Hooray! It’s finally time for the music awards that we identify with—the Polaris Music Prize, awarding the Canadian and the creative.
About an hour ago at the Drake Hotel, the long list nominees were announced, and Twitter is already aflutter with who should have made the cut, and doling out congratulations to those who did make it. Of the nominees, Imaginary Cities is the only Winnipeg band to have made the cut, (No Alpha Couple? What a travesty!) and ex-Winnipeggers Neil Young and Luke Doucet are also on the list.
This excitement will last a good 20 days before the short list is announced on July 6, and then we’ll hold onto and bicker over those ten titles until the Polaris Gala on September 19.
Of the nominees, Stylus readers should recognize Miracle Fortress and Colin Stetson from this month’s issue, and Arcade Fire, PS I Love You, Diamond Rings, the Rural Alberta Advantage, Braids, and Women from previous print issues. There’s also a number of weirdo records that the Stylus crew has been talking about this year that are on the list, like Destroyer, Dirty Beaches, Tim Hecker, Little Scream, The Luyas, Timber Timbre, and Young Galaxy. Not to mention there’s been the inclusion of the indie-ubiquitous Buck 65, Black Mountain, Stars, and Sloan.
The rest of these albums should make a bit of a splash over the next couple weeks, but they’re from somewhere in Canada, and someone nominated them—so do check them out!
In all consideration, my money’s already on Braids’ Native Speaker, if the award isn’t preemptively surrendered to Arcade Fire (who have already had world-charting success and a number of awards) in the next couple days.
List is after the jump. Continue reading “Polaris Prize 2011 Nominees Announced”
