Polaris People For The Week Of May 18 ““ Feist's Busy, America Discovers Plants And Animals And More
As of publishing this edition of Polaris People we are only 26 days away from the unveiling of the 2012 Polaris Music Prize Long List.
It’s a time of great change. Soon we will have a pile of exciting new artists to follow just as doggedly as the select club members that we talk about each week. Who these new acts will be, we don’t yet know, but we’re looking forward to finding out.
It’s also a time of great reflection. Many of our Polaris jurors are in deep thought, trying to find the inner peace that will only come when they achieve clarity on the five perfect records they intend to include on their Long List ballot. Some have even gone so far as to ask the public to help them on their vision quests.
While all this goes on, our Polaris People continue to soldier on in the name of all that is right and awesome. Here’s what some of them were up to this week:
No big deal, but reigning champs Arcade Fire will be backing up Mick Jagger when he performs on Saturday Night Live this weekend.
It’s no Mick Jagger, but Tegan And Sara, those singing twins who made the Short List in 2010, have scored a nice gig, too. They’ll be accompanying The Black Keys on their fall tour.
Still on the tour beat, 2011 Short Listers Austra have announced some fall U.S. dates. You know they’re a big deal now because Brooklyn Vegan wrote about it.
Feist has been busy. The 2007 Short Lister decided to re-release her near-mythic first album “Monarch†on vinyl. She also made a street corner dance party video. Oh, then she became an honorary fellow of the Royal Conservatory of Music. And if that wasn’t enough, she totes made the Washington Post crush on her. In contrast, last week I almost did groceries.
We’re totally certain that David Cronenberg has been rooting around in our stomach vaginas. Otherwise, how do you explain two different Polaris people — K’naan and Metric — being part of his new film, Cosmopolis?
CBC Music listeners really like Dan Mangan. Yeah, no shit.
Music reporters on the west coast of the U.S. really, really like Plants And Animals.
Twice Short-Listed Joel Plaskett is fed up and he’s not going to take it any more. A parking ticket at 1 a.m.? That’s bullshit.
Past Polaris champions Fucked Up have been nominated for a MuchMusic Video Award.
Finally, the following events have exhibited excellent taste in booking Polaris people to play: London, Ontario’s Home County Folk Festival, Burlington. Ontario’s Sound Of Music Festival, and the Earth Day Gala, happening on Earth Day (June 6) in Toronto.
P.S. R.I.P. Handsome Furs.
