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!

Tags: basia bulat, black mountain, caribou, holy fuck, kathleen edwards, plants and animals, polaris prize, shad, sloan, stars, tequila nightclub, the weakerthans, two hours traffic

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.

Tags: polaris prize