Polaris People For The Week Of August 2: Arcade Fire Collaborate And Osheaga Arrives
It’s Osheaga weekend!
Those of you completely gutted by Frank Ocean’s cancellation can take solace in the fact there’ll be many, many other awesome people — Polaris People, in fact — performing at the festival.
Because this is what we do, let’s track what some of these Osheaga-bound Polaris People (as well as some of their other peers) have been up to recently…
If headlines are to be believed, current Short Listers and Osheaga-bound First Nations electro act A Tribe Called Red have officially broken out. They’ll also be one of the marquee draws for a collaborative X Avant New Music Festival and imagineNATIVE Film Festival event on October 19 in Toronto.
Fellow Osheaga-bound 2013 Short Listers Tegan And Sara are continuing to aw-shucks their way into everyone’s hearts via fan appreciation (they like their fans because they “don’t get anything too psychotic” sent to them) and a dignified approach to becoming more “accessible.” Also, copycats.
My cats look like @teganandsara … kinda freaky. #heartthrob #sphynxes #teganandsara pic.twitter.com/CttlpWc7a9
— Mathew (@mthwbz) August 1, 2013
Non-Osheaga-ing Short Listers Metz got their goth punk on for the A.V. Club, covering The Damned’s “Neat, Neat, Neat.”
In other awesome cover song news, past nominees The Sadies teamed up with Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet to do the entire Alice Cooper Love It To Death album at this year’s Hillside Festival. Sean Dean is wearing a cape.
Kathleen Edwards, 2013 Polaris Gala co-host, continues to be a sterling ambassador for our music prize. Her latest: she puked in a portable toilet and fears spiders crawling up her ass.
Meanwhile, fellow Polaris Gala co-host Shad has a new video.
Drake‘s OVO Fest will be happening on August 5 in Toronto. The Drizzulator has been busy. Let us count the ways:
1) Repping Toronto.
2) Teaming up with The Weeknd once again.
4) Releasing a new song in which he claims he did it with his babysitter.
The former champs in the Arcade Fire clan have been just as busy. Recent revelations include:
1) There’s a secret Arcade Fire-meets-The Sadies side-project.
2) The band’s “Ready To Start” was the official launch song for new Toronto radio station Indie 88.1.
3) Violinist Sarah Neufeld has new video for the song “Forcelessness.”
4) The band will appear at the 2014 Big Day Out festival in Australia.
5) And in other Hillside Festival magic, members of the Fire teamed up with members of Sonic Youth.
Elsewhere, in news that will excite a certain sliver of music fans who’ve sworn off all technology post-1988, former champs Fucked Up will be re-releasing their album Hidden World on cassette for, not coincidentally, Cassette Store Day on September 7.
Finally, we’d like to welcome our new friend the Edmonton Music Prize into the world. The prize, “awarded in recognition of superior work and achievement in the realm of recorded music,” is currently seeking nominations. There’s a $10,000 prize.
