(Untitled)

[rockstarsrus]

The shortlist for the 2007 Polaris Music Prize was revealed today. Miracle Fortress is a nice surprise, although the rest of the choices (save The Besnard Lakes, perhaps) are fairly obvious. It's disappointing, too, that Chad VanGaalen is the only nominee who resides west of Ontario. I was hoping for Woodpigeon's Songbook album to come in as a dark

Comments

two cents

[spider_will]

i was kind of secretly hoping that Maybe smith might show up as the darkest of dark horses on said list.

that being said, i think i'd vote for the ladies, with the caveat that i've yet to hear that Miracle Fortress in it's entirety.

[skumbucket]

some might argue that these days feist represents calgary more than toronto, also.

and i think handsome furs was released outside the time restrictions. it could make next years list, if i'm not mistaken.

[procrastin_8]

I think the ladies are a long shot but perhaps I put too much stock in patriarchy. I think that it will be chad vangaalen or patrick watson, both arty enough to win the crowds and small enough that the prize would be a significant boost to them and probably mentioned in all their press - can't say the same of Feist or Arcade Fire (although CBC has hearts' in its eyes when it thinks of patrick watson - does that make him big?).

Moral of the story - I have no idea what I am talking about!

smugly canadian

[the_jelly]

as an thought experiment, who would you put on the american version of the polaris prize? i don't know if you could get the same sort of arty, smallish artists, just because there are too many artists like that scattered all over the states.

Re: smugly canadian

[rockstarsrus]

I think you're right. It takes a lot of publicity for an American artist to get on a list like this, whereas if a few dozen Canadian journalists here about, say, Miracle Fortress, they get nominated for the Polaris Prize. In the American version of Polaris, this year, I would vote for The National and Okkervil River. Although they don't quite fir the arty, smallist category, they are probably more under-the-radar than Arcade Fire or Feist.