Making a list and checking it twice... the 2013 Polaris Long List

It's quiet around here. Too quiet.

The Polaris Music Prize is usually a sure-fire conversation starter among lovers of Canadian indie (and not-so-indie) and in CBC Radio 3 land. But this year's long list announcement seems to have come and gone with little debate. Could it be-- gasp-- that people actually agree with the list?

For the most part, we stay out of campaigning for bands to win. You can't just say, "I love that band, their album is my favourite, so they should win." That's not what Polaris is about. And unless you listen to every album, how can you make an informed decision?

But looking it over, it really is a great list this year. There's lots of Radio 3 talent, just plain talent, and a satisfying amount of diversity: Colin Stetson, METZ, A Tribe Called Red and best of all, artists we've never heard of waiting to be discovered.

So here's the long list. Let us know: do you agree?

By the way, our friends over at NxEW have already announced the Shadow Polaris. Stop by and vote. The results are always interesting and unlike the name, rarely shadow the actual winners.

Vote in the Shadow Polaris

The Polaris Music Prize is one of the most hotly debated topics on the CBC Radio 3 blog. Nominees are too commercial (Arcade Fire won last year). Nominees aren't commercial enough (Drake didn't make the list in 2011, but did this year). How could judges leave this album off? (Ahem, Brasstronaut's Mean Sun). How could they include that album?



Part of the reason Polaris is so polarizing is because the criteria is so open-ended:

"Polaris recognizes and markets albums of the highest artistic integrity, without regard to musical genre, professional affiliation, or sales history. It is adjudicated by selected music journalists, broadcasters and bloggers."


"Artistic integrity." That's it.


There are a lot of great albums from Radio 3 bands and artists on the 2012 long list: Marie-Pierre Arthur, Rich Aucoin, Handsome Furs, Fucked Up (who won in 2009, confounding music journalists everywhere), Great Lake Swimmers, Parlovr and more. If you want to voice your opinion about what you think is the best Canadian album of 2012, you can get in on the voting action. For the fourth year, our friends over at www.nxew.ca are running the Shadow Polaris. The 40 long-listed albums are automatically included, so this is your chance to nominate albums you think the jury overlooked. (Ahem, Brasstronaut's Mean Sun).

Show Alert: We're off to the lakes... The Besnard Lakes.

Since the current The Besnard Lakes and Malajube Canada/US tour is not coming through Windsor/Detroit, we thought we would take Windsor/Detroit west and invite the readers of N2D to join us for a road trip to Kalamazoo on Weds., Oct. 5.

The Besnard Lakes

Photo: Russ Gordon/N2D Images

The Besnard Lakes w/ Malajube 

The Strutt  773 West Michigan

Kalamazoo, MI     (Map)

Show Review: Hey Rosetta! @ the Magic Stick

"With summer tour dates starting today at the Magic Stick in the magical land of Detroit..."-- from Hey Rosetta! on their blog.

"Magical" isn't usually an adjective associated with Detroit, but Newfoundland's Hey Rosetta!-- singer/guitarist/keyboardist Tim Baker, guitarist Adam Hogan, bassist Jon Hynes (filling in very ably for Josh Ward), drummer Phil Maloney, violinist Kinley Dowling and cellist Romesh Thavanathan-- and their exquisite, soaring alt rock made it that way for N2D and a small but fervent group of fans at the Magic Stick on Tues., Jun. 28. This time taking the stage as the headliner, they opened with "Seeds" from their latest album of the same name, which includes the sound of two pieces of wood clacked together by Thavanathan. It's a fitting metaphor for the two-time Polaris short-listers because they excel at taking the ordinary from germination to emotionally percussive and poignant blooms.

"We've put together a new set list for this tour, and we're trying it out for the first time tonight," lead singer and guitarist/keyboardist Tim Baker announced. We have a set list from the show for you to win if you answer the question at the end of this blog correctly. But the band didn't get a chance to put it to the test: Detroit had a little magic of its own in store for Hey Rosetta! Obviously surprised by the level of adoration from the audience-- and count us among them-- they departed from the set list to satisfy requests, delivering characteristically stirring renditions of "I've Been Asleep For A Long, Long Time" and "Red Heart" (from their 2008 release, Into Your Lungs) and "Lions for Scottie" (from their debut EP, Plan Your Escape).

If you weren't able to make the show, or are a Hey Rosetta! fan, they're returning to the Detroit area on Sat., Sep. 17, playing the DIY Street Fair in Ferndale. Set time is 7:30 p.m. You can also hear them on Mon., Sep. 19 when they perform for the Polaris Prize Gala (when winners are announced) along with other nominees. CBC Radio 3 will be broadcasting the event live; you can also listen on SiriusXM channel 152.

Photos: Russ Gordon/N2D Images

Much of the inspiration for Seeds came from Hey Rosetta!'s travels through a certain part of Canada. Email us with either the province or a town they visited on that tour in 2009 and the set list from their show in Detroit on Jun. 28 is yours.

Show Alert: Hey Rosetta! @ the Magic Stick

Tues., Jun. 28
w/ the Prime Ministers (Detroit)

One of our favourite bands return, this time as the headliner at the Magic Stick in Detroit, after a too-short set last September opening for Hot Hot Heat (really, we're over it now). In our humble opinion, Hey Rosetta!, from St. John's, Newfoundland, make some of the most beautiful music around. Polaris voters seem to agree. Into Your Lungs (and around in your heart, and on through your blood) was on the 2009 short list; this year's Seeds is already on the 2011 long list. But don't take our word for it:



Can't make it to Detroit? Here are more upcoming tour dates.

