vintage

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!

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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!

The long list for the third annual Polaris Music Prize has been announced. As the website informs us, the long list consists of the top 40 full-length Canadian records released from June 1, 2007 to May 31, 2008, selected by the 185 members of the Polaris Music Prize jury. Thirty of these albums will be eliminated to produce the 10-album shortlist, to be revealed on July 7.

The Polaris Prize is judged solely on artistic merit, without any regard for record sales; the idea is to reward outstanding Canadian artists who may or may not be enjoying proportionally outstanding sales. The winner of the prize will receive $20,000 and some pretty hefty press. The past two years’ winners were Patrick Watson (2007) and Final Fantasy (2006).

This year’s long (long, long, long) list of Polaris Prize nominees are:

The Acorn, Glory Hope Mountain
Attack In Black, Marriage
Basia Bulat, Oh, My Darling
Black Mountain, In The Future
Born Ruffians, Red, Yellow and Blue
Buck 65, Situation
Cadence Weapon, Afterparty Babies
Cancer Bats, Hail Destroyer
Caribou, Andorra
Christine Fellows, Nevertheless
City And Colour, Bring Me Your Love
Constantines, Kensington Heights
Corb Lund, Horse Solider! Horse Soldier!
Crystal Castles, Crystal Castles
Destroyer, Trouble In Dreams
Fred Eaglesmith, Tinderbox
Gatineau, Gatineau
Ghislain Poirier, No Ground Under
Hayden, In Field And Town
Hilotrons, Happymatic
Holy Fuck, LP
Islands, Arm’s Way
Justin Rutledge, Man Descending
Karkwa, Le volume du vent
Kathleen Edwards, Asking For Flowers
The New Pornographers, Challengers
Pas Chic Chic, Au Contraire
Plants And Animals, Parc Avenue
Protest The Hero, Fortress
The Sadies, New Seasons
Sandro Perri, Tiny Mirrors
Shad, The Old Prince
Socalled, Ghetto Blaster
Stars, In Our Bedroom After The War
Tegan And Sara, The Con
Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra and Tra-La-La Band, 13 Blues for Thirteen Moons
Two Hours Traffic, Little Jabs
Veda Hille, This Riot Life
The Weakerthans, Reunion Tour
Wintersleep, Welcome To The Night Sky

Note to bloggers: think before you decide to type links for a 40-strong list of artists. Wow.

According to Uncut Magazine, duo Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook from the good ol’ pop/new-wave band Squeeze took home the “Outstanding Contribution to British Music” at the Ivor Novello songwriting awards. The ceremony was held in London on Tuesday; other winners included Radiohead, Amy Winehouse, Mika, Phil Collins, and a Lifetime Achievement Award for David Gilmour (Pink Floyd).

More exciting, though, is the magazine’s report that “[the] band plan to start work on their first album in ten years in 2009.” Squeeze’s last album, Domino, was released in 1998 to less-than-stellar reviews. Their best works, however, including back-to-back Argybargy (1980) and East Side Story (1981), are excellently crafted pop masterpieces; lyricist Difford and composer Tilbrook are oft-compared to Lennon & McCartney, more in terms of sheer songwriting prowess than actual stylistic similarities. Whether or not the comparison is a good one, there is no denying that Squeeze - who have an impressive 22 releases to their name, including a 6-disc remastered box set, Live at the Royal Albert Hall, and some singles and greatest hits collections - are certainly top contenders in the songwriting department, and a new record is an exciting prospect.

The band has announced quite a few tour dates for the summer, which you can browse here. Currently, their only Canadian date is — wait for it — Toronto; they’ll be hitting the Kool Haus on August 28th, supported by Aimee Mann. I have had my ticket for about three weeks already and will probably be first in line. Pack a lunch and come keep me company.

