Polaris People For The Week Of April 19: Free Feist & Record Store Day Excitement
Sorry about getting profane off the top, but check. this. shit. out.
Know what would be great? To hold the 2013 Polaris Gala in a place like that. What’s that you say?
And what about those folks from AUX? Could anyone besides our true spirit brothers and sisters be responsible for music journalism like this?
Perhaps at this point it’s best we move on and talk not about ourselves and our new friends, but instead about our oldest, bestest friends, the Polaris People.
Here is what some of them were up to recently:
First off, Saturday, April 20 (4/20 heh-heh) is officially Record Store Day and a number of our People are representing with special releases, including Austra, Junior Boys, Tegan And Sara, Destroyer and more. And here’s some of our people like Stars and Cadence Weapon talking about the first album they ever bought.
Speaking of Destroyer, someone took the time to rank all of Dan Bejar’s albums. I’d accuse them of having too much free time on their hands, but that would be an awkward cast-no-stones scenario.
Unless you hate Canadian music, you’re probably at least vaguely aware that the Juno Awards are taking place this weekend and Polaris People will be repping strong. One of our proudest told-you-sos is going to be Louis Jean Cormier, who won the Polaris Music Prize in 2010 as part of Karkwa. He’s worked on three separate albums (including his own solo record) that have Juno noms this year.
Continuing on the former champions tip, we learned a little bit more about the forthcoming Arcade Fire album when Jace Lasek of The Besnard Lakes gave some insight into Win & crew’s mostly-secret preview show they did last December. Maybe someone will be able to squeeze more deets out of the Besnards when they go on tour.
In other former champ news, it has been announced Patrick Watson will be one of the many musical participants in Toronto’s Luminato festival in June. He’s playing “At The Hub.” We don’t know where that is or what it means, but Sarah Harmer is playing there, too.
And over on the intersection of Current Reigning Champ Avenue and Wicked Free Show Boulevard, it’s been announced that Feist will kick off the 2013 Montreal International Jazz Festival.
In our jurors-do-good department, congratulations to Sarah Liss, who’ll have her book on influential Toronto promoter/artist Will Munro published in the fall.
Which is to say: So, so thrilled to be part of the #explodedviews series. My book on Will Munro will be out this fall from @coachhousebooks.
— sarah liss (@lisstless) April 16, 2013
At this point it’s becoming obvious too much has happened in the Polaris universe this week so you’re about to get the rare, rapidfire linkbait roundup.
* Drake talks gun violence.
* Grimes talks in fractions (Me too! Friends?).
* Metric & Vogue.
* Patrick Watson, operatic cheesemonger.
* Kylie Minogue hearts Tegan And Sara. And they interview NKOTB.
* Ron Sexsmith covers Kim Mitchell.
Finally, R.I.P. to Rita MacNeil. If it seemed odd that so many Can-rock and indie bands seemed bummed about her death, this makes a good starter.