June 29 - BEACHLAND BALLROOM & TAVERN, Cleveland, OH - 8:00 pm - ALL AGES
June 30 - LAFAYETTE SQUARE, Buffalo, NY - 5:00 pm - ALL AGES & FREE PERFORMANCE
July 1 – DOWNSVIEW PARK, Toronto, ON – 4:45 pm *CANADA DAY^
July 7 – SHAW PARK, Winnipeg, MB – 7:00 pm^
July 8 – LEBRETON FLATS, Ottawa, ON – 9:00 pm *BLUESFEST
July 14 – NORTHLANDS GROUNDS, Edmonton, AB – 6:00 pm^
July 15 – DEER LAKE PARK, Vancouver BC – 6:00 pm w/The Tragically Hip
July 16 - MAIN STREET STATION, Breckenridge, CO - 8:00 pm
July 29 – NORTH BAY WATERFRONT, North Bay, ON – 9:00 pm w/City & Colour
July 30 – PARC JEAN DRAPEAU, Montreal, PQ – *OSHEAGA
July 31 – GLASGOW SQUARE THEATRE – New Glasgow, NS – 10:25 pm
August 2 – PRINCE EDWARD PLAZA, St. John’s NF – 9:30 pm w/Plants and Animals
August 6 – CREDIT UNION PLACE, Summerside, PEI – 9:00 pm
August 7 – ALDERNEY LANDING, Dartmouth, NS – *MFEST
August 15 – WOODY POINT HERITAGE THEATRE, Woody Point, NF – 8:00 pm
August 16 – WOODY POINT HERITAGE THEATRE, Woody Point, NF – 8:00 pm
August 17 – WOODY POINT HERITAGE THEATRE, Woody Point, NF – 8:00 pm

^ w/Broken Social Scene and The Tragically Hip

Show Alert: Sam Roberts Band w/ Zeus @ St. Andrews Hall

One of us has been anticipating this show for a long time. That would be Yort, who's always considered Sam Roberts her "gateway drug" to Canadian indie music, and whose very first Canadian indie show was the Sam Roberts Band with Mother Mother back in February 2009 at St. Andrews Hall in Detroit.

The Juno award winner returns this Wednesday to the same venue, with a new album-- Collider-- and another great opening band, Zeus, whose album Say Us made the Polaris Music Prize long list in 2010.

Listen:
Sam Roberts Band, "Fixed to Ruin," from Love at the End of the World
Zeus, "Kindergarten," from Say Us

Meet us in the middle

Hey Rosetta! hails from St. John's, Newfoundland, the most easterly point of Canada. Hot Hot Heat are based in Vancouver, British Columbia-- the opposite end of the country. Beyond geography, there is a lot that separates these two bands, but this Saturday they meet in the middle of North America to play the Pike Room of the Crofoot in Pontiac.

The scene is somewhat reminiscent of the Dan Mangan/The Wooden Birds bill last month: darlings of the Canadian indie scene gaining exposure in the U.S. thanks to vets with an established American audience. Formed in 2005, Hey Rosetta! released their first album, Plan Your Escape, in 2007 to much acclaim, followed by the stunningly beautiful, award-winning and 2009 Polaris Music Prize short-listed Into Your Lungs. Like Mangan, they deserve to be discovered here.

Hot Hot Heat has paid their dues and won a few awards themselves over 11 years of recording and touring. Hits from 2002's Make Up the Breakdown ("Bandages"), 2005's Elevator ("Middle of Nowhere," "Goodnight Goodnight") and Happiness Ltd.-- which will have been released exactly two years from Saturday's concert date-- have received regular airplay on Detroit/Windsor radio stations like 89X and 93.9 The River. Lead singer Steve Bays might describe the inspiration for their latest album, Future Breeds, as “Basically, if it sounded like something we’d done before, then it was like we were cheating," but their brash sound is as popular as ever. (Photo by Darren Ankeman)

Yukon Ho!

When we first saw Yukon Blonde in February at Windsor's Phog Lounge, the buzz was just starting to build for this Kelowna, B.C.-based band and their 60s-inspired sound. Since then, they've been touring almost non-stop--we saw them a second time in May at Detroit's Magic Stick--and their star has continued to rise, all the way to a spot on the Polaris long list.

All good reasons why we'll be back at the Phog this Thursday to see and support them again, but not the only ones. We'll be back because in addition to putting on a solid vintage-style rock and roll show full of great guitar licks, sing-along lyrics and ear-pleasing harmonies, they're just plain really nice guys. Hope to see you there!

Photos: Russ Gordon

Shadow Polaris - Short List

NxEW's Shadow Polaris Short List. (vote now)

Voting is on in the final round of our 2nd annual Shadow Polaris. Because of a tie there are actually 11 albums on our 'short list'.

Four of them are on the real Polaris Short List: the Besnard Lakes, Broken Social Scene, Dan Mangan and the Sadies.

Four of them were on the Polaris Long List but not the short list: Amelia Curran, Holy Fuck, Justin Rutledge, and the Wooden Sky.

Three of them were on neither list: Julie Fader, Ohbijou and Schomberg Fair.

Voting in this final round will go on for over two months and will close on Sept. 22, 2010 - two days after the 2010 Polaris Music Prize gala.

You can vote once per day for only one album. The candidates are listed in alphabetical order and bear no relation to the number of votes each received in the last round.