Last week (sorry, I’ve been a bit slow) saw the announcement of the East Coast Music Award winners, and boy … were there some real winners. Allow me - here are some highlights:

Recording of the Year: Joel Plaskett Emergency, Ashtray Rock
Group Recording of the Year: Joel Plaskett Emergency, Ashtray Rock
Single of the Year: Joel Plaskett Emergency, “Fashionable People”
Songwriter of the Year: Joel Plaskett, for “Fashionable People”
Rock Recording of the Year: Joel Plaskett Emergency, Ashtray Rock
Video of the Year: Joel Plaskett Emergency, Fashionable People (Randall Thorne)

I think I’m seeing a pattern here.

I guess there’s little to comment on, as the slew of awards speak for themselves. Joel is certainly well-deserving of attention, and lately he’s getting it in spades; the Polaris Prize nomination for this same album brought him a great deal of recognition that was, previously, sorely lacking. Not that the East Coast didn’t know about the Halifax native before, but I guess everyone can do with a few reminders.

Other notable award winners, though, include Prince Edward Island’s sweet foursome Two Hours Traffic for pop album of the year. Little Jabs was on my pick of the top 10 records of 2007, and while sometimes the sugar can grate a little, the album is tight and hooky and certainly deserving of the award. They seem destined for great things (and, coincidentally, opened for Plaskett for the final two nights of his Horseshoe residency); I wouldn’t be surprised if we heard a lot more about them in 2008.

There were few surprises at the East Coast Music Awards this year. George Canyon took the fan choice award for the fourth straight year, Classified came out with the best hip-hop recording, and the Rankin Family took the best DVD award (a category in which former Haligonians Sloan were also nominated, for a tour DVD filmed by Small Sins‘ Kevin Hilliard). Nothing came close to Joel Plaskett’s 6 awards, but quite frankly, not a whole lot came close to Ashtray Rock, either.

Next awards: the Junos, from my hometown of good old Calgary! Stay tuned.

… I solemnly swear not to post about the Joel Plaskett Emergency for the next little while. What can I say? He’s been a busy guy.

Well, here we are, in the aftermath of this year’s Grammys. I didn’t even watch them, so I can’t comment on the excellent performances or the faux-pas, the red carpet hullaballoo or the dresses, or the fact that Amy Winehouse couldn’t collect her five (!) awards due to the fact she couldn’t get a visa. They tried to make her go to rehab … er.

Anyway, it’s true. Winehouse picked up five Grammy awards last night, and not small ones, either. “Rehab” won both Song and Record of the Year as well as Best Female Pop Vocal Performance; her album Back to Black won Best Pop Vocal Album, and she picked up Best New Artist. “New” is always a baffling category; it seems to mean ’we finally realised you existed this year,’ even though Winehouse had released an album prior to Back to Black. It didn’t do as well, of course, but “new”? Hardly. Still, this is not nearly as head-scratching as the nomination of Leslie Feist for the same category. Uh … what?

Curiously, the winner of Album of the Year went to a - gasp! - jazz album. I wonder how many people were up in arms about that one. That’s right, Herbie Hancock’s River: The Joni Letters took the prestigious best album title, as well as winning Best Contemporary Jazz Album. Not bad, especially for an album in tribute to a Canadian artist. (Interestingly, Joni herself won an award for Best Pop Instrumental from her new record Shine.) I’ve got to say that I’m actually impressed with the Grammys for awarding the Album of the Year to a less-than-mainstream genre; there will be speculation about their “hidden intentions” for that one, I’m sure (pandering to jazz fans! trying to garner interest from the less mainstream!) but really, it’s nice to know they actually liked a jazz record enough to award it that highly for once.

Some of the less-publicised awards, though, are even more interesting. Levon Helm (formerly of The Band) won Best Traditional Folk Album for Dirt Farmer. Bright Eyes’ Cassadaga won for Best Recording Package. And yes, ladies and gents, Barack Obama - that one - picked one up for Best Spoken Word album, for the audiobook of his own The Audacity of Hope. Now that’s news. Is the United States ready for its first Grammy-Award-winning black president? I’d vote for him.

See the complete list of winners here: Fields 1-8 and Fields 9-26.