fuck, LP
Kathleen Edwards, Asking for Flowers
Plants and Animals, Parc Avenue
Stars, In Our Bedroom After the War
Shad, The Old Prince
Two Hours Traffic, Little Jabs
The Weakerthans, Reunion Tour

Place your bets now!

—

Yesterday I also had the opportunity to see Sloan. Again. This time they played in Calgary at the Tequila Nightclub, not a place I would ever go to of my own accord. It used to be The Republik (which has since been resurrected a few blocks down the road), where Sloan played back in the day, interestingly enough.

I only got to see the last half of the show, which contained exactly one song from Parallel Play (lead-off track and single “Believe in Me,” which was a terrific live rocker). Old favourites in the set included “People of the Sky,” “Who Taught You To Live Like That?” and “Money City Maniacs.” The crowd was a beer-drinking Stampede party group but seemed to be really into the show, which was nice.

Many thanks go to Mike from the Sloan ‘entourage’ who helped me make it to the show after work in the first place. Working til 12.30 is not usually a situation conducive to going to see shows, but you know how it is … things always work out in the end.

By the way, some of you may remember me mentioning how Yep Roc had failed to send me my copy of Parallel Play at the time I wrote my review. Well, it finally came - on July 2. Three weeks and a day late! I will tell this story in full so you can experience the good times with me (ha, ha).

Have a good week, everybody!

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3 Comments

  1. barbara said,

    July 11, 2008 at 9.16pm

    I hope all your little trained Howdies are doing you proud. Stampede is almost done, you can make it!

    An interesting Polaris shortlist this year. I’ve got a few favourites.

  2. matthew said,

    July 19, 2008 at 4.23pm

    Why did you go to Yep Roc for Parallel Play? Why not just go to Murderecords/Sony BMG?

  3. Ruh said,

    July 29, 2008 at 2.53am

    Barb, I’m definitely intrigued re: shortlist … I’m rooting for Basia Bulat or the Weakerthans, but I really have no idea who might take it. Kathleen Edwards is pretty awesome too.

    Matt, I went to Yep Roc because they had this nice and shiny little package deal that I thought would be super convenient (LP + CD for a reduced price in combination), and I figured since I was working so much around the time the album was released it would be easier to have it sent to me than go buy it. Little did I know that was totally not the case. Oh well. Live and learn.

